Panda3D on OS X

Over New Year's I had a renewed interest in game programming. Up till now, I haven't been able to settle on a development platform the way that I have done with GUI coding and wxPython. After reevaluating PyGame, Soya3D, Python-Ogre and some other Python bindings such as the ones for Crystal Space, I've decided to give Panda3D a go.

One big factor for me is ease of development set up on all three of my target platforms - Windows, Linux, and Mac. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a high level, Pythonic game programming package that's nicely packaged for all three, though PyGame comes close. Where PyGame falls short for me is ease of development: while Python is a semantically easy to learn language, PyGame is a lot like working directly with SDL in C conceptually, minus worries over memory management.

Panda3D looks professional, complete, and is becoming more portable. It is backed by Disney and Carnegie Mellon University, and it sees real-world usage in Disney's MMORPG Toontown. It includes 3D rendering, input handling, networking handling, and audio handling. There are easy to install packages for Linux and Windows, and recently there has been a big push for a solid Mac port.

Here's where things got fun - I have only seen one reasonably complete Mac package with Panda on the web, despite many sets of instructions floating around on how to compile the library. Today I grabbed the Mac package and figured out how to disassemble it, placing its parts in my Mac 10.5 Leopard system so that I could start playing with Panda3D on my Mac. Check out the full forum post here.