I don't say that its the best software 3D , but
I'm really satisfied with CINEMA 4D 9 & BODY PAINT.
(easy to use , great result and not so expensive !) http://www.maxon.net/
@MightyPea: I also have Blender installed on my computer, but it has a serious lack of export tools. If I was going to animate a model in Blender, I wouldn't know how to export it to any of the following games: Quake 3, Unreal Tournament and Unreal Tournament 2004.
If you know any good plug-ins I'm all ears. But right now, Blender seems useless to me, because it doesn't seem to be able to export to any of the formats I'm interested in.
Milkshape does and supports lots of other formats aswell. That's why I recommended it. Besides, Milkshape is still pretty cheap.
Id have to say, something free for your first one, and Blender does a great job hands down. I've used it before the company was shutdown and stuff so I've been using it for years its so nice. Free fast small and good!
If I were to animate a model for UT2004 in Milkshape I wouldn't need to ask myself the question of how to export, there's no room for such thoughts in a mental institution.
But right now, Blender seems useless to me, because it doesn't seem to be able to export to any of the formats I'm interested in.
Get the format specs and write your own exporter. It isn't that hard as long as the specs aren't as Microsoft Visual C++ specific (IOW, if you're using anything else you are SOL) as the Unreal ones.
Besides, it has better exporting support for md5 than Milkshape so expect Blender to take over in that area soon.
Try the testing builds from the forum, the current versions have a nice modifier stack that'll allow useful features like mirroring without using instances (i.e. no normal issues or unwelded center seam). Try getting used to it, once the knife, loop cut and select linked make it into your workflow you'll never want to use Milkshape again. Did I mention the IK system, various IPO types (blending between keyframes and animating other attributes), weight paint, auto-rigging and unwrapping (the rigging isn't perfect but works as a decent base for weight painting), edge selection mode, radiosity simulation (useful for texture bases), game engine (useful for seeing the model with overbrighting, a better representation of the final result than MS3d's viewport), soft selection, paint selection, scale along normals, extrude edge, constraints for bones, ...?
Tes: i wish it came with more exporters out of the box, but there are a shitload of export-plugins for it, and i let someone tell me that it's apparantly very easy to write your own. I don't known, i'm just passing on information here, heh.
It is a pity though, that the md3 Quake3 exporter for Blender is still not really functional, but with the release of the Quake3 source code this is going to change quickly I guess (or the Quake3 source code is going to be changed quickly to accept md5 )
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Get the format specs and write your own exporter. It isn't that hard as long as the specs aren't as Microsoft Visual C++ specific (IOW, if you're using anything else you are SOL) as the Unreal ones.
[/ QUOTE ]
Hmmm yeah, that's a great idea, but if I was capable of doing that, I would already done so and I would have shared my plug-ins with the world! I would be so proud. My programming knowledge doesn't go much further than HTML, CSS and two very basic PHP scripts I wrote. I don't think I will be able to learn python anytime soon.
I will check out the testing builds on the forum though. Maybe I can find some experimental exporters aswell. I'm sure I will find some use for Blender in the future.
@MightyPea: There are exporters, but a lot of them are not really complete - The exporters that are complete are useally the exporters that export to a format I have not much use for.
It's great to hear though, that md5 is supported. However, I don't have Doom 3 and I'm not planning to make models for it either at this moment. But, it's cool nevertheless.
It would be nice if we were all great programmers. I can't do much more than HTML, CSS, and a few months of education in Python. Which I'd like to get back into and write some more exporters for XSI.
Heh, a few months of Python is more than enough to write an exporter for Blender (or any other app that uses it, I suppose). You only need to know the basic syntax, the file handling and Blender API can be looked up in the respective docs (I always write the scripts with the Python Tutorial or Reference and the Blender API Docs open) if you're unsure. Dissect other people's exporters if you want to know how some things work.
MD3 is documented, I guess I could try whipping up an exporter if anyone wants it. Definitely much clearer than the PSK specs for UT.
@KDR_11k: I don't have time to dive in that material right now, but when I do, I will look into it. It would be cool if I could write my own exporters. It's too bad that it's so difficult to write exporters for the Unreal Engine, but a Blender plug-in to export to md3 would be awesome.
Replies
I'm really satisfied with CINEMA 4D 9 & BODY PAINT.
(easy to use , great result and not so expensive !)
http://www.maxon.net/
If you know any good plug-ins I'm all ears. But right now, Blender seems useless to me, because it doesn't seem to be able to export to any of the formats I'm interested in.
Milkshape does and supports lots of other formats aswell. That's why I recommended it. Besides, Milkshape is still pretty cheap.
tRens
ps try blender!
But right now, Blender seems useless to me, because it doesn't seem to be able to export to any of the formats I'm interested in.
Get the format specs and write your own exporter. It isn't that hard as long as the specs aren't as Microsoft Visual C++ specific (IOW, if you're using anything else you are SOL) as the Unreal ones.
Besides, it has better exporting support for md5 than Milkshape so expect Blender to take over in that area soon.
Try the testing builds from the forum, the current versions have a nice modifier stack that'll allow useful features like mirroring without using instances (i.e. no normal issues or unwelded center seam). Try getting used to it, once the knife, loop cut and select linked make it into your workflow you'll never want to use Milkshape again. Did I mention the IK system, various IPO types (blending between keyframes and animating other attributes), weight paint, auto-rigging and unwrapping (the rigging isn't perfect but works as a decent base for weight painting), edge selection mode, radiosity simulation (useful for texture bases), game engine (useful for seeing the model with overbrighting, a better representation of the final result than MS3d's viewport), soft selection, paint selection, scale along normals, extrude edge, constraints for bones, ...?
Get the format specs and write your own exporter. It isn't that hard as long as the specs aren't as Microsoft Visual C++ specific (IOW, if you're using anything else you are SOL) as the Unreal ones.
[/ QUOTE ]
Hmmm yeah, that's a great idea, but if I was capable of doing that, I would already done so and I would have shared my plug-ins with the world! I would be so proud. My programming knowledge doesn't go much further than HTML, CSS and two very basic PHP scripts I wrote. I don't think I will be able to learn python anytime soon.
I will check out the testing builds on the forum though. Maybe I can find some experimental exporters aswell. I'm sure I will find some use for Blender in the future.
@MightyPea: There are exporters, but a lot of them are not really complete - The exporters that are complete are useally the exporters that export to a format I have not much use for.
It's great to hear though, that md5 is supported. However, I don't have Doom 3 and I'm not planning to make models for it either at this moment. But, it's cool nevertheless.
MD3 is documented, I guess I could try whipping up an exporter if anyone wants it. Definitely much clearer than the PSK specs for UT.