I spent the week before last creating a demo program in Python, to see what is possible there. You can see the result here:
vassalengine.org/~uckelman/pytest.tar.bz2
vassalengine.org/~uckelman/p … indows.zip
To run the non-Windows version, you need Python, pygame, PyOpenGL, and numpy installed. For the Windows version, everything is supposed to be included, but I can’t test it because OpenGL doesn’t work on the Windows XP virtual machine where I built the package. In either case, the way to run the demo is from the command line.
For Windows: threedee.exe map.png
Everywhere else: threedee.py map.png
I was surprised by how little code it took to get this working. It’s only 601 lines, including a bunch of dead code I could remove. Please give this a try, and let me know how it works for you.
On a related note, were we to use Python, how many of us already know it? Are willing to learn it? Similarly, were we to use C++, how many of us already know it? Are willing to learn it?