Modeling and Textures

[Russ Money]

I'm preparing to make an Amnesia story that will span a few maps. A few maps will be outside levels and I'm in need of royalty-free models and textures. Does anyone know of a good source for something that is compatible with the HPL engine?

I'd look into making my own but I'm terrible at modeling. Is Blender easier to use than the model editor?

Lastly, which tool should I use to import textures?

Thank you in advance.

[DIGI Byte]

You don't need to import the textures, they use a common format called DDS developed by nVidia for games

as for the model editor supplied with the tools, it is not a real 3D model editor, its a model compiler, used to add script and properties to models you make

I recommend using 3Ds Max or Maya to model and export using the COLLADA plugin which you can find in the wiki

[Mofo]

I use Blender for modeling and GIMP for image editing. You can download both of them for free.

For textures, I recommend CG Textures.

[locker]

You don't need to import the textures, they use a common format called DDS developed by nVidia for games

I think it was Microsoft, that introduced the DDS format.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/...S.85).aspx

[DIGI Byte]

Lol, since when did Microsoft develop anything helpful?

I'll correct myself Microsoft developed the DDS format, But nVidia developed all the important stuff like the tools to export into the DDS format seamlessly

http://www.google.com.au/search?q=dds+pl...S:official
Take note of the first 2 websites

[Tottel]

Microsoft Visual studio is really good.

Anyway, I can recommend Blender for modelling. It's a steep learning curve at first, but do not let that hold you back. It's a very good free program.
You can also try a 30 day trial of 3dsMax (which I use and recommend as well), or Maya (haven't used this one).

For Textures; look into GIMP, Paint.net or photoshop.

[Sel]

Maya is an animation utility, and as such it doesn't exceed max at anything other than animation, unless you're an animation pro who needs that toolset, don't bother with it over max.

Blender is terrible too, but it is free, so unless you're a student capable of getting a copy of max for free or you happen to have 3000$ lying around, this would probably be the best choice.

[Russ Money]

Thanks for the links and the clarifications on the tool's capabilities.

[Skaruts]

I can also add to this thread a program that is free, but I don't know if it will work at all for this. All I know is that it can export Collada files.
SoftimageXSI Mod Tool 7.5. They will ask you to fill a lame form before you can download, but you can give wrong data and it will accept it. If you don't want to go through that you can also download it from this website from a friend of mine.

Again, I can't garantee it's useful, I'm just sugesting it because it's free, and because it's derived from a great modeling program. This version has no render funcionality tho.

Blender is terrible too, but it is free, so unless you're a student capable of getting a copy of max for free or you happen to have 3000$ lying around, this would probably be the best choice.

If Blender is so terrible then I don't understand how the community has achieved such great quality stuff like this and this and this and these professionals mustn't know anything about 3D modeling at all, and these artists too, and btw the community size must be filled with people that don't have anything else better to do.

My point is, terrible are most other freeware 3D applications. Blender is as terrible or as good as most programs that will cost you quite a few or many precious bills. The only diference is that blender is a growing program that works in a slightly diferent way from most other programs, and that blender, since it's open source, depends on what the developers focus on. This makes it be better at some things and worse at others, and a bit unstable in a few things. But still, anything is pretty much possible with it.

If you compare it to 3DsMax and you say Max is better, I won't say you're wrong. I usualy say that Max has a tool for every need you may have, since this program is a result of it's own evolution throughout many many years of development and improvement. At the same time it looks like a plane's cockpit from a layman's (noob) perspective. Blender is still on it's way to become a masterpiece, but still, as is, it's already a great program. All this without even considering it being free.

And btw, a friend of mine used to prefer blender's UV unwrapping and mapping over 3DsMax's. Even though he didn't like blender very much.

Sry about this but I just thought the word terrible to be a terrible misleading piece of information.

[Tottel]

I switched from blender to 3dsmax about a year ago. I still prefer blender.