Looking for stable and cheap 3D polygon modeling software.

D252

Like i said in title i looking 3D software for modeling for games (i do not looking sculpting software like Zbrush/3Dcoat)
1. Cinema 4D / Max / Maya = TO EXPENSIVE
2. MODO / MODO INDIE (Modo indie still w8 for service pack...)
- Crashed a lot;
- Have problem with mesh more than 1 milion polygons... (lag spikes) 
- Unclear smothing groups techniques (how to control edges smothing lol); 
3. Sketchup = Missing polygon modeling / UV via plugin / no smothing groups. No as main modeling software! just for prototyping!
4. Softimage = dead
5. Silo = Abadonware
6. Houdini = Ok but not as main modeling package!

Is Blender is the only option?!

Hito

Blender is your only real option... there's Wings3D; but not full featured like Blender AFAIK.

D252

Hito said:

Blender is your only real option... there's Wings3D; but not full featured like Blender AFAIK.

If I knew that MODO / MODO INDIE  has such problems that I never would have bought it !!! ... Well I have to swallow the lost of nearly $ 300

F U C K xD

JedTheKrampus

You could do most of your poly modeling in Zbrush and just use Blender for UVs and stuff that needs quick and easy booleans or snapping  

D252

JedTheKrampus said:

You could do most of your poly modeling in Zbrush and just use Blender for UVs and stuff that needs quick and easy booleans or snapping  

Yep probably this is the only alternative....

If i think that i lost ~300$ on Modo indie now i will have almost half money for zbrush ;_;

Fuiosg

Give into Blender, it will love you back.

PolyHertz

For game art, there are really only four options: Max, Maya, Modo, and Blender.
Everything else is either abandoned or not really designed for game artists.

D252

Thanks for answer folks!

JedTheKrampus

It's a very capable program all in all, and I find that it deals with the really screwy and questionable intermediate topology that my modeling methods tend to generate the best, whereas Maya tends to just crash a lot at me and Modo tends to try to clean up the mesh but doesn't really get everything that it should. Bmesh is a really fantastic bit of technology.

Blond

It seems like the guy is really reluctant to try Blender...

cookedpeanut

Don't know why... Blender is becoming a very capable program, the OP sounds like he has a thing against it. Enlighten us, there must be a reason..?

AtticusMars

Probably because Blender's default key map is ass and doesn't follow industry (or even general software UI) convention. That was my biggest apprehension to it. But personally I greatly overestimated how hard it would be to switch, with rRMB and rSelection it was very easy.

Hito

You should ask yourself what you are using the software for... Freelance work? or Personal use: building portfolio, game jams, etc, anything that doesn't generate income...

If nothing is generating income, you can use free student license with almost any Autodesk products

PolyHertz

AtticusMars said:

Blender's default key map is ass and doesn't follow industry (or even general software UI) convention.

Yep, it's garbage. I think the default setup for basic manipulation (ie. grab/rotate/scale) is good, but everything else in the keymap should have been redone long ago.

D252

Hito said:

If nothing is generating income, you can use free student license with almost any Autodesk products

And pay big money after 3 years ?! or if i want use Autodesk products as freelancer no thanks....

Must take a breath and dive into blender

D252

PolyHertz said:

AtticusMars said:

Blender's default key map is ass and doesn't follow industry (or even general software UI) convention.

Yep, it's garbage. I think the default setup for basic manipulation (ie. grab/rotate/scale) is good, but everything else in the keymap should have been redone long ago.

You can easly make shorcuts without going to setting if i remember RMB or for example bevel and make shorcuts or something like that and you press button whit one you can sign

pigart

Jokes on you, I started 3D with Blender a long time ago so I think the ui/default keymap is great.

D252

pigart said:

Jokes on you.

Please die xD

Hito

D252 said:

Hito said:

If nothing is generating income, you can use free student license with almost any Autodesk products

And pay big money after 3 years ?! or if i want use Autodesk products as freelancer no thanks....

Must take a breath and dive into blender

not really; a lot can happen in 3 years. You'll most likely get another student license; or pay only for the months that  you're freelancing.

PolyHertz

D252 said:

You can easly make shorcuts without going to setting if i remember RMB or for example bevel and make shorcuts or something like that and you press button whit one you can sign

I think you missed the point.
No one customizes a keymap until they're at least somewhat used to the default, or at least they shouldn't as most tutorials will be based around the default. It's a barrier to entry while learning the software.

D252

PolyHertz said:

D252 said:

You can easly make shorcuts without going to setting if i remember RMB or for example bevel and make shorcuts or something like that and you press button whit one you can sign

I think you missed the point.
No one customizes a keymap until they're at least somewhat used to the default, or at least they shouldn't as most tutorials will be based around the default. It's a barrier to entry while learning the software.

You are right

Zack Maxwell

Even if you are used to the key mapping, doesn't that make it feel super awkward when you use ANYTHING else?

Blond

Started with Maya, pursued with 3DSMAX and XSI, learnt Blender last. I hated it at first because I thought it was too different from the other one. Then I gave it the same dedication as I gave to the others..
Result: I'm faster at modelling with it than the others. It's all personal really. I discovered I'm much faster with hot keys than marking menus.

Though, I may agree it has its quirkiness in some aspects of it, the package is at least stable and solid, unlike Maya which crashes every hour, being upset that your making poly changes without deleting your history.

Modifier workflow­> history stack (or whatever it it in Maya)...

Sincerely, on pure modeling standpoint, Blender (with the right add on activated) is as equal as Maya if not even better in some areas. Max is still at the top though. 

However, for rigging, animation and everything else, Blender lacks sadly.


OP, go forth with Blender, my biggest concern for Modeling is that it doesnt feature extensive control for Normal editting (but it's coming! ).

D252

Blond said:

Started with Maya, pursued with 3DSMAX and XSI, learnt Blender last. I hated it at first because I thought it was too different from the other one. Then I gave it the same dedication as I gave to the others..
Result: I'm faster at modelling with it than the others. It's all personal really. I discovered I'm much faster with hot keys than marking menus.

Though, I may agree it has its quirkiness in some aspects of it, the package is at least stable and solid, unlike Maya which crashes every hour, being upset that your making poly changes without deleting your history.

Modifier workflow­> history stack (or whatever it it in Maya)...

Sincerely, on pure modeling standpoint, Blender (with the right add on activated) is as equal as Maya if not even better in some areas. Max is still at the top though. 

However, for rigging, animation and everything else, Blender lacks sadly.


OP, go forth with Blender, my biggest concern for Modeling is that it doesnt feature extensive control for Normal editting (but it's coming! ).

I have experience with Blender but i totaly forgot his workflow...

My experence with 3D is a bit strange becouse i liked to jump betwen packages... I start from Cinema 4D r14 probably, next was 3ds max (i do not like him at first), after 1-2 mouths i go to Maya (learned something) back to Cinema and again to Max tried MODO (in my opinion one of the best modeling software but in my case i must forgot about it (read first post). again somewhere max and modo somewhere in the background was Blender and  now probably again Blender xD.

After this travel i know a few think:
- Be master of one/two software 
- Autodesk software are not best and overpriced!
- If you have experience with difrent software try think What you exactly need it and things that offer a different program really will use and that will increase the speed of your " workflow " . If you do not forget about it as soon as possible . In my case, so it was with CINEMA 4D . This may be a good software but as far as modeling and rather use it for gamedev is not attractive . More like someone would want to play in Mograph / motion design or whatever it is called there. 

It could be further write much but I guess everyone has their own any thoughts

garcellano

Yeah, I'd look into Blender. I've used mainly Maya and 3ds Max, but used Blender way way back. It works fine for what it does.

Stranger

With Modo the smoothing is based on the materiel. The lag, something with your hardware. The crashes, sadly cant be fixed. 

Blender is your only option here other then autodesk's package. 

D252

Stranger said:

With Modo the smoothing is based on the materiel. The lag, something with your hardware. The crashes, sadly cant be fixed. 

Blender is your only option here other then autodesk's package. 

Yes based by material but how i can make eges smooth....

Justin Meisse

cookedpeanut said:

Don't know why... Blender is becoming a very capable program, the OP sounds like he has a thing against it. Enlighten us, there must be a reason..?

I've tried to get Blender for years and years while I've quickly incorporated other programs like Zbrush, Substance Designer & Painter, 3DCoat, etc.. into my workflow.  It's missing the easy beginner functionality, the ability to make something simple without knowing all the hotkeys.

I'm actually downloading it right now, I try it out every year or so, likewise with Linux (there's a raspberry pi sitting next to me right now).

Zack Maxwell

Stranger said:

With Modo the smoothing is based on the materiel. The lag, something with your hardware. The crashes, sadly cant be fixed. 

Blender is your only option here other then autodesk's package. 

Modo Is definitely very inefficient at handling large numbers of polygons. I've loaded the same model into Modo, Blender and Maya, and Modo had by far the worst performance. I think it was around 1mil polys, and Modo was nearly unusable with it. Maya handled it the best of the 3.
Working with high-poly models was always a struggle for me in Modo, and I have a pretty beastly computer.

Panupat

Can't you ask for money back for your MODO? Guess it's a bit late for such comment but you chould do subscription plan which would be $10 a month and easy to cancel via Steam. 801 was way way way more stable, that could have been a good choice.

iadagraca

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDeKy2gHV7k

This might help learn blender better, pie menus

RaptorCWS

did you look into maya lt? its $240 a year

Bek

Grimwolf said:

Modo Is definitely very inefficient at handling large numbers of polygons. I've loaded the same model into Modo, Blender and Maya, and Modo had by far the worst performance. I think it was around 1mil polys, and Modo was nearly unusable with it. Maya handled it the best of the 3.
Working with high-poly models was always a struggle for me in Modo, and I have a pretty beastly computer.

That does not mirror my experience in modo. I've a 2mil poly scene open right now with a solid ~63 fps when zoomed out. For memory I get around 15-30 fps with a 13mil scene I've got. The only problems I've had with high geo stuff is exporting; sometimes I have to export half my items to once to avoid it crashing (though that's also using an export script that does other stuff too).

D252

Bek said:

Grimwolf said:

Modo Is definitely very inefficient at handling large numbers of polygons. I've loaded the same model into Modo, Blender and Maya, and Modo had by far the worst performance. I think it was around 1mil polys, and Modo was nearly unusable with it. Maya handled it the best of the 3.
Working with high-poly models was always a struggle for me in Modo, and I have a pretty beastly computer.

That does not mirror my experience in modo. I've a 2mil poly scene open right now with a solid ~63 fps when zoomed out. For memory I get around 15-30 fps with a 13mil scene I've got. The only problems I've had with high geo stuff is exporting; sometimes I have to export half my items to once to avoid it crashing (though that's also using an export script that does other stuff too).

Turn on snaping to vertex and lets lags begin.

Bek

Snapping to a incredibly dense mesh is useless until you zoom in anyway, which should solve your fps problem. Its literally never been a problem for me.

PolyHertz

Modo is a bit strange when it comes to performance, especially with Advanced GL viewport mode. For instance, I used Modo before with both a GTX 660 and 650 (both were desktop versions and had 2gb vram). The 660 had no problems, but the 650 could barely handle even the simplest of scenes.

Stranger

Just pushed to 41 Mil polys in modo, it droped down to about 30 - 45 fps. To be fair it was one object. 

GTX 970 - i7 4790.

D252

Stranger said:

Just pushed to 41 Mil polys in modo, it droped down to about 30 - 45 fps. To be fair it was one object. 

GTX 970 - i7 4970.

GTX 650
i5 3470.
16 GB RAM
When i import mesh with milion or more MODO crashed or almost crashed or have lag spikes as hell
Drivers (all up to date by Driver booster) and registry is fine also checked by CCleaner

Zack Maxwell

I'm using a GTX 780 and i7-4790k.

Stranger

D252 said:

Stranger said:

Just pushed to 41 Mil polys in modo, it droped down to about 30 - 45 fps. To be fair it was one object. 

GTX 970 - i7 4970.

GTX 650
i5 3470.
16 GB RAM
When i import mesh with milion or more MODO crashed or almost crashed or have lag spikes as hell
Drivers (all up to date by Driver booster) and registry is fine also checked by CCleaner

No idea  

SonicBlue

Actually, Cinema 4D is available in various flavours, Prime and BodyPaint 3D are the cheaper one, according to Amazon.com they are both at $ 945.25.

BodyPaint 3D includes Cinema 4D Prime and the sculpting tools, which is otherwise only available in the Studio version, so it's the most valuable version.

Anyway, I would give Blender a try if you are on a strict budget.

Bek

I've run modo on AMD exclusively without problems (4870, 7870, r9 380). But I wouldn't be surprised if other certain hardware had issues. That's all the data I can contribute anyway.

Panupat

Great to have so many Modo assuring posts lol. Good for us Modo user, probably look weird for others xD