Guild of Writers

I was just wondering if there are any Wings 3D users in here making stuff for MOUL or whatever. I would love to see some tutorials, written and especially video on the topic. I will do some myself once I have learned the ropes of Wings 3D and have a computer i can run Myst CC and MOUL on. Going to be tough for me coming from Max. But Wings 3D is free, and unlike Blender, also free, its easy to use.

On a related note, is anyone even still making ages or did I arrive 2 years too late?

I never heard of Wings 3D, but because there is no plasma plugin for it, I don't think you can use it for age creation... Currently the only plugins available are for Blender and 3ds Max 7 up to 2012.
I also think there are still people around who make ages, but the number is shrinking...

Christopher

You could use Wings 3D for modelling, but you'll need to import your meshes in Blender (or Max) later (exporting the file to CollaDA or something like this).
Which means if you're going to use Blender you'll have to learn its basics anyway.

Personally I'd recommend learning Blender, it is hard at first but once you are used to it you can build things quite fast.
However, Blender and the PyPRP plugin require the logic of the scene (buttons, switches) to be written in AlcScript... which is not user-friendly, unlike the interfaces from Cyan's Max plugin.

Yeah, i know Wings 3d, Ii even used it before Blender.
Once you learned Blender, you never return to Wings,
Realy Blender is not hard at all, and it negative side turns into its posive side once you understand it.
The new interface which is easyer to learn is luckely compatible in its shortcuts with the old one..

Personally I prefer 3ds Max. I tried using Blender before Cyan released their plugins. In my opinion Max is much easier and more intuitively than blender (An example: In blender I needed 15 minutes until I found out how to create a box and deform it. In Max it was less than a minute, but I don't know if the new Blender versions are easier...).

The problem with Max is, that you can't get it easily (except you have a lot of money, or you are a student). If you are the latter (like me) you can register at http://students.autodesk.com/ and download the latest versions for free.

Christopher

I agree the learning curve is steaper then in max. But i think its more important how it is when you have learned it.
Which box is faster to deform ? Which needs the less mouseclicks? Which does not lead to RSI on the long term?
After a while in Blender the learning curve flattens, in max not.
May be its all personally.
I dont know.
And the new Blender seems eaysier to learn then the old one, but because i already was used to the old interface.
The new one was intuitive.

What format do you export to from Blender or Max? Also are there any settings or anything your exported meshes need? For example, when using TESCS for Morrowind you had to make bounding boxes for collision and export them hidden with the mesh.

I did not know Blender had a new interface. But if the controls are the same I will not use it.

I have Max, but it is not installed. I would like to learn Wings 3D so my focus is there for now. Max is good, intuitive to use, but it has more to it than you need for basic modeling.

Thanks for the replies, it's good to see there is some life here!

The new Blender interface (2.66a) is easyer to learn because you have a toolbox besides the screen that works in a similar way as max.
However you can use the old controls as well.Its just what you feel as the most comfortable .
The annoying point is, that we don't have an working exporter as Pyprp is for blender 2.49b.
And yes is possible to export meshes from blender to max in several ways.

Coliders can be set in blender .as a property of the mesh, bounding box, convex hull, triangle mesh etc.
Or you place an invisible collider mesh in or around the mesh you want,

DreamBliss wrote:What format do you export to from Blender or Max?

Do you mean the format of the game files? This would be a .prp file...

In Max you have a component system. If you want a collision, you apply a terrain-component to the mesh. If you want an animation you apply an animation component and so on.

Christopher

So URU takes .prp model files? In other words if I created a house, to import that into URU, it would have to be exported as house.prp? Anything else needed for successful export/import?

Looking for .prp plugin for Wings 3D now. Maybe one will have to be coded for Wings and the new Blender.