From: cdurham@xspot.com (Chuck Durham) Subject: Re: REV-PROD: Renderware Date: Tue, 10 Oct 1995 07:10:36 GMT Organization: a Digital Internet AlphaServer Site From: cdurham@xspot.com (Chuck Durham) >Christopher Norris wrote: >I do not know how to rate VR creation software but how does Renderware >stack up against VRCreator, Rend386, Avril, WorldBuilder, >WorldToolkit, by Sense8, and WorldUP by Sense8(which is a visual >interface such as visual basic to World Toolkit. Renderware is a 3D API in the class of BRender, Intel's 3DR, Microsoft's Reality Lab or OpenGL. These are advanced libraries that take the strain out of creating 3D graphics. The other toolkits mentioned are virtual reality toolkits. Focusing not strictly on the rendering of 3D graphics but virtual world design and interaction. Adding such things as gravity, motion and collision detection as components of the toolkit. As far as comparisons. VRCreator uses Microsoft's Reality Engine for rendering so it's very fast (more so with a 3D accelerator). It compares well with Renderware. Rend386 and AVRIL are dos based and at the moment (if I am not mistaken) lack any texture mapping capabilities, but their free and a nice safe way to get your hands into VR. I am not sure what WorldToolkit or World Up use for rendering but Sense8 recommends a number of cards which are enhanced for OpenGL. World Up looks like the next generation of virtual reality design, like you said it's like Visual Basic compared to C. You can actually code and modify objects while in the 3D environment and watch your changes take action immediately. VRCreator should work a bit like that also, the current alpha doesn't include the full 3D development environment. And if you want to do most of the coding yourself, Intel's 3DR is free, just write or E-mail them for the Intel Architecture Labs CD, its on there with a lot of other stuff. Hope this helps, forgive my simplistic explanation of 3D API vs. VR Toolkits. if you need more info just E-mail me Chuck Durham Imaginative Entertainment cdurham@xspot.com http://www.imaginative.com http://www.xspot.com