I've given plenty of props to Unity so far, but even a great engine is only as good as the content you feed it. To create content for a game, you obviously need tools for 3D modeling, animation, texturing, and music/sound editing. Thankfully, there are quite a few options out there even for people operating with a limited budget.
For 3D, I had been leaning toward Blender, since it's free and includes an impressive list of features. It also has a big time learning curve and an unconventional interface.
I recently picked up a copy of Cheetah3D, however, which is very reasonably priced and offers nearly every feature I need: first-class modeling tools, skeletal animation, UV mapping, 3D texture painting, and, in the most recent beta, light mapping. The user interface is a snap to learn as well, and objects created in Cheetah can be imported seamlessly into Unity.
I'm getting to the point now where I will need to begin churning out content and building the game world. Efficiency is paramount for a small shop, so tools like Unity and Cheetah can make a daunting task much more manageable.
My next post will talk about some design decisions required to set up a real-time battle system.
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Building a world
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Hey Ben, my buddy here at work uses Modo, it is a pretty sweet 3d modeling app, cross platform as well... if you are still exploring your options you may want to check it out at:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.luxology.com/
I like the blog a lot, the whole project is very cool... I will definitely be checking back in on your progress.
Yeah, Modo looks really cool. I've read about it some, but I never looked at it too much because it's about $600 more expensive than Cheetah3D. It's still cheaper than Maya, however, and seems to have a full compliment of features.
ReplyDeleteCheetah is definitely a low-budget app, but it's great for the entry price range. It's also developed by one guy, which is amazing to me.