Some questions on 3D software...

Hi all,

I'm a noob game developer who is currently using a rival unamed product. I'm very interested in Torque 3D as an alternative for reasons I won't get into here.

So far, my biggest concern is the ability to reliably create and export animated models from a 3rd party 3D modeling and animation program. In many ways, I can't really evaluate a game engine without first nailing down a reliable asset pipeline.

I thought I would come to the Torque community to get some feedback on what others are using.

Firstly though, some specifics on what I need or don't need to narrow the choice:

I DO need:
1) Basic model primitives (cube, sphere, cylinder, etc.)
2) Some sort of bone rigging system.
3) UV mapping.
4) Basic keyframe animation.
5) Some sort of grid system to allow very precise placement and scaling of objects.
6) (and I can't stress this one enough) WORKING, RELIABLE Collada export which includes mesh / animation / textures. (Note, I would find DTS acceptable also but it seems far less supported than Collada).

I DO NOT need:
1) Hair, cloth, or any other extremely complex surface.
2) Any physics at all (I see some products are really pushing that)
3) The ability to create realistic human, alien or animal forms. (All my characters are robots)
4) Any sort of advanced lighting.
5) Terrains. (Already have that covered assuming T3D can import height maps).
6) Software that costs $3500 (ie, anything from Autodesk).
7) Fluid, natural movements and gestures.
8) Facial expressions of any kind. (Not even adorable ones.)

Also, here's my system specs in case it matters:
Windows 7 64 bit, 2 gig nVidia graphics card, 8 gig of RAM. Intel, dual core 3.4 ghz.

Here's what Ive looked at so far:
Blender (FREE)
1-5) More than adequate.
6) Complete disaster so far. Tried 3 different releases and they all fail to export reliably. That's a weekend I will never get back.

NOTES: Too bad because I really like it otherwise. I have conquered the 'hostile' interface and reached a point of proficiency where I can be quite productive. But I'm really put off by the unstable nature of the releases and the complete failure (so far) of the Collada export, the DTS export or frankly their whole 'copy a python script into this hidden directory and pray' export system. I think if I ever did find a version that had reliable Collada export, I would lock it down into a virtual machine and never, ever upgrade it.

TrueSpace (FREE)
1-5) More than adequate.
6) Two out of 3. I was able to export an animated figure into Torque but the shaders or textures didn't come along for the ride. I think this issue is possibly conquerable though.

NOTES: My biggest concern with this one is that it is truly dead, unsupported software. However, I was very impressed by the animation export.

MilkShape ($70?)
1-5) This seems to have everything I need.
6) Don't know yet but everything I read says it has extremely good export and import facilities and maybe even worth the price just as a conversion tool.

NOTES: I have two problems with MilkShape. One real and one psychological. The real one is the fact that every time I try to follow a tutorial, it crashes on me! Sometimes just clicking on one of the view ports is enough. Not sure why. All my drivers are up to date and I don't have this problem with any other software. The second, imagined problem is what I could best describe as bare bones interface shock. After weeks of Blender 2.5x, I just feel like I've taken a 20 year step backwards in the interface with MilkShape. A bit hard to believe Blender is free but MilkShape is paid. But I could deal with that if it wasn't for the crashing thing.

Daz Studio (FREE or $75 / Pro):
http://beta.daz3d.com/i/software/daz_studio/comparison?_m=d
1) Yes.
2) Yes.
3) I THINK it does. It says it supports multiple UV's but I don't see any indication that you can unwrap them. So I'm not entirely sure what you can do there yet.
4) Yes (although it seems its not really fully included in the free version, has its own $59 license after 30 days).
5) No idea.
6) I have not yet tested. I have seen a demo video of this used to export a quite impressive human character into Torque 3D however so I feel it is quite likely to work.

Daz Carrara ($75 or $249 / Pro):
http://beta.daz3d.com/i/software/carrara/comparison?_m=d
1) Yes.
2) Yes.
3) If I'm reading the comparison matrix properly, it seems that only the Pro version has UV unwrapping. Can that be true?
4) Yes. In fact, the animation looks quite advanced.
5) No idea.
6) I have not yet tested. I assume if Daz has it working for Studio they must also have it working for what seems to be their premier product but I've seen stranger things!

NOTES: In some ways, the Daz products look to be very human figure centric (especially Studio) and seem to be sort of Trojan Horses to get you into the asset purchasing mode. That's OK as long as I can also use the tools to create my own original assets. And any software that can build and render something as complex as a human form can certainly handle something clunky and mechanical like a robot. So I ASSUME both of these products would be more than adequate but I will have to test them of course.

Houdini – At first glance, I'm just going to go ahead and assume that this does everything I need, everything I don't need and a lot of stuff I haven't even heard of yet and is just $99. (Is it just me or does that sound suspiciously like a description of a prostitute?) Unless I want to use it professionally and then it jumps to $2k. Of course, I can already hear myself playing what I call the Unity game: "But if I make a game that is sellable, I can just upgrade then!"

Ligthwave - $899.

Anyway, this is what I've looked at so far to lesser or greater degrees. I would appreciate any feedback on any of these tools or any other tools that have been tried with Torque 3D.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Mike