I''m making a really really simple racing game, and I need a modeler (3D or 2D) that A) Allows me to make polygons by the vertex B) Converts the polygon into a bunch of triangles, and C) Exports it to something easily adaptable to a OpenGL vertex array (the vertex and indices arrays are the ones that matter--colors, normals, and texture coordinates aren''t needed--I can do those myself) Any ideas? Free = good!

Try blender and wings.

What format would I export to?

Blender or Milkshape are the usual suspects.

There''s also G-max for a free download, and Maya personal edition, although the available exporters are more limited.

By ''polygons by the vertex'', I mean something like the polygon tool that''s in graphics programs like MSPaint, Adobe, etc.

Well I''ve tried out a few of the programs suggested--the only one that I could find the polygon creation that I need was in Maya, to which I promptly figured out that I can''t export to anything but Maya''s file format in the free learning version...

I''m not sure what format to export to in other programs like MilkShape...I''ve been using this really small and simple free 3D renderer called ''Anim8or'' that convieniently exports to .c files with the vertex data---I tiny bit of modification and I can use it...

Anyone know of something that exports like Anim8or but can create polygons like MSPaint?

And if it doesn''t export directly to .c (or .cpp) files, what format yields the most usable data for vertex arrays in OpenGL? (As in opening it in notepad and seeing it in pretty much the form I need)

Try 3D canvas (I love it! and i''m buying it soon) at www.amabilis.com. It''s got everything for the indi developer, even raytracing w/ the help of pov ray. If you want a good file format converter, milkshape3D is great! as for modeling, ahh...well its not so great. anim8tor i never found to be very useful. blender is definitly not the choice for you, unless you have at LEAST a month to spend just learning your way around it. It''s a great modeler, (you can tell when there are so many buttons that you can literaly get LOST in the program, that it''s got a lot of funnctionality) but the learning curve is higher than any program I''ve ever touched, not to mention that it has very limited exporting choices. There''s an article on gamedev, called ''Game Creation on the Cheap''. I highly recommend it at this time. Maybe in a few years it might be a little old, but everything now is wonderful. Check it out.

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Brent Gunning | My Site

Blender may not be packaged with many export options but the scripts are available for just about every format.

www.anim8or.com

I felt that it was a bit cumbersome to use but people are making some nice models with it.

~Wave

Yeah, it really is. I''ve been playing around with it for a bit, and I have to say I''m getting better at it. I think Anim8or will serve my purpose very well. Thanks!