Torque 3D, now open source, is getting a whole re work for the better.
They have some sort of raodmap for the version 4 in the next months, and it looks like they are heading in the right direction
http://forums.torque3d.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&p=7269#p7269
Quote: " Dropping D3D9, allowing us to modernize the GFX stuff for OpenGL and D3D11, which should help bring a lot of performance improvements and new features like compute shaders down the line
Full switchover to a linear color system, specifically utilizing sRGB textures internally, which are a) better performing because the hardware does the dirty work, and b) all colors to be very consistent and correct across platforms and tools/workflow.
PBR(Physically Based Rendering) for the primary material lighting model. This will allow materials to look much more realistic, and have far, far better integration with modern toolsets with less effort.
Updates to HDR and tonemapping, which will perform better, look better, and behave a lot more consistently.
Hardware PCF shadows, which will look nicer AND run faster
A drastically slimmed down gBuffer, which will help the engine run better on older hardware
A new base template that has all the cruft trimmed out, so it's easier to use, change and loads faster.
The new template will also heavily utilize the new Module/Assets system, as well as make the Entity/Components system the standard for game classes. The huge monolith classes like Shapebase will be deprecated, and down the line removed. This will MASSIVELY help cut back on iteration and testing time, allowing people to focus on gamedev rather than fussing.
Updating the stock Torque physics to hook through the Physics abstraction API, so game code is consistent regardless of if you use, Torque's physics, Bullet, or PhysX
Drastic improvements and updates to the tools and editor suite, including visual editing of shaders, state machines, more benchmarking tools, etc."
The development are handled by one guy only, but it is taking a great shape already, with physically based graphics, a visual shader editor, state machines , entities system it is heading to the right direction and the world editor is T3D with some improvements, it stays easy to use.
Entities System is becoming like Unity , simple to use, with material or physics editing on the fly
Refelction probes for Physically based rendering is coming
They added Recast and Detour for AI, so npc will not be stuck and fidn the best route anywhere inside buildings or outside
Without the planned features it laready has lot more tools and graphics features than GG , and it is as easy to use.
Unlike GG this is not a software to make games with drag and drop only, you need to know some coding to use it until they release game templates and the new entity system.
It could become another great open source 3D software for indies.
