Deep Creator 3D Engine

[Consta]

Dear all,

I found this info about another 3D engine. I would like to discuss its feature but I am just starting in the 3D engine world. So, if you masters want to give your opinion it will be valuable. What I can say is that maybe you won’t like Lisp scripting language. For a beginner like my, that could be an advantage  


Deep Creator : Features
     

Full 3D editing environment including a very powerful modeler
Over 60 primitive 3D objects (including lines, spheres, boxes, stairs, gears, arches, etc.)
Over 50 3D object alterations (bend, twist, taper, etc.)
Over 60 built in 3D object animations (rotate, move, scale, key frame, color change, etc.)
Royalty Free distribution
Vertex and Pixel Shaders
Character animation, including key framing
Create stand alone executables or screen savers
Skinning and bones
Procedural Image creation for 2D menus or 3D textures
Texture creation by mixing and blending 166+ procedures each one with an infinite number of possible settings
2D geometry drawing including Line, Polyline, Arc, Circle, Ellipse, Spline, Rounded Rectangle, Polygon, Star, Triangle
Infinite 2D pen adjustment including the adjustment of Width, Density, Skipping, Hardness, Pen Shape, and Line type
Gradient Color Editor
Grid, Object Snapping, and Grid Snapping
Extensive 3D object settings, including opening, thickness, etc.
Axis transforms for easy object Moving, Scaling and Rotation
Shape Editor to edit the “shape” of animation, selections and objects
Objects selection by window, circle, polygon, inside, outside and crossing
Anti-aliasing
MipMapping
Point, Spot, Directional and Ambient Lights
Cameras and camera animations
Lens Flare
Gravity objects
Level of Detail
Shadows
Light Maps
Mirrors
3D Boolean operations  
Real time physics with rigid body dynamics
Atmospheric currents (wind, water, etc.)
Single or multiple 3D views of the scene
Lisp scripting language including more than 225 built-in functions
Built in script editor
C++ interface to 3D scenes and 2D menus, via a linkable library
Particle Systems (planer and point)
Explosion animations
Reference object copies
3D Sounds
Unlimited Undo/Redo
Full clipboard support (Cut, Copy, Pasting)
Shapeable object selections
Bump Mapping
Collision testing for all object types
Player selectable objects
Image pushing for fast terrain creation
Mesh simplification
Texture Blending
Vertex Coloring
User pickup-able objects (inventory)
Scene Reports
Object, Face, Edge, and Vertex Editing.
Scenes may be “Played” directly in the editor without creating a .RWD first
VCR like commands for game play
Asset Browser
Easy 3D tree creation (the kind of trees with leaves)
Frustum, Bounds, Tree, and Distance Culling
Fog
Material and Object Opacity
Automatic UV Wrapping (Planar, Face, Box, Sphere, Shrink Wrap, Cylinder, Cylinder Capped, XYZ to UVW, Object Defined, and Face Center
UV Editor for manual manipulation of WV mapping
Reflection Maps
Powerful object grouping tools, including drag and drop in and out of groups.
Extremely compact user files
W and Z buffer support
Object helpers ID and Distance

http://www.righthemisphere.com/products/dcreator/

Regards

[Javin]

Hrm...  For such a long "feature" list, it really doesn't seem to have much in the way of "features."

Is this a modeling application, or are they touting it as a full 3D engine?

The vast majority of those "features" (boning, skinning, texturing, pens, etc. etc. etc.) are very standard for ANY 3D app.  So standard that MOST apps don't bother mentioning them.    This looks to me to be a bit of a "toy," right up the lines of "DarkBasic," and everyone here knows what my opinion of DarkBasic is.

-Javin

[Consta]

This is what the compay "RightHemisphere" uses to introduce its toy:

Deep Creator is a powerful authoring application to create interactive 3D environments, assemblies and objects. This application delivers an integrated authoring environment which includes a 3D modeler, a texture creator, and a scripting engine in one package, all essential to producing powerful interactive 3D content. The products' high performance toolset and "game" engine empowers you to create 3D interactive scenes and walkthroughs for training, simulation, support, and sales and marketing applications.

Regards

[dudeman]

Looked at it. Liked the demo. Checked the reviews. Kind of a schizophrenic thingy, but kind of cool nonetheless. It would be nice to have all the tools you need in one package and all you have to do is develop content and do game design on top of a decent engine. That said, the bugger is $2495.

Not that this is a bad thing. You can pay that much for your 3D modeler alone. If it all works well, then it can save alot of development time, but the real question is how well can it work if the  max file size for your executables is somewhere around 10MB? I believe I did see that somewhere in the specs. Correct me if I'm wrong, but there is a cap on the .exe size. It may be 100MB, but I just remember seeing the limit. Also, is it really designed for games or is it really geared for companies doing simulation? Seems like the latter is the case.
-D-

[dudeman]

From the Cosmos Creator FAQ found at: http://www.radishworks.com/CosmosCreatorFAQ.htm

The 2MB and 10MB limits in data size won't let me create much of a game, will it?
Yes it will!   This is actually a huge amount of space for Cosmos Creator created scenes.  Cosmos Creator has the ability to create textures procedurally, and its not uncommon to have 30-50MB of textures that only take up 100k or so.  Check out some of the Sample Scenes.  The Eclipse and The Village samples are only using 1-2MB of that 10 MB limit.  Unless you are producing a commercial game, these limits should be plenty.

Ha! 'Unless you're producing commerial games. these limits should be plenty' For who? Knew I saw that limit somewhere. Okay so 10 MB is a very small game  IMHO. I suppose it would really force you to manage your resources which is a good thing, like back in the day when we had 64K of RAM to work with in DOS. I'll pass.
-D-

[Frost]

tv3d wins again.. nothing else to say

[phillip]

Dudeman,

the limits are old - think its 10 mb for the student version which is $50
and maybe 25mb for the home version which is around $150

limits are based on the final apps you publish - you can work with full size apps in the dev environment which can be useful for prototyping and some folks have used it that way.

The comments about packing a full game in those sizes assume that you are using DC procedural textures for the game - doesn't assume your using external maps.

There is no size limites on the full version.

You can get the full DC from a reseller for $1995 - which is the RH offer price..

Its well supported and new developments get added quickly.

While DC started as cosmos creator and was focused on games dev, its more simulation based these days since thats its main user base. Industrial users include Nasa, Lockheed and those sorts of folks. Different market focus to Truevision, I think

Some commercial gave dev has been done using it - but more education games with animation being done in max or maya and imported.


Hope this helps,

Phillip

[AriusMyst]

Dudeman,

the limits are old - think its 10 mb for the student version which is $50
and maybe 25mb for the home version which is around $150

limits are based on the final apps you publish - you can work with full size apps in the dev environment which can be useful for prototyping and some folks have used it that way.

The comments about packing a full game in those sizes assume that you are using DC procedural textures for the game - doesn't assume your using external maps.

There is no size limites on the full version.

You can get the full DC from a reseller for $1995 - which is the RH offer price..

Its well supported and new developments get added quickly.

While DC started as cosmos creator and was focused on games dev, its more simulation based these days since thats its main user base. Industrial users include Nasa, Lockheed and those sorts of folks. Different market focus to Truevision, I think

Some commercial gave dev has been done using it - but more education games with animation being done in max or maya and imported.


Hope this helps,

Phillip

I'm not sure if its too big a difference in market focus. TV3D is used within the simulation industry, including NASA, BBC etc. I even saw a tsunami simulation on the news that used TV3D  

That being said, I have no comment on this actual subject, I use a few right hemisphere tools but TV3D is my engine of choice.

Welcome to the board.

[phillip]

Hi Arius,

both are good engines. and  both have strong points and weakpoints, choice really depends on your workflow and development preferences.

 I have no interested in causing a flame  exchange on an engine comparison thread and only  posted to correct the info that Dudeman had posted, otherwise  I would have probably stayed quiet on the comparison.

TV has some nice features and I am just learning more about it.

 Interesting on the Tsunami sim -  hadn;t realised that was TV3D - it was a nice piece of work.

thanks for the welcome, appreciated.

cheers,

Phillip

[dolmsted]

This product seems to be inventing a new market niche in terms of 3D authoring. With their free reader one can even add  interactive 3D illustrations to pdf and Word files!

They seem to be making their authoring system usable by any author with low to medium level programming and 3D art skills in order that the author can concentrate on his area of expertise. Yet it also comes with a C/C++ SDK so experienced programmers can modify their scripting language. So it is not aimed at providing the latest cool graphics effects or sophisticated A.I and virtual reality simulations (like TrueVision) but on ease of use for knowledge transfer. I can also see this being used for computer based textbooks in the future.

But only when we have Wikis with lots of 3D illustrations will we know that 3D authoring has really arrived (and that will  make printed pages look old fashioned).