Comments on: Second Life vs. Unreal 2004

By: MixedRealities :: The first question: what is the purpose of this all?

MixedRealities :: The first question: what is the purpose of this all? — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:12:10 +0000

[...] whole proposition of MellaniuM is, as Caleb Booker explains, “not about this vs. that, it’s about using the right tools for the right [...]

By: ken Rigby

ken Rigby — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 10:25:01 +0000

SL still reminds me of the Flintstones; that stone age cartoon program.

By: ken rigby

ken rigby — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 00:15:59 +0000

Sorry for the confusion; the title was SL vs UT2004; generally a wheel is clunky if the amount of polys are reduced and noticeable on the titanic sim. video. I have no experience with Ogre. Yes may the best engine win; but it will be horses for courses until then.

By: Clive Jackson

Clive Jackson — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 21:23:04 +0000

I would certainly not call Ogre an alpha engine, I think you need to do a little more research here. The Ogre engine is used in far more projects than the Unreal engine and is technically comparative. It is also not a question of which engine is better but which virtual worlds platform is better. Essentially what is the value add?

Anyway, we can go on like this for ever and not settle this. They are both good engines and both have good points and bad points. You asked the question why the Unreal engine was not used more for serious games, I think I gave a couple of reasons and pointed out that the Ogre engine is gaining traction with virtual worlds platforms.

So I think it’s a question of stand by your virtual worlds platform and may the best engine win!

By: ken rigby

ken rigby — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:12:54 +0000

Hefty license costs? Yes to develop Games per say (FPS’s) it is true; but for non-games (serious games) seat license’s are reasonable. Documentation/tutorials are widely available; editors, etc., free with games. why use alpha engines in modern shells. Selling the sizzle when the sausage is a 1902 engine is still a banger in any language.

By: Clive Jackson

Clive Jackson — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 06:17:15 +0000

Ah, yes, that’s the (w)hole grail and nothing but the grail. Obviously I meant holy grail!!

By: Clive Jackson

Clive Jackson — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 06:14:53 +0000

Choosing the right graphics engine is key to a lot of things when it comes to virtual worlds and serious games. Last time I checked the Unreal Engine had some fairly hefty license costs. As we don’t like wasting money either, we decided to use the Ogre rendering engine for Blink 3D. I think you’ll agree that it does a wonderful job. I think that’s why Multiverse and RealExtend have also decided to use Ogre. The Ogre engine is also open source and therefore free. It’s not there yet, but I would say that the Ogre engine is fast becoming the defacto standard for virtual worlds. That means that assets created in Multivers can be used in RealExtend and Blink 3D and vice versa. This is a step towards the hole grail of interoperability between virtual worlds.

Also, like Unreal, Blink 3D uses NVIDIA PhysX for physics and OpenAL for audio.

By: ken Rigby

ken Rigby — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:31:57 +0000

The beauty of UNREAL is that it has pedigree; developed from the early FPS and now powering the latest DirectX 10 games using multi-coreCPU/GPU/Physics/sound processors. Why has it not been utilized more in the serious games arena? Is there a problem; or is it just web browser fanaticism. It just seem’s spending megabucks on creating something that has already been created (like a the wheel) is not a sensible use of scarce resources or human en devour.

By: Clive Jackson

Clive Jackson — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:04:57 +0000

The person who created it has been working on it for a while as a hobby, I’m not sure how long it took him. There’s lots of interactivity, you can click on the images in the art gallery section, etc. I think it’s just a great example of what can be done with virtual world technology which in this case was Blink 3D. Of course not everyone wants virtual heritage, but the point here is to show the complexity and detail that can be rendered inside a Web browser.

By: Caleb Booker

Caleb Booker — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 21:22:41 +0000

Ken – thanks for that! I really liked the Temple of Anubis – I can see spending a lot of time touring virtual renditions of places I’d never have the time to travel to.

Clive – great video, that must have been a lot of work!