ShiVa 1.5.2, THE INDY Game Development Tool

[goldzilla]

StoneTrip has released ShiVa version 1.5.2, with a lot of real new functionality.
ShiVa, a platform for 3D real time development, allows you to make all types of existing video games and much more. But ShiVa also allows you to make serious games applications and 3D real time applications for professional use such as in architecture, engineering, communication and marketing. The main difference with ShiVa resides in its innovating interface and ergonomics. ShiVa brings new concepts to game design, level design, resource management, creating materials, developing artificial intelligence and much more. The new version 1.5.2 of Shiva come with host of new features including; Static ambient occlusion , Object animation support, Movie rendering into Materials, HUD rendering into RenderMaps, Direct3D Renderer version 1 and many more.

the INDY version is at 199€, and the PLE version is free and unlimited !

take a look at www.stonetrip.com

[Sybixsus]

Hiya, we've discussed Shiva here before. Personally I think it looks great and could be a great Indie tool, were it not for the 500 file limit on the Indie version. In a real world situation, that limit means that for most Indies, the Professional Version is the Indie Version, and at £1800 Euros, it has some very stiff competition. That makes it more expensive than Unity, for example, which is cross-platform and has a number of commecial game releases under it's belt.

If the Indie license could be adjusted so that it relates more to the income of the developer than strict technical limitations, then I think it would be much more interesting. For example, S2 enginehas a license where the Indie version is licensed only for individuals making less than X per annum. Torque has something similar.

Just a thought.

[goldzilla]

Hello,

I understand you, but just to give some informations:
- all the demo viewable on the site www.stonetrip.com can be made with an INDY version

- you can create multiple archive and the limitation is per archive, so the limitation is not really a matter

- the price difference come from some added features inside the pro version such as:
o collaborative tools and synchronization workspace
o automatic management of level of details
o performance reporter

As you can see, all this features accelerate your production and is team development oriented, but there is nothing you can't do with the INDY version.

So, i'm not sure the indy version is really a technical limited version but only a size reduced project adapted for the indie developers.

But may be you are right, perhaps the price should depend on the financial capabilities of the developers, but for me the size of the team and of the project directly depends of the business scale of the developer, don't you?

More explicitly, if you can make an application with more than 500 files per stk, so you are not alone to work on (or you work on your game since years) and you have a team, and if you have a team, so you are not an independent...

I really would like to know why this file limit is so important for you ? and why don't you want the pro version if you know that the indy version will limit you?

Thank you to every one would answer :-)

[DaveGilbert]

An engine called Shiva... made by STONE trip.

Hmmmmm... (http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/shivah.html)

Perhaps this is a sign.

[Sybixsus]

- you can create multiple archive and the limitation is per archive, so the limitation is not really a matter

In that case, you can dismiss my comments entirely. When I read your product description, I initially believed that you could have multiple archives per project and I thought your engine was good value.

When we were discussing it before, it was suggested to me that you could not have multiple archives in one project. Indeed, one person said that he had spoken to you and confirmed that you could not have more than one archive in one project. To my shame, I just assumed that he was telling the truth.

Thank you for putting that misinformation right. Hopefully there will be a few more people now who - like me - believed what had been said, who will now seriously consider Shiva. For my part, that was my only doubt in what otherwise seems to be an excellent engine.

[goldzilla]

The multi archive export was include inside ShiVa since 1.5.1

So it's possible that some users believed it was not possible to make multiple archive per project, because it's a quite young features (3 month ago).

ShiVa is a new game dev kit, but it offers a lot of great innovations, and focus the indy developers (new workflow, export/publishing framework, business model opportunity, etc.).

I personally hope that every developer here try it (Personal Learning Edition is free www.stonetrip.com ) and give us a feedback.

Thank you.

[Musenik]

Personally, I require cross-platform support.

2c

[jankoM]

PC, MAC,PDA, Smartphone(WinCE)...

[MrPhil]

An engine called Shiva... made by STONE trip.

Hmmmmm... (http://www.wadjeteyegames.com/shivah.html)

Perhaps this is a sign.
Whoa... I just assumed it was the same guy!

[Pallav Nawani]

Indeed, one person said that he had spoken to you and confirmed that you could not have more than one archive in one project. To my shame, I just assumed that he was telling the truth.

My bad. I told what I knew, or rather, what I assumed I knew. I did not know that you could have multiple archives in Shiva, but initially I also assumed that to be that case. I was interested, but then I noted the 500 per archive limitation and I wondered whether it was per project.

I downloaded the PLE edition of Shiva, tried, it, and I noted that it indicated the number of resources used. But nowhere did it say that this was per archive, it simply said that this was the resource limitation. So I concluded that this was per project.

I then brought this up with the developer and had a discussion with him on devmaster.net. He just said that Indy edition was meant for hobbyists and such. I didn't think of clarifying the issue about multiple archives with the author at all. Had I thought of it, I would certainly have asked. Here is the link to the discussion:
http://www.devmaster.net/forums/showthread.php?t=10859&highlight=ShiVa

So, in a nutshell, there was no intent on spreading misinformation here.

[Sybixsus]

Hi Pallav,

I'm sorry if I was ambiguous. It wasn't you I was referring to. Someone actually emailed me on the subject, after seeing the discussion we had here. I'm sure there was no intent on his part either ( in case he's reading this too. ) The blame was all mine anyway, because I should have checked what he told me as he was obviously using an out of date version.

[goldzilla]

Hi everyone,

After a big thinking, StoneTrip decide to listen you and we just released the 1.5.3 version of ShiVa with a big and great features: it's unlimited!

there is no more 500 resources limitation by archive, it's finish.

So we decide to change the name of Indie to become Unlimited.

And more than an offer, there is a great promotion for the 100 first customers of the Unlimited, they will have... a PRO one.

Pay attention, there is only 100 license promotion for the PRO version at the Unlimited price (1799 down to 199 euro)

Don't you hope the Santa Claus will bring to you a game engine...