py drawing to 3dview (Re: [Bf-committers] User-defined Material Properties)

[Mal]

Greg MacDonald wrote:

 > I also believe strongly that the game engine should not be a part of 
the main Blender project.

A lot of people, including myself, feel that it should be left in 
there.  Quite a number of folks are using it ( check out the elysiun 
forum ), and it now has half a dozen active developers ( albiet working 
on slightly different aspects of it ). 

Not everyone wants to model, and wait for ages ( sometimes hours! ) for 
short animations to render.  Some people prefer to model low to medium 
polygon, and view their work interactively, within seconds.

- One of the main issues with Blender IMO was that SUMO/SOLID wasn't 
really an acceptible physics solution.  Erwin Coumans is actively 
working on a solution here with Bullet.  For a 3D game, having a stable 
physics solution is key.

- The current solution for adding interactivity is ideal for 
walk-arounds, and when the physics solution is implemented more fully, 
you'll see some more advanced games.  However, creating more advanced 
games requires a lot of python scripting, which means that only more 
advanced coders can implement these ( NOTE: This is similar to writing 
games in Shockwave 3D or Flash - you really need to know your lingo / AS 
coding ).  Coding AI etc will also be difficult ( again, similar to 
coding AI in Shockwave 3D or Flash )

One solution to the above, is to allow Blender GE users to download a 
few templates ( eg a FPS template, a driving game template ), and allow 
them to model the environments just for that type of game.  Of course, 
they could tweak the template to whatever they would like.

Don't dismiss a games engine as being not useful, a lot of people do use 
it.  In fact, I developed a GE style solution for universities in 
Northern Ireland who teach 3D modelling, and most of them are now using 
the interactive game solution to teach basic 3D modelling and texturing 
skills first, as students get frustrated with waiting hours for simple 
animations ( remember: students won't initially know how to optimise 
their scenes to lower rendering times ).  Here's the app... 
http://www.candointeractive.com/gamedesign/car

regards...
Mal