Ack, well I'll ask this anyway

Captain Kwok · #1 June 16th, 2003, 10:23 PM

You certainly can make ships with 3DS Max and even better is that you can easily convert your models to the format that Star Fury is using with a handy conVersion program from microsoft!

Voidhawk · #2 June 17th, 2003, 06:24 AM

Another excellent proggie that I rarely see mentioned is Rhinoceros 3D. It's a bit on the pricey side, but if you're a professional or even a serious hobbyist it's worth every penny. Super user-friendly and easy to learn, if still tough to master. Oh yeah, and NURBS rule!

You can certainly model in 3DSM, but it's not the most intuitive and easy to pick up tool in the world for doing that. It does sport the best commercial rendering engine I've yet seen though, and I still use it to import my Rhino models when I'm ready to texture/render.

But if you've got the time and patience to become proficient with 3DSM, then hey, you sure as heck won't regret it!

Taera · #3 June 17th, 2003, 08:01 PM

To make long story short, here's a list of programs i am familiar with (not that i work in them, i just know about them) and short desc's:

DOGA - its free. Thats the whole point. it produces relatively unrealistic models and doesnt seem to proccess complex polygons and textures too well but in right hands (*stares at atrocities*) can do well enough.

Moray +Povray - not free but of higher quality and more options, plus highly customizable. My preference because its not expensive.

Povray - a free text-based c++ - like graphical language compiler. if you get the hang of it its extremly powerful

Bryce 3d - a rare program to hear of, it is rather expensive and difficult to master but produces extremly realistic images of high quality

3d Max - a "high-end" program. Very expensive but also extremly powerful - lets just say lots of movies are made in it. It has everything you want, and has a very nice cost preventing many (like myself) from owning it (yet....)

Lightwave - real competition of 3d Max, this one works differently yet also produces extremly good quality and is quite powerful and varied. Recently more and more 3d movies/scenes are made in Lightwave

if you have the money and the time 3d Max or Lightwave are a worthy investment. Moray and some other programs whose name i cant recall are intermediate in everything, and DOGA is completely free.

TerranC · #4 June 17th, 2003, 11:03 PM

I shall refer thee to this site before I go:

Sci-fi Meshes

Go to the forums, and browse around. Look around the Gallery section, and perhaps ask the people there for advise.

rdouglass · #5 June 18th, 2003, 03:14 PM

I personally use Strata 3Dbase (a freebie) for most 3D work I do (which really isn't a lot) and I find the program quite poweful yet simple to get started with.

Just my $.02...

Ed Kolis · #6 June 19th, 2003, 01:38 AM

I downloaded the free Version of Strata 3d (after searching around forever amidst sites trying to sell the pro Version) but I couldn't get it to run... said it needed a registration key, so I got one, but when I entered it it said the key was bad or something...

could you help me with that?

rdouglass · #7 June 19th, 2003, 03:48 PM

Hmmm, mine gave me no problems at all...

Since it's a freebie, PM me and I'll see what we can do....

EDIT: Did you download 3Dbase? I believe the 'base' is the free product and that's the only one thast works with those reg keys.

[ June 19, 2003, 14:50: Message edited by: rdouglass ]