C4 Engine

[JayG]

So does anyone actually have anything to say about how the C4 engine is to use?

[patrickrho]

anyone?

[TMichael]

This engine was one of my finalists before I selected TV3D, so I thought an updated review here would be in order.

C4 is just brilliant; its author, Eric Lengyel, has a Masters Degree in Mathematics from Virginia Tech and is the author of the book Mathematics for 3D Game Programming & Computer Graphics. He really knows his stuff, which shows when you take a hard look at C4. Some of his accomplishments here: http://www.terathon.com/eric/.

His engine looks beautiful and absolutely flies on my medium grade system. The engine architecture is also a thing of beauty (check this out: http://www.terathon.com/c4engine/architecture.php). My issue with C4 is my ability, or lack thereof, to extend it to do everything that I want for my project. It can create any type of game, but at present it is much easier to make an FPS than an RPG, and a high level of C++ programming skill is required to do things in your own way. There is a very nifty graphical scripting tool available, but it can't yet do everything. The single user license is $200.

Synopsis: This is another great engine for FPS games, and it's capable ot creating anything, but its extensibility is directly equivalent to your mastery of C++.

[zwiglm]

Last entry on this is now over a year old.

Anyone - who has done a thorough and impartial comparison - please update.
Thanks in advance.

Cheers,
Martin

[petroz]

(c4) http://www.devmaster.net/engines/engine_details.php?id=42
compared with:
(TV) http://www.devmaster.net/engines/engine_details.php?id=53

The major gripe people have with C4 is that it is only C++. I'm not even sure if you can compile .net to run on the PS3 and MAC. I haven't heard of any engine doing this but granted i don't know a whole lot about the PS3. I think having a current gen console engine that can run on PC and MAC at a reasonable price is pretty damn impressive.

Some think that source code is worthless, but i think if you're serious enough about coding to buy a licence you should be able to make some sense out of it and possibly learn some better practices whether it be code structure, comments, variable naming. Having a big finished project like that can be quite valuable and you know that the person who made knows a thing or two about coding.

C4 lacks the physics of TV3D

but it does have
•    Real-time fluid surface simulation.
•    Real-time cloth simulation.

It also includes networking with
•    Fast, reliable network implementation using UDP/IP
•    Solid fault tolerance and hacker resistance
•    Advanced security measures, including packet encryption
•    Automatic message distribution to entity controllers


All in all i would say it looks like a pretty strong up and comer but is still a bit lacking atm. I'll have to actually get it and try before i can really give a decent review.

-Petroz