What Program

[pming]

Hiya.

There really isn't any "leading program for X" (be that X 3d or game engines). It's kinda like saying "Car Y is the leading car in the world". Most sold? Most stable? Most customization choices? What?

Anyway...the current 'newest' game engines to hit the market are DOOM3, CryEngine (Far Cry) and Half-Life 2. The next most anticiapated game engine is the Unreal 3 engine, IMHO. Any of those will cost you anywhere from $10k to $500k per license. Enjoy! ;)

...now, if you want something affordable, there are a LOT of decent engines out there. Hit this place up and take a parusal: http://www.devmaster.net/engines/

...and, if I completely misunderstood you, and you are asking about what 3d program is most used to create content for video games...I'd probably still put my money on 3DS MAX (XSI 4.2 if you are going to use the Half-Life 2 engine).

[rakmaya]

First I suggest you learn a little bit of game programming and DirectX. The correct way of course is to learn the basics. I assume that you are already pretty good with C/C++. If not I suggest you start of there. You can also try any of the game engines listed in the sticky post in this section of the forum if you want to go there first.

[ScottyDoesntKnow]

hey thanks but where do i get the doom and other engines

[McWolfe]

hey thanks but where do i get the doom and other engines

For simple, non-commersial, non-standalone games you buy Doom3/Half-Life 2/ Far Cry/ Unreal Tournament/ Warcraft III/ Neverwinter Nights etc etc

These all include quite powerful editors that you, with some training and hard work, can use to create your own maps/ game types and games. Of course, the farther away from the original game you want to end up, the more work it takes.

The advantages of this is that you have the core of the game up and running, a lot of resources, you can produce small levels in less than an hour (less than 15 minutes for a very small level and with some experience) and you can get a lot of experience in how to design games.

The downsides is that you cannot publish your creations as standalone applications. The end user must have the original game to load and run what you have done. And, you cannot make any money on the creations.

If you want to avoid the latter, you have to buy a license for the actual engine, and this is way out of reach for hobbyists and small studios. An alternative would be using 3d game studio, Torque or similar development tools that are quite cheap and can produce good, if not cutting edge, games. There is a sticky thread on this forum that lists all the tools/ engings with comments on them.

Hope this helped a bit
McWOlfe

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