I have been working in the 2D world for a long time from manual blitting in windows to SDL to Python (pygame, pyopengl) and a bunch in between. Needless to say I have been programming for a while. So a while ago I started to program in OpenGL via C++ on my Mac. I then got a little intricate with my work after a while (3D models with skeleton structure and terrain development). After a long time of tinkering, I stopped due to the heavy work just to yield a low level understanding of how OpenGL works. Still interested in Graphics and Game Development I went on a search for a stable game engine with some features to grow on.

• Licence Requirement: Anything other than GPL (LGPL will do)
• OS Requirement: Mac & Windows
• Shader: GLSL or CG (GLSL preferred due to experience)
• Models: Any model structure with rigging (bone) support & animation

I am looking at http://www.ogre3d.org/ currently and am starting to meddle around with some examples. However I am a little reluctant to spend a lot of time on it only to yield another dead end. So instead of falling down a spiraling black pit, I am posting my question to you guys to lead me in the right direction based on my requirements.

• How was your experience with the engine you recommend?
• Is it well documented?
• Does it have well documented examples?
• Any library requirements (Boost, libpng, etc)?