Shader Generation
Many advanced rendering techniques now fully automatic:
- Special Maps: Normal Map, Gloss Map, Glow Map
- HDR Rendering: Tone Mapping, Bloom Filter
- Cel Shading: Threshold Lighting, Inking
- More to come
Performance Monitoring
Powerful performance monitoring and optimization tools:
- Identifies bottlenecks, both CPU and GPU
- CPU time use decomposed into more than 250 categories
- Counts meshes, polygons, textures, transforms, state changes, etc
- Allows user-defined CPU-usage categories
- Tools for batching and state-change minimization
- Tools to merge textures and minimize texture switches
Full Python Integration
Automatically-generated wrappers expose full functionality of the engine.
- Highly optimized: all core functionality in C++
- Thoroughly-tested: two commercial MMOs in Python
- Panda3D structures garbage collected when using Python
- Manual and sample programs use Python
Just Works, Right out of the Box
No-hassle install:
- Convenient installer packages for Windows, Mac OSX and Linux
- Only one external dependency: working graphics driver
- Sample programs run right out of Start Menu
- No compilation step needed
Exposes Full Power of Graphics API
Modern OpenGL/DirectX features exposed directly to Panda3D user:
- High-level shader language: Cg
- Powerful interface between shaders and engine
- Support for render-to-texture
- Use of depth/shadow/stencil textures
Debugging Tools
Heavy emphasis on error tolerance and debuggable code:
- Extreme resistance to crashing, even when errors are made
- More than 5000 assertion-checks to catch errors early
- Reference-counted data structures minimize memory leaks
- Many tools to examine internal state (one shown here)
Mature, Complete System
Mature system used to deliver several commercial games. Contains everything you need, not just the "sexy" stuff:
- Converters for older file formats
- Font file importers
- Tool to package games into redistributables
- Means to pack art assets into encrypted bundles
- Lots of other boring but essential stuff
