Ack, well I'll ask this anyway

Taera · #1 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 · #2 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 · #3 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 · #4 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 · #5 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 ]