I believe in C3. I have since day one (I've been here a long time).
I'm building materials into construct as shaders.
The one thing we're missing is access to mesh vertex normals. I.e. C3 can import a 3Dmodel and it has access to its mesh vertex normals (it's why it can render lowpoly models as smooth), but it doesn't expose the vertex normals to the shader.
I made a feature request, which you can upvote:
https://github.com/Scirra/Construct-feature-requests/issues/718
Ashley I was very very considerate of your time and implementation scope, I've been researching this for weeks before writing it. Before the 3Dmodel implementation! I was working with 3D models made out of the grid mesh, I even wrote a working 3D to C3 mesh tool.
Anyway.
Here is why users like you would be interested in this feature. You could have 3D objects that, with only the addition of a matcap texture,
could look like this:
Also cubemap reflections are possible. Gouraud shading without an actual light system (you could have a sprite that you move around in XYZ, and tell the shader it's a lightsource. The shader will do its magic). Making a material editor that exports materials in c3addon format is really trivial after that.
Would be way ahead of GDevelop. That's because C3 is a mature codebase and already supports shaders
From my understanding here, R469 of C3 appears to have the ability to load .gltf/.glb model files now! So along with this new addition... I am sure in the natural course of time that Ashley and the development team will gradually add more similar features over time as they ensure that everything works as it should be without any compromise to the core C3 engine and existing features which is very understandable to ensure the overall stability of the core engine product. ;)