general 3D engine question

[Kr1z]

Hey there guys.

For my last year at university (I'm doing Electronics / IT engineering) I was assigned a final project. Me and 2 other dudes have 1 year to work it out.

Concept is:
A company, Traficon has some tunnel trafic scenarios (e.g.: a car has stopped in a tunnel, theres a ghost-driver or w/e) in mind.
They want us to develop a program (in C#) with
-GUI: lets u set up a desired scenary. Has parameters like #cars, WhatSpecialEvent (stopped car, etc), tunnelwidth, carTypes, etc.
-result: A photorealistic movieabout the scenario. The goal is to represent the scenario with a 3D Engine model.

My question is:

Atm I need to explore possible 3D engines. The one from Half life 2 is very interesting and open source to everyone so that might be a good option.

Is there anyone who has experience with using engines ?
Any recommendations?

Cheers, Kris.

[BacioiuC]

I was initially going to recommend DarkGDK.NET, but I decided not to as soon as I read the "photorealistic part", since GDK.NET has some problems when it comes to massive amounts of polygons on the screen. But you guys could use it to design some rapid prototypes. I would have recommended Leadwerks game engine, but that could also be a problem since It's only for C++ AFAIK. Kinda tricky when it comes down to C#, since there aren't allot of well known ones. You could also try [url=http://www.visual3d.net/]Visual3D [dot] Net[/url], head allot of stuff about it from my colleagues, but I didn't get around to try it. Hope this helps.

[BacioiuC]

Wait, I read your post again! (yes I double posted, go ahead and warn/ban me *no edit buttons*). From what I read, you could try and make just a simple "level editor" tool in C#, and use leadwerks to actually render the scenario.

[kiwi-kiwi]

Leadwerks website says it works with C#, but if you want a free alternative, go for XNA.
Also, like BacioiuC suggested, make two modules, the first one a WPF application that sets up the initial conditions for the simulation and a second module for the rendering of the movie. You should also look into C# Serialization for a easy way to make the modules communicate with each other

For more details on the photorealistic part, go here and here
There are some other things to consider when making photorealistic movies, but the lighting is the most important and in my opinion the hardest.

[Kr1z]

Thanks so much already for the help. I'll look into these suggestions =D

[drakelord-nK]

Blah C#.

How much are you allowed to use in terms of premade libraries for elements such as the GUI? It might be simpler to use some of those rather than code them from scratch if you are able to.

[djconnect]

At 6/23/09 08:18 PM, drakelord-nK wrote: Blah C#.

How much are you allowed to use in terms of premade libraries for elements such as the GUI? It might be simpler to use some of those rather than code them from scratch if you are able to.

You have never used C# have you? I am guessing the OP is using Visual Studios and even if he is not, Mono comes with a GUI builder as well.

[Kr1z]

At 6/24/09 02:34 AM, djconnect wrote:
You have never used C# have you? I am guessing the OP is using Visual Studios and even if he is not, Mono comes with a GUI builder as well.

Yeh I use Visual Studio.

[drakelord-nK]

At 6/24/09 02:34 AM, djconnect wrote:

At 6/23/09 08:18 PM, drakelord-nK wrote: Blah C#.

How much are you allowed to use in terms of premade libraries for elements such as the GUI? It might be simpler to use some of those rather than code them from scratch if you are able to.

You have never used C# have you? I am guessing the OP is using Visual Studios and even if he is not, Mono comes with a GUI builder as well.

I have used C# maybe once or twice in a windows form application, but other than that, no. You are right, I have not used it.

And the GUI tools you are referring to, are they similar to standard windows GUI tools available in windows forms and MFC?

[djconnect]

Its all drag and drop in the wysiwyg but in the code it is similar (if not the same) to the windows API. I believe the .net library has allot to do with it. I mostly code in C++ and use the QT library to code guis in linux and have not worked much with the windows api to know, but I have used C# and VS.