If any of you want to use pre-rendered 3D models , the site 3dcafe.com has oodles of them. The server is pretty slow, but that might just be a temporary thing (I'm doubting that its traffic, its 4:30 in the morning..)
-AbyssDragon
ID:194617
 Aug 17 2000, 10:27 pm
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On 8/18/00 9:32 am Deadron wrote:
At one point they started charging for certain features in the program (something a couple of us have nudged Dantom to do), but they pulled back from that pretty quickly and now everything is free. I assume customers didn't like the "pay for some stuff" model. That's good to hear! I knew our non-sensical business model was revolutionary. Hopefully they won't go out of business and prove us wrong. Given that they are interested in supporting games, and that their product is also free, maybe there is room for a Dantom relationship with this company...? At some point I think we need to have a spin-off product that basically extricates the DM language from the interface and allows for some generic way to allow users to provide their own graphics environment, be it in 3D, or isometric view, or what-not. That would put us in league with the big-boys, and would probably give us ample opportunity to form relationships with all sorts of rendering-based companies. However, besides this being a technical nightmare, it is also not something that everyone would want (hence the spin-off), since it would make generic programming more difficult. In general, anytime you strive to gain flexibility you lose ease-of-use; I don't think we've got the right compromise yet but we're working on it. But I've babbled on without addressing you (and finally in the correct forum too). I would like to check out this program, partly because my own artistic skills are so inept. As a few of the coders here have shown, the graphics in BYOND can actually look halfway decent given some nicely rendered icons. I have spent the last few days focusing almost exclusively on the graphical part of our system, and now I am starting to believe that some of the basic things (ie- bigger icons) perhaps aren't too far off. If that is the case, having a high-quality rendering program in tow would be invaluable. I don't want to make any false promises so I'll shut up now. | |
On 8/18/00 3:27 pm Tom H. wrote:
At one point they started charging for certain features in the program (something a couple of us have nudged Dantom to do), but they pulled back from that pretty quickly and now everything is free. I assume customers didn't like the "pay for some stuff" model. To add to this, while looking around the web for additional information, I came across some web discussions in which people had instantly dropped using the product when they started charging for pieces of it, and therefore didn't even know that the whole thing had become free again. One key to them being able to sell books is that there's a real learning curve and a zillion features -- you really need documentation for this thing. Fortunately there are lots of tutorials on the web, by them and others, but those can only scratch the surface and often have to leave out important things. However, having played with it today, I think it's a big win. It will forever change how I do graphics -- and it's amazingly fast and smooth to use. Given that they are interested in supporting games, and that their product is also free, maybe there is room for a Dantom relationship with this company...? Blender already exports to several formats. If you either started supporting AVIs or got them to export .dmi files (or maybe you could write a Blender plug-in to do this -- you can write Python-based plug-ins), it would be a huge win. | |
Hey Deadron, did you check the company profile on the Blender page? Its founders' names are Ton and Ian, each only one letter different from Tom and Dan...
Heh, I'm too easily amused.. -AbyssDragon | |
Surprised am I. I've been experimenting with Blender for a while now (about a month before you mentioned it, actually). I like its potential (especially its abilities to move points, something I've been looking for for a long time), but I found the interface really cumbersome and the help, well, non-descriptive. Personally, my favorite is Behemot, but that lacks in the way of help too, not to mention it crashes and doesn't do half the stuff as it is documented.
I'm afraid I'm going to have to buy something from a store if I want a good 3D editor. *sigh* Spuzzum | |
On 8/18/00 11:40 pm Spuzzum wrote:
Surprised am I. I've been experimenting with Blender for a while now (about a month before you mentioned it, actually). I like its potential (especially its abilities to move points, something I've been looking for for a long time), but I found the interface really cumbersome and the help, well, non-descriptive. Personally, my favorite is Behemot, but that lacks in the way of help too, not to mention it crashes and doesn't do half the stuff as it is documented. Spuzzum You can't survive without reading the tutorials at the main site, and the tutorials at the couple of other sites I found: http://www.blendermania.com/ http://www.blendedplanet.com/ Personally, I'm not willing to spend the multi-hundreds I think you have to spend to buy a commercial product, when this appears to have all the necessary functionality. The book they sell (for $40) was well-reviewed on Slashdot, so I'll probably end up buying that. [Editing this to add this link to ALLof the huge number of Blender tutorials available...plus to a version of the manual...] http://redrival.com/rash/links.htm | |
Thanks for the pointer! From that site I found this totally free 3D modeller, which is now being aimed at game creation:
http://www.blender.nl/
I've just downloaded it and haven't used it yet. I have NO experience with 3D and NO artistic talent -- if I make any headway, I will report back.
Oh, an interesting data point for Dantom in their search for a business model:
Blender is obviously a complex app, providing 3D modelling and animation, and the company producing it is making their money by selling the tutorials and books. They have online tutorials, but to get the most information you need to buy the books.
At one point they started charging for certain features in the program (something a couple of us have nudged Dantom to do), but they pulled back from that pretty quickly and now everything is free. I assume customers didn't like the "pay for some stuff" model.
Given that they are interested in supporting games, and that their product is also free, maybe there is room for a Dantom relationship with this company...?
Anyway, back to the tutorial...