Hi, I looking to purchase a 3D modeling program in the near future and wondering if anyone can give me some input on which modelers they think are the best for 3d game programming. thanks PaulJ

3D Studio Max from Discreet has been the dominant modeling program for games although it seems Maya has recently become a lot more popular. Both of these programs are very expensive.

There are a lot of cheaper programs out there too. Maybe someone else can recommend one of these. I think a key to look for in a modeling program is what file formats the program can output to since you need to get the models into the game engine somehow.

It''s even better if the program has a SDK or scripting language that will allow you to create custom exporters for your game engine. The fewer conversion programs your data has to go through the better.

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http://www.3dcgi.com/

Animation Master - http://www.hash.com ~$300
Blender - http://www.blender.nl free, book w/CD $60

also see http://www.3Dlinks.com/software_modcom.cfm

Hey, maybe I''ll become inpopular by saying this, but I wouldn''t recomend buying any modeling software if you aren''t going to use it as a pro
In my opinion you should try get a copy of different modeling programs (just gotta search a little bit, it ain''t that hard), try them all for some time, and decide which one works for you. Each program''s workflow is different, so until not having tried you won''t know if it meets your needs.
I would certanly give a chance to the following:
3d max
softimage
maya
softimage
you can also try milkshape if your going for low poly modeling, as it rather cheap compared to the rest.

Hey, not many people know about this 3D modelel, but it''s called OpenFX. It has the same story as Blender (company made it for personal use, company crashed, person decides to make it open source). If you want to download it the link is www.download.com After you get there, search for OpenFX. It''s pretty big, 41MB, so it might take a while.

Milkshape 3d $20 www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft
:D you can download an sdk to make your own custom plugins

Truespace can handle NURBS,rendering,animation,scripting.
The other does not support NURBS,rendering,animation.

Truespace
Rhino Modeller

moray(shareware), spatch(freeware), ac3d(shareware)

Truespace (version 2 or 3) is discontinued so calligary put it for free. Though it is not a good program such 3dstudio max.

You Might want to look at Newtek''s Lightwave 3D or Eovia''s Amapi 3D also.

Edem Attiogbe

quote: 3D Studio Max from Discreet has been the dominant modeling program for games although it seems Maya has recently become a lot more popular. Both of these programs are very expensive.

Well they are, but in Australian dollars full version 3DSM is about $6000 and Maya is about $15000. I''m not sure if you can get a student version of Maya but I got 3DSM stu version for $300 AU.

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"640K ought to be enough for anybody." -Bill Gates 1981