Racing game requirements

[raveneyes]

Hello all, forgive me if it's not the right place to post this.
I want to create a formula 1 racing game. I'm not an experienced game developer, however I have a solid background in both C and C++. I coded some 2D games, mostly side-scroller shooters, back in old school. I also have a beginner knowledge in 3D game programming.
My game won't be a state of the art F1 Racer, however I aim to make it playable with good graphics.
So far I'm amazed by the easy and solid API of Irrlicth, however I have some questions:
Is Irrlicht suited for my project because I read that many racer projects regreted using Irrlicht due to some of its limitations?
If so, what are the limitations that I need to consider if I chose Irrlicht as my graphics engine?

Any word of advice is highly appreciated.

[JP]

Irrlicht is perfectly usable for this project, any game project really!

I've never heard of any racer people, or anyone in fact, regretting using irrlicht though some people have switched to other engines so i guess they may have regretted it.

Irrlicht is growing all the time and a lot of the limitations people faced before have probably been addressed now. If you're a noob then you could struggle making your super kewl state of the art game but if you're not then you can achieve some great things with irrlicht, it's very extendable so anything that's not there can pretty easily be added either by taking the extensions other people have written or writing them yourself.

Now you've to think about your requirements... Physics for a start.. you could get away with just using irrlicht and its collision stuff probably but it would be extra work than if you used a physics engine, so that's probably the best idea, options include Physx, Havok, Bullet, ODE and Newton (all free, not necessarily for commercial use though).

AI... if you want more than just a single player or network multiplayer you'll need some AI racers. If you can do that yourself then great but another option would be my IrrAI library. Currently it's only really had FPS sort of AI worked on specifically as the project is primarily being developed for the First King project (Egyptian FPS). But the good news for you might be that Racing AI is currently underway so that may be of use to you.

[CuteAlien]

I did a racer with Irrlicht and did not regret it. Actually I even continued using the engine afterwards for further projects. See here a few screenshots what can be done ingame (even with an rather old version of irrlicht): http://www.irrgheist.com/cityprototype.htm (that game hasn't be made yet, but it's simply using code from the h-craft racer which can also be found on our website and the level runs fine).

[JP]

Yeah i meant to mention your h-craft game as a prime example of a racing game that can be achieved in irrlicht.

[rogerborg]

Is Irrlicht suited for my project because I read that many racer projects regreted using Irrlicht due to some of its limitations? If so, what are the limitations that I need to consider if I chose Irrlicht as my graphics engine?

Presumably the many projects that have documented their displeasure with Irrlicht would provide hints about what specifically caused them problems.

If you can provide links, then we can analyse their issue in detail and either re-assure you or suggest alternative solutions. Can you provide links?

I personally can't think what a racing game would need that Irrlicht doesn't (in its current form) provide. Perhaps these projects didn't read the FAQ, and thought that Irrlicht was a complete game engine?

[FuzzYspo0N]

Irrlicht is awesome.
As a renderer : irrlicht is awesome.
As an intermediate between libraries (physics,sound,maths,shaders):irrlicht is awesome
As a cross platform engine : irrlicht is awesome
As a development tool for beginners : Irrlicht is awesome
As a tool for large scale games (implemented correctly) irrlicht is awesome.

If you don't suck at programming, and you can adapt to one of the simplest forms of code i have seen in ages, irrlicht is awesome.
If you want next gen graphics better then games that are currently on the shelf, you need a hell of a lot of time, and persistence. But it is possible.
The only limitation is what you are willing to do to achieve your results and what you are able to do, but MOST of all, what you learn.

Irrlicht is awesome.

[raveneyes]

Thanx guys for your replies. The game that its developers regret using irrlicht can be found here "http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/~mheinz/microracer-html/", however they're using an old version of irrlicht which why they regret their choice back then, I'm sure irrlicht has matured enough now.

[rogerborg]

Urgh, yes. 1.4.1 (or the SVN trunk) are a world ahead of 0.9, both in features and stability.

[JP]

Yeah 0.9 was over 2 years ago i should think so you can imagine the leaps and bounds that have been made!