While searching for this tool, I found that I wasn't alone. Game developer forums all over the internet are full of people either using or looking for such a tool: from aspiring indie game developers, to artists and designers, we all want pretty much the same thing.

What I found ran the gamut: from complete development environments intended for large corporations to tools clearly intended for the indie game developer. Which tool is "best" is not an easy question to answer, and the one you choose will be largely driven by your application, resources and budget. This article is the first in a series that will reveal what I learned during my search. Although your needs may differ from mine, I hope this information will help you decide which tool to "try first".

Deep Creator 2.2

Right Hemisphere ( http://www.righthemisphere.com/ ) markets “Deep Creator” as a true What You See Is What You Get (WYSIWYG) 3D editor capable of producing "real-time, interactive, 3D scenes and 3D games". That statement, as well as most things about this product, are greatly understated. Deep Creator was originally known as "Cosmos Creator" until its development and marketing were taken over by Right Hemisphere. Like many of the other tools I tried of this type, Deep Creator (DC) is built around Microsoft's DirectX 9 technology. This is a deceptively powerful tool, easy enough for me to create a simple stand alone interactive scene in minutes (without ever having to consult the documentation) yet powerful enough for almost any interactive content you may need. I was immediately impressed.

GUI and interface



Deep Creator's user interface consists of a main screen with what, at first glance, seems like a maze of icons on all four sides. Most of the icon symbology is fairly standard for 3D applications, but others I thought were cryptic and hard to read. I ran DC at a resolution of 1280x1024 on a 17" screen and it felt "cramped". At first I found the huge array of icons intimidating, but after a while I got used to it and moved along without any real problems. All the icons are in "trays" and the windows are all reconfigurable, so I could change the entire GUI if I really wanted to.

3D modeling and scene creation

Deep Creator's 3D modeling features are extensive. Besides having a long list of basic primitives (like spheres, cubes, planes, etc), it has some surprisingly unique primitives (like springs, rounded cylinders, gears, spiral stairs, etc.). Some of these are of questionable usefulness (like the "teapot"), but some I thought were very helpful. One thing I would have liked to see was a "half-dome" and "sky-box" for outdoor scenes. These are easy enough to create, but would have been a bit more useful than some that are already there.

Primitives are only the beginning of the tools available, and DC's editing tools are equally complete. A full range of snap settings, polygonal, vertex and other tools round out the modeling toolbox. I found DC's model creation tools to be nearly on par with many full 3D modeling applications I've used. Where DC differs from your typical 3D modeler is that it uses "alteration settings" to modify objects. Using these alteration settings an object can be interactively manipulated or modified in dozens of different ways. Just as easily as an alteration is added, it can also be modified, removed, or even more importantly, animated and made interactive. What I found especially powerful was that many of these settings and effects can be changed interactively while the project is playing. This is a very powerful tool that, once mastered, offers huge potential.

Importing 3D models and animations

Importing models into a game engine can sometimes be challenging. Fortunately, this was not my experience with Deep Creator. DC comes with built-in support for 3DS Max and Maya native files. So if you use either of these applications, importing your object and animation data into DC can be as simple as opening a file. DC also supports many other formats (including 3D Studio .3ds, Wavefront .obj, Lightwave .lwo, DirectX .x and many others). This comes as no surprise because Right Hemisphere is also the company behind "Deep Explorer" a 3D/2D file translation application. While using DC I was able to import both Max (.max) and Maya (.mb) files without any problems. I also tried static models in .3ds and .obj format and an animated .x file. Everything worked as it should.

Textures and shaders

Deep Creator also includes a good assortment of preset materials, textures and DirectX shaders. There are also editors for textures, mapping and .fx shaders so more can be created without leaving the program.

One feature I found in DC took me by surprise was how it handled bump and normal maps. My work flow with other engines was to first create a bump map, then convert to a normal map and then finally import it. In DC, I later learned, all these steps are done automatically. Any gray scale bump map brought in automatically converts to a normal map. That alone saved me a couple minutes per texture. DC's procedural texture editor and UV map editor are equally useful.

Animation, physics, particles and effects

Deep Creator supports skeletal animation (bones), path animation, mechanical and some basic physics (gravity and current). I experimented with DC's physics engine by creating a number of simple simulations: a car, a boat and a snowboarding simulator. The process was very straightforward: create the model, apply the physics through pull-down menus in the “animation” screen and you're done. Often my first attempt resulted in some unexpected results (like a boat that immediately flew off the screen), but after looking at some sample files and playing with the various settings, I soon got the effect I was looking for. Although it includes basic support for bones and character animation, it doesn't import motion capture data, something that might be important for some projects.

DC includes basic particles, projectiles and other effects. I would not call it's animation and built in effects extensive, but for the target market Right Hemisphere is now focusing on (training and simulation) the tools that are currently included are probably sufficient.

User interactivity and extensions

User interactivity and logic can be created without programming by setting various user triggers in the “animations” settings. Again, the process is straightforward, create a model, animate it and select what will trigger it. This level of intelligence may be sufficient for some projects like an architectural walk-through and simple games or simulators, but many applications will require more control. In order for the developer to tap into more of DC's power, LISP and C++ are supported. I haven't seen LISP in the game world before, but have seen it used as a scripting language in some CAD applications ( AutoCAD ). If your needs require it, you can also access the DC API through C++ and documentation for this is included in the help files.

What DC currently lacks is joystick/gamepad support and artificial intelligence (AI). A sample joystick.dll with source code is available on their website, but doesn't include any documentation. At present, if you want AI in Deep Creator you'll have to create it on your own.

Final delivery

When the project application is completed there are a number of delivery options:
- the entire application can be saved into a single .exe file,
- a compiled DC project file can be saved and played with an external player, or
- that same project file can be played through the Internet using DC's web plug-in.

DC project files can be very small. The size is largely effected by the amount of bitmaps and textures used, even still, I was surprised to learn that fairly complex projects compiled to files much less than 1 mb. When I tested a few sample projects and saved them to a stand-alone .exe files, the first thing I noticed was that my small projects grew by 5mb, or roughly the size of the DC runtime player. Load times of larger projects can be managed by breaking the project into smaller pieces, saving each as a separate project file and calling them from the main application. Overall, the process of creating the final deliverables was straightforward and didn't require an external compiler.

When the user clicks the final application's icon for the first time, the Right Hemisphere logo and status bar appear as it de-compresses temporary files to disk. I would have preferred to have a bit more flexibility in how this is displayed, including an option to turn off or customize both the logo and status bar, but currently this is not supported.

Documentation and tutorials

The documentation that comes with DC is limited to the help files, tutorials, and a decent assortment of example projects. For the simplest of projects, this might be enough, but in order to really understand the inner workings of DC and produce a program of real substance a complete, printed manual would be helpful. Unfortunately, this lack of printed documentation seems to be the norm for products of this type, and because of that I'd rate DC's documentation as average.

Support

After sales support for DC comes in the form of email and a support forum. When I first started using DC I went to their forum and got help within just a few hours. Not only did I get quick answers, but often a sample file or two to show me how it is done. The Deep Creator community may be small, but it appears to be very active and helpful. Overall, I'd rate their support as excellent.

Versions and pricing

Deep Creator is currently shipping version 2.2. Pricing is based on intended use and scope of project. The “Full” version is intended for commercial development, has no restrictions, includes network support and sells for $1,995.00. There is a “Home” version for $249.00 and a “Student” version for $50.00. Both are restricted to creating project files no larger than 10 MB, completed projects bear a watermark and are not intended for commercial production. There are no royalty fees associated with distributing titles created with the commercial version.

Conclusions

In my evaluation of Deep Creator I found it to be a very complete 3D modeling and animation program in it's own right, and as close to a non-programming solution to interactive 3D development as one is likely to find. I think joystick support, AI, a more robust physics engine, a printed manual and removing the logo from deliverables would make it even better. It's likely that many projects created in DC will need at least some LISP programming, and if you want to create a -real- game, sooner or later you'll need to access the API through C++. But for the aspiring indie developer or anyone else wanting to delve into interactive 3D without programing, Deep Creator is certainly worth a look.

About the author

Paul M. Unterweiser is an independent multimedia and interactive developer with nearly 20 years experience creating custom applications for business communications and training. His current projects include a number of 3D training simulators as well as contributing to several open source projects.

His website: http://www.pmudesign.com/

Copyright © 2006 Paul M. Unterweiser