I may be wrong, but none of those have *.x import, and well, for artists that really know their stuff, and wanna make serious work for an engine, this is bad. X allow the use for bones&weights(the most advanced way) animated characters using any high end, free, or cheap package out there. I have seen it done very nicely by a pair of pros with Maya, and Hash Am, using the x format. I know of a pair of guys that if they were interested, would have produced very nice x animations for irrlicht games. They're just all about high res renders, don't care bout games. And several of the ones that care bout 3d games, do only want to use Blender game engine...quite less powerful than irllicht, but is a matter of love and pride
Indeed, I could be doing loads of art for irrlicht, and quite happy with what Niko and others gave us already... Just involved in some "comercial" projects and other ugly stuff. Ethically I can't do now 3d stuff for just fun.
many other engines out there may be better than Irrlicht, but don't have a an art path set for me. I don't have Max, and I don't like using non legal versions. Funny as I see several very good engines just ad a plugin for max and Maya, and heh, yes, other for milkshape (which does NOT have weights for animation) ... Instead of an x loader like Niko made that actually (if ur an artist and know well the stuff, if not, everything is a problem but with any format ) allows loading at a time and one effort made, the connection with Maya, Max, LW, Blender, cfx, and huge etc.
Other different thing is that for these engines not many artists come, and the ones that come *cough* have already other duties...
It is true, Ogre does not have a .x loader. It does have an exporter from blender, but that is really hte one and only choice for creating animated models for Ogre (unless u have max,maya).
You do a lot of programming? Really? I try to get some in, but the debugging keeps me pretty busy.
vermeer wrote:X allow the use for bones&weights(the most advanced way) animated characters using any high end, free, or cheap package out there
I believe OGRE's .mesh and .skeleton formats are also capable of that...
As for Irrlicht's speed, it's currently at v0.7 unless I'm mistaken. And yeaaaah it's not a Doom3 quality already, so it's gotta be bad... lol. Calm down. I would only worry about optimalization issues when I'm testing v1.0 .
Staring through eyes of hate we kill
Are we controlled, or is our own will...?
(Edguy)
I could be wrong, I don't actually use Ogre, but I beleive that the only way to get boned and weighted animation into Ogre (without max,maya) is with the blender export. I like blender(though suck with it), but not everyone does, and I would not like to have it be the my only option.
You do a lot of programming? Really? I try to get some in, but the debugging keeps me pretty busy.
I am not a coder (I may learn a bit one day) but I hope people understand that making a game (just like making a film, or many tytpe of projects) involve also other people than coders. GFX artists, musicians...I was searching for a free engine that could serve me to get into a project (funnily one ends up in unexpected projects, instead) . So , what i look for is the art path. How easy an engine will make my duties as an artist. And firstly I found ogre. Initially at least, the license did look to me as it was going to be a problem for comercial, closed source projects, which are of the type me and my local friends are interested in. but... mainly I saw no import possible from packages other than max, Maya, and -at those times at least- an unfinished Blender plugin. Milkshape having this software no weights, for me at least does not count.
Well, I know many modders do use warez versions. But I don't. And many indies don't (is quite less usual among indies)
So, a Maya or Max connection was for character fx, or several other animation cheap packages, or free ones, quite useless.
I think I remember I saw in dev irrlicht page or in the forum that x format could be added. And like I did in other engines, I suggested it. But happily, this time I was lucky, seems Niko did had real plans for it. So, great.
(there's ahuge list of some of the better sold engines and game environments that support fullly or partially x)
trust me. I have worked in game companies. Not long, but enough...ANY good artist can export from her/his particular package into x format. There's a plugin for it in every package(funny thing is some artists don't know the export plugins there are for their loved package). Only one of the big names that i can think of that does not is Cinema4d, but i think I heard that is changing.
Urgh engine author did also x support and I helped there, too.
An engine has a need to make artist a possible way to translate the stuff. Static objects offer few problems, but in general in 3d, weights and bones are really complex stuff for the coders. Ben and surely Niko and Jox may tell you.
But the advantages of power and quality are enormous, besides, x is totally proved the huger standard out there in fully featured character animations, and an open ascii(binary also) format.
It may sound silly but an artist like me lost interest in helping , getting into projects, etc, in engines that do not provide a good art path.
When at a job, the c++ coders will just grab the sdk of the company choosen package, and spend some mournings coding in c++ (sometimes maxscript or mel can do..) and saying ugly words till they get the whole thing export it all towards the engine...but heh, in free land, and open source project for indies, you can't afford to be that demanding, and as a neoengine author answered to a user requesting support for AC3d "cannot give support to every package out there" .Which is SUCH an strong true. Yep, there's an sdk there for most packages (my xsi has one, and said to be good) but then...which right do I have to ask for a format for every package to a coder that does this for free, when I'm also knowing that dev time could be used to improve actually the engine, in which he surely enjoy more...?
Doing support for very standard widely spread formats is the answer. Irrlicht has support for OBJ, 3ds, md2, md3, x ...people yet complain of it not being fully featured and god-like perfectly done, while if u look at it, it's clearly one of the engines with more support of formats than any out there...in 2d it even support psd! ...if a format does not load it all, or do it perfectly, grab the whole code and do your own version, after all , this is all a gift, but imho ,a lot of work is already done.
Imho there's much more advantages in irrlicht that just easy learning. Also...i don't see the point of...well, if actually one like more what Ogre offers you, go use it instead...but login here as guest with no name to speak badly about it (clearly not making justice to it) ...well, I don't criticize this behaviour, everyone is free. Just i see no sense in doing so. And is non related to anyone in this post, I'm thinking now in other recent threads.
Also, as a last note: 50% of the problems arised with formats,(I have helped many already, they have written me by PM messages or email, quite a number now) are also badly helped by the fact most coders see themselves alone with no artist help in their projects. Half of these problems are just lack of 3d art knowledge, texturing, etc. Working closely with a good artist, I'm sure it'd be reduced to just some unimportant details. Same way, if in the project the coder could code by himself fixes, also all problems gone. I have seen it done many times.
Indeed, above all gameplay still > graphics. I played a text-only game for about 2 years (quitted because of time lack). Its gameplay was fantastic and it was very addicting (http://cq2.mct.nu for those who care). We all know Ogre and others can do a lot more and have more power but they are rather difficult for beginners. Irrlicht is exactly what you need to learn the very basics 3D programming, by looking to the source or just using it. It'll get mature one day .
PUT AN END TO POINTLESS THREADS 
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