Taumel: As I said, a visual tool isn't an option. It isn't just a question of BlitzMax codebase. I would consider porting to C# if it gave me a sufficiently good option, but I have far too many low level requirements that just aren't possible in a visual development environment. I could have listed them all, but I figured it was easier to simply say no visual tools and be done with it. I already dismissed Shiva and S2, both of which I already own, for the same reason. Yes, graphically, they're more than capable, but I need a level of control you only get with an SDK. I wouldn't be losing time to port to something like Unity, I would be losing the vast majority of the game features I value most. I'd love to say more, but.. you know.. they won't be valuable features if everyone knows about them.
Adrian: I'm afraid Ogre via Flow3D would fall into the same category as Max3D for me. I need something which is production ready now, not in beta. TV3D is already a few bug fixes away from production ready, and I know it because I have it here working. Anything else would be a step backward.
I dismissed PowerRender for the same reason as Ogre and Max3D. It's very good, but version 6 is a little bit outdated, and version 7 is not production ready.
Irrlicht looks good. The docs are good, I know GMan writes really good wrappers, so I know his work is rock solid. He's already declared an intent to update to the new version and as someone already said, that new version has only been out a few days.
I'm looking into one more today though, Elemental II. It's somewhat overkill, as it has a lot of features I don't need, but it's been ported to XBox360 and PS3, so I assume that we're talking professional developers here.
Adrian: I'm afraid Ogre via Flow3D would fall into the same category as Max3D for me. I need something which is production ready now, not in beta. TV3D is already a few bug fixes away from production ready, and I know it because I have it here working. Anything else would be a step backward.
I dismissed PowerRender for the same reason as Ogre and Max3D. It's very good, but version 6 is a little bit outdated, and version 7 is not production ready.
Irrlicht looks good. The docs are good, I know GMan writes really good wrappers, so I know his work is rock solid. He's already declared an intent to update to the new version and as someone already said, that new version has only been out a few days.
I'm looking into one more today though, Elemental II. It's somewhat overkill, as it has a lot of features I don't need, but it's been ported to XBox360 and PS3, so I assume that we're talking professional developers here.