Suggest an engine?? Thread

So I am about ready to start over on my physics sim game, Physigons. This is what I want in the engine:

Directx 9 including direct sound, input etc. Open GL might be okay

A physics engine - Either bullet or physx. If its physx it needs to be recent enough that the end user doesen't need the physx runtime. I'd really like it if the engine could just be non-.NET c++ so I could just get the latest physx SDK from Nvidia.

Cheap or free - at most $50 for a commercial licence.

I am trying out Dark GDK (since it is largely the same as DB pro i was using before), and it does fit everything I want, but it's quite old and doesen't seem to be supported very well. I want something with active developers and a good community. I was looking at Unity which seems great except... No realtime shadows in the free version! Perhaps there is a way to do it with your own shader...?

If you guys could just go ahead and suggest an engine... that'd be great.

UDK

Torque 3D?

Blender.

he did say he wants c++ right?

none of those 3 (or his own suggestion of unity) fit that criteria

If I were to name an engine off the top of my head it would be irrlicht

Irrlicht.sourceforge.net

Has anyone checked out The Axis Game Factory on Kickstarter? It is an open world-building toolset that is built on Unity, and it allows anyone the ability to create their own games without having to program, animate or model. Anyone can download the free prototype on the Axis Game Factory website from the forum... if you like it, spread the word and sponsor it!

If you are talking physics and good DirectX go for the Source Engine, You have to own half-life 2 and mod it though, Because source engine games that are third-party are just mods

You dont need to to own half-life 2 in order to work with the source engine