folks,

one of the ideas from amiwest 2012 was that intuitionbase.com should run a contest to see what are the favorite applications of next-generation amiga users. so we thought we'd start off this week with a few categories, this thread being the last this week: 3D graphics packages compatible with our NG amiga computers.

we've selected our nominees from the OS3 and OS4 software lists we have over on the site and are looking for what you think is the best 3D graphics tool to use on a next-generation amiga in this thread. positive discussion is encouraged! have fun!

and the nominees are:

* aladdin 4D v5.0
* blender
* cinema 4D v4.2
* imagine 3D v6.0 (available through constant upgrade program)
* lightwave 3D v5.20a
* real 3D v3.5
* vistapro



-- eliyahu

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"Physical reality is consistent with universal laws. When the laws do not operate, there is no reality. All of this is unreal."

@eliyahu

I went for blender.

From the ones available on the list I have only tried Cinema4D and blender, you can get some parts of Imagine 4.0 to work on Amiga OS4 but I haven't had great luck with it.

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@broadblues

imagine 3D v6.0 works pretty well, although sometimes i see oddities color-wise when doing a render preview. it's also 68K only. but it's pretty powerful and still technically for sale.

in truth i tend to use blender mostly as well, although sometimes i use aladdin 4D since i find it much easier to use.

-- eliyahu

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"Physical reality is consistent with universal laws. When the laws do not operate, there is no reality. All of this is unreal."

I voted for Blender, but....

Well, the big but is that LightWave is my favorite 3D application, and it's working very well on my X1000 with only a small quibble or two, I find it to be the easiest 3D program ever as far as staging and animation setup goes.

Still, LightWave for Amiga is long dormant as far as development goes and you really need to go, ahem, underground to get a copy. Just the way it is.

Blender, on the other hand, is very powerful and very modern and very free (!) and is a recent port. The learning curve can be a bit steep at first, but there are ample tutorials online including some great ones on YouTube. Serious time spent learning this program can be rewarding if you stick with it. I hope one day we can get a port of a 2.6x version with the more sensible user interface. I'd feel better about time spent learning that interface for sure, since we'd be in sync with other platforms.

I've put Blender aside the last couple of months but I expect I'll pick back up with it soon -- especially with Warp3D coming for my RadeonHD card.

As an aside, I have a soft spot for Imagine too. I tried several versions that I could not get working with my OS4 machines, but finally found that version 5.19 works well. Like with LightWave, there is a small quibble or two (wireframe animation preview doesn't work for me on this or LW) but it's very useable and quite fast on my X1000.

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@eliyahu

The only one I've used is Imagine, but that was an old version back in the 90s. I wasn't aware it had reached v6 or that it was still available.

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Tornado 3D?

@Richi

we thought about it, but didn't it use a hardware dongle incompatible with NG systems?

-- eliyahu

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"Physical reality is consistent with universal laws. When the laws do not operate, there is no reality. All of this is unreal."

@eliyahu

Of the programs listed, I have Real 3D v3.5 and Imagine v3.0 on my MicroA1. I have not used either one enough to rate them.

---
redfox
MicroA1 + AmigaOS 4.1 Update 5

@eliyahu

Lightwave is still the easiest 3D program I have ever used.
Where's the latest source code by the way? I thought NewTek released the lightwave source code....or was it some other amiga software they released as open source?


Scott

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@scabit

lightwave is easy at the beginning and then gets complicated as english in general. a jest on simple minded? however i consider it one of the best of its kind at starts. not anymore.

@broadblues

Quote:

broadblues wrote: @eliyahu I went for blender. From the ones available on the list I have only tried Cinema4D and blender, you can get some parts of Imagine 4.0 to work on Amiga OS4 but I haven't had great luck with it.

hey, that's funny...so did I. ;^)

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@eliyahu

I've worked with all of them except for VistaPro and I'd have to vote for Blender because it offers the most possibilities.

It's difficult to learn (bad UI design IMHO), being too complex to "try everything", so the best way to go is to set some specific goal and learn what is needed along the way.

What makes Blender even harder to use is that it doesn't have any presets, all material properties have to be specified with floating point values between 0.0 and 1.0 which gives unlimited artistic freedom but requires a lot of trial and error to recreate mere approximations of real-world materials.

Even so, Blender is simply the most advanced 3D package we have (thanks again Andy!) but in some areas like speed, ease of use, real-world lighting, material and camera specs, our good old programs still have an edge.

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AmigaOne XE/X1000/X5000/UAE-PPC OS4 laptop/X-10 Home Automation

@AlexC

Quote:

It's difficult to learn (bad UI design IMHO), being too complex to "try everything", so the best way to go is to set some specific goal and learn what is needed along the way.

I don't undertsnd this frequent statement, I found the basic GUI easy to learn. I occasionally have issue remebering where certain features reside (which tab to find them on) but that's because it has so many.

Quote:

What makes Blender even harder to use is that it doesn't have any presets, all material properties have to be specified with floating point values between 0.0 and 1.0 which gives unlimited artistic freedom but requires a lot of trial and error to recreate mere approximations of real-world materials.

There are large libraries of materials online, so whilst they don't come bundled with the allready enormous archive, it's easy to find "presets" that suit your needs. You can import materials from previously saved blend files.

Last edited by broadblues on 30-Oct-2012 at 11:09 AM.

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BroadBlues On Blues BroadBlues On Amiga Walker Broad

@scabit

The source code to the Amiga Video Toaster and Flyer was released. No source code for Amiga LW3D was ever released. Why would it be? LW3D is still developed and sold. It's one of the top 3D animation programs of all time.

Last edited by DiscreetFX on 30-Oct-2012 at 02:45 PM.

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Sent from my Quantum Computer.

@eliyahu

Blender is by far the best 3D software you have. It is not easy to get into but totally worth the effort.

Have only used imagine 4.0 and real3d, lightwave also, but was too complex.. imagine is too but i managed it:)

In these days i have bought Aladin 4D5 but did't got it runing on my 460ex..

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@DiscreetFX

"No source code for Amiga LW3D was ever released. Why would it be? LW3D is still developed and sold."

To my understanding the Amiga version is not developed or sold.
There should be no harm in releasing the old source code.
We could then improve it and make it PPC native.

Ofcourse, it would be nicer to get the latest version ported to Amiga.

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- KimmoK
// For freedom, for honor, for AMIGA
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I voted blende because its the most modern with video editing capabilities but Lightwave is number 1A because of it's familiarity to me and its history with the Amiga

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@klx300r

1) Lightwave (currently use)
2) Blender


:)

@eliyahu
No dongle if i remember correctly. It didn't work on Os4 initially. I sent a limited version that was coming with a magazine to one of the two Friedens. I don't know what happened next.