External 3D Tools

From Croquet Consortium

Here are some impressions of a few external 3D tools. One of the biggest problems is that of data exchange. This list was done with an eye towards Croquet, but some tools are not useful in that regard at all, like the Scripted Rendering category.

This is NOT a list of everything in the universe, but just a selection of different types of tools.

1 Modeling
2 Scripted Rendering
3 Modeling and Rendering
4 Animation
5 Other 3D references and research

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Modeling

Blender3D - open source polygon modeling and animation, complicated but covers a lot of ground. A number of import/export options.
Art of Illusion - open source Java software. Medium easy to deal with, but has limited import/export options with nothing at all for its "bones" animation capabilites. Very cool procedural texture editor, and I want to say that the animation capability is good, but I haven't actually tried it yet. Really aimed at raytracing, not game content.
Wings3D - open source Erlang. One of the easiest to use (and less capable) of the regular polygon modeling programs. No animation.
SmoothTeddy - really easy to do, even for kids, but also not as capable of making more complex models. One of the few modelers that includes the ability to paint directly on the model. Buggy, unfortunately. New companion Squirrel does animation. No export useful for Croquet. There is an inexpensive commercial package now available.
SketchUp - a limited free version is available from Google. It's pretty easy and quick to use for modeling, particularly architectural things, but has no useful export capability.
Metasequoia - seems pretty cool for a modeler and it contains paint functions but no animation. It's difficult to figure out because all the original doc is in Japanese, but the author has started on some English doc. There is a recent new version for Windows Vista, and now the shareware PRO version is available anywhere by payment through Paypal.
Voxel3D - inexpensive shareware Volume Element (voxel) modeling and coloring, no animation, interesting different approach to modeling
3D Canvas - inexpensive polygon modeling, does animation but doesn't export it (maybe)
MilkShape - inexpensive polygon modeling, game oriented, does animation but only exports it in game formats (not X3D/VRML or BHV)
ShapeShop - BlobTree research
CosmicBlobs - very cool metaballs modeler and paint for kids. Inexpensive. Does animation but only exports static VRML.
CBModelPro - also very cool free-during-beta pro version of Cosmic Blobs. forum
Amorphium - not too expensive polygon modeling, related animation tool is medium expensive
Archipelis Designer - texture outline and inflate, similar to TPainter and Teddy
gameSpace - game-oriented modeling and animation, medium expensive, no useful import/export other than game formats
Poser and Shade - medium expensive modeling and animation in separate packages. Addons and upgrades available.
3DS Max - the standard, expensive
Maya - the competition, also expensive

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Scripted Rendering

Panda3D - Disney Python-scripted game engine
Visual Python - Python easy 3D
PyOgre - Python-scripted game engine
StarLogo-TNG - 3D engine in Logo, visual programming
Luxinia - Lua-scripted OpenGL engine
Hyperion - Lua-scripted OpenGL, GLSL and XML
Emma3D - open source Lua-scripted Ogre3D engine
Apocalyx - Lua-scripted OpenGL engine, several libraries, check out the hovercraft racing demo!
JUN - Smalltalk (VW) 3D including another version of Teddy, also a Java version of JUN

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Modeling and Rendering

Flux Studio - Polygon modeler for X3D and VRML content, other import/export options too, free-during-beta and open-source, includes modeling and animation. Nice.
3D GameStudio - inexpensive game creator with low-end modeling tools
The Game Creators - DarkBasic, FPS Creator, other nice tools, also sell third party tools
Geist3D looks pretty good at first glance. Mechanical modeling and animation originally aimed at robotics, based on Petri Nets.

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