for development of interactive 3d web applications, which engine is recommended?
I am aware that WebGL has been anounced to become standarized for all browsers in the near future (1~2 years).
I am afraid that by investing time into a proprietary game engine such as Unity, torque would be not great once plugin-less open source 3d engines appear (webgl, JavaScript for 3D).
Is this a stupid thing to worry about? Should I begin with Unity (its demos and tools were mind blowing).
WebGL is not a failure in the making. Speaking like it's a failure shows these peoples ignorance.
That said, if you're just starting out, explore your options. If you're looking for more eyes than just windows users, stay away from proprietary solutions. Microsoft's dominance isn't big as people think, anymore. IE is fading in popularity, thanks to their ridiculous coding.
Run on all platforms, use open standards.
WebGL has a chance because it's not middleware, and many of you should remember that there are performance and security issues that often result from plugins. Since WebGL is native and will be in all the browsers worth using by default, its market penetration is automatic. All it needs is some good content, which many companies will use.
Also, it has backing by nVIDIA, AMD, Intel, Mozilla, Opera and Apple (Safari) to name a few. That's enough to know that it will go somewhere.
To view this post and the respective links, please head over to my forums to read it. Includes 10+ WebGL library links
I would suggest C3DL, which I am currently using to develop a hobbyist game. It is early in development but so is WebGL and is also the leading WebGL library in my opinion. There are a few bugs and such because, well this technology is still considered "beta" and not a standard yet. There is just so much you can do with it and the fact that it cuts your development time WAY down. Also to "pqnb" IE does not hold the market share for browsers. Firefox does, then IE, with chrome a CLOSE third and rising, I expect by next year chrome to surpass both FF and IE. Also note that DirectX is exclusively on Windows. So if you want to hit the most people, and make a browser game I would use WebGL and test it on FF and Chrome. Mainly because by the time you get to finish the game it will be a standard and fully functional. Given development time lines and such of the average game. That is also one thing no one has really looked at. He is asking which engine to go with, being how its a browser based game he should already have some experience in HTML CSS JS and maybe XML. WebGL is about the only language most web developers can pick up and run with because it is Javascript based. Flash you would have a learning curve for Actionscript and of course the others have their languages and I have no experience in them so I wont go into any language discussion on them.
WebGL Pros
WebGL Cons
WebGL is included in the latest versions of Chrome and Firefox.
If you're not convinced that WebGL is kick-ass yet, enable WebGL in a nightly build of Firefox and visit this webpage: http://www.iquilezles.org/apps/shadertoy/
Here is how to enable WebGL in Firefox: http://blog.vlad1.com/2009/09/18/webgl-in-firefox-nightly-builds/
I would choose WebGL and have a fallback on Flash with Papervision or Sandy 3D.
I’ve compared Unity3D with Torque3D. Everything about the Unity3D environment is so much better (documentation, scripting (Javascript and C#), tutorials, support, and features). Torque3D is so full of bugs, it’s practically useless. You will definitely need the source code, because you have to fix their bugs. Don’t by the Torque3D binary, because you won’t be able to use it to build a game. Don’t listen to the hype or make your decision based on the pretty pictures you see on their site.
I built a complete game using one of their tutorials in a few hours, and it looks great. I used their assets. In the same period of time, I got nowhere with Torque3D. It kept deleting my terrains, and would not save the changes.
it really doesn't matter what firefox or chrome does because majority of the pc gaming market is ruled by Microsoft and Direct X
unless WebGL has microsoft onboard, it's a failure in the making. I am 100% sure microsoft will push 3d hardware acceleration through Silverlight, not in Microsoft's best culture to give things away openly.
