What is the best 3D video game engine?

[shortylickens]

If you want me to add something, put it in the thread.
If you think I am wrong about an engine or want me to add a better example, please be polite.

Also, my friends cant seem to agree on this: Is the Source engine all its own? Or is it just a modified, renamed Havok engine?

Does anyone know the names of the engines for: Age of Mythology, Aquanox, Black & White, Halo, Dungeon Siege, Homeworld, Never Winter Nights, PainKiller, Splinter Cell, Thief: DS?

P.S. Think about all the games made with an Engine before you vote. I wasnt fond of Q3 the game, but the engine is probably one of the most popular ever. I am all for supporting arguments.

 

[kylebisme]

Splinter cell games and Theif 3 both used modified versions of the Unreal engine; I'm pretty sure all the other games you asked about use their own engine tech.

 

[apoppin]

Unreal is Unreal II . . . . Unreal ii (the game), Thief DS, DE:IW are all unreal (II) engine.

i voted for Doom's engine (even though i hate the game)

Another GREAT engine is Starbreeze - Chronicles of Riddick:EfBB(dc) - probably almost as nice as diii's lighting . . .

FC takes the "water and foilage" plus 1.2 Km draw distance award

Painkiller/BOoH use the Havok Physics Engine also . . . their gfx with patch v1.61 is incredible - the best "sky boxes" ever.

And didn't we just have another poll identical to this LAST week?
:roll:

 

[kylebisme]

Originally posted by: apoppin


Painkiller/BOoH use the Havok Physics Engine also

Yeah that is just a physics engine, not a game engine though; and lots of games use it including those on the Source engine . I didn't notice Havok was listed as the engine for Max Payne games; that engine is actually called PayneFX.

Oh and I voted for Source. The engine has its weak points and other engines do various things better, but in my opinion it still comes out on top.

 

[shortylickens]

Am terribly sorry if I have repeated a thread. But I was thinking about this for almost a year. Never saw it on AT forums before. Must have missed it. Sometimes those Mods are sneaky about killing threads.

What are DE:IW, EfBB(dc), BOoH?

BTW, I am also irritated that a wonderful engine could be used in such a sorry game. If we are lucky, some companies will licence it and make decent games.

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
Am terribly sorry if I have repeated a thread. But I was thinking about this for almost a year. Never saw it on AT forums before. Must have missed it. Sometimes those Mods are sneaky about killing threads.

What are DE:IW, , BOoH?

BTW, I am also irritated that a wonderful engine could be used in such a sorry game. If we are lucky, some companies will licence it and make decent games.

DE:IW/Thief-DS/Unreal II are all Unreal (ii) Engine

RiddicK (CoR:EfBB[dc]) is Starbreeze Engine

PK and its exp pak BOoH use the PAIN Engine for gfx (Havok 2.0 is the Physics Engine).

edit: looking back, the 'other' recent threads were asking about the 'most beautiful' game gfx . . . .

Most beautiful game made?

Most Beautiful game made? Expansion Pack 1: Now Includes Poll!

similar but not identical . . .

 

[kini62]

The Doom 3 engine is a good example of lazy coding. Dump all the work off on the game developers and the GPU. There is a CPU in there too, why not use it. HL2 makes far better use of the CPU, that's one of the reasons it can run at much higher resolutions on much less of a computer and still look good. Basically it's better code.

 

[sparkyclarky]

Originally posted by: kini62
The Doom 3 engine is a good example of lazy coding. Dump all the work off on the game developers and the GPU. There is a CPU in there too, why not use it. HL2 makes far better use of the CPU, that's one of the reasons it can run at much higher resolutions on much less of a computer and still look good. Basically it's better code.

You clearly have no fricken idea what you're talking about. You do realize that it is much more efficient to rely upon the GPU for gfx processing, while leaving the CPU for audio, physics, etc? Doom III is hardly lazy coding.

 

[BFG10K]

What is the best 3D video game engine?

There's really no answer to that. Some engines are better than others for sure but I wouldn't say there's a "best" one anywhere because best is subjective.

HL2 makes far better use of the CPU, that's one of the reasons it can run at much higher resolutions on much less of a computer and still look good.

HL2 runs faster because it doesn't do as much as Doom 3 does.

 

[MustangSVT]

Whatever GT4 engine is..

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: shortylickens
If you want me to add something, put it in the thread.

No "Turbine" engine? (Asheron's Call, etc.)

🙁 🙁 🙁

(Ok, I'm biased, but anyways.)

I doubt that anyone has seen or remembers their software-based rendering engine, but it was damn fine for what it was able to do, and on what level of systems. What was even more impressive, was that the world was one giant continuous world, and indoor/outdoor scene transitions were pretty-much seamless. I was in awe playing the pre-release version. I have some screenshots around somewhere of "beta 0". I didn't get to try AC1 using the hardware-accel engine, nor AC2, so I can't say much about those.

 

[Fern]

I think its too early to tell for the D3 and HL2 engines for example. Need to wait and see what others can do with them.

Fern

EDIT: Painkiller uses the propreity "Pain Engine"

 

[mwmorph]

source because unlike doom, it scales nicely form a 1ghz celly with a geforce4mx all the way up to a fx55 and a x850xt. try doomIII on a 1ghz celly and 440mx.

edit: havok is a physics, not gfx engine isnt it?

 

[apoppin]

Originally posted by: mwmorph
source because unlike doom, it scales nicely form a 1ghz celly with a geforce4mx all the way up to a fx55 and a x850xt. try doomIII on a 1ghz celly and 440mx.

edit: havok is a physics, not gfx engine isnt it?

yes