Other options beside MAX for indie/marketplace dev.

Wolf1

I'm slowly translating into the indie market in the following months. I've been working in the industry as a 3D Artist the past few years, but for a bunch of reasons I realized it was not for me. Instead, I'm going back to school to learn programming and start my own independent studio. In the meantime, and while I'll be back to school, I plan to release content packs on the Unreal Store.

To this end, I need to gear up on my side. I already have most software I'll need (Photoshop/Substance/Unreal), but one is causing me several headaches.

3DS Max. It's the software I've been using since I've been in school several years ago and that I've also grew used to in the industry. The problem is that Autodesk got rid of their perpetual license, which mean that I no longer have the choice to spend 3k and hold on to it until I feel the need to upgrade. This mean that if I go this route, I need to go for a 3k every three years - a sum I don't know if I'll be able to afford since I'm going back to school.

I'm not sure if Blender is a real contender to replace the software - can I possibly do everything I used to in term of modelling/unwrapping for marketplace assets, but also for a full fledged game further down the line? Could it be a temporary solution until I manage a steady profit to afford 3DS MAX? What's your experience with it?

If you decided to stick with MAX, what led to this decision? How did you manage to refund its high cost?

Thanks for the feedback, and I'm really sorry if this is the wrong place to post. I've been looking around and couldn't find a better sub-forum for this.

Dataday

Blender is a full contender for that kind of work, it can be a bit outputting though since its "different" and unique. Its heavily reliant on 3rd party plugins and development, some which can easily lose their support once the developer moves on or forgets it. Its somewhat restricted by its GPL license. Its free though, no complaints.

There is also Modo which has perpetual licenses and no penalty for not upgrading every year. You can upgrade whenever you want and at one low price, it doesnt build up over time. Also has substance support and a Unity/Unreal shaders as well as a plugin for Unreal/Unity itself. (see: Modo Geeks TV on youtube for some current videos)
Even cheaper is Modo Indie, at $9 a month or like $299 perpetual. The monthly is the better deal. Its about the same as Modo Pro but with a 100k poly export limit and no plugin support (outside of whats offered through steam, like substance).

I'd say those are your two best bets for Indie. Both have Max/Maya keymaps/navigation I believe so the adoption might be minimal depending on expectation.

Steppenwolf

Just give Blender a try. I learned it recently after modeling with 3ds max for years. It's not hard to get into coming from Max.
Imo it's a competent package, at least for game assets. Don't know how it competes in other disciplines. The times that people have reason to look down onto it are over if you ask me. You will find some things in the workflow and tools that are actualy better then max or not even existing there, such as sculpting.
Modo 10 of course also looks like a good choice for Unreal development but costs money and personaly i found it a lot harder to get used to coming from max.

Dataday

Steppenwolf said:

Modo 10 of course also looks like a good choice for Unreal development but costs money and personaly i found it a lot harder to get used to coming from max.

Yeah its a lot closer to Maya (workflow wise), which might be the reason for the initial hurdle. Direct, and destructive in the modeling process (though some of that is going to change with the next feature update).

Wolf1

Thanks to the both of you. I'll definitely give Blender a try - after all, it's free, so I'm not losing anything trying it. I believe the software is well documented, right? On their website, they seemed to have a certain amount of tutorials. Did you guys use another resource for it?

I didn't even consider modo before hearing they had an indie version. I'll take a look at it - I'm not sure which way I'll go, but they both seems like good software to use. Should Max still be considered an option down the line or should I be self-sufficient with blender/modo?

Steppenwolf

Wolf1 said:

Thanks to the both of you. I'll definitely give Blender a try - after all, it's free, so I'm not losing anything trying it. I believe the software is well documented, right? On their website, they seemed to have a certain amount of tutorials. Did you guys use another resource for it?

I used the "Blender Noob to Pro" wiki to get started. https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Blender_3D:_Noob_to_Pro
Then spent a day or two to configure shortcuts and viewport to my liking.
Other then that thers' plenty of tutorials and info on youtube/google that you can look up as you go. Also do some research about the addons that are available. Ther's some good ones around that might be useful to you.
 

Dataday

Wolf1 said:

Thanks to the both of you. I'll definitely give Blender a try - after all, it's free, so I'm not losing anything trying it. I believe the software is well documented, right? On their website, they seemed to have a certain amount of tutorials. Did you guys use another resource for it?

I didn't even consider modo before hearing they had an indie version. I'll take a look at it - I'm not sure which way I'll go, but they both seems like good software to use. Should Max still be considered an option down the line or should I be self-sufficient with blender/modo?

Exactly, nothing to lose with Blender other than your time. Modo has a free 30 day trial you can use via their main website as well, experience wont be any different from Indie ( https://www.thefoundry.co.uk/products/modo/real-time-content1/ )
For Blender documentation, the official stuff is pretty bad... but there are so many users creating tutorials and writing down information that you can consider it pretty well off documentation wise. Some good stuff on CG-Cookie too ( https://cgcookie.com/learn-blender/ ).

If you do decide to give Modo a whirl as well, they have a set of videos helping users from other applications make the switch. Here is the one for Max to Modo. https://vimeo.com/album/3106874
And also a recent set of game art webinars with some of the folk in the Industry.
http://community.thefoundry.co.uk/discussion/topic.aspx?f=3&t=117878

But yeah, you can replace Max entirely with either of these. It will take a bit of adjustment, sometimes a different approach but both extremely capable.

Tidal Blast said:

However, if you want to go with Modo it's best to stick with Nvidia GPUs. Radeon GPUs really don't work well with Modo.

Blender has some issues with AMD cards as well. As we discussed elsewhere, theres just a general issue with the drivers associated with AMD.  You can read about some of it here: http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?254521-A-good-news-for-AMD-ATI-Graphic-cards-owners/page134

Basically same ol same ol, driver issues!

Bartalon

I'm surprised no one has mentioned Maya LT as an option yet.  It's $30 a month for a license (less if you get longer plans), and if you have even the smallest amount of quality assets on a digital store, your sales should cover this easily.  It has certainly been dumbed down compared to full-featured Maya (no dynamics, mental ray, etc.) but for indie game dev and asset store work it's definitely capable.  We used it exclusively at my previous studio and did not run into any show-stopping limitations.

http://www.autodesk.com/products/maya-lt/subscribe