6 Replies to “Dragon Bones”

  1. I think, it is better to implement a DragonBones (free) importer rather than leaning on Spine (paid) export,
    because personally I’ve tried some exports, but unfortunately most of them fail to load data, mainly images.
    Thanks for your attention.

    1. Hi!

      The implementation of Dragon Bones-specific JSON format is started, but it’s not that advanced.

      Using Spine JSON format to transfer data from Dragon Bones to CGE so far seemed more effective. It also means that we can support both Dragon Bones and Spine, focusing on one format. That is why I advise it on https://castle-engine.io/creating_data_dragon_bones.php .

      But this all can change!, depending on users’ needs 🙂 Do you have an example Dragon Bones file that is problematic to transfer to CGE (using both Dragon Bones JSON and Spine JSON formats, and their support in CGE)? Please submit it as engine issue on https://github.com/castle-engine/castle-engine/issues and I’ll investigate the best solution.

    2. Castle Game Engine has it’s own Spine runtime instead of relying on official Spine runtime so you don’t have to pay for any license fee in order to use Spine format in your game. Beside based on my past experience DragonBones (at least the editor) has some shady practices and forces users to login to save their work.

  2. As far as I know, official Spine runtimes are free and even open-source, https://github.com/EsotericSoftware/spine-runtimes . In case of Spine, you pay for Essential/Professional/Enterprise version, which is necessary to be able to export to Spine JSON, https://esotericsoftware.com/spine-purchase . This applies to Castle Game Engine as well as any other engine.

    I haven’t used Dragon Bones much, as I cannot comment about that.

    Anyway, the key point still stands — if you have some file that is difficult to export, please submit it to https://github.com/castle-engine/castle-engine/issues . We’ll investigate the best way:)

    1. @michalis: Yes official Spine runtimes are open source, but they are not free if you want to publish your games. You need to own a Spine license (at least Essential) in order to use the official runtime in your games, even if you make those animations in DragonBones and export to Spine format. In case of Castle Game Engine, since it didn’t use the official runtimes, the above restrictions do not apply to games made in Castle Game Engine.

      See this reply from Nate on Game Maker forum for details: https://forum.yoyogames.com/index.php?threads/free-skeletal-software.7793/page-2#post-70104

      1. @TrungLe: Ah, thank you — I didn’t know that the Spine license is also necessary to use Spine runtimes in Unity and other engines.

        Yes, Castle Game Engine has it’s own code — so you can use Dragon Bones with Castle Game Engine for free (even when going through Spine JSON format).

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