Learning Lightwave or blender?
by Andy S. · in Artist Corner · 10/19/2009 (3:40 pm) · 4 replies
Hi,
I want to seriousely learn how to model to create my game assets (levels, props and characters). I own Lightwave 9.6 and already played around with it a bit, but not seriousely. Also, I did some tuts in blender, and also went ok with it (no probs with it's UI).
Now I don't know which I should really learn. Both of them "feel" ok to me; I can imagine to get along with either of the two.
Is the Lightwave exporter working with 9.6 for T3D? How is the Collada support of Lightwave? Is it possible to export character animations?
Then for the learning part: To learn how to model, texture and animate in them, which one is easier, or for which one there are more useful tutorials?
Regarding blender, with 2.5 it will change it's UI, so would it be better to wait anyways until 2.5 is out? But then most of the tuts would be "outdated"?
Hope you see a little my dilemma and I would be grateful for any advice.
Thanks
andi
I want to seriousely learn how to model to create my game assets (levels, props and characters). I own Lightwave 9.6 and already played around with it a bit, but not seriousely. Also, I did some tuts in blender, and also went ok with it (no probs with it's UI).
Now I don't know which I should really learn. Both of them "feel" ok to me; I can imagine to get along with either of the two.
Is the Lightwave exporter working with 9.6 for T3D? How is the Collada support of Lightwave? Is it possible to export character animations?
Then for the learning part: To learn how to model, texture and animate in them, which one is easier, or for which one there are more useful tutorials?
Regarding blender, with 2.5 it will change it's UI, so would it be better to wait anyways until 2.5 is out? But then most of the tuts would be "outdated"?
Hope you see a little my dilemma and I would be grateful for any advice.
Thanks
andi
#2
I would also like to hear some more on lightwave. It's a program I'm used to and can work in easily so I was hoping someone might respond to this thread with their T3D - lightwave experience.
10/19/2009 (11:41 pm)
He already owns lightwave so I don't think the price tag is a factor.I would also like to hear some more on lightwave. It's a program I'm used to and can work in easily so I was hoping someone might respond to this thread with their T3D - lightwave experience.
#3
By the way: If you export Collada from Layout, just use the default scale factor of 1.0.
So one meter in Lightwave is one world unit or one meter in Torque.
It is also possible to export directly to DTS. There is a very good exporter available for free.
www.gnometech.com/lwdtsmain.shtml
This exporter is working with Lightwave 9.6 very well. But only with the 32bit-Version of Lightwave.
The workflow of T3D is the following: When you place a Collada-Model into your world, T3D converts the Collada automatically into a DTS. But personally i dont like this kind of workflow.
My advice:
#1: Use the free DTS-Exporter for Lightwave.
#2: Use the DTSViewer from Konrad Kiss. There you can convert your Colladas into DTS. The price of 19.95 USD is more than worth.
www.garagegames.com/community/blogs/view/18531
The learning part: I have these two books and they helped me a lot.
www.jbpub.com/catalog/9781556220999/
www.jbpub.com/catalog/9781598220292/
10/20/2009 (2:10 am)
Yes, it is possible to export Collada from both, Lightwave Modeler and Lightwave Layout. By the way: If you export Collada from Layout, just use the default scale factor of 1.0.
So one meter in Lightwave is one world unit or one meter in Torque.
It is also possible to export directly to DTS. There is a very good exporter available for free.
www.gnometech.com/lwdtsmain.shtml
This exporter is working with Lightwave 9.6 very well. But only with the 32bit-Version of Lightwave.
The workflow of T3D is the following: When you place a Collada-Model into your world, T3D converts the Collada automatically into a DTS. But personally i dont like this kind of workflow.
My advice:
#1: Use the free DTS-Exporter for Lightwave.
#2: Use the DTSViewer from Konrad Kiss. There you can convert your Colladas into DTS. The price of 19.95 USD is more than worth.
www.garagegames.com/community/blogs/view/18531
The learning part: I have these two books and they helped me a lot.
www.jbpub.com/catalog/9781556220999/
www.jbpub.com/catalog/9781598220292/
#4
10/20/2009 (6:22 am)
Thanks you for your answers guys. 
Associate Sven Bergström
Luma Arcade