The best tool/language for programming 3D games that I have ever tried -- and I've tried many, many tools. Blitz3D beats Unity, Unreal, Leadwerks, S2, Tombstone/C4, and more that I can't even remember in one key area for me: productivity. I can just write some very simple commands out and get really great results very quickly.
Those other tools/frameworks are great for what they are able to do as well of course but right now my focus is on getting stuff to actually show on the screen as quickly as possible -- and Blitz3D lets me get whats in my head out on the screen the fastest of all of these.
I am using a version built with Visual Studio 2022 based on this repo: https://github.com/blitz-research/blitz3d_msvc2017
It was so easy to build, basically no steps were required other than 1) check it out 2) press build solution. You end up with Blitz3D.exe in a _release subfolder, ready to go. It's possible I already had any dependencies installed but if so they can't be very hard to find. Give it a try if you're remotely able to work with C/C++!
Thank you, Mark! I love Blitz3D!
p.s. Some useful tools:
I recommend using Blender 2.79 in order to be able to produce .3ds files that can be read by Blitz3D.
You can also use fragMOTION for model editing and exporting to DirectX's .x format -- which includes all textures in one file.
I have had good results from Material Maker 1.3 for stylized textures, which lend themselves nicely to the Blitz3D renderer.