Comparison of open-source rendering libraries

[Marten]

Hi all,

I have recently started to work on a diploma thesis about open-source rendering libraries, which mostly should be about the comparison between each other and demonstration of the most notable characteristics on both indoor and outdoor scenes using some select few.

So far have I taken into account these: OpenSceneGraph (plain), OGRE, Delta3D, Irrlicht, Crystal Space, Visualization Library and OpenSG. Do you think there are any notable advantages/disadvantages of Irrlicht I should definitely be aware of? Or do you have any other useful advice?

Also, if you could provide me any links to printable material, so I can go through it while afk, that would be quite helpful to me.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers,
Marten

[CuteAlien]

Don't know what you are exactly looking for, if you tell what you are comparing for we can maybe give more hints. I would recommend using the svn version of Irrlicht - we're shortly before the next release so it's stable already and will become 1.8 within weeks (I guess at least before end of July).

[Marten]

Don't know what you are exactly looking for, if you tell what you are comparing for we can maybe give more hints. I would recommend using the svn version of Irrlicht - we're shortly before the next release so it's stable already and will become 1.8 within weeks (I guess at least before end of July).

I'm comparing mostly general stuff like performance, supported file formats and GUI bindings, lightning and texturing enhancement, level of detail and other additional features or even the extent of documentation/community to some degree. I've also been instructed to focus on how these libraries are constructed internally in sense of used classes and design patterns. Is this description okay?

[CuteAlien]

I guess a good start for you is probably trying out the meshloader (example 09). It allows loading models in the supported formats and has some fps-display. Although hand-coding certainly often allows speed-improvements (for example making meshes static to live on the graphiccard). Generally - go over the examples and check-out those which seem to be of interest to you. The online-documentation can be generated locally, check the folder scripts\doc\irrlicht - that contains .bat files (or .sh for Linux) to generated the documentation from scratch with a single click. Not sure about printing, I'm so rarely afk that I never had the idea of doing that.

And for specific questions just ask in the forum or the IRC channel.

[REDDemon]

if you thesis is about opensource rendering libraries you should also take consideration of Mesa (open source software implementation of OpenGL, with few less features respect to OGL cause to IP litigations) and there are also software-based rendering libraries that you can look for (so nor DX or OGL). I.E Burnings Video! (but there are others!) Or are you looking just for high-level engines ?

[ACE247]

If anyone else reading this has to do a thesis. Hint: "Don't compare rendering libraries..."
Its terrifying!

[REDDemon]

agree. pretty easy if you already know and used some of them for years. A pain if never used them XD