Panda3D A 3D engine: a library of subroutines for 3D rendering and game development
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game develop engine game development game engine 3D engine

Panda3D Description

A 3D engine: a library of subroutines for 3D rendering and game development Panda3D is C++ with a set of Python bindings. Game development with Panda3D usually consists of writing a Python or C++ program that controls the Panda3D library.Panda was created for commercial game development, and its primary users are still commercial game developers. Because of this, Panda3D needs to emphasize four areas: power, speed, completeness, and error tolerance. Everyone knows what power and speed are. But error tolerance and completeness deserve some extra commentary.Completeness means that Panda3D contains tons of unexciting but essential tools: scene graph browsing, performance monitoring, animation optimizers, and so forth. These things may not be sexy, and as a result, open-source engines often don't have them. But when you're serious about getting work done, and not just playing, these tools need to be there.Error tolerance is about the fact that all game developers create bugs. When you do, you want your engine to give you a clear error message and help you find the mistake. Too many engines will just crash if you pass the wrong value to a function. Panda3D almost never crashes, and much code is dedicated to the problem of tracking and isolating errors. Here are some key features of "Panda3D": Shader Generation: Many advanced rendering techniques now fully automatic: · Special Maps: Normal Map, Gloss Map, Glow Map · HDR Rendering: Tone Mapping, Bloom Filter · Cel Shading: Threshold Lighting, Inking · More to come Performance Monitoring: Powerful performance monitoring and optimization tools: · Identifies bottlenecks, both CPU and GPU · CPU time use decomposed into more than 250 categories · Counts meshes, polygons, textures, transforms, state changes, etc · Allows user-defined CPU-usage categories · Tools for batching and state-change minimization · Toos to merge textures and minimize texture switches Full Python Integration: Automatically-generated wrappers expose full functionality of engine: · Highly optimized: all core functionality in C++ · Thoroughly-tested: two commercial MMOs in python · Panda3D structures garbage collected when using Python · Manual and sample programs use python Just Works, Right out of the Box: No-hassle install: · Convenient installer packages for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux · Only one external dependency: working graphics driver · Sample programs run right out of Start Menu · No compilation step needed Exposes Full Power of Graphics API: Modern OpenGL/DirectX features exposed directly to Panda3D user: · High-level shader language: Cg · Powerful interface between shaders and engine · Support for render-to-texture · Use of depth/shadow/stencil textures Debugging Tools: Heavy emphasis on error tolerance and debuggable code: · Extreme resistance to crashing, even when errors are made · More than 5000 assertion-checks to catch errors early · Reference-counted data structures minimize memory leaks · Many tools to examine internal state (one shown here) Mature, Complete System: Mature system used to deliver several commercial games. Contains everything you need, not just the "sexy" stuff: · Converters for older file formats · Font file importers · Tool to package games into redistributables · Means to pack art assets into encrypted bundles · Lots of other boring but essential stuff What's New in This Release: · Fixed a static-init issue in ptloader on Windows · Fixed texture scaling issue when using buffers · x2egg is no longer broken · Threading in OSX build fixed · Fixed issue with flickering colors in Shader Generator · Eggcacher now uses less RAM · Missing 'models' dirs in packpanda games fixed · Eggcacher step in Panda3D installer is now optional · Fixes broken shortcut links in Start Menu on Windows · Shader Generator now supports clip planes · Bug with combine modes in Shader Generator fixed · Fixed bug with Texture::make_copy() · Bug with Actor LOD fixed · Fixed bug with missing geometry in Collada converter · OdeUtil.collide instability fixed · OdeBody setData/getData methods exposed to Python

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