I am looking for a fairly modern, powerful, free, and easy to use/understandable game engine. ( not likely to get it all for free ) To start on a lil project of mine and a friends. I've been searching about.
If you know of any that have a fast learning curve and LOTS of features, please inform me.
I'm hoping for something along the lines of the unreal engine, which is what im researching at the moment.
quake 3 has open source code, and I have some experience with it and I can help. Perhaps you already know the features:
BSP format for maps
radiosity in the map compiler
bezier patches (curved surfaces)
etc
Furthermore, there are alternatives to this, but they're still quake like. I'm talking about DarkPlaces, which has support for HDR, deluxemaps (a special type of lightmaps for making static bump mapping faster)... Nexuiz is an example game using DarkPlaces.
I guess since you already know how to use unrealED, you should go with unreal engines. I happen to know how to use Radiant, which is the editor for quake like engines.
Would you be able to teach me to use Radient some time? As a license for the unreal engine is.. um.. well. $300 000...
sure.
http://www.qeradiant.com/cgi-bin/trac.cgi
download radiant and the gamepacks at that url. now download Nexuiz, Warsow, Alien Arena, Open Arena or whatever, so you have the actual resources (Textures and whatnot), or get quake 3.
I'm working with nexuiz currently. no particular reason. it's just that it's free, and it gives me some base textures to work with.
got er installed, it has support for doom 3, which I have, but I could use Quake 3 just as well ( or quake 2, or one, or wolfenstien )