I need one of the procedural generators: DunGen or Dungeon Architect for one educational project for schools. I need more info about pros and cons. The main project should be created within 3 weeks next month and I have to decide which one. Dungeon Architect seems to be more sophisticated but after reading reviews there are more issues. DunGen is more frequently updated and one of the first great generators on Unity market.
There is another awesome asset Dungeon Master but in my opinion it is not so mature as the both competitors. If someone had experiences with both please write your opinions, comparisons etc.
I have experience with both, as well as Dungeon Master and Procedural Dungeon Toolkit.
I haven’t had any problems with DunGen or Dungeon Architect. They have comparable features. However, they use different algorithms, so the types of dungeons they generate will be different.
DunGen works like Legos. It snaps together different pieces that can be different sizes. It tries to make a single main path from a start room to an end room. It’s possible for this step to fail. You need to design your pieces to make it unlikely that they’ll end up in some kind of configuration that can’t complete the main path. After DunGen generates the main path, it generates side branches. Dungeons can sometimes feel a little linear, but it’s mostly up to how you design your pieces. Supporting different size pieces is a nice feature. You can build some dramatic set pieces without worrying about making them the same size as all of the others. For organic, uneven environments, I think it produces nicer results than Dungeon Architect.
Dungeon Architect uses a cell-based algorithm. It divides the area into cells, and then divides cells into rooms by adding walls. For example, it could encase a 3x3 section of cells into a single 9-square-cell room. It continues to fill out the cells until the area is filled out. Unlike DunGen, this algorithm can’t fail, and it has a new experimental option that is extremely fast. It supports terrains, but I think it works best for more organized environments such as building architecture (e.g., the inside of a dungeon or prison).
That’s all just my opinion of course. I like both.
My first choice will be DunGen because of usability, more assets integrations, better support and finally more satisfied users and after this Dungeon Master seems to be more innovative in some ways.
I am using Dungeon Master for my 3d game. My dungeon isnt really 3d, it is something like a topdown on the xz plane. A 2d dungeon would be on the xy plane so it works the same way.
I was able to setup a good working dungeon with Dungeon Master in a bit more than 1 day. The day i purchased it i read like 2 hours the HowTo before going to bed. The next day i tried to make a dungeon and actually it worked out fast and good! I dont have expericence with DunGen and Dungeon Architect but I am very happy with Dungeon Master so i can recommend it.
The only thing that should be perhaps considered: All rooms are placed in a grid with a specific cell size for example 20x15. If you want a smaller room for example 10x10 you have to place it at the border of a cell or actually make something like a corridor to connect to the next room.
I haven’t used either in a while. I believe the general algorithms they use are still the same, so that analysis should still hold. There may be other options on the Asset Store now, too.
NO dungeon architect is clearly now tehsuperior product, and has 2 way to create dungeon, they were never the same algorithm either, Architect is a grid and tile based solution, Dungen is a node base mesh that spawn room and backtrack when there is overlap.
Sorry for the confusion, I meant that Dungen still uses the same node-based algorithm as when this was discussed a few years ago, and Dungeon Architect still uses the same tile/grid-based algorithm as before, too. (Although I’m sure the assets have been continually improved since then, too.)
Dungeon Architect also now has a node-based algorithm option using their Graph Grammer system, and it works pretty well from when I last used it several months ago.