Update: Just a day after the first alpha was released, Kojima has updated his homebrew 3D engine to incorporate a few new features.

Here's what he had to say:

"This version adds visualizers. Visualizers are a plugin based(I.e to create one you inherit the base visualizer class) and each surface has one.
A visualizer's job is to take and sync data, bind it's resources, then render.

Currently there is one visualizer, VL_VertexArray which as the name suggests adds vertex arrays to raptor, so you should see a big speed up from the last release.

The source is still engine/demo all in one, not separate yet. (I don't have a great ide so it's easier for me to keep it all in one atm)"

The updated engine can be downloaded below.

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Just the other day, we had the LTE studios people releasing their custom-made 3D engine for homebrew developers. And since I wasn't quite expecting it, I was pleasantly surprised.

And again, I wasn't expecting any other engines. At least not so soon! Well, it's nice to be surprised once in a while. And considering the fact that it's another 3D homebrew engine for the developers, it does sound great. This time, it's Kojima from the PS2DEV forums with the great accomplishment.

Here's what he had to say:

"Here's the first alpha of raptor 3d. It's a hybrid engine that is a port of MiniB3D by simon harris, and my own engine Trinity, both of which are open source PC GL engines. It's written against the latest svn version of PSPGL and as such requires you have it installed before using this. Currently the project is a single file containing a small demo and the engine, by alpha2 maybe 3, it will be organized into separate files for each class."

Like the other engine, this one also offers great features:

• SceneGraph with child/parent relationships.
• Multi-texture material (Only 1 one texture supported atm, need to do multi-pass stuff)
• Full suite of entity maniuplation functions, including position/rotate/lookat/scale etc.
• Matrix class.
• 2D Engine using pens for fast orthogonal 2d rendering of rects/lines 2d textures.
• 2D Gui, with windows, buttons, plugin styles and more, including full mouse cursor emulation via the nub, dpad and action buttons, sliders, canvas etc
• Full support for static b3d files made popular by the blitz3d Application.
• Font renderer.(Uses texture based fonts)
• Logger (Create text logs and log output via Logger->Log())
• And some other stuff.

The next version, alpha2 will most probably also add in boned animation and multi-pass texturing.

We've made a forum thread where all the interested developers can discuss. Kojima has also written a small coding guideline which we've pasted in our forums. Good luck with your homebrew games!

Download Link: [Raptor3D Alpha2 Opensource 3D Engine]
View: [Forum Discussion Thread]

If you're a neophyte in the world of game developing and there's nobody there to show you how it's done step by step, then this is your lucky day my friend. Your very own game may just be within reach.

drcd has released a small 2D Engine that will allow you to easily draw pictures, move them, change their color, opacity and many other things. But of course, for you to be able to learn, drcd will not spoon feed you. He actually ran into some sort of trouble incorporating sound in the engine. As an up and coming developer, do not look at this as a problem, but more of a challenge. Just think about it, if you'll be able to come up with a solution to this problem, then you sure have the makings of being the next drcd.

He coded it using pspgl in C++. It was written for Windows, Linux, and OpenAL for sound (but because he didn't find a good enough library, no sound at the moment).

Included in the download, below this article, is a walk-through on how this engine works. Download it and get cracking on your game. You never know, we might even feature your creation here at QJ.

Download: [EGE: Small 2D Engine]