Calling All Experts...

[x2495iiii]

Dr. Jim, DickBaldwin, and anyone else, can you help me out here?

I'm in the process of learning how to convert 3d models into formats Alice accepts. I know that it's inefficient and buggy and it might work better in software other than Alice, but I kinda want to stick with Alice, cause its easy, familiar, and a lot of my current projects are in Alice. So, in your opinions, what are the best:

3d modelers? (best free one and best for sale one)

model conversion processes? (please be as clear and distinct as possible)

model sizes? (what's too much for Alice to handle?)

model download sites? (if there are any with models that are already in Alice-friendly formats, list those as well. Again, give the best free site and the best for sale site).

You guys are the best. I'm counting on you.

[DickBaldwin]

Dr. Jim, DickBaldwin, and anyone else, can you help me out here?

I'm in the process of learning how to convert 3d models into formats Alice accepts. ...

Wish I could help, but you just wandered outside my area of expertise. DrJim is probably your best bet on this.

Dick Baldwin

[DrJim]

That's a long enough question that it would need a book length answer - something I've thought about, but I'm afraid Alice 3.0 would make it obsolete (something the classic texts may also face).

Some quick responses:

For modeling, I like Anim8or, which is free and has quite good built-in animation capabilities of it's own. If you are thinking of doing this professionally, you might want to start with the free version of Maya or with Blender. Both are much more difficult to use - but also much more powerful.

For conversions, I use Biturn. You have to import textures and meshes separately. (Search the forum for more detailed information.)

For size, I find over a few thousand polygons is more than Alice can handle. If you have a really powerful machine, you might be able to do better - but commercial projects typically use arrays of very powerful machines - and still take hours to render!

One nice free site for models that fit into Alice well is http://necromanthus.com/main.html .

For more information addressing all of your questions, I suggest you look through the Share Objects section of the forum. There are lots of suggestions for model sites and examples of program use.

[jediaction]

Alice can take many File sizes and Model sizes, but there is a limit. once the game gets or 60MB, it starts crashign and it will fail the loading

[x2495iiii]

It actually start slowing up at around 20MB. At that point, you have to be creative as to what you put on screen if you want normal playback (setting things that are offscreen so that they're not showing is a good way to speed things up).

Wow, I made that original post almost a year ago. I've learned a LOT since then, including the answer to my above question.

Oh hey! That's the site I got the Triple Gun, Beretta, and MP5 models from!

[Zxblqcktptydfkjsplkn13379]

If you find a way to convert Sketchup models, call me. Best program I've found so far, and the 3d warehouse has SO many models.

[jediaction]

Yah, we know about the 3d warehouse. Thats where we get our objects, but yah thanks for bringing it up

[Dameria]

How do you convert sketchup (.skp) to .ase objects that can be imported by Alice?

[x2495iiii]

Those aren't Collada files, those are Sketchup files, so you have to open up Sketchup, open the .skp file, then export the model as a Collada (.dae) file.