THE BEST! 3D modeling program available for Torque

#21 Zbrush with anything else mentioned.. it plays with everything.. and you'll get LODs and auto Normal map generation to boot

its totally revolutionized my pipeline.

#22 K thanks alot for everyone who's responded I think I'm either going to stick with Blender I'm starting to figure out how to export collision and textures and stuff Or get XSI or 3D studio!

#23 Hi Jaren,

You have probably made up your mind already, but if not, I suggest looking at Wings3D. It's really easy to use, but just doesn't have an in-built DTS exporter...so you can just export from Wings3D to Blender, and then to DTS.

But as far as learning how to use Wings3D, I learn how to use it VERY well, from just 1-2 hours of fiddling around.

From Ross...hope this helps

PS. If you decide to use this, I have some good video tutorials you might want to look at :)

#24 I've noticed Silo is recommended by some experienced professional game artists/level designers.

#25 Yea I'm actually still looking I think I'm going to get 3D Studio Max 2009 I downloaded the demo and realy like it. Part of the resons are Alot of resources out there! I mean it comes with tons of Tutorials There are A ocean of books out there game institute offers a three part series using 3D studio max and that Torque art book uses 3D studio max. Also the dts exporter seems very well made!

I'll have to wait a bit to get the dough though so while I'm waiting I'll just use Blender but I can get the academic price of just $399!!!! with my student number as I am still in school so that will be the way to go!

Otherwise If something doesnt work out with the student price I think I'd go for Houdini concidering that it comes built in with the dts exporter! Also its just 99 bucks.

#26 I'm also using Max 2009.. you might want to get the Academic Super Pack, which also contains Motion Builder and Mudbox (which is giving ZBrush solid competition). The engines are all tuned for interoperability with these tools so you'll learn a lot.

I looked at Houdini a few months ago. It's very powerful (basically the 3DS Max modifier stack on steroids), but its pedigree has been high end cinematic effects so there wasn't a lot of help out there for game artists. This may have changed since then. I just found its workflow quite different from XSI at the time.. you may have more luck.

AutoDesk has just bought XSI, so if you're aiming at studio work the AutoDesk suite is a good choice.

#27 Do you know were I can get the Academic Super Pack? Wow AutoDesk owns all the good programs now lol.

#28 WOW! I just went on XSI's site and there giving away XSI for FREE!!! to non commercial game makers such as I! thats totally cool! Man maybe I should learn XSI first then later on get 3D studio max!!

I mean if you learn one cant you learn them all I mean when I started using blender I though HOPLESS but now I can work with it like a breeze! so yea XSI here I come!!

#29 I would have stuck with it but the XSI exporter wasn't solid (this may have changed), and many game books/videos/tutorials for Torque and other engines use Maya and/or Max ("Creating Game Art for 3D Engines" in particular for Torque/Max). If you run into a problem, the XSI forum is relatively sparse compared to Blender and Max. That said, successful games challenge convention.. if XSI does what you need then great!

The Academic 3DS Max Super Pack is at http://www.studica.com. It's $250 for 13 months.

#30 Yea last time I checked into XSI the exporter was still in beta and not to stable and I checked it out today and its still there and not to stable but there is someone else making a plugin for it so yea its free so I'll use it but eventualy I'll go with 3D studio max cause of all the documentation.

#31 Well imho Lightwave. but that is my opinion. the BEST 3d modeling app for TGE/A is a personal thing. Some like Lightwave like myself, others it is 3dsmax, or Milkshape, ect ...

I would suggest trying a demo of those that you can and see which one would best fit and work for you.

#32 Actually I have a copy of Ligthwave 9 but I havent realy tried it out very much Is there very much documentation for it. Also is the dts exporter very stable? I realy would like a program with a realy good dts exporter!

#33 I just wanted to mention Houdini 9.
It's a procedural modeling / animation package and has a Torque exporter built into it.
If your looking for superior control over your characters animation to include things like bulging muscle when bones are moved, or real to life ability to animate, then learning Houdini is the answer.
And the License was modified especially for Torque license holders.

#34 The LW2DTS exporter is very stable, wroks will pretty much every version of LW from 6.0 forward. Before you export out of LW using it though make sure you triple your geometry in modeller first. Other wise you will have missing faces in TGE/A. The Exporter is very easy to use.

For documentation and tutorials visit newteks site they have tons of really good tutorials there.

The help file is pretty extensive. So i would say yeah documentation is good.

#35 In my option LW is not a viable option I could go listing it deficiancies for hours.

Housdini has has a somewhere steep learning curve but is a nice app and has "according to GG" the most complete profesional export of all of that app. as far as use with torque and feature I would say that 3ds is prolly second in that catagory but in my opinion lack behind tools like XSI, Maya and Houdindi in maya other areas but is prolly the most developed for application int he the 3D DCC sector. of could a lot of that come from the need becaue somemany things are not already in the application .

My self I used Maya from the very first beta up until this year. It is a rock solid app for animation and has a pretty full featured exporter and the interface for it is in scritp so it can be customized. "as many have done".

But this year I ahve switched to XSI 7 and I must say it is a dream come true in modeling and animation. and don't even get me started on the wonders of ICE "still trying to think of a way I can use that with torque. the only downside to using XSI with Tourqe is the exporter situation. The guy that has wrote it clamis he will release the source so everyone can work on it to ge tit up to snuff but he never does and often disappears for month without being heard from.

But, that being said there is an exporter for XSI and XSI is the app of choice by Apparatus who is prolly one of the most popular and talented of the 3D artist in the torque community.

As far as production ready toold that are prupose designed for game character and content creation XSI is second to none.

Just look at everything that comes out of Valve, and look as Metal Gear Solid 4 all were done with XSI. the speed tha tXIS brings to a games pipline is incredible and the software has a very impressive resume in this catagory.

#36 Actually XSI was going to be my first choice but it looks like Matt hasent done anything with the Beta exporter lately I hope stephen gets his going or Matt releases the source. If the exporter got stable then I would defenently go with XSI.

I'm still waiting but it looks like which ever package I can use the best is the best go. How about Modeling in XSI and animating in Houdini??

#37 You could model and animate inside XSI then export to a number of different apps with FBX.

#38 Does anyone know were some good 3D studio Max Tutorials are? I cant make a thing out of the program lol Now that I've learnt Blender its hard to do anything else lol. I need some that are like total beginer how to model from the very start! thanks alot everyone!

#39 3DSMax ... then Houdini

Maya = meh IMHO

Tutorials:
http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/3DS-MAX/1
http://www.newtutorials.com/3dsmax-tutorials.htm
http://www.cgarena.com/freestuff/tutorials/tutorials.html
http://www.3dk.org/tutorials/date/15/1.html

#40 You might find this one to be useful just to get something up/running in-game. Once you get a box in your scene, everything else is just box-modeling with a little Mudbox touchup :>).

http://tork.beffy.de/tutorials/simpleobjects/simpleshape.html