Best Modelling Environment for Vizard?
 

Hi,

I'm looking to do some simple modeling of worlds for Vizard, and I'm not sure which environment would work the best. Blender seems to be very capable, and the fact that it's free is great for this situation, but funding can also cover 3dsmax if that's a much better option. As far as conversion specifically, importing models and worlds - is there a big difference in the capabilities of each? Any difference? This would be using R3, of course.

Thanks,
Tom

Best Modeling tools...
 

Hello Tom,

I know that Blender is a powerful tool, it's is also open source and build on Python technologies just like our old good Vizard plateform...

I'm using 3DS Max. I've learn it in school and a lot of artists are using it. You must think about it in case you need some help. It's also a environment that has been built with low poly manipulation in mind. It's why it is so used in video game workflow.

I hope that my answer will help you a bit...

Best regards,
Didier.

Is there an exporter for Blender specifically? Does it use the same one as 3ds Max, or would I be using Collada support (I am going to be working with R3)

Vizards native format is .osg. The following is the homepage for a osg exporter for blender: http://projects.blender.org/projects/osgexport/

I'm not sure how well it works, since we use 3dsmax for all our modeling. Vizard also supports other formats including VRML 2.0.

The osg exporter for 3dsmax works pretty well, and supports multi-texturing, lightmaps, animations, and other advanced stuff.

Since Blender is free, I would recommend trying it out for a couple days and seeing if it fits the specific needs of your project. If not, then you can try out 3dsmax instead. Our modelers are very knowledgeable with 3dsmax and can help you out if you have any questions.

Hmm, all right, I'll try it out - and maybe Collada support will eventually be as accurate as the exporter for Blender?

As far as designing worlds - we're considering UnrealEd, with the tutorial that has already been posted, hopefully the ease of designing levels / worlds will outweigh any tedious issues with conversion..

If you are new to UnrealEd I would suggest not using it and just learning Blender.

All right - Blender is working really well for exporting to osg, but Collada support seems very buggy on both sides. Vizard has been crashing on trying to import Collada models - right after they're named, it stops responding.