OGRE (Object-Oriented Graphics Rendering Engine) is a scene-oriented, flexible 3D engine written in C++ designed to make it easier and more intuitive for developers to produce applications utilising hardware-accelerated 3D graphics. The class library abstracts all the details of using the underlying system libraries like Direct3D and OpenGL and provides an interface based on world objects and other intuitive classes.
Great rendering engine!
Can do everything with it that you would ever want to do.
Can't wait for the stable release of 1.8
Ogre engine is the best engine, best open source project!
This engine is ONLY for experienced C++ developers.
Ogre is a very powerful rendering engine with capabilities on Par with many commercial engines with a flexibility that can even surpass commercial ones. However, by no means this is en easy engine to work with, it is one of the hardest to use and can give you headaches from day one.
The documentation is pretty good but it only scratches the surface with a piece of silk. Trying to move past the tutorials can become a nightmare if you don't know what you are doing. You have to add GUI, network, physics and sound libraries on your own if you want to make something that resembles a game. It is a LOT of work for one person that wants to make games on the side for extra income. To add result to injury, if you are not careful your came code can become unreadable even for yourself.
I recommend Ogre for indie development teams with vast C++ experience or a single developer that wants to do something other than games. If you are a beginner and want to work with C++ I suggest you start with Irrlicht since you have a better start and then come back to Ogre once you have more C++ experience
It's ok if you take them by their word and look at it as a render engine, but the website etc really makes you want to use it to make games. That's where the problems begin though. First of all to set it up and compile it is a major pain. Then you have to get addons to have any form of input from keyboard and mouse and then you have to get a 3rd party GUI.
Once you're past that, you try to get something going but most of the time, Ogre sort of fights back and you dont really know how to do what you want to achieve. The documentation is pretty much useless and the forums aren't much help either. Most of the time you either get no answer or just a "have a look at the code".
Ever since the main developer retired from the project there is not much progress. They are discussing future steps endlessly in the forum, form subcommittees to decide this or that and so on.
On top of it all, the Ogre concept is outdated and more aimed at a fixed function pipeline. Shader rendering leaves much to be desired and is slower than it has to be.
All in all, it's OK for a free engine, but I wouldnt really go with this anymore.
Excellent engine, if you're looking for stand-alone graphics middleware rather than a fully assembled game engine.
lol