Game Programming and Development Tools

Which Graphics Package would you choose? – eternallifegames

EternalLifeGames
Member

Posts: 13
From: USA
Registered: 10-11-2006
Hi Everyone,
I was wondering something... If you had enough money to buy the graphics package of your choice from the following: 3ds max v9, maya v8, lightwave3d v9. Which would you chose? Please be kind enough to share with me WHY you would chose your choice and WHY NOT the other packages. Please be detailed as you can be. I have a serious choice to make here.
Thank you,
ELG
kenman

Member

Posts: 518
From: Janesville WI
Registered: 08-31-2006
You'd have to look at what your final export would be. I know that there are issues with some having difficulties exporting to certain types (such as direct-x or other game driven file types.) I have personally had of issues with Maya and hardware compatability with the trial version I had.

Ever thought of blender?

JeTSpice
Member

Posts: 433
From: La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA
Registered: 06-10-2006
Coming from the stand-point of Independent Producer, I'd choose 3D Max. Many indie's and freelancers I know use it in motion graphics and low-end movies. There are a lot of 3D Max freeware models on the net, the learning curve seems to be lower, and if you look at the spread of all the similar 3D modellers out there, 3D Max seems to land right in the middle. Blender is free, but there are not a lot of plug-in's for it. (Am I wrong, somebody?) For a game, you have to create lots of art. As an independant, you need to be inventive about ways to "crank it out." Plug-ins, pre-made models, and animations are a great way to go. There's just not a lot of Lightwave or Maya stuff available. Granted Maya is very powerful--there are many plug-in's you can buy for it, or just code your own. As an independant producer, I couldn't afford the TIME to program plug-ins, nor the extra money to purchase them. Maya could be considered overkill for video games. And there's another dynamic--the human resources available. There are lots of artists who use 3D Max, and synergy takes place. The Maya crowd are high-dollar and high-maintainence professionals. It takes a lot of money to higher them, and a lot of leadership to use them properly.

Whatever your decision, master the software. I use a 3D program from 1997. It's 9 years old, but I've mastered it, so I can quickly do whatever I need. You can check out the graphics I've created with it at jetspicegames.com. I used it to do the logo, the download frame and buttons, and all the graphics of the downloadable video game using Bryce 3D.

Hope it helps.

Faith_Warrior

Member

Posts: 490
From: So.Cal.
Registered: 09-05-2006
Depends what you are going to do with it. For me I’d just get Caligari trueSpace 7 and ZBrush2. tS7&6 does everything I need including target morphing as well as having a b3d pipeline that I mostly work with these days. ts7 is also about $700 and often goes on sale for much less. 3DS 7 has a pipeline for b3d but I know a lot of people having problems with it. I've used 3DS but it has a lot of stuff I just really don't need at all. Maybe if I was going to get the speedtree plug-in I'd consider it, but other than that it's beyond my interest. I haven’t tried MAYA yet but I've heard a lot of good remarks concerning it. Currently I'm doing well enough with Wings3D, Silo, DeleD and CharacterFX though I may pick up something form Caligari in the coming months as well as having ZBrush on my shopping list.
MastaLlama

Member

Posts: 671
From: Houston, TX USA
Registered: 08-10-2005
Currently, I'm using Wings3D, but if I had the money I would buy the latest versions of Bryce and 3D Studio Max (or whatever it's officially called now). I started my 3D modeling in a high school class on 3dmax and have loved that program eversince. Bryce does beautiful textures and landscapes in a few simple clicks.

I did try Maya for a while, back at like version 4 i think. I didn't like it. It seemed low quality to me, but that was several years ago, I didn't want to go through another learning curve and I was a 100% 3dmax guy at the time.

Another great thing about 3dmax was Character Studio. I don't know if it still comes with it, but it was amazing back in the day. It made character modeling soooo easy.

That's just my 0.02$

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Faith_Warrior

Member

Posts: 490
From: So.Cal.
Registered: 09-05-2006
quote:
Originally posted by mastallama:Another great thing about 3dmax was Character Studio. I don't know if it still comes with it, but it was amazing back in the day. It made character modeling soooo easy.
Character studio is suppose to be bundled with 3ds max now if I’m not mistaken.

Another modeller to consider is Softimage XSI. After the recent price cut, Advanced is $7000, Essentials is $2000 and Foundation is $500. There is also a demo for Foundation, now.

CobraA1

Member

Posts: 926
From: MN
Registered: 02-19-2001
Personally, if I had the money, I'd go with 3ds max. I have a friend who has lightwave, and he's pretty dissapointed eith it, and 3ds max seems like the de facto standard for creating graphics for all kinds of stuff, including games.

Right now, since I don't have the money, I've been using Wings3D, AOI, and Blender.

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