Gamespace - Great modeling program, real cheap!

#1 We've heard of it. We have been working with Caligari to make an exporter.

-Jeff Tunnell GG

#2 You guys are really going to make one!!?? That would be sooooo cool. Keep up the good work;)

#3 Very cool... good features... $299 is quite attractive... rumors of an exporter... it even (wisely) uses Python for scripting...

I will download the demo... zing!

-J

#4 At the very least it has a built in MS3D exporter now.
Although I'm assuming and hoping that an actual DTS exporter is actually being worked on. One can hope and dream afterall :)

#5 This was my very first impression:


The title bar and menu is jumbled, or something...

I can still smell some glue drying on this (hey, it's 1.1) ... There's some rough edges and some interesting stuff all rolled together...

I would be very interested to hear a skilled 3dsmax/Maya guy's take...

-J

#6 Well, its trueSpace redone for games. I've been using trueSpace for years. I imagine it doesn't play well with the useless space hogging Windows XP themes. (I'm happily on Windows 2000).Title Bar and Menu have been merged in trueSpace for sometime. Saves screen real estate.

Just a pointer:
Green Arrows mean the button has an option panel (right click)
Red arrows mean there are other tools under that icon.

or its vice versa. In anycase, easy to tell which is which in a couple seconds.

Personally yet to try it but I imagine its just trueSpace 6 with features towards game devs rather then 3d artists :)

#7 The inteface and workflow for caligari has been horrendous since the Amiga days and the pc port just made it worse I am afraid, yuk!

#8 @Joshua: Best thing if you have XP is to turn off that GUI, I've had real problems with one of my trueSpace plugins using that GUI(makes me hungry for skittles too...).

@Jarrod: If you're coming over from Max or Maya, the workflow is completely different, but for someone who's used it for years, I kind of like it(though it could use a modifier stack other than Mesh Forge).

My own opinion on workflow, and I'm writing up some stuff for game-modelling newbies in the tS community, is that tS/gS does offer a fast working environment once you know where things are. True, it can use a few improvements to give it more power and flexibility(don't hold your breath there), but it's fast. Learn the widgets, get a few keyboard shortcuts going, and customize your menus, and you'll be flying in no time.

#9 Note I said it has been horrendous since the AMIGA days, which greatly predates MAX or Maya.

that said, Lightwave is my choice of weapons, always has been, since version 0.9 on the Video Toaster days and way before any PC Clone had anything useful for 3D by a long shot. I have tried out the Caligari products on an off since the version first one, they are all extremely "around your thumb to get to your a**" to use. And all those meaningless buttons make it even more frustrating. Why not just put words on the buttons like reasonable interfaces do.

#10 Hello Jeff,

We have been working on a DTS exporter for TrueSpace 6+ and GameSpace for about 3 weeks and have a perfect working exporter minus annimation, and we are planning on starting animation by the end of the week.

Current support includes:
----------------------------------
full mesh support
materials
material properties (reflection, transparent, add, sub, and combinations there of)
billboard, billboardz
1-9 collision meshes, box, cyllinder
LOD is about 98% done as I write this.

in the next 2-3 weeks we plan to add IFL, nodes, animation support, and DTS import.

So my question is this, what is the time frame for the exporter you and caligari are working on? We were planning on releasing this for a small fee and providing support for it, so yours kinda puts ours on the rocks. :)

any info you can provide would be helpful.

Thanks
Matt Summers
Dark Industries
http://www.darkindustries.com

#11 I don't see any reason for there to be DTS import

#12 I agree, there is no need for a DTS importer since you should have the original source files to work from if you are modifying something, and if you don't why are you modifying the file.

Logan

#13 We were thinking it might be helpful as a learning tool.

Matt Summers
Dark Industries
http://www.darkindustries.com

#14 There is already a great documentation on the DTS exporter available, you could easily just made an appedix to it regarding TrueSpace exporting and that's all that you need. If people cannot learn from the documentation/tutorial then they won't learn jack from ripping apart someone elses work either.

Teach a man how to fish, don't give him the fish.

Logan

#15 Point taken :)

we'll see how animation shakes out and how GG & Caligari's exporter stack up.

Any serious users of Truespace 6+ or GameSpace out there interested in testing out our progress?

This would of course require you know what you're doing with torque. We don't have time to do torque engine training just now. :)

Matt Summers
Dark Industries
http://www.darkindustries.com

#16 @Logan: I think he means modelling-wise, and there it's a good function to have so people can take a look at the models that come with TGE. They come in .max format, why not be able to dissect them in gS/tS? Especially for that community, which is just now able to have true support for game formats. For years and years now, the majority of those people have been more or less locked into a high-poly world, and now Caligari is opening the gates to them a little bit to let them more directly get involved in game mods. There's a lot of good modellers there that don't know how to make functional game models, and that has nothing to do with the exporting itself, but with the construction of the geometry.

Tutorials also help, and if I've got a few planned for this subject, but I learned from other people's models as well as books and tuts too. I think it's very valuable for artists to be able to see others' work and look at the way it's made to find out how to better their own. As for modding it and using it? I agree that that's just plain wrong.

#17 Can o' Worms.

Out of respect for others' wishes, you might consult with them. Realize, there are some script resources out there that are only given in their compiled (.dso) form to give the owner some sense of control over his hard work.

If you must have a .DTS importer, I would highly suggest having a flag imbedded at the author's choice. If the flag is present, then the importer reads it fine. If there is no flag, it assumes the artist did not want to allow modification.

Those are my thoughts on the subject. :-)

-Eric F

#18 Besides that would allow lots of ripoffs to be done, If someone wants their work to be used then they will release it, if you only have the .dts then there's no need for you to modify that file, since you aren't meant to. That's like providing a .dso de-compiler, that would be ripoff, and I guess it could be in some way considered illegal actions, not from a formerly legal point but from an ethics point.

#19 Eric/Xavier, very good points.

#20 What's the difference between making a DTS importer and say a quake model importer?

both are used for the same thing aren't they?

Matt Summers
Dark Industries
http://www.darkindustries.com