malau on 20/7/2007 at 09:27
Do either of them produce or can edit files that are usable by Thief2 ??
Just that I noticed both for sale in Carrefour Supermarket for 10RMB - that's less than 1 UKP for genuine software !
If either of them are useful then i'll buy them. Anim8or is unusable to me because it is so 'homemade'.
Yandros on 20/7/2007 at 10:22
Quote Posted by malau
Do either of them produce or can edit files that are usable by Thief2 ??
You have to use numerous fan-written tools, but you can get 3ds to and from the native .bin format used by T1 and T2. A number of people in TEG use 3DS Studio Max.
Quote Posted by malau
Just that I noticed both for sale in Carrefour Supermarket for 10RMB - that's less than 1 UKP for genuine software !
At that price, they're almost guaranteed
NOT to be genuine.
Quote Posted by malau
Anim8or is unusable to me because it is so 'homemade'.
That's a rather absurd attitude to take. It just takes some getting used to. :rolleyes:
Fingernail on 20/7/2007 at 10:23
AutoCAD is more for technical designing and architecture, whereas 3D Studio is one of the industry standards for 3D modelling for games, film, tv, etc. so it's probably the better bet of the two, especially if you want to get into modelling for games. I don't know about specifics re. Thief 2, I believe you might need a very old version of 3DS Max to make it work, but I'm sure some clever person has made an exporter, if people can use Anim8or.
Yandros on 20/7/2007 at 10:25
We're able to use Anim8or because it exports to 3ds. There is no fan-made converter for its native .an8 file format that I'm aware of.
DrK on 20/7/2007 at 11:31
Quote Posted by Fingernail
AutoCAD is more for technical designing and architecture
And I confirm it can be a real pain to use it...
If you really want to buy one, choose 3Dstudio, but Anim8tor is way enough for thief 2 editing. DromEd is also kind of 'homemade' with all its crashing and non-friendly interfaces, yet we can manage to do some things with it.
Volca on 20/7/2007 at 12:56
You can also download (
http://www.blender.org/) blender for free. It supports 3ds file export/import, so object creation should work with it. Worth trying, I'd say.
Yandros on 20/7/2007 at 13:53
Actually, I recall it being mentioned over at TEG that Blender doesn't export the UV info to 3ds properly, so it can't be used for applying textures. You'd still have to do that in Max or Anim8or. Of course, "less than a pound" is about as cheap as Blender. :erg:
Nameless Voice on 20/7/2007 at 14:40
Quote Posted by Fingernail
I don't know about specifics re. Thief 2, I believe you might need a very old version of 3DS Max to make it work, but I'm sure some clever person has made an exporter, if people can use Anim8or.
No, even the more recent versions can output valid .3ds files that will work with the convertersion tools.
There are one or two features that will cause strange results, though - such as changing the origin of the object (or mirroring it), as the change will not be present in the output .3ds file.
I've taken to scaling the polies to -100% and flipping the normals rather than using the mirror tool, because of that bug occasionally manifesting itself.
Other than that, there's no problem.
Oh, except that 3D Studio Max is probably the only program that loves to give 'invalid file' errors when importing .3ds files converted back from .bin or .e via Shadowspawn's Free The Objects Toolkit.
If you have trouble converting file types, I've found a program called (
http://micromouse.ca/) AccuTrans 3D to be very useful. It will 'clean up' .3ds files so that Max can open them.
Briareos H on 20/7/2007 at 14:42
Well if it's Autocad 2.0 or 3D Studio 4 (the DOS one), it might be genuine software :p (and completely useless)
Dark Arrow on 20/7/2007 at 15:19
Blender is free and it is a good program, but I don't know how UV coordinates or textures export from that. There are also some bugs in the .3ds file exporting, but if you don't mind using anim8or to fix the issues and finish the models, it is a good program.
I have been using it for half a year now and I'm doing a digital model of myself at the moment. The reason my FM production is standing on hold...:sweat:
