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Dear CodeProject members,

I found my self in a dead-end situation where I have to re-develop my software using new tech. My non-game software has elements of 3D in a few views which roughly represents 30-40% of the software for mobile devices (iOS and Windows). We used ActionScript3 with Away3D engine and Flash/Adobe Air player to deploy the app. Unfortunately, Flash and Adobe Air as we know them are being phased out soon.

What I have tried:

My limited research indicates that Unity3D and or Unreal engines are a solid option but may be faced with a lot of challenges with the non-3D views/features which include pretty much all kinds of standard software views with lists, 2D graphics, graphs, tables, HTML views, PDF preview, web services, database and more. Not to mention that the App actively communicates with a dedicated Admin Panel via API for full App/User/Content management, securely.

Ideally, I would like to use the VisualStudio.NET IDE using C# to create and deploy my software on iOS and Windows and which will have an integrated 3D engine that I can call for the 3D views. Unfortunately, that's not possible at least to my knowledge.

To conclude, my big question is which technology do you think I should investigate further that will allow long term stability and scalability of my 2D/3D non-game software, taking into account available resources, manpower, ease of use, cybersecurity aspects, etc...

Your help is highly appreciated!

Thank you!
Posted
Updated 8-Oct-19 2:58am

Try them both.

However, having tried them both, I found Unity less "entangling" (regarding connectivity and licensing). So, try it first.

There's also more Unitty samples for c# / Visual Studio.

Unreal may be more polished, professional and complex.

Unity has "form controls". Not sure about Unreal. Probably. ALL games have lists, buttons, etc. And can't see why you can't call your own Windows / Forms out of a dll / class library.
 
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Koco Mojsov 1-Oct-19 6:31am    
Dear Gerry thank you for your comment. Can I kindly ask you to elaborate little more on:
"Unity has "form controls". Not sure about Unreal. Probably. ALL games have lists, buttons, etc. And can't see why you can't call your own Windows / Forms out of a dll / class library."

Thanks a ton!
Hi,

There is also urho[^] from Xamarin. Depending on the structure of your applcation it might be interesting because it allows you to use regular platform views also in your application.

At least that is what the documentations says. I haven't used it yet.
 
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Koco Mojsov 1-Oct-19 6:34am    
Hi Serge, thank you for your comment. I took a preliminary look at UrhoSharp but it seems that the 3D possibilities are quite limited for what I need... In any case thanks for your effort! Cheers!
Another option would be Godot 3d engine (https://godotengine.org/).

Also, my own OpenGL 3D graphics platform (NthDimension 3D HMI) shall be released soon. Designed originally for non-game applications but rather for scientific and engineering visualizations it supports trends, charts and a fully-blown 2d UI library as well ability to connect/communicate with industrial communication protocols (OPC, Modbus, Profibus, etc).
 
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