Don't go out there!

Maybe you meant "natural language"?

 

Yep, because
1) It's not a 3D engine , it's a game first they like and play it
2) each users most of the time do tiny work and leave : new textures, small models

You can't compare software used for every day real needs and buziness in all domains, with 3D engines that are entertainment software only.

But i agree it could occur for Godot if some interest happen and more contributors get involved.
For example Blender is very old, it was not the best about rendering or some features, but last years it really took up , it got faster releases with important features, and many people braught awesome plugins (Hard ops, Decal machine etc ...). Many find Blender lot better than Maya for example.

But again it's a 3D modelling software, it's not software making the race with 3D engines always evolving, it's totally different about features releases rate , tooling and delays

Perhaps in the future ? but it's not sure.
Try to find some example of a game made by one man with open source 3D engine as good this one ?

 

It all boils down to what I already said above, namely that the possibility of a success of any open source project depends on the size of its userbase.

And Skyrim mods are not just small models or textures, as they include many complete overhauls (i.e. Requiem) or even a complete new game (i.e. Enderal).

Game or not, an open source software can succeed, provided it can attract enough number of users (granted, it's not always an easy task, but neither an impossible one).

Game engines are not really totally different from, nor incomparably more complex than other softwares that open source has seen success in the past.

Blender is at least considered to be a valid alternative to its commercial counterparts for example, and no game engine - commercial or not - can claim to be more complex than operating systems, for which we have great open source options, like Linux or FreeBSD.

Actually, the software development field is literally dominated by various open source softwares these days, from development tools that professional developers use daily (i.e. Git, Eclipse), to mission critical softwares like DBMS (i.e. Postgres, MariaDB) or application servers (i.e. Wildfly). And even Unity depends on many of them, like Mono, Node.js, Qt, and possibly more.

So, if the open source hasn't caught up with the game engine business yet, it's probably not because game engines are much more complex than all the other softwares, but because there hasn't been enough demands or interest so far.

But the fact that now we begin to see more serious open source engines like Godot, or Xenko indicates that there's a good chance that it might change in future. And in my opinion, that's why we better keep our eyes on such projects, since open source softwares have completely changed how professional software engineers work in the last decade, so there's no gaurantee it won't happen for game developers as well.

 

Xenko is not open source.

I still find Blender development has been slow in some domains and they never wanted to completely revamp the interface to make it more pleasant.
Sure it can happen but it will take years like it took years,and open source is different and can't challenge commercial 3D engines with hundred people improving it every day.

 

Ok, to be exact Xenko 1 was, but not any more even though they seem to claim otherwise.

They still market their product to be "an open-source C# game engine designed for the future of gaming", possibly because they still provide full source code (under a proprietary license).

But it doesn't really change my arguments.

Of course, it'll take time even if it happens - I didn't say Godot will be better than Unity next year

 

No way lol

 

Yeah, not that fast But I think Godot has some real chance of becoming a serious contender in next few years, based on the momentum it currently shows:

• https://github.com/godotengine/godot/pulse/monthly

According to the above page, 95 authors made 460 commits while changing 1,339 files in last month, which I believe would be a decent statistics even for many commercial software companies with a fully paid development team.

If they can keep up this rate in furure, of couse, is something remains to be seen.

 

Yep, but each commit can be a small change , this does not means major feature addition.
All essential shader, visual and material work has been done mainly by it's author not by contributors.
I am not sure contributors to be working on big features.

Also don't forget Godot is 30Mo and they said it will stay small, so you should not expect to see the editor growing and get all Unity tools and editors. It's uncertain how it will develop and who make it about terrain, vegetation, time of day, clouds, water system, character tools and editors etc...

 

I am genuinely curious to now to see an open source game equivalent to Skyrim be released and see what the community do if it was open source. That would be absolutely amazing! Also, I work in higher education and many software companies and software that we use are open source. The publishers are not happy about that, but eventually there is a huge push to have open source educational materials instead of being forced to buy textbooks. In relation to Unity, Unity itself has disrupted the game engine space with its approach to democratize game development. I see open source game engines as basically another way for game development to be democratized. Unity has an amazing community and wealth of assets on the asset store. This is what Godot needs to also focus on building on community and encouraging the use of their open source asset library.

I think the more competition in the game engine space, the better for developers. Unity has the top spot now. However, with the rise of open source engines, I think that could be really beneficial for developers.

I think an open source game engine such as Godot or others can be wildly successful. However, the key I think for Godot is for the community to continue to grow, and their version of Unity's asset store to grow and offer open source tools and extensions such as level editors, terrain editors. In addition, Unity is masterful at marketing itself. Godot and other open source products need visibility and marketing to get themselves in eyes of developers and ultimately build its toolset and features and become the "Unity" of open source game engines.

 

Here you go.

Someone posted a link to that in another thread recently. Technically it's Morrowind rather than Skyrim, but close enough for me.

 

That is absolutely amazing!!!! Thank you sharing. I played a ton of Morrowind on my original xbox when it first came out. This is quite an amazing project.

I think this is what Godot really needs to focus on organize itself on. I agree with you that these tools and features are vital for Godot if it wants to be a 3D engine as well. They already have a open source version of the Unity asset store. However, if they can figure out how to get contributors to offer terrain, vegetation, time of day, clouds, etc, then it would really exciting for example a open source version of Gaia type of tool.

Edit: They are also aware of that and have been having holding polls to allow patreon members and the general community vote monthly on what features/tutorial/roadmap priorities they want in the engine. Terrain generation/decals among other features was mentioned (https://www.patreon.com/posts/14913456)