Best Tool to Develop a 3D Graphics, Browser-Based Game / Online Store

himejima

Hello everyone,

I am a UDK developer and I really love Unreal technology.
Recently, however, I was asked to develop a browser-based, 3D graphics application. Being browser-based means that I probably can't make it with UDK. So, I'd like to know which alternatives are available.

Basically, said application would consist on 3D replicas of buildings, which the user would then be able to walk around/visit (almost like a FPS game).

On top of that, the user should be able to purchase/order goods from within this "game"/simulation. I'm talking about real life goods, not in-game goods (basically, there would be an online store inside this small 3D world - think Amazon, but way smaller).

Mind you, this would be "singleplayer" - it isn't supposed to have multiplayer interaction.

What I'd like to know is, what are the best tools/software for this kind of project? Which game engine would be the most adequate and stable for this? Maybe Unity? Or even a reliable webgl game engine (if there is one)?

Also, I've never developed an online store... do you know any good resources/tutorials? What kind of available tools are there to "process" the money/cash flow? It kinda confuses me, I mean, working with credit cards and stuff like that... I heard PayPal's API is easy to use, is it? How about transactions made with smartphones, what tools are there for that?


Best Regards,
Himejima

passerby

By browser based, does it need to run in a browser with no addtianl add-ons, or is it ok for the unity plug in or similar tech to be used for the browser?

Since unity would fit the bill, the problem is that unity requires a browser plugin be installed.

Eric Chadwick

Unity would be a good place to start. They require the user to download their web player, so that's a bit of a barrier to entry, a big chance for people to turn away. But the tools there are great, very easy to adjust the interactivity.

For the web store side of things, not sure. You'll want to contract with a programmer who has web commerce backend experience. Especially since you want it to interact with your 3d scene, which means extra communication between the web stuff and the 3d stuff.

Xoliul

The unity installer is kind of the easiest, most lightweight installer there is. Exactly 1Mb to download and it installs in a few seconds, no browser restart needed.

Eric Chadwick

I worked at a company that developed a 3d game for Facebook using Unity, and they referred to metrics showing something like 50% of people never get to the game when they encounter an installer. Sorry I don't have a link to the research. Sounds about right though. We were looking at publishing to Flash from Unity, but that never panned out (support was poor at the time).

Flash has something like 90% installed base. But IIRC Apple devices don't run Flash. Also I remember hearing that Flash's 3d engine was limited to shader model 2, which is really limiting.

himejima

Hi,

Thank you all for your replies.

Unity seems to be the most appropriate tool, however the people who asked me for this project are very reluctant to use plugin-based technology, because, as Eric Chadwick pointed out, most visitors avoid installing stuff.

I'm now searching for a webgl solution, since is it doesn't require plugins.
This application is not supposed to be very "sophisticated" (not many animations, maybe even no animations at all; no physics, probably no characters, just a few 3D models of buildings, the user's view moving around, and the online store), so maybe there's already some webgl engine/framework which can handle this...

Eric Chadwick

You still do need physics, otherwise users will clip thru the buildings.

You could avoid using physics for the street, by setting a constant eye height, but then you couldn't have stairs nor ramps.

Are all doors going to be always open?

Also you'll need hit detection for click able items in the world.

Things to think about.

himejima

Yeah, you're right. But I think the doors can remain open; these buildings will be farms which produce traditional/gourmet goods like wine and sausages and cheese and ham and stuff like that. Most of the focus will probably be on either the outside or the large rooms where these products are processed, so the doors will probably be open all the time.

After testing some webgl examples, I realized it only works in the most recent browsers (namely Chrome - it didn't work in Firefox or IE), and even then it was extremely slow.

I think I'll take your advice and try Flash. Flare3D and Away3D seem very interesting.
Even if Apple doesn't run Flash, this is probably the solution that will reach the most people without having them install new plugins or browsers.

On top of that, using Flash will probably make it easier to communicate with the webpage's javascript, which in turn will make it easier to develop the web commerce part.