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[odnorf]

Blender http://www.blender.org/ is a 3D modeling, animation & rendering program. What makes a difference in this program is it's price. It's free & opensource.  

For old Blender users: There is now available a preview of version 2.30 which corrects Blender's main problem, it's UI.  You've got to try it out.

[MMR]

But what kind of games can you develop?

[odnorf]

You can't create a game with it because it's not an engine. But you can create the graphics for it. :-) It's in the same category as 3D Studio for example. It's a very good choice for people that can't afford 3D Studio, Lightwave etc

Oh... and there is a Czech adventure with impressive prerendered 3D graphics (like The Longest Journey & Syberia) that is using Blender but I can't find the link right now... Mnemonic?

[Mnemonic]

Oh... and there is a Czech adventure with impressive prerendered 3D graphics (like The Longest Journey & Syberia) that is using Blender but I can't find the link right now... Mnemonic?

The game's called "Ron Loo", www.peregrius.cz
And the author of Ron Loo graphics was one of the Blender Art Festival 2003 Award Nominees.

EDIT: Direct english link: http://peregrius.cz/index.php?Gstr=index&Gjaz=en

[Nihil]

The 2.3x version of Blender is a big step in the right direction, but if you ask me theres still a lot to do regarding the GUI ... I started using Blender at version 2.28, but dealing the UI is still a story of blood, sweat and tears :-)

Especially using python-scripts like LSystem, Fiber etc isn't fun ... I have three different versions of Blender and also three versions of Python running to be able to use all the plugins I need.

But overall I like Blender very much, especially because it's for free :-) (and it has a large and very helpful community)

There is another czech adventure, where the graphics were done in Blender, it's called The Black Mirror ( http://www.futuregames.cz/poselsmrti/ )

They have a short demo on their page, it looks very good (short playtime, but it's 160 MB in size).
Sad that it isn't released on the german market yet.

[Mnemonic]

Actually The Black Mirror graphics was done in 3DS Max. I recommend the game, though

[Nihil]

Uuups ... I was pretty sure that I read somewhere they did it with Blender ... I'm getting old, I think :-)

Anyway, MY game will be done with Blender (and Wintermute of course   ), and I recommend it to all of you.
It will be released in about 100 years or so  

[Mnemonic]

Uuups ... I was pretty sure that I read somewhere they did it with Blender ... I'm getting old, I think :-)

Ron Loo was supposed the first big game made in Blender, unless, of course, you'll finish your game sooner than them

[Nihil]

Well, I'm afraid they will be slightly faster than me :-)

[Jerrot]

There are no Blender-Pics online, I lost most of my older work in a harddisc-crash, and then I stopped working with Blender and went back to Bryce & Co.

Never worked with Bryce and never saw it in real... meanwhile I have some (very) basic knowledge about 3ds max, but I don't know how long I'll be allowed to use that license and it's too expensive to buy it just for a little adventure. So I still like the idea of that free software, but can't imagine that Blender should be able to produce images in the same quality. (Well, and I can't imagine to model them in the same easy way... yet.)

If you want to start with Blender I could write some Beginner-Tutorials if you like.

I didn't search too closely yet, so maybe there already are some good tutorials online somewhere, but maybe I can ask you from time to time, that would be great already. Although - as long as I can use 3ds, it's hard to turn it off.

[Nihil]

Ok, if I had the chance to work with 3ds I think I would do it, too :-)

The quality of Blender-Images depends mostly on the capabilitys of the artist :-)
It is a very powerful software, i think not as powerful as 3ds MAX (never worked with it), but you can do almost everything you want with it - if you know how :-)
And you need a good hand for lightning and texturing, thats what all stands and falls with, if you ask me.

There are a lot of tutorials on Blender out there, but if you have question you can ask ... and maybe I can even answer them :-)

Here are some links:
http://www.elysiun.com (large Blender-site with lots of tutorials and a huge community - look at some of the pictures in the Finished Project-Forum to become an idea of the capabilitys of Blender)
www.blendpolis.org (German Blender-Community)

Off-topic: I have a lot of 3ds-Models, but Blender can't import this format (there is one script out there, but I never get it to work properly) - does anyone of you now a good Program to convert 3ds into dxf-files? I tried Crossroads, but it messes up the meshes.

[Jerrot]

The quality of Blender-Images depends mostly on the capabilitys of the artist :-)

Maybe a good argument for me against Blender.

It is a very powerful software, i think not as powerful as 3ds MAX (never worked with it), but you can do almost everything you want with it - if you know how :-)

Not to forget - you can buy either 3ds max - or you take blender and buy a car.  

http://www.elysiun.com (large Blender-site with lots of tutorials and a huge community - look at some of the pictures in the Finished Project-Forum to become an idea of the capabilitys of Blender)
www.blendpolis.org (German Blender-Community)

Oh, I didn't discover that forum section yet - there the real pics are, I see. That "mindfields" movie is quite impressing for some free software. Thanks for the links.

[Nihil]

Maybe a good argument for me against Blender.

So, the rumors are true and 3ds MAX has that Make-the-Image-look-Good-Button?
 

Not to forget - you can buy either 3ds max - or you take blender and buy a car.  

Hehe, yes thats true ... I saw older pricelists for plugins for Hair, Watercreation and such things ... for this money you could buy even a Maybach  

Oh, I didn't discover that forum section yet - there the real pics are, I see. That "mindfields" movie is quite impressing for some free software. Thanks for the links.

I stopped looking into this section because it depressed me too much when I compared their pictures with mine  

[Nihil]

You can't create a game with it because it's not an engine. But you can create the graphics for it. :-) It's in the same category as 3D Studio for example. It's a very good choice for people that can't afford 3D Studio, Lightwave etc

btw - you can create games with Blender, because it has a built-in-3d-engine, it's disabled in the actual versions, but up to 2.25 it's accessible, and as far as I know it shall return somewhere between 2.3x and 2.5

But I think it can't compete with actual 3d-Engines, even with low-cost-ones like 3d Gamestudio.

[Tol]

You can't create a game with it because it's not an engine. But you can create the graphics for it. :-) It's in the same category as 3D Studio for example. It's a very good choice for people that can't afford 3D Studio, Lightwave etc

btw - you can create games with Blender, because it has a built-in-3d-engine, it's disabled in the actual versions, but up to 2.25 it's accessible, and as far as I know it shall return somewhere between 2.3x and 2.5

But I think it can't compete with actual 3d-Engines, even with low-cost-ones like 3d Gamestudio.

Actually game engine should be back (heh, why it sounds like another Terminator movie trailer?) probably at summer 2004 and maybe even sooner we should be provided with animation tools operating with some game blender animation. So we will have collision detection for example

Besides GameBlender, or rather complet of it and some new features included in BlenderPublisher was originally developed as tool for profesional use like 3D interactive presentations, architectual walkthroughts and so. It is quite powerful in my opinion but is not meant for another Quake game