what's the best map editor for Irrlicht?

[afecelis]

but if what you need is a map editor (level editor) I'd say Gtkradiant is great and produces sweet lightmaps; or you could give Deled free version a shot (Irrlicht loads deled's dmf files), tho lightmaps are not as pretty as in the pro version.

[Guest]

I really recommend using Blender, even if you are desperate after the money. Its open-minded communities will help you learning much faster. And your knowledge is usable with any 3D-package afterwards.

As i am only willing to use Max if you beat or pay me well, I can only tell you how to import 3ds in Blender and solve the problem there.

I am only willing to use Blender if you put a 10 gauge shot gun to my head, and threaten to make me watch Auburn University football games.

Blender is....well....complicated, especially if you've never been a linux user.The User Interface, while prettier than most other linux programs, is difficult to navigate around, as almost as ridiculous as later version of 3dsMax.And although Linux users may harp about the way it searches for or saves files is the best, it's clunky to a windows user, and also hard to find where you even put the thing at.I found that the time I spent on learning the ins and outs of blender, I could have already been doing great things in Milkshape.( I know---25$....but it is amazing, and well worth it).

[michael520]

well.....
I think when I am familiar with the user interface of blender, i really can be a master. but how to learn to use it? I even don't know how to rotate the viewport, wasting me a lot of time.

So, when people are saying blender is perfect, should they do a little work on the user manual or else, which will make blender more popular!

[Conquistador]

Blender is....well....complicated, especially if you've never been a linux user.The User Interface, while prettier than most other linux programs, is difficult to navigate around, as almost as ridiculous as later version of 3dsMax

I've been learning Blender for about 3 days now, and if you just stick with it and keep trying all the little shortcuts and things you now consider complicated will become natural, I remember when I first tried it, and they're right when they say you can't learn it by yourself, but I looked up some tutorials and references, and now it's coming along quite well for me.

[Guest]

I tossed all the commercial soft after years of use just because i got the hang of BLENDER.
Stop telling stories about that BLENDER is for LINUX only.

Micheal520:
So, when people are saying BLENDER is perfect, should they do a little work on the user manual or else, which will make blender more popular!

Nothing is perfect dumbo.
This is an OPEN SOURCE software, meaning that it is well immortal cause it exists as long as a user community does.

Quite a few tuts, even video tuts (good for people with bad english or reading impaired). You just have to search a little bit cause they take up quite a bit bandwith which people have to pay. Nobody needs to pay or gets paid for it except Ton (Foundation employee). So who is going to do all the noob stuff and who pays for the bandwith?

You are just a spoilt kid who is used to get pushed to consommation. They succesful use of OPEN SOURCE software will be earned however.

But actually i would be glad if you just continue using something else. Go try to ask this way at CGtalk. They will simply ignore you.

[bearSoft]

*sigh* there ought to be a rule: "-Guests cant bitch or be abusive"
my 1 cent (not worth more) on the Blender splender discusion is:
Blender is difficult but powerful. The second fact spawns the first.

What i would like was if someone who -realy- knew the what / how /whitch of blender, would spend a sunday writing a serious limited tut on ONLY the parts needed to take -any- 'model' in say obj or 3ds format and set one controlled animation on one 'limb', that would work in IRR -incl. exporters, UV's, normals and all.

My biggest woe is that i can now ditch all i learned about anim8tor because i cant animate anim8tor meshes (3ds) in IRR..
Thats painfull

[xycos]

-_______- Back to the thing about the model displaying wierd, try triangulating it. I've never worked with Max or Blender (I'm a Maya person myself), but I had lots of problems with wierd tesselation on my quads and n-gons. Also, try rebuilding the surface (I'm sure both programs have ways to do it) and choosing to automatically remove nonmanifold geometry. This will automatically ensure all the normals are facing the same direction.

I've only played with Blender once and never looked at 3DS Max, but all 3D programs seem pretty similar. I think it's a bit like programming languages - once you have the basics down, the actual implementation of them you use is quite immaterial. As long as you're working with a powerful program, it'll come out the same.

Anyway, this topic answered my map question, so ignore my other one.

[Quantum]

@ michael520

I'm VERY new to Irrlicht... but what impressed me about it was the ease of importing models. So far I've only used X visuals with Irrlicht (using the Max Panda exporter)... and I haven't had to flip any normals

I only have experience with 3DS Max 5... but regardless of which modeller you do decide to run with, the simple answer on how to edit normals in Max is:... go to 'Modifiers' on the menu bar... select 'Mesh Editing'...then select 'Normals Modifier'... and on the right of the screen you will see an option to 'Flip Normals' or 'Unify Normals'. Either check it or uncheck it depending on which way your problem shows.