choosing a game engine

[Varanda]

Hello All,

I wrote in the past a couple mobile Games and Apps using BlackBerry Java, C++ (Gameplay3d), Objective-C.
I am starting a new simple game for Android (maybe port to iOS if game is successful). As the last GE I used was based on NDK portability was a bit of problem across the diversity of Androids themselves. I came across JPCT and it looks like a very solid project. Therefore, I would like to consider using it. I someone could help answering the following questions I would appreciate:

1- How lighter (or heavier) is jPCT comparing to Unity3D in terms of footprint and performance? a list of pro/cons on jPCT vs Unity would be very appreciated.

2- I am very proficient in Blender. How easy is to export models with Armature to jPCT? Is required another library?

3- I am not very familiar with the latest Android Studio. I was not able to run the two sample after frustrading hours dealing with gradle. Tried to run under Eclipse but was not much luckier. Is there samples out there that builds fine for the latest Android Studio (crappy gradle)

4- Would jPCT-AE  run under iOS in the future?

5- For gameplay3d.org I collaborated with a Blender add-on and a scene viewer for that engine. That made very easy to create a scene in Blender and see the very same in gameplay3d. Anyone wrote a similar utility using jPCT? That would be very handy.


Thanks a lot in advance,
Varanda

[Thomas.]

In jPCT you have much more control over whole rendering process. You can do whatever you want, but it takes much more time than Unity. Export scene from Blender or 3D Studio Max is very simple. Just export it into OBJ or 3DS file format.

Unity is something like frontpage. Do not care about the background process, it somehow works (or not). You can do good looking scene very easily and quick. Unity is full of bugs. If something does not work, the most time it is repaired by closing and opening the unity. I created scene in Unity 5.1 but after update to version 5.3 is whole scene gone. Nothing helped.

This is what I did in this engine.
http://www.jpct.net/forum2/index.php/topic,2926.0.html

[Varanda]

Thanks for the answer Thomas, you game looks fantastic. The color and other attributes control were really cool.
Yea... I like being in control... used C4Engine and Gameplay3D in the past for that reason.

If anyone else want to add more inputs would be welcome.

I noticed that YT has removed the "An introductory lecture by Prof. Giovanni Malnati" video. Is it hosted in any other sharing video site?

Thanks in advance,
Varanda

[Irony]

JPCT-AE:
+ free
+ nice, neat feature set
+ best support I've ever seen for anything, patches are often available within hours or even minutes of a bug report (yes, it's crazy)
+ lighweight / full control
+ performant
- Android and PC only; I don't think Egon (the developer) has any plans to port to iOS

I don't really have a lot of experience with 3D modelling and have not used Android studio for JPCT, so I can't answer those questions.


Unity
+ multi platform (but you need Mac hardware to deploy to iOS device)
+ no setup code (but this minimal time saver can be neglected for anything but prototyping or very small projects IMO)
+ built in profiler
+ built in GUI stuff
+ nice integration of physics engine, if your game needs it
+ WYSIWYG editor (which is really only an advantage for protoyping IMO - I don't think any bigger projects make heavy use of the Unity Editor)
+ everyone and their grandma is using it (meaning there are a lot of answers online)

- not really free unless you don't care about a fat Unity logo at game startup
- really really heavyweight / limited control
- probably lower performance than JPCT, but I have no prove for that
- everyone and their grandma is using it (I am not a big fan of howling with the wolves, especially when it's about a commercial product)
- this may a personal thing, but in my opinion, Unity makes it too easy or tempting to write dirt-ugly code. It's not about the language (c# is fine), but about the overal structure of the system. As you do have previous coding experience, this is not too relevant, but I would not recommend anyone to start their programming career with Unity.

[EgonOlsen]

Regarding Blender, there is this: https://github.com/andresjesse/jpctblend. I really don't know what it can do and what not, but maybe it's a start.

The wiki has a short description on how to setup a jPCT-AE project in Android Studio on the installation page. It should actually be really simple. Gradle can be a pain in the a..., but for basic stuff, you actually don't have to deal with it.

iOS support...I've no plans for it. I guess it would be possible by using RoboVM but that would still require me to buy an iPhone and a Mac. And it's more likely that the pope gets married before that happens, so don't count on it.

[Varanda]

Thank you all,

I will do my homework and play a bit with jPCT.
For the records my name is Marcelo Varanda, Brazilian/Canadian. I write code for living (mostly for embedded in C, some LUA, Python, very little in java). My websites are:

http://www.cglabs.com.br
http://www.cglabs.ca

Latest published game (gameplay3d engine):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gclabs.gaminandes_sp

Latest published animation:
https://youtu.be/1CUxdGwYU3U

Egon: I believe that you are the guy behind jPCT; amazing having guys like you providing foundation and support for the game community. I believe that collaboration will transform our world for better.

Anyways...  I may bug you guys more for a while.

Thanks once again,
Varanda

[EgonOlsen]

Oh, and about that video...no idea what happened there. When I discovered it, the channel had mainly videos of his lectures. I don't see how that could have violated any copyright. I have a local copy of the video in mp4 format. If you are interested in it, send me a PM and I'll upload it somewhere for you to grab it.