Another note about the IGDN conference. I got to attend an interesting demo of the Genesis3D engine (and I got a cool T-shirt with 3D large-breasted hero-chicks on it), but it always fascinates me as to how demos never quite match their description. Their bones system is quite cool, but their demo of boned-actors didn't quite match up the hype. After a long description of how combining actions brings about unheard-of levels of realism, we were treated to a demo of a hero-chick running through a "post-apocalyptic nightmare of dark tunnels"(tm). The animation still seemed fairly choppy when switching from one form to another (running to crouching, for example). Of course, this kind of animation is still fairly new, and I'm sure we're gonna see a lot of advances in character realism. On the whole, the Genesis3D engine is quite cool, and I'd give it a long look if I was working on that kind of game.
On a similar note, I finally bought a cool 3D card for my development machine. I'd been limping along with the motherboard's 2MB SuperVGA for years. I got a bug to get something interesting for new development, so I headed over to my local CompUSA. I noticed that Real3D had an i740 card that didn't require AGP, and I was quite impressed with Intel's presentation on the i740, so I've once again strapped a pair of wings to my pig computer. I played a couple of demos (and finally got a chance to play ParkMan), and they were quite cool. Daytona looks OK, but RedLine Racer was way too slow. I figure that's got more to do with the computer than the game itself.
If I do decide to get into 3D games, I'll probably replace the card in the other computer. I'll probably put a Voodoo in it, so I can compare and contrast the results.
Now I've just gotta decide between the myriad of 3D software technologies available. Should I go with Direct3D, or something more portable like OpenGL? Whatever technology I choose is bound to be dropped within months :)
