What VRML modeler to use?

[Fredmc]

I'd like to know what everyone else is using to do VRML modeling and animation. I tried to get Spazz3d to work, but the scene does not load. I know that 3D Studio Max does a great job, but who can actually afford it? For the work I need to do I must have sensors and animation. However, it must be GUI based. I just can't see building a scene and hand coding, then running a vrml browser to test. This is to much of a trial and error method that can waste time. If anyone knows of a software that can perform like 3ds max or spazz, but at a price below $100, or free, is essential. The quality of the vrml must be good as any of the 3d examples on this site.

[angelo]

I'd like to know what everyone else is using to do VRML modeling and animation. I tried to get Spazz3d to work, but the scene does not load. I know that 3D Studio Max does a great job, but who can actually afford it? For the work I need to do I must have sensors and animation. However, it must be GUI based. I just can't see building a scene and hand coding, then running a vrml browser to test. This is to much of a trial and error method that can waste time. If anyone knows of a software that can perform like 3ds max or spazz, but at a price below $100, or free, is essential. The quality of the vrml must be good as any of the 3d examples on this site.

Try lightwaves little brother Inspire 3D. It's still a good whack more than $100 though.

[naxos]

in fact you can use any 3D modeller...

Alias Wavefront's Studiotools is surely the best one (and the more expansive one);
Rhino3D is a very powerfull one;
Maya also;
Lightwave is a great soft, a bit hard to come into it;
3dsMAX is good if you want to model light models...

lots of one choose you can, young Padawan !

[Jan]

What exactly did you have for problems with Spazz3d? Did you have problems with that program, or was it that the files could not be loaded in Wirefusion. I will take a look at files from Spazz3d and see if there is anything that could cause problems.

/Jan

[Stefano]

Plasma (650USD) from Discreet also works well, but it's still maybe too expensive for your budget.
/Stefano

[angelo]

We use lightwave but, Wirefusion doesn't seem to recognise the animation frames or morphs even though any browser does :S hence us not using the animation/morph capablities yet. Royal pain so it is!

Other than that all textures/ UV mapping etc etc are fine even on complex models.

[Fredmc]

For those in my position being on a low budget, I finally found a great modeler and a reasonable price, Spazz3D ($100). It handles sensors very well, just drag and drop it onto the object. At first I found that when I tried to load the object into WF I would get the dreaded can't load error. With a bit of experimenting with Spazz I discovered that the problem was the export settings that I had selected. When I clicked the "Export All geometry as Indexed Face Set" option all problems went away. Other software that can be used only for modeling that I tried were Truespace 3 and Amorphium v1, Merlin 3D, all dirt cheap on ebay, $30 or less! Then Dune which is free.

After creating an object in Spazz3D, and loading into WF, I discovered that if I check off on "Show Sensor Ports", then go back to the wire diagram, that the sensors would not show up on the in or out ports. However, I discovered a moment ago that if I do not check "Show Property In-ports", "Show Touchsensor ports", and "Enable Touchsensors" that everything works great. I hooked up the 3d object out ports sensors to the system object and selected print pulse. All of the mouse functions like press, release, over, and out sent pulses accordingly. So I guess it all works, however, I am so new to WF that I haven't made it up to building a working simulation yet.

I've had WF for a bit more than a week so far, and have spent most of my time trying to find suitable vrml modelers that can easily handle touch sensors, and that I can afford. It would be great to own the big ones like Lightwave, 3DS Max, and so on, but if you can't afford, try the ones I mentioned above.

I've developed many photorealistic equipment simulations with things like Visual Basic, Flash MX, Authorware, Quest, Toolbook, and IconAuthor. However none do 3D, or really stink at it, but all ok for 2D sims. I've tried ones like EON, Atlier, 3D Game Studio, Dark Basic, 3DRAD, and Quest3D. All are either too expensive, or take too much time to develop in, or have a steep learning curve.

So far I have found WF to be totally delightful to work with. In the week or so I figured out how to turn knobs, flip switches, and make analog/digital meters display. I will be writing tutorials on equipment simulations and sending to Stefano so all of us can learn from them. WF has really opened up a new world of development for all of us. No matter if you are using the trial version, or a registered user, be the pioneer and develop and share your discoveries. I see a very bright future for Demicron and some of you that will eventually purchase the commercial version and start making some cash.

Stefano, once again, thanks. Everyone just watch WF rise in popularity!

[Fredmc]

I forgot to mention in my last post, animation in Spazz is easy to do, and WF loads the animation without any problem at all!

[Stefano]

Angelo, could you please send me example vrml files exported from Lightwave? One with normal animations and one with morph animations?

We could then probably make a fix for it soon.

I would really appreciate it!

/Stefano

[Stefano]

Fred, thanks for sharing this information about Spazz3D!

The reason you needed to use the option Export All geometry as Indexed Face Set is that WF-3D currently can't handle primitives, i.e. sheres, cubes etc. It's the same thing in 3ds max. We will fix that soon however!

You shouldn't need a 3D tool that handles (adds) touchsensors. Touchsensors can be added from the 3D Scene object. In the Appearance tab, simply select the object you want to be a touchsensor, then mark the two checkboxes Show touchsensor ports and Enable touchsensor. Now you should have a set of touchsensor out-ports found at Out-ports > Touch Sensors > [object name]

Also, thanks for the nice words about WireFusion! I hope you're right

We are all looking forward to see some equipment simulations examples and also read your tutorials!!

/Stefano

[Douglas]

For those Mac users out there: besides the full featured modelers like Maya, Lightwave, Cinema 4D, and FormZ, there is a simple low-polygon mesh modeler called Meshworks ( http://codenautics.com/meshwork/ ).

I have been trying to convert my high-poly models so they will load quickly in WireFusion, but in the future, it may be less of a work-around to model from the get-go for a low poly count. I have C4D, but I am looking into meshwork for low-poly modeling.

(Using Polygon Reduction in C4D causes my color maps to turn into crud.)

PS: it's only $30 bucks!

Douglas

[bobo]

How about cosmo worlds 2.0?

http://www.sgi.com/software/cosmo/worlds.html

downloads:

http://www.geocities.com/MotorCity/4630 ... orlds.html
(because, i think "sgi" don't supporting cosmo worlds anymore but i'm not sure)

This tool let you edit wrl-scenes without scripting!

and for scripting i'm using VrmlPad2.0-editor from ParallelGraphics

http://www.parallelgraphics.com/bin/vpad20.exe
(Price: 149.95$ about 120€)

[Sergei]

Hi Douglas,

What about polygon reduction in VizUp 3D Reducer?
Please try it with your color maps.
You could find the software here (see product section of this site).

Sincerely,
Sergei