For the use of making ships and weapons, which graphics program is best?

Here's what I want out of it (prioritized):

1. Shareware/freeware.
2. Low learning curve. I want to be able to make a ship in one sitting by the end of this month.
3. Good documentation, because I'm sorta like that Midvale School for the Gifted cartoon (Farside).
4. Efficient design (as I mentioned, time is an issue)
5. Able to make quality graphics.

Yes, it's for a Nova TC. I already have a "functional" (with recycled graphics) base galaxy, so this isn't a bright idea I came up with at 1 this morning.

(Of course, if anyone wants to join the team to make this plug-in, I'd like to hear that even more. Much of the plot, however, is already decided.)

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LIGHTWAVE LIGHTWAVE LiGHTWAVE...though, it aint shareware or freeware, and it takes a little bit of time to learn.

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Lightwave is certainly far from being shareware/freeware. In fact, it's $2500 or something like that.

Personally, I use (url="http://"http://www.strata.com")Strata 3d plus(/url) It's not free($150), but it's probably the cheapest good 3d program now that Strata crippled their free base offering. I highly recommend Strata, but if you can't afford the price tag, you could check out these.

Pixels 3d 3.6 ( (url="http://"http://www.pixels.net/")http://www.pixels.net/(/url) )
Pixels offers the older version of their software for free.
Amapi 4.15 ( (url="http://"http://amapi.idevgames.com/)")http://amapi.idevgames.com/(/url) )
This is an older version of Amapi(current is 6.1) It's also free.

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GameRanger SN: Col. Patrick (EL)

(This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 08-02-2001).)

(This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 08-02-2001).)

If you can back order issues 38 and 39 of MacAddict. The Cd's with the issues has a bunch of free 3d utilities and other stuff from Strata.

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"If you can't take a little bloody nose—maybe you ought to go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here. It's wondrous—with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross—but it's not for the timid."
- Q

I'd reccomend POV-Ray.

1. It's free: (url="http://"http://www.povray.org/")http://www.povray.org/(/url)
2. Now that depends on quality. You can certainly learn to make an EV level design in the first day you have it and then churn out that type of ship in well under an hour each, but don't expect to match NOVA quality without a lot of effort. The same probably goes for any other graphics program, too.
3. It has really, really good documentation.
4. The ability to define macros and submodules and then easily use them in every other ship that needs that type of module would certainly seem to meet this point.
5. Go take a look at the POV-Ray site, and then see whether you think it's capable of sufficient quality.

However , there is one other factor to take into consideration: POV-Ray has a text-based interface. So you won't be able to do anything until you've read at least the introductory section of the manual. If you do want to use it, my two reccomendations are persistance, and graphpaper. A little bit of experience with programming wouldn't hurt either, though it's certainly not neccessary. This all leads back into your point #2: some people (like me) can pick up the basics in a couple of hours and run with it. Others find the text-based interface like a brick wall in terms of learning curve. Your mileage may vary, but it's certainly worth trying.

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You can still get Strata 3d 3.0.2 from download.cnet.com (search for Strata 3d). Its free, more feature rich than Strata 3d base, and easy to learn. The main problem is that it does not come with a manual, and you cannot download the manual. You won't need the manual anyway

On time, Strata 3d falls a bit short, as it is a bit difficult to make non-regular shapes (a banana for instance) come out exactly as you want them to.

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Personally,I use Mechanisto.
-It's free.
-Although it takes a little time to learn,you could certainly make a ship in one sitting after a month.
The documentation ain't that great,but there's apparently some sort of extra manual which explains it better.
If you decide to use this,I'd be happy to help you.(My adress is nicholas@netaccess.co.nz,but no spam,please!)
Yes,it's reasonably efficient-I can make a good ship in an hour or so.
Wow,is it 9:00 already?
And yeah,the graphics are rather good quality-it's running them through p2s to get sprites which wrecks them.
I'm still looking for a better spritemaker.
Again,I'd be happy to send you examples of some of the ships I've made if you want.

Quote

Originally posted by Shade:
**
The documentation ain't that great,but there's apparently some sort of extra manual which explains it better.
**

Hem, where, exactly? I would gladly find it if possible.
Thanks
Ras

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It's on the EV addons page,under Utilities.

Pixels 3D is nice and might be still free. I've got when it was free but don't know if they still have it for download.
If you'd be able to find Infini-D somewhere (nobody supports it anymore) it's gonna be you best programme to start with 3D (no for free though, but I don't think it's gonna be expensive too, 'cause nobody supports it anymore )

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I would suggest StrataVision. It fits very well under all of those categories; it's totally free (though discontinued) it has an easy-to-use/easy-to-learn interface, there's a quite good tutorial for it, graphics can be made fairly quickly in it (it also has a very fast renderer), and can produce very high quality graphics (seen Slug's graphics in the image gallery? Those are all made in StrataVision). I still have the installer with me, and can stuff it and send it to you if you like.

-Campbell

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YakKa Foob MoG. GRuG
PubbuWuP ZiNk WattooM
GaZoRK. CHuMBLE SpuZz.
(url="http://"http://pub101.ezboard.com/bstarbasedelta")Starbase Delta(/url) | (url="http://"http://homepage.mac.com/daedalusdevelopers")Daedalus Developers' Website(/url) | (url="http://"http://www.campbell2.f2s.com/phpBB")Daedalus Developers' Board(/url)

Without a doubt Strata 3D 3.0......It's free and has some good features like auras and lens flares which are ideal for ship design

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Of course it belongs to
me, I'm a communist.

I am also looking for 3D progams. I Cant fing Strata 3D or StrataVision. Could you give me a link?

Quote

Originally posted by MethaneFreak:
I am also looking for 3D progams. I Cant fing Strata 3D or StrataVision. Could you give me a link?

Get Strata 3D 3.0.2 here: (url="http://"http://download.cnet.com/downloads/1,10150,0-10005-103-0-1-7,00.html?tag=srch&qt;=strata+3d&cn;=&ca;=10005")http://download.cnet...3d&cn=&ca=10005(/url)

It was recently discontinued, replaced by the inferior Strata 3D Base.
Strata 3d Base is at (url="http://"http://www.strata.com/")http://www.strata.com/(/url) for reference only. Use Strata 3D 3.0.2, it includes animation and metaball features that 3d base does not).

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It doesn't really take Mac OS 9 does it? I only have 8.

If you have os x...

then...

THE GIMP!

it can do insane bump-mapping...

and it is free

There is still an online manual available for Strata 3D at (url="http://"http://www.strata.com/strataproducts/strata3d/3dmanual/")http://www.strata.co...ata3d/3dmanual/(/url)

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I calculated the odds of this succeeding versus the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid... and I went ahead anyway. -Crow T. Robot
(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/cgi-bin/ubb/forumdisplay.cgi?action=topics&forum;=Just+Games&number;=60&DaysPrune;=20&LastLogin;=")Just Games(/url), because wasting time is a beautiful thing

THE best sub-800$ 3D rendering program is Strata StudioPro (Or Strata 3D, I think they changed the name.) I still version 2.5.3, and it is awesome. It's only flaw is it's buggyness, so save often. The modeler is very robust and powerful, and has many good fetures (Metaballs, Extrude-on-a-Path, Deformation grids, ect.) I use it for all my ships and outfits.

-Bryce.

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Oh, don't worry, they
can't see us through
our cloaking device.
- Capt. Thral, First

Now talk about the worst friskin day of this summer. Not that I have to transfer the files from a PC to a Mac on CD's, also I have a 2nd line connection, 3k a sec.

Okond., now I am working on a plug-in for EV. I just downloaded Amapi 3D and Pixels 3D. Both about 15 megs. I downloaded th Amapi segments and it didn't work. So then I just went and downloaded the full single file installer. Worked fine. 5 hours wasted on that.

Then I downloaded some Pixels 3D extras and the older pixels version. When I was doing the new version, i told my sister to feep the net connected and not disconnect. It was more than 90% done and my sister disconnects. Then I have a cow and start downloading it again, successful. 4 5-6 hours wasted.

Then I got all of that junk on the Mac, expanded it all. I work a couple installers, accidentally trash Pixels and have to reload it and expand it. Then I try Pixels, it doesn't work, CPU isn't good enough. (Couldn't find system requirements on the internet) So I trash it. I install a couple more files, then get to work on Amapi. It starts installing (very very slowly, 70+ megs at about 1700 files). It's been about a hour to a hour and a half (only about half way done too), and my sister wants to play a hokey painting program. So she shuts it down off the surge-protector about 3 times, wondering whats wrong. Then I walk in and have another cow. Then I re-install it for about a half hour then my mom makes me get off and let my sister on. So now I also have 2000 or more files to delete too.

What a bunch of crap. One hell of a day.

Thankz to everyone who responded. I tried using Mechanisto first, but gave up after several hours of frustration. I'm using Strata 3D now, and am dealing with its instabilities (probably caused by my angry computer more than the program).

(url="http://"http://www.dwave.net/~dschubri/pirate.jpg")Here's(/url) the least bad ship I've mentioned to come up with so far (it will only be up the rest of the weekend due to limited webspace). I'd appreciate any constructive comments from users of Strata on this ship or in general.

Also, you can check out (url="http://"http://www.dwave.net/~dschubri/index.html")This page(/url) for some short commentary on my TC.

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