3D modeling tools.

[A Viking Yeti]

Is there a good Freeware 3D modeling program that anyone uses to make units. I would really like to make units but don't know of what programs to use.

 

[Neomega]

Rhinoceros is an easy to use modeling tool. It is now version 3.0 however. Shareware.... 25 saves.

 

[papajohns]

povray ...free..

 

[A Viking Yeti]

Thanks. I'll probably go with Povray since I don't like shareware. I take a long time to do things sometimes.

 

[A Viking Yeti]

I can't figure out POV-Ray, it just looks like code to me. Meybe I'll try Rhino.

 

[ShADoW^HawK]

Try Open-FX, search for it on google and you should get the website. There should be some tutorials for it there I think. It's a little confusing at first but great altogether and free. I think it has an animator as well.

 

[A Viking Yeti]

I went to openfx.org and tried to download the medium one, but it didn't work. So I went for the big one, keep in mind on a 56k modem it takes about 1.5 hours to d/l, it didn't work. Finally I downloaded the tiny one, and it worked . I'll have to learn how to use it but it looks cool.

BTW: does anyone actually use the progs that they are suggesting here to make units?

 

[GIDustin]

Neomega uses Rhinoceros. He even wrote a tut on how to use it.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=35077



- GIDustin

 

[Dom Pedro II]

I've seen other visually-based free programs... they're simple. You won't find the kind of complexity and detail that you'd have in a full version of Rhinoceras or 3DS Max and such, but civ units aren't terribly complicated anyway.

There used to be a website that had a whole list of them... it was like cheaporfree.com, or cheapandfree.com... something like that. Sounded like a porno site...

 

[A Viking Yeti]

I think I saw that site while I was searching. Really with flicster and a pcx editor you could make units, though without a good pcx editor you gonna get palette probs (I would know). I know that people use Rhino, I was asking more about POV-Ray and Open-FX. I was just wondering. Does anyone use Anim8or for their units. I have that and know it works, but am not sure on how to use it for Civ 3 unit making. I've already seen the tuts on it but none of them were for Civ 3 units, not that I was expecting them since I didn't have Civ 3 yet.

Civ 2 was SOOOOO much easier.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

Hey, you can make Civ2 graphics for Civ3 too... and you'll be crankin' em out a lot faster than anybody else, but the question is, would you want to?

 

[A Viking Yeti]

Actually, I can't. I don't have a good pcx editor, the palette messes up all the time. Also, I wouldn't want to. Civ 3 units look waaaaaay better, I just didn't relize it then . Though, it would be very fast .

EDIT: I looked at your cut & paste link, and I can hardly wait. But I, unfortunately, don't have an editor in which I can swap palettes and such. I thought that if you changed the position of one of the colors it would mess up Civ 3 cause it only uses the standard unit palette, or am I wrong?

 

[embryodead]

Originally posted by A Viking Yeti
Actually, I can't. I don't have a good pcx editor, the palette messes up all the time.

Sorry, but it's not any editor's fault. Civ3 uses palettes in special way - you have to learn how. There is absolutely no editor that will do it for you.

 

[A Viking Yeti]

I don't have a program to edit pcx's at all, really. I convert them to bmp, using a prog called Analyzer, edit them in Pixia, then import the units palette and convert them back to pcx using Analyzer, again. I don't know of any other way really, are there any tutorials on it here?

 

[Neomega]

Kinboat pointed out a real simple program called Pedit for palette editing. Really, you gotta know quite a few tricks for optimizal use, but a hiunt is to take screen captures of the palettes you want to re-arrange.

AFAIK Pedit is freeware.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

It is freeware. I use it myself.

Haven't mastered it at all yet though...

 

[A Viking Yeti]

I have Pedit too, I just thought that Civ 3 used only one palette, and that flicster only showed the palette that Civ 3 uses. I didn't know that the Civ 3 flcs have the palettes in them. At least I think it works that way. I need to find some tutorials on this or something. I won't have a chance to find out today though, lots of homework .