Simmetri
As the lead creative designer at the Public VR Lab, I’m in a constant search for the next VR creation tool. Playing with Simmetri for the first time was a dream come true. The endless possibilities Simmetri offercs, handed to me in such a simple, accessible way, astonished me and sparked my imagination.
The ease of handling complicated concepts and ideas is unparalleled in the field.
The tutorials were clear and strightforward and enabled me to dive into the app with a smile, having understood the functions and concepts of the app.
– Real player with 305.1 hrs in game
I’m a professor in the creative writing program of a large public university. I’ve long been on the hunt for a tool that would allow me and my students–almost none of us STEM types or coders–to make narrative art in VR (and in 2D). Simmetri is that tool. It neatly and intuitively bridges the gap between the desire of a non-technical person to tell a story in VR and the fulfillment of that desire.
I’ve tried Unity and Unreal Engine, as well as a host of other “game-making” tools (my Steam library is full of them), and all of them buffaloed me almost as soon as I got started. I’m fifteen or so hours in to my use of Simmetri, and already I’ve produced at least one “VR story” that I’m pleased with and that I can show off to my colleagues and students as a proof-of-concept, to help sell them on the idea of VR as a serious narrative medium. Now that I’ve got my legs under me, I see no end to the creations that Simmetri will make possible.
– Real player with 275.2 hrs in game
CUR3D Steam Edition
While the usual tools fail, CUR3D can repair and convert 3D files (not made for printing).
Recommended! ( if you know why you need this software )
– Real player with 22.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Animation & Modeling Software Training Games.
After spending a bunch of hours mucking around in Blender and Zbrush trying to get a video game mesh into a printable state, this just worked.
– Real player with 11.8 hrs in game
![Mocap Fusion [ VR ]](https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/1540000/header.jpg)
Mocap Fusion [ VR ]
Motion Capture Fusion [VR] is an immersive roomscale mocap sandbox for artists and animators who wish to create and export motion capture animations_, or create live content_, using conventional VR hardware. With as little as a single VR HMD and two controllers users may create mocap on their own avatars. Advanced users may create more detailed motion capture including full body tracking and can be combined with other sensors (eg. Apple IPhone Truedepth sensor and Oculus Quest 2 optical finger tracking) to connect avatars to simultaneous inputs. This fusion of multiple sensor can combine many layers of motion capture in a single take; including: full body tracking, face capture, lipsync, gaze tracking, optical finger tracking.
Highlights
The term “getting into character” may apply here as literally connecting one’s self to an avatar as completely as possible and seeing them selves in a (VR) mirror while acting out a script.
Users may include their own completely custom characters (avatars) and use the same avatar throughout the production workflow. This eliminates the need for retargeting and ensures the mocap data always fits 1:1 without causing any offsets in the final results.
One of the unique features of Mocap Fusion is that it has the ability to export motion capture data and reconstruct the scene in Blender, making it available for final rendering in minutes .
Compatible Headsets (VR HMDs)
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Valve Index
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HTC Vive (and Vive Pro Eye).
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Oculus Quest (1 and 2).
Optional Tracking Hardware
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SteamVR Vive trackers.
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IPhone Truedepth sensor (facecap and eye tracking).
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Oculus Quest 2 (full optical finger tracking).
Capabilities
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Export mocap and create scenes in Blender™ instantly.
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HTC™ Vive Trackers (Up to 11 optional points) full body tracking.
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Ability to record, playback, pause, slomo, scrub mocap in VR.
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Customizable IK profiles and avatar parameters.
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SteamVR Knuckles support for individual finger articulation.
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Quest 2 optical finger tracking app for individual finger articulation and finger separation.
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Vive Pro Eye blink and gaze tracking support.
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Sidekick IOS Face capture app (Truedepth markerless AR facial tracking).
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User customizable Worlds, Avatar and Props may be built for mocap using the APS_SDK.
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Compatible with existing Unity3D™ avatars and environments.
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Supports custom shaders on mocap avatars.
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DynamicBone support for adding hair, clothing and body physics simulation to avatars.
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Breathing simulation for added chest animation.
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Add/Record/Export VR Cameras for realistic camera mocap (eg. VR Cameraman effect).
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Optimization for exporting mocap (.bvh) data to Daz 3D.
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Placement of “streaming” cameras for livestreaming avatars to OBS or as desktop overlays.
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Microphone audio recording with lip-sync visemes and recordable jaw bone rotation.
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Storyboard mode, save mocap experiences as pages for replaying or editing later.
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Animatic video player, display stories and scripts, choreograph movement.
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Dual-handed weapon IK solvers for natural handling of carbines.
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Recordable VTOL platform for animating helicopter flight simulation (eg. news choppers).
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VR Camcorders and VR selfie cams may be rigidly linked to trackers.
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VR props and firearms may be rigidly linked to trackers.
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Ghost curves for visualizing the future locations of multiple avatars in a scene.
Gameplay
The experience depends on the user’s PC and the tracking hardware used. The recommended SteamVR headsets are the Valve Index or the HTC Vive. A Quest HMD may also produce reasonable results. It is also possible to use the software without an HMD (eg. when livestreaming). Full body tracking is only available when using feet and hip trackers (and optional elbows, knees, chest). Users may achieve more realistic tracking results when using body trackers. Body trackers are optional and standing mocap is supported. Further realism my be achieved on compatible avatars by also enabling face capture or using a Vive Pro Eye for gaze and blink tracking.
History
Originally this was designed as an intuitive way for users to create virtual training videos and presentation in an immersive VR environment for added realism and then export their animation for rendering. The project was made available to a community for beta testing and since has received feedback and many feature requests which has helped add to the utility of the software for a verity of different creators.
Read More: Best Animation & Modeling Simulation Games.
Leadwerks Game Engine
Leadwerks is a semi easy-to-use and very powerful game engine written in OpenGL 4 with a deferred renderer. The engine is crossplatform between Windows & Linux, frequently updated, and has a very friendly and active community. With Leadwerks, you can create any game you want, be it an FPS game, 3rd person shooter, a puzzle game, or something super wacky, you can make it in the Leadwerks engine.
Some Of The Great Features
The deferred renderer is the pride and joy in this engine, giving you the ability to easily add dynamic lights and/or static lights with realistic shadows instantly, no lightmap baking needed. CSG level editing (like Source Engine’s Hammer editor) is fun and fast in the Leadwerks editor, allowing you to map out and create a level to test out pretty quickly. The engine is built upon OpenGL 4, making the engine crossplatform between Windows and Linux. A Mac version is currently in the works and should be out sometime in the near future.
– Real player with 1535.7 hrs in game
If you read this before the end of the 2nd December 2014, and you are wanting to be be able to write a 3D game, get this now. Its incredible value at 50% off. If you have and use visual studio and write code in C++, and want to use it to write a game, splash out and get the Standard version too. I bought mine in a previous sale, with -25% off, and have invested many hours in using this latest version during the beta testing of 3.3.
There are lots of video tutorials on you-tube, which are really useful for a beginner to understand how to start to use Leadwerks. The Forum http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/ is a great community resource, which is always worth a visit when your stuck, answers to many of your questions can be found by searching in here. If its not already answered you can ask the community, and there are some really great people who have been using Leadwerks for years, including Josh (Leadwerks CEO) who respond with knowlegeable answers.
– Real player with 979.8 hrs in game
CopperCube 5 Game Engine
Lets be clear, Coppercube is intended to be simple and easy to use. This is a software for non programers, or those like me who prefer to focus on art and design, rather than typing tons of code. For this Coppercube is the best out there. Porting between PC, MacOS, WebGl, Android, and flash is near seamless. Most of the time its as simple as clicking the publish to option. There are tons of behaviors and actions to mix and match to do most things you will need, and their is a Javascript API if you want even more control. I’ve used quite a few game engines over the years (Multimedia Fusion, Gamemaker, 3DRad, Jamagic, Gamesalad) and none were as easy and fast to develop 3D applications than Coppercube.
– Real player with 3991.5 hrs in game
I have been playing around with CopperCube the past couple of weeks and I have fallen in love. 1 being that it is easy to get something simple up and running but also the option and simplistic coding. I start messing with the action and coding behaviors and find it to be quite easy when following their tutorial (but I am coding savvy). Graphic wise it isn’t Unity but I am not out to make a AAA game either.
I am running this on my Surface 3 so anyone who comes across my review I would say it runs smoothly on it and isn’t a resource hog which is a huge plus to me.
– Real player with 357.7 hrs in game
Cairo’s Tale: The Big Egg
Essentially, this is a Christmas themed clone of ‘Henry’ the hedgehog 3d video from the Oculus people. Certainly enough good work for a dollar.
! It’s high quality but the creatures seem like dorks. https://youtu.be/MFxIzyM2bIE
– Real player with 0.9 hrs in game
Very fun, cute short story. Great to show-off your VR to others :-)
– Real player with 0.7 hrs in game
001 Game Creator
Especially for the money, I don’t think you’ll find a program more fun to use when putting together your games. I haven’t found a more flexible engine (Short of maybe Unity, which still requires extra licensing) to quickly piece together scenes and basic mechanics to sketch out game ideas without diving into a million menus. They don’t even have to be simple prototypes, as I am also able to implement complex mechanics in no time at all using easy drag and drop scripting. I have found that my only limitation so far has been my own terrible math skill.
– Real player with 4553.1 hrs in game
I’ve used 001 now for almost 15 years. I’m currently working for SoftWeir Inc. and have contributed to 001 in many ways. That being said, I originally purchased 001 years ago through their website as any other customer, and not just given a free copy as a team member. I’m not being paid to write this review.
001 is a very capable engine designed to bring your ideas to life, as quickly as possible. You can import assets, just plop them into a map or interface, tweak some triggers then start building a game. If you are familiar with the engine, and have the assets ready, you can quite literally prototype ideas in under an hour (Of course depending on how many existing systems and assets you can leverage, and what gameplay you are looking for)
– Real player with 1955.3 hrs in game
AppGameKit Classic: Easy Game Development
A little background:
I’m a professional developer schooled in C### and Java. I am however not schooled to create games, but I know how the mechanics work. 3D game development is more of a hobby/side-project. Please read my review as such, if you’re completely new to programming, my feeling about this product can greatly differ from your perspective. Most of my pros and cons are subjective. But true in my opinion. Also: I use this product only for 3D development, I have no interest in the 2D side.
– Real player with 1305.3 hrs in game
I’ve changed my review. I thought about deleting it and posting a whole new review, but then I decided to keep it so TGC’s intentions to make AGK functional on Linux would be documented in the comments. If you would like to see the old review, so you’ll have some context if you read the comments, click here .
Okay, I’ve got better things to do with my time now that AGK on Linux has notably improved, and 2 lengthy reviews is 2 too many, so let’s get down to brass tacks.
– Real player with 1279.9 hrs in game
AppGameKit Studio
9 Out Of 10 Stars!
Hi,
Been using original “AppGameKit 2” (now called “Classic”) for a long time with great results.
I purchased “AppGameKit Studio” today.
First impressions are excellent.
I really love the new IDE and scene editor.
Definitely recommend this game creation software!
It’s missing some things that I hope are implemented soon:
(1) [DONE]HTML5/WebGL export with persistent data saving.
(2) “Steam Workshop” support.
(3) “Vulkan” rendering support for the other platforms.
Great game engine!
– Real player with 1454.9 hrs in game
AppGameKit Studio is the successor to the original AppGameKit and features several new improvements. However, if you are happy with the original AGK, there’s no urgent reason to upgrade - yet.
As for the software itself, although it was probably far from what the developers were hoping for, I wrote a visual novel with it called ‘Shark Dating Simulator’, available on Steam, which had a major boost when JackSepticEye reviewed it and sales were somewhat higher than I ever expected. As I was raised on the BASIC of old computers, AGK was not difficult to get into at all. AGK apps, for me on PC, run fast and smoothly and there are no watermarks or royalties to pay on your work - everything you make is yours. I would never have been able to make my game without AGK.
– Real player with 672.6 hrs in game
Axis Game Factory’s AGFPRO v3
Game factory does not make games. It is a level / world design tool. A really good level / world design tool for Unity based games. You see everything in real time. You can play test your levels, run around and stuff, but its not a stand alone game game engine, just a level / world design tool. However, calling yourself Game Factory was slightly misleading, but whatever. On the forum, the developers hint at wanting to one day make it a stand alone game engine, but I’m not sure if its a hint or misleading. Since they call it Game Factory, I have to lean toward the potential of misleading here.
– Real player with 238.5 hrs in game
(tl;dr: Summary at bottom. Also pay attention to review dates….especially the positive ones….)
Update Jan 2019: Seems AGFPRO and Geovox have finally had the option to purchase them on Steam removed for Australians it seems.
Everyone else has my pity.
UPDATE: Some AGF content is game breakingly broken at the moment. Dev ZekeThe Defender aka Alex has posted a fix that requires rolling back AGF to older versions.
Sadly he has also quit AGF. So could be a while before a proper fix is provided. Until then consider AGF broken and I seriously recommend not buying it or it’s DLC’s until the matter is resolved.
– Real player with 135.1 hrs in game