Hi,
I have used jME in the past for personal and school projects. I actually created a distributed Maze game using jME which performed very well. What I've always liked about jME is it's simplistic interface on top of lwjgl. I hope that developers here understand the need to KEEP THINGS SIMPLE in terms of design. I know that it will be very hard seen as how there is no clear leader who will ultimately decide which design is the best but more of a community effort.
I have also had a lot of experience with Ogre3D from its early stages to it's current state. I found that as it grew it became a lot more convoluted, thus taking more time and effort to get it to work properly. That and having to separately compile and link plugins was an incredible task. Something for which I feel Java removes from the picture but yet many developers continually create complicated build procedures that only one or two core developers can use.
My major concern as a continued jME user is that developers will create unneeded complexities or plugins/additional projects which make it difficult to simply download jME and have everything you could possibly need right at your fingertips without downloading this package and then that one.
And following both renanse and vardamir's push toward OSGi or copying the eclipse open source project model, I must whole heartedly disagree with that choice. I believe that those avenues will only lead to undesired complexity. I think jME should only ever need LWJGL or JOGL and those dependencies should be provided.
With that said I think that having a package for jME that includes Physics, AI, Tools & Editors, tutorials and documentation, plugins for IDE's, etc… Such that it's all there would eliminate a world of hurt with version incompatibilities between projects, reduce redundant code, promote a single overall design, and ultimately make it EASIER to create professional games.
Just my two cents!
If anyone thinks my concerns of over nothing, then please let me know.
I think your fear is causeless.
jME isn't going to end like ogre!
First thing, our community works closer together than the Ogre3D community and the jME gurus are watching over us.
Second, yes we create seperate plugins and code, but you don't need them to run jME. They are just candies!^^
Last, but not least, many users share their code with other people, therefore everyone tries to make code as simple useable as possible.
Think about it this way:
To drive a car you don't need to know, how the engine work! All you need is a key and a wheel.
I'm still a young community member(in six days I have my first birthday), never the less I have a good feeling about jME. If someone asked me, why I had chose jME, I would answer: "Because we have the best community!"
DarkPhoenixX said:Thanks for the reassuring words, I hope you are correct and the community doesn't loose anything from these changes.
I think your fear is causeless.
jME isn't going to end like ogre!
First thing, our community works closer together than the Ogre3D community and the jME gurus are watching over us.
Second, yes we create seperate plugins and code, but you don't need them to run jME. They are just candies!^^
Last, but not least, many users share their code with other people, therefore everyone tries to make code as simple useable as possible.
Think about it this way:
To drive a car you don't need to know, how the engine work! All you need is a key and a wheel.
I'm still a young community member(in six days I have my first birthday), never the less I have a good feeling about jME. If someone asked me, why I had chose jME, I would answer: "Because we have the best community!"