Irrlicht VS Crystal Space?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 7:37 pm

Hello. Of course, I'm likely to find a biased opinion here, but I want to ask you about the pros and cons of each. I think that Irrlicht has better quality files, tutorials, and is far, far, easier to use. On the other hand though, Crystal Space is being developed by a team, and is ahead of Irrlicht in terms of features. However, it has an incredible lack of tutorials (and the few tutorials are mainly for Linux), the documentation is horrible, I get errors when I try and use it, and it seems much harder to use than Irrlicht. Normally, I would instantly opt to use Irrlicht, but the main things drawing me to Crystal Space are the mirrors, fog, and most of all, the multi-layered dynamic sky and moving sun (casting light on the sky in real time) with a lens flare. I really like to sound of that feature, and it's the main thing holding me back from choosing to use Irrlicht. I'm not much of a programmer (Internet-related scripting I can do easily, and I've used C++ ages ago, but have since forgotten most of the intermediate things, and so I am back to square one)... How hard would it be to add these features to the code? Has somebody already done it?
Thanks in advance, and I apologise for the long post.

keless · Post by **keless** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 7:41 pm

someone has already done fog, and another person has already done lense flare.

several people are working on multi-textured day-scrolling skyedomes

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 7:59 pm

Thanks for the quick answer.

Would the fog and lens flare code happen to be included with the latest version, or would I have to download them from somewhere? Do these people working on skies have a website? Also, would it be possible to create fog in a certain area - like ground-level fog?
Thanks.

keless · Post by **keless** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 8:13 pm

Fog:
http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/ ... .php?t=824

Lense Flare:
http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/phpBB2/ ... .php?t=989

(currently browsing the forum for the others)

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 8:42 pm

Thank you. One more thing - can you (or anyone working/worked on) create shaders to create effects such as cel shading?

keless · Post by **keless** » Mon Jan 19, 2004 8:59 pm

no, irrlicht does not currently support shaders or cell shading

it is possible to extend irrlicht's 'Materials' in which case, you may be able to add support for it directly by modifying the engine-- if you do so, you can post the code to the forum and Niko might add it directly to the next version

Serg Nechaeff · Post by **Serg Nechaeff** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 12:07 am

man, people wohnt play your game only because you have shaders and stuff. But with Irrlicht you CAN make a game, with CS you will not make a game. As simple as that

keless · Post by **keless** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 12:22 am

thats a highly loaded statement serg, and I wouldnt be proud to have my name next to it.

Crystal Space is an engine with team of developers and many years behind it, and they even have a beta playable MMO.. IrrLicht can not claim the same. That being said, a lot of people have found IrrLicht easier to get started with.

Serg Nechaeff · Post by **Serg Nechaeff** » Tue Jan 20, 2004 6:57 pm

that's just what i said. CS it too complicated and too big for a team of one or two developers. it can be great for a large team, but definitely not for a lonewolf.