GLest: A Strategy Game Engine in OpenGL
First of all, GLest is a free real-time strategy game developed in OpenGL. But this is not all that GLest is doing because it also offers a complete strategy game engine, which is quite rare for amateur projects. GLest is now available in version 3.2 which includes more detailed 3D models, new tutorials, a simplified interface, and high-resolution shadow textures.
The game GLest offers you to control the armies of two different factions: the techs, made up of warriors and mechanical weapons, and the Magic, made up of creatures and Magi.
But GLest does not only provide a strategy game but also a complete engine to facilitate the development of a strategy game. It is entirely based on using XML files and a set of tools like an easy-to-use map editor.
The GLest engine is developed in Standard C++ language using OpenGL for multi-platform 3D display as well as DirectSound or OpenAL for sound. The engine also allows developing a multiplayer game in LAN or on the Internet up to 4 players. The engine also includes an artificial Intelligence module based on the A * algorithm for path finding.
Paradox 3D: A Free & Open-Source Game Engine Based on SharpDX
Paradox 3D is a game engine written in C#, with an editor and allowing to develop portable games (PC, Mac, Linux, consoles, Android, iOS).). Paradox is free and open source (source available here via GitHub – 17 Mb)
The list of its features is impressive: you can consult it at this address. Note the support of the PBR (Physically Based Render) materials, realtime GI (Global Illumination), the support of the Tesselation, the Displacement, and the network support (to come to a priori). It is also planned to use a graph node for the creation of Materials. What is also interesting is the Paradox Shading Language which replaces the HLSL and GLSL to be multiplatform.
It currently uses SharpDX as support for Microsoft platforms, and OpenGL for other systems. SharpDX is an open-source library linking the DirectX 11 API to the platforms .Net; it allows you to use the Native DirectX features in a C# or VB.Net. You will find the various installation packages on the official website with either a complete SDK or simply an archive with binaries for all supported platforms.
If you want to know a little bit more about SharpDX, I recommend the book” Direct3D Rendering Cookbook by Justin Stenning to PACKT Publishing.
The Paradox engine was presented at the 2015 Game Developer Conference, which is how I discovered it.
The first session is an introduction to the game engine Paradox is introducing the new features and those still to come. The second session focuses on advanced rendering techniques: the API Post Effects and Scene Render Compositor. Finally, the third session presents the Paradox Shading Language.