which one?

Community Forums/Developer Stations/which one?

Gord(Posted 2004) [#1]
i cannot afford Max or other high priced packages, but the freebie and cheaper 3d programs are below par. So what is a good medium priced 3d program that is aimed at game programmers as well as others?


ErikT(Posted 2004) [#2]
Medium priced, well..

Silo - this I love. Only basic(useless) texture mapping and no animation capability but for modelling it's perfect. Complement with Ultimate Unwrap and all you need is a decent anim tool. Unfortunately I don't know of any decent low-cost anim programs. Closest thing to low-cost would be Animation Master.

Silo - www.nevercenter.com
Ultimate Unwrap - www.unwrap3d.com
Animation Master - www.hash.com


jhocking(Posted 2004) [#3]
Obviously for all I know you've already looked at these tools and consider them below par, but my picks for low-cost game art creation:

GIMP (free, 2D image editing)
Wings3D (free, modeling)
Ultimate Unwrap ($40, texture mapping, file format conversion)
CharacterFX ($15, animation)

And a slew of other tools, but those are the core.


GfK(Posted 2004) [#4]
http://www.echthros.com/biglist/


jhocking(Posted 2004) [#5]
Cool list! Be nicer if there was a way to list everything in a tree view instead of broken up onto different pages, but great list nonetheless.


Perturbatio(Posted 2004) [#6]
A lot of people are using GameSpace (which has B3D support).

There is a free light version you can try first.


Rhyolite(Posted 2004) [#7]
Thats a nice list posted above. Was just checking it out and noticed that Milkshape does not list support for exporting B3D - which it does (or at least mine does)?? It does not 'import' B3D, so you also have to save/work in another format. Also note it does animation.


morduun(Posted 2004) [#8]
I really should get around to updating that list one of these years :} Glad it's of use; maybe this thread will get my butt in gear to weed out some of the old links and toss some new ones in.

FWIW, Milkshape 'supports' exporting the B3D format, but the exporter is =extremely= quirky. It does not export smoothing groups at all, and animations export with the bones' z-axis reversed (but not the geometry), making it impossible to export anything other than an XY-plane animation from Milkshape (read: totally useless). The workaround is to save as MS3D and then use Ultimate Unwrap to import the MS3D and export to B3D. Ultimate's exporter is superior in every way to Milkshape's, as are its texture mapping tools, so it's really a tool well worth the expense.


boomboom(Posted 2004) [#9]
www.softimage.com is only £299 and has had success with blitz


Bob3d(Posted 2004) [#10]
it went even lower?? I purchased for 495$ just a bit ago...

I think u spelt it wrong...;)


Yep, xsi is terrific , but the combo that jhocking says works very well and is easy to learn.

my vote for that one.


Bob3d(Posted 2004) [#11]
bout that list site...

nice but short list.

some comments...truespace 3 is not low cost, 3.2 is free since a while...

missing art rage and pixia in free 2d tools...

as the main I remeber..of course, there are way many more big ones...

hmm...Metasequoia missing...

anyway, is a nice list.

However, the combo mentioned by Jhocking lets u use free or very cheap tools that excel i n their areas, and I have used for long, is quite good.


AdrianT(Posted 2004) [#12]
If you can only spend about $500 I really don't think there is anything that comes close to XSI. Hope all the other big 3D developers follow their example.


Bob3d(Posted 2004) [#13]
Yup, XSI 4 Foundation is rather good...mainly i did not advice it more here as u still will need Ultimate unwrap to make the conversion *.x to b3d...Which in my case is a great way to output blitz3d engine animated characters ..


Bob3d(Posted 2004) [#14]
Indeed, is my favourite way...
:)


N(Posted 2004) [#15]
I've tried Silo and Wings 3D, and I think they're almost exactly the same.. they feel the same too.

Try'em both, they're equally awesome.


Bob3d(Posted 2004) [#16]
Indeed, I have better feeling, like all more inmediate (and that's key for me modelling my humans and creatures ) in Wings3d. And the price is better XD