3d game engines and terrain quality question

Project: Adventure game. Small to medium size game (about 20 hours). Three man development team. Max two year commitment.

I’ve been looking at game engines that have static image backgrounds such as Wintermute and Adventure Maker for making an adventure game (not a shooter). Why static image backgrounds you ask? Well, with adventure games the quality of background exterior scenery (mountains, trees, water, plants, lighting, texture) is 50% of the game. Adventure gamers like to explore and solve puzzles and exterior and interior backgrounds have to be of a high quality.

I thought I should check out some 3d engines before committing to static image backgrounds. (A 2d versus 3d type game.). I’ve been over at devmaster.net/engines/ checking out the 3d engines. Unity has a high rating, but I have read that it does not even have terrain bump maps. Knowing this, I don’t think I can get the exterior terrain quality I would need for an adventure game.

(I did download Unity and made an island. It was good enough for a shooter, but not an adventure game. Of course, it could be that I don’t have enough experience to make it look good.)

As long as I am still researching 3d game engines at devmaster.net, does anyone have any suggestions concerning 3d engines that would give me the terrain quality I am looking for? I mean is there another 3d engine I should look at or consider before going with static image background game engines.

Thanks

 

It can support bump maps i seen one guy using a bump maps on terrain and it looks great but it was done problably by programming,you could export unity terrain in 3d modeling software and unwrap it there texture it and bump map it and then import it in unity.

 

You should point out what are specifcs that you are looking for your project in engine. Are you looking engine that can provide good quality next gen rendering? Or are you looking for some speicific features for your game?

I am using bump maps on terrain with user plugin made by Unity user and it works fine. It isnt as good as proper bump maped terrain becouse there are some minor issues but it look fine. Terrain in Unity is good and easy to sculpt, but if your game really needs good terrain i would pick UDK instead. UDK (Unreal development kit) has implemented advanced sculpting of terrain similar to Zbrush, which allows you to sculpt much better looking terrain without serious work. In Unity if you want good terrain you have to put some work in it, while UDK new terrain sculpting allows you easier workflow and better results. Also if you would wait 2 months Cryengine 3 will ship out in August with voxel terrain which is another piece of technology for terrains.

However its really hard to tell you have to specify more informations what are most important features that you are looking for your game.

Also 20 hour singleplayer game isnt really a small game in my opinion. Thats pretty much AAA standart for medium sited advanture games.

 

Thank you Ivanzu and Janpec for the information on terrain.

I’ll check out the UDK engine, and I’ll also have a look at Cryengine 3 in a few months. As to your question about specifics, I am looking for good quality rendering to the point that the rocks, trees, grass look almost real.

In my Unity test island the terrain looks flat when you get up close. Adventure game players like to look around for clues to puzzles and they move right up close to the surface of objects. Bump mapping is a necessity to make objects look real. Control over multiple lights and shadows (to make scenes look interesting) is the another necessity. I am not interested in rain, snow, fog (effects) so much as I am in controlling textures, lighting and shadows in local areas the gamer will be searching for clues to puzzles.

You are right 20 hours is a large game. A little larger than I would prefer to make. But, adventure gamers complain if the game is too short. Remember that this is not a shooter that can be played over and over. Adventure games are usually only played once or twice. They like the game to last at least 20-plus hours.