[HN Gopher] RG3D (Rust game engine) feature highlights
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       RG3D (Rust game engine) feature highlights
        
       Author : adamnemecek
       Score  : 99 points
       Date   : 2021-08-21 17:00 UTC (6 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (rg3d.rs)
 (TXT) w3m dump (rg3d.rs)
        
       | echelon wrote:
       | This looks like it has a lot of features, but that it's still
       | miles behind Unreal. (I'm not downplaying the amazing technical
       | achievement, and I'm very interested in watching RG3D evolve.)
       | 
       | Is this the most mature Rust game engine? There seem to be a lot
       | of entrants in that race now. This one has the best video demos
       | with technical rendering specifics, AFAICT.
       | 
       | If a coalition of companies were to band together and build an
       | open source engine, what tech should they back, or is there no
       | good starting point?
       | 
       | Amazon was open sourcing Lumberyard, right? Is that more mature?
       | (I'd love to see Rust take off and "win" over C++, but there's a
       | lot of ground to make up... Especially if you're chasing after
       | Unreal.)
        
         | mrDIMAS wrote:
         | Thank you! There are number of cool 2D game engines, but almost
         | no such developed 3D engines, so rg3d is the most feature-rich
         | game engine so far.
        
           | ensiferum wrote:
           | If you're interested in a 2D engine you might be interested
           | in https://github.com/ensisoft/gamestudio
        
         | steveklabnik wrote:
         | From this outsider's perspective, RG3D and Bevy are the two
         | most mature engines. The Bevy folks are a bit better about
         | getting the word out, so you hear a lot more about it, but both
         | are doing really impressive stuff.
        
         | Hemospectrum wrote:
         | If you want to back an open source engine that's already very
         | mature and has a big community, you want Godot. It's not
         | written in Rust, but it supports an FFI API that allows you to
         | write your game logic in Rust. The killer feature that sets it
         | apart from pure-Rust engines is console support.
         | 
         | If you want to see a skilled team with strong leadership
         | building on a carefully designed foundation, and you're not
         | afraid to wait years for the payoff, there's Bevy, which has
         | made a splash on HN a couple times over the past year.
         | 
         | If you want an engine that's comfortably mature today, and you
         | want it to be written in Rust for no particular reason, then
         | RG3D is the clear winner.
        
           | Animats wrote:
           | One level down, and underneath Bevy, there's WGPU, which was
           | on HN a few days ago. That's an all-Rust layer of middleware
           | which connects to Vulkan, and makes Apple's Metal and
           | Microsoft's Direct-X look a lot like Vulkan. So you get
           | cross-platform graphics. All three APIs are really very
           | similar; the differences exist mostly for "product
           | differentiation". WGPU also supports WebGL, but not consoles
           | or phones. Having a common interface for all those targets is
           | a big win.
           | 
           | Now, that's not a game engine. It's just a graphics API, and
           | a low level one. One level up from that is Rend3, which
           | handles GPU memory allocation and queuing for WGPU. At this
           | level, you put in meshes, textures, material parameters, and
           | transforms. Images come out. No rigged mesh yet, so no
           | characters.
           | 
           | I've been using Rend3/WGPU, and here's some early video.[1]
           | This is a small area of Second Life. I'm working on the
           | issues of handling very complex user-created content
           | efficiently. Most games are constantly reusing the same
           | textures and objects, but Second Life user created content is
           | not like that.
           | 
           | Frankly, it's to soon to be using these libraries for a
           | project with a deadline.
           | 
           | [1] https://vimeo.com/553030168
        
           | adamnemecek wrote:
           | Bevy has made little progress in the last year.
        
             | n42 wrote:
             | if the owner of rg3d is reading, your friend Adam is a big
             | reason I'm not emotionally (or financially) invested in
             | your project. his incessant negativity on every "competing"
             | project reflects poorly on your community. I suggest you
             | politely ask him to stop.
             | 
             | I'll take a supportive member of the ecosystem over a toxic
             | one.
             | 
             | for others who aren't aware, the parent commenter reliably
             | show up in any thread about this project to spread
             | misinformation about others.
        
               | adamnemecek wrote:
               | What misinformation did I post about bevy? Also, for what
               | it's worth it was yours truly who posted bevy on hn a
               | year ago which got them a lot of traction
               | 
               | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24123283
               | 
               | I'm just a fan of rg3d because it's more advanced and
               | less promoted than bevy.
        
               | mrDIMAS wrote:
               | I just want to clarify that I cannot tell Adam what
               | should he do. I can just try to convince you that the
               | community is friendly and non-toxic, I answer all the
               | questions in the Discord server
               | (https://discord.gg/xENF5Uh), even write code to help
               | help people. It is sad that you're judging the whole
               | project by posts of just one guy.
        
               | _cart wrote:
               | I agree with this. To anyone reading: please don't write
               | off rg3d due to the behavior of a single person. rg3d is
               | a super solid engine, they are ahead of us in a number of
               | areas, and mrDIMAS (rg3d's lead) has never been anything
               | but perfectly professional in their interactions with us.
               | We've even discussed ways to collaborate a few times over
               | the last year. There are good reasons to choose Bevy over
               | rg3d (and the reverse is also definitely true). But I
               | won't be discussing that here I'd rather not hijack this
               | thread when the focus should be on the cool new things
               | that mrDIMAS and the other contributors have built for
               | rg3d 0.22. Congrats on another fantastic release!
               | 
               | (I am the lead of the "alternative rust engine" being
               | discussed in this ... interesting thread)
        
               | adamnemecek wrote:
               | Oh no, am I the enfant terrible of rust game engines?
               | 
               | Hey, any publicity is good publicity.
        
               | yazaddaruvala wrote:
               | > I just want to clarify that I cannot tell Adam what
               | should he do.
               | 
               | Sure, but do you condone it?
               | 
               | > It is sad that you're judging the whole project by
               | posts of just one guy.
               | 
               | I agree it's sad, you have put a lot of work into this
               | project and for non-technical reasons many here myself
               | included are driven away from your project because of
               | Adam's negativity.
               | 
               | I recommend you stop condoning it, at least publicly.
        
               | adamnemecek wrote:
               | Can you point out the toxic behavior?
        
               | mrDIMAS wrote:
               | Please, get me right, I'm not condoning his behavior. I
               | just can't tell people what to do. I can just tell that
               | his position does not match mine. I prefer to keep
               | distance from any kind of "hot" discussions. I can only
               | apologize for the current situation.
        
               | yazaddaruvala wrote:
               | That mental model makes a lot of sense. It's a difficult
               | situation. Sorry that you're dragged into it.
        
             | hn8788 wrote:
             | You should probably disclose that you're somehow affiliated
             | with RG3D if you're going to be putting down the efforts of
             | other engine developers, especially when what you're saying
             | is wrong. Bevy has only been out for a little over a year
             | anyway.
             | 
             | https://bevyengine.org/news/bevys-first-birthday/
        
               | adamnemecek wrote:
               | I'm not affiliated with rg3d. I have submitted minor
               | commits and I'm friends with the author but the
               | involvement ends there. rg3d is currently the most
               | advanced Rust game engine and I'm rooting for such
               | endeavor.
        
               | catgary wrote:
               | That's pretty affiliated, my guy. Comments like that are
               | a bad look, and I'm sure your friend would appreciate it
               | if you took down that comment, or reworded it in a kinder
               | manner.
        
               | hn8788 wrote:
               | Then the rg3d author should remove you from the "Special
               | Thanks" portion of the page. Rooting for one engine also
               | doesn't mean that you have to lie about another engine
               | not making any progress; it just makes rg3d look bad
               | since you're listed on the release page.
        
               | adamnemecek wrote:
               | I have advised the author on some matters, that is all.
               | I'm a fan of the engine more than anything.
        
               | Hemospectrum wrote:
               | You've made twice as many posts in this thread as
               | mrDIMAS. You might not have realized it because you don't
               | feel like you're exerting yourself. Nevertheless, you're
               | vocal enough that a casual observer can see you as the
               | public face of the project, and the picture you paint is
               | not a constructive one.
               | 
               | In the past, you've said that you don't believe
               | community-building skills are important. This tells me
               | you have a serious misunderstanding of software
               | development, especially open source software development.
               | The disagreements you're having in this thread are not
               | debates you can win on technical merits. You should
               | fundamentally reconsider the way you approach them.
               | 
               | If you still can't see the problem with your behavior, I
               | advise you to delete your posts and do literally anything
               | else. Read a book. Download some cool free ringtones.
               | Anything.
        
               | adamnemecek wrote:
               | I have made twice as many posts because people have been
               | responding to me.
               | 
               | Well a casual observer would be wrong to think that.
               | 
               | I didn't say that community building skills aren't
               | important, it's just that you can't build an engine with
               | just a community.
               | 
               | > You should fundamentally reconsider the way you
               | approach them.
               | 
               | Be rest assured I won't.
        
               | cardanome wrote:
               | I am following both Bevy and RG3D. You make RG3D look
               | very bad.
               | 
               | I think both engines have quite different philosophies
               | (ECS vs OO among other things) and could actually learn
               | and benefit from each other. Different types of projects
               | and people need different engines.
               | 
               | It is very unfortunate that you are spreading this toxic
               | competitive mindset when the situation is not a zero sum
               | game at all. Especially considering that the author of
               | Bevy has shown to be quite friendly towards other
               | projects like Amethyst in comparison.[1]
               | 
               | [1] https://community.amethyst.rs/t/bevy-engine-
               | addressing-the-e...
        
               | adamnemecek wrote:
               | What toxicity? What competition? What are you talking
               | about?
        
               | cardanome wrote:
               | If you can't see how you are hurting the project you
               | apparently care about with your behavior after multiple
               | people have called you out on it, I am sorry. There is no
               | sense in discussing this further.
        
               | adamnemecek wrote:
               | Please link me to the toxic comment I have made.
        
             | Hemospectrum wrote:
             | I'll let the lead developer be the one to dispute that. He
             | posts here sometimes.
        
             | _cart wrote:
             | I would assert that we have made huge progress this year.
             | Just check out what we've accomplished:
             | https://bevyengine.org/news/bevys-first-birthday/.
             | 
             | But adam already knows this, given that they've advertised
             | on almost every hacker news post we've made over the last
             | year. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26131350
             | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24530698
             | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24983956
             | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26716166
        
               | adamnemecek wrote:
               | Is there a nontrivial demo? Also I'm really happy for you
               | that you reached a funding goal and posted a comment on a
               | forum, but idk if I really care about that when
               | evaluating and engine.
        
               | _cart wrote:
               | I see that you (uncharitably) ignored the 5 huge bevy
               | releases that occurred this year and the features they
               | contained. I wont bother listing them here because the
               | "last year of bevy" post above does it better.
               | 
               | Also feel free to check out the many Bevy games published
               | to Itch: https://itch.io/games/tag-bevy
               | 
               | And the large library of community generated games and
               | plugins: https://bevyengine.org/assets/
               | 
               | But again, adam already knows this. They just have a chip
               | on their shoulder.
        
               | adamnemecek wrote:
               | I didn't ignore them but they just aren't that
               | interesting.
               | 
               | The games aren't nontrivial.
               | 
               | > They just have a chip on their shoulder.
               | 
               | Those are not my pronouns.
        
               | n42 wrote:
               | here you are with the moving goal posts again!
               | 
               | I'm a financial supporter for a few of these Rust game
               | engine projects. I'm not of rg3d. if you cared about the
               | project so much, you might spend some time reflecting how
               | your role is holding the project back. toxic communities
               | like the one you are becoming the unofficial figurehead
               | of are a net negative for the ecosystem.
               | 
               | cart, don't feed him. every adult in the room sees it for
               | what it is. he's a mean spirited bully.
        
               | adamnemecek wrote:
               | What goal post did I move?
               | 
               | I'm not involved with the engine, so I'm not sure what
               | you are accomplishing.
               | 
               | Also you said below that I spread misinformation, what
               | misinformation?
        
         | EamonnMR wrote:
         | Godot is the leading open source engine right now. It has a
         | rust community. Lumberyard is iirc a CryEngine derivative
         | which... maybe I'm biased but the two games I know in that
         | ecosystem are MechWarrior Online and Star Citizen and neither
         | left an excellent taste in my mouth.
        
         | adamnemecek wrote:
         | > Is this the most mature Rust game engine?
         | 
         | It is.
         | 
         | > There seem to be a lot of entrants in that race now.
         | 
         | None of them are anywhere close to rg3d. Amethyst is kind of
         | dead.
        
         | juice_bus wrote:
         | >build an open source engine
         | 
         | Not sure on "coalition of companies" but godot[0] is probably
         | close.
         | 
         | [0]https://godotengine.org/
        
           | krapp wrote:
           | And there are Rust bindings for Godot as well[0].
           | 
           | [0]https://github.com/godot-rust/godot-rust
        
       | the__alchemist wrote:
       | Why is Rust the defining aspect? What circumstances would I use
       | this in compared to other engines? Who is the intended audience?
       | 
       | Rust is my most-used Language, but my pattern-matching brain is
       | cautious about projects that have "uses Rust" as a primary
       | requirement.
        
       | enbugger wrote:
       | >Q: Does rg3d use ECS?
       | 
       | >A: No. It uses generational pools (arenas) which are optimized
       | for efficient memory management to retain more static type
       | safety.
       | 
       | So do you plan to support it anyways?
        
       | DizzyDoo wrote:
       | The amount of work to bring a new game engine to even remotely
       | near the feature-set of the main existing engines is enormous, so
       | congratulations on getting this far. I hope you're able to grow a
       | team of contributors who can help you with this.
       | 
       | I think the biggest missing thing that I notice in new engines is
       | that no one is seriously making a game with them. I know, making
       | the engine is more than enough work already, but if it's not you
       | having _somebody_ aiming to release a product made with the
       | engine ought to be somewhere in your priorities. You might have
       | lot of interesting tech, but unless end-user developers are using
       | it in real ways you might find out later you're not headed in the
       | right direction and meeting real needs. You can see this with the
       | difference in emphasis between Unity (not game developers) and
       | Unreal (Epic definitely are), to Unreal's benefit. And I say that
       | as someone who uses Unity in my full-time job every day.
       | 
       | ... but of course, you need a base feature-set to attract devs.
       | So it's a big of a chicken-and-egg problem.
        
         | mrDIMAS wrote:
         | Thanks! I do have two pretty big games written with the engine
         | - https://github.com/mrDIMAS/StationIapetus and
         | https://github.com/mrDIMAS/rusty-shooter . I've started writing
         | them because it is impossible to get right feature set, without
         | a game that uses it.
        
       | jokethrowaway wrote:
       | That's a ridiculous amount of work for a bit more than 2 years of
       | development and for 159$ per month!
       | 
       | I'm very impressed and I have no idea how I could miss such a
       | project.
       | 
       | I looked into rust game engines last year for work and I had no
       | idea you existed. We were very heavily biased towards ECS, which
       | made us pick Bevy, but the level of maturity of your project
       | would have made for a good contender.
       | 
       | I'd recommend adding your project to: https://github.com/rust-
       | gamedev/arewegameyet
        
         | mrDIMAS wrote:
         | Thank you! It seems that I'm just bad at promotion. The thing
         | is that rg3d is on https://arewegameyet.rs/ecosystem/engines/
         | page for more than 1.5 years already, but nobody notices it.
        
       | chrisabrams wrote:
       | When I first saw this I thought it was a release of the video
       | game "Rust" and thought "there's no way Rust runs on Rust!"
        
       | mrDIMAS wrote:
       | Hello! Engine author here, I'm ready to answer your questions.
       | 
       | If you want to support the project, please consider to either do
       | a monthly donation via Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/mrdimas)
       | or one-time via BuyMeACoffee
       | (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/mrDIMAS)
       | 
       | Also join the Discord server, I'm looking to grow the community -
       | https://discord.gg/xENF5Uh and check rg3d on GitHub
       | https://github.com/rg3dengine/rg3d
        
         | dgfitz wrote:
         | I couldn't help but notice the RG3 reminds me of the NFL player
         | Robert Griffin III whose nickname was RG3. Was this just a
         | coincidence?
        
           | shadilay wrote:
           | What exactly do you think the overlap is between people
           | interested in a Rust game engine and people who watch
           | american football?
        
             | ChickeNES wrote:
             | Well, I follow the NFL and am interested in game engine
             | design, so...non zero?
        
         | billconan wrote:
         | That UI system looks really nice!
        
           | mrDIMAS wrote:
           | Thanks! It took half of year to build it, it was a hard task
           | especially for a newbie Rust programmer I was back in the
           | day. I was able to find right desing from fourth attempt.
        
         | space848 wrote:
         | Hi! Is it possible to donate Bitcoin? Cheers
        
           | mrDIMAS wrote:
           | No, unfortunately. Bitcoin is banned in my country and it is
           | very hard to convert it to fiat money.
        
             | dmos62 wrote:
             | Look up Bisq. It's an anonymous trustless exchange that's
             | hard to censure. Disclaimer: I contributed to it.
        
               | user-the-name wrote:
               | Maybe suggesting to someone to break the law to receive
               | donations is not really helpful.
        
         | echelon wrote:
         | Do you support github donations? (If not, I'll sign up for
         | patreon.)
         | 
         | This is amazing and is something I'm interested in using for my
         | startup. I'd be glad to pitch in!
        
           | mrDIMAS wrote:
           | Thank you! Unfortunately, GitHub donations is not supported
           | in my country, so Patreon is the only option for me.
        
           | martin-t wrote:
           | There is also https://liberapay.com/mrDIMAS - see the right
           | panel on the rg3d repo. AFAIK it should be better than
           | patreon because it doesn't take any cut but for some reason
           | people are not using it.
        
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       (page generated 2021-08-21 23:00 UTC)