New Other Engines

[SolarPortal]

[AuShadow]

Hey, first of all yes I have used unity UE4 (was a subscriber), FPSC and FPSCR(now GameGuru). I am very much a hobby kind of Dev and just love to play around. UE4 is great for serious development but is a very steep learning curve and its the same with unity, mobile export makes unity tempting to a lot of people however (its the reason I first tries them but in reality it would be very unlikely that I ever release anything).

All that said SkyLine is my Dev home now because it's fun and easy to use, far easier then the big name engines and far more advanced than anything that's as easy or slightly easier to use. I for one recommend this engine over the others (but will still play with them every now and then just to see what I can do with each engine). But I am staying with this engine as my main because I have to say I just love this engine, the more I learn to do with it the better everything looks in it, keep up the great work guys (and gal I think ). And I'm sure the community is already spreading the word to try and get some more early users to further fund this awesome product

[SolarPortal]

great response and very encouraging thank you

[StarFire]

Thank you @AuShadow for your kind and honest words. We will endeavor to make Skyline better and better so that the day will come when everything you will need for game development will be available in Skyline.

Yes on the Gal!

[Gtox]

I've looked at AAA engines in the past, and I spent many hours going through an extensive set of UDK tutorials, and while it was a load of fun, and the results that could be achieved were very impressive, I knew that there was absolutely no chance whatsoever that I, as a lone hobbyist, would be able to create a game with it. From what I've seen, Skyline seems to have the potential to bridge the gap between easy-to-use and powerful, and to become the Holy Grail of 3d engines (excuse the hyperbole, but I think that there are a lot of hobbyists like myself who long for such an engine).
The biggest problem facing single users/small teams is time - modern 3d games are made by teams of dozens or hundreds of people, and take years to make with multi-million dollar budgets, so I don't believe it's possible to compete with that, no matter what engine is used. However, there are three areas that could be worked on to narrow the deficit a bit - firstly, procedural scenery and asset generation (a la 'No Man's Sky). Secondly, decent stock AI (programming is a specialised skill, AI programming even more specialised. Not many hobbyists have the skills to create good AI). Lastly, some form of easy-to-implement story mode. The story is one area where a single individual can compete with a team of hundreds, and a good story can make up for a lack of polish in other areas. A gui system for creating conversations, for example. Whilst this can be done with scripting, it is extremely time consuming, especially if you want to have hundreds of conversations.
You're off to a very good start, though, so keep it up!

[lordalmighty1]

I tried unity, didn't really like it not being able to script really is a big issue for that engine.. I would imagine the same for all mainstream engines mostly like ue4.

unity was ok but after a weekend spent doing a simple 2d space game (frustrating 2 days of coding lol) I gave up with it for a more hobby style engine, (gameguru) which after a year and a quarter I have left for this 1 lol..(skyline).

I think if after most of the hard work is done with the engine if the scripting sides of game making was looked at and supplied for an easy to select and use by all, it would outshine many other engines.
skyline has already a lot going for it so no worries there!!..

[TattieBoJangle]

Q> Have you used them?
A>Just to mess about with as lets face it for a one man team it would take years & years to make any sort of game.

Q> Why have you used them?
A> I have used Unity, Unreal, Leadwerks just to see how they feel and preform i believe i will stick to Skyline.

Q> What was it that got you to try them, the marketing, website, imagery, videos, tech showcases, GDC conference videos?
A>Its all the rage with the fanboys it seems if you don't use unity you are a sinner

Q> What do you think skyline lacks that would cause you to use another engine?
A>For me it will always be scripts you can never have enough and would save alot of time if there are alot of pre made ones.

Q> What is your opinion and where do you think we should improve or focus that would make you use skyline again?
A> Already using it but i believe 64bit should be next 32 bit puts to many people of due to its limitations

[StarFire]

[SolarPortal]

couldn't have said it any better myself. These are some great opinions and really shows we are on a good track Thanks everyone!

[TattieBoJangle]

vegetation +1 for that i did forget all about this lol to busy adding models.

[Shando]

Q> Have you used them?
I have used Unity (and hated it). The forum is full of 12yo who get really upset when they're told to look things up for themselves! Also, I didn't like the idea of paying for every little thing that should have been included in the engine to begin with (Shiva3D allows you to export to all supported platforms at no extra cost).

I've also used UE and found it was just too much of a learning curve to be able to get to a reasonable proficiency in a reasonable time.

My main engine before Skyline was Shiva3D which I loved, but couldn't afford to upgrade to 2.0 (I was given a copy of the full version of 1.8 + subsequent upgrades entirely due to the "book" I wrote )

Apart from those, I've used all sorts of other engines over the years (mainly Java & C++ based), and found that most of them were OK for certain projects, but not great for others, hence why I started looking at Ogre (and found out about Skyline!!). Ogre seemed to be perfect for what I wanted as it has an active community, and was free (as were a lot of the extensions).

I've also got a copy of CryEngine, which I had some success with, but again, it took too long to work out how to do things (I don't have that much spare time )

Q> Why have you used them?
I've been programming since the early 80s, so I am always on the lookout for new languages, software etc. I actually enjoy taking things for a test drive, even if I've got no real reason to!!!

Q> What was it that got you to try them, the marketing, website, imagery, videos, tech showcases, GDC conference videos?
As per my previous answer, mostly I've come across them simply by Googling. Though I must admit that CryEngine & UE were both via Social Media!

Q> What do you think skyline lacks that would cause you to use another engine?
AI (such as Steering Behaviours, Formation Motion, Behaviour Trees and Finite State Machines), Multiplayer (this is the main reason I couldn't do much with Shiva3D, as their server was an expensive add-on) & Script Debugging.

Q> What is your opinion and where do you think we should improve or focus that would make you use skyline again?
To be perfectly honest, the main thing that Skyline lacks at the moment is Script Debugging. No matter how easy you make the Scripting, there will always be a need to write a certain amount of code, and Debugging is essential (even for simple things like a comma in the wrong place, a misspelled function, or a colon instead of a semi-colon).

Regards

Shando

[SolarPortal]

thanks for that response shando, with all these answers, it is beginning to paint a clear picture of what needs focused on into making skyline a no-brainer choice for anyone wanting to dabble with game development. I am surprised at the level of responses we have already have. Its a very good sign for us.

Script debugging is essential and we are looking into ways (thanks to some of your posts) that we can make this happen.
It seems everyone is in the same boat with the AI. It is going to be developed further very very soon though.

Thanks again for the responses

[epsilonion]

I totally agree with everyone here.

I used Unity and UE4, not on a serious note mind you just a play around.

Unity - my thought of unity are well I hate the workflow I hated the interface and I hated the learning curve.

UE4 - Loved the Blueprints Editor, Loved the workflow, Hated the learning curve.

Leadwerks - They sell it as a completed engine that's easy to use, yeah right, the scripts like the 3rd person and AI script they supplied was buggy as hell, the interface was OK, but it defiantly is not easy to use and for me too much coding to get started was needed.

Skyline - Love the interface, love that its module based, love the action editor and other editors, for me it is the True Easy to use engine.
the roadmap looks very impressive to me and that you have one and transparent about the development is excellent customer relations, also couple that with actively on the forums..

Including Raknet (multiplayer) as part of the engine is a great move as well..

What could be done?
More bug fixing, More modules, more script (as I am a novice), documentation updating.

Apart from that I am very excited about this engine and happy the way things are going.

[ant0N]

still miss the possibility to create preset of multiple objects.

[SolarPortal]

updated the list

[StevenP]

[SolarPortal]

I have updated the list with your additions.

Edit: I just tried to contact the OSVR company about the SDK and our engine, and see if we can get a headset

[StarFire]

If we can some how get a VR headset then there is no reason not to have SKyline VR enabled

[Shando]

Hi all,

Just a quick note to let you know Craig Chapple has added Skyline to his list of "other game engines" on his recent post @ Develop:



I know it's a fairly long list, but "any publicity is good publicity"

Shando

[SolarPortal]

Thanks Shando

[SolarPortal]

[epsilonion]

with 64bit working now level streaming should be an option too

[SolarPortal]

we are planning in ways of loading levels better with zoning etc...

[RuskinF]

I have used UE in the past. But not as a fulltime dev work. I used it to learn the Engine and how to use it to best effect.
It has a steep learning curve. You need to be careful about what you want to achieve with it.
It has a steep learning curve.
The hype around it got me to try it once. It was good but not as simple as Skyline.
There is nothing that skyline lacks.