26

(13 replies, posted in General)

255 wrote:

So maybe with Chrome it doesn't happen?
Vegas, com3D, VeganDev, do you use Firefox?

I , and both my friends now ( who  used to use firefox), all use IE.

I've never had any of the issues you here, seem to be alluding to, and I can't think of any other issues to relay that might help out, sorry.

27

(19 replies, posted in Showcase)

255 wrote:

This "plugin" of mine (it's actually an addition to a C++ plugin given in the form of source files) allows you to draw points and vectors in your scene so that you can visually see them instead of operating just with numbers.
This is useful when debugging: let's say you want to calculate a direction vector to move a character along it.
It doesn't work as expected, so you use my plugin to visually see where this vector is pointing to help you understand what is possibily going wrong (e.g. it's pointing in the inverse direction or 90° wrong, I don't know).

However, the first sentence alone in my first post answers both Tutorial Doctor's questions ("what is this about" and "do I need C++").
But I also added:
a code example
and
an image
You may not be able to use it, but you can't say that you don't get what this is about.
As you don't know C++, I don't know Lua. But this doesn't justify negligently (superficially) reading a post. And you're good at it too lol as we've seen in the other thread of mine. I'm not trying to be a moron but come on, read my first post and then read Tutorial Doctor's question: it feels like a joke (I know it was not meant to); it's like this:
«Hey there I've made a recipe to make a cake.»
«What's this about? Do I need a kitchen?»
You may not be good at cooking, but this doesn't justify your question.

BTW please let's quit this and go on with other discussion topics like the other question of yours:

VeganDev wrote:

Speaking of plugins, was this ever resolved, as in can we now have multiple plugins ? That is mandatory to do any serious game, right ?

It depends. In the case of this plugin of mine, you can easily add it to your plugin code and just doing:

#include "Visual3DMath.h"

allows you to use its functionalities.
If you do more complex plugin, which for example does something every frame, like moving an entity, then yes, you should need more plugins.
You'll end up with more DLL files but it's not a big deal.
However since all the plugins edit the same MGame class there could be incompatibilities.
So I'm not sure how doable it is to have more DLL.

You know what, just  because you are a 'almighty' programmer, doesn't allow you to be RUDE. You are clearly NOT from Missouri.

You are flat, rude.

YOu are lucky anael is who he is, or you would be REMOVED from this forum. I still think you should be. You need a RUDE awakening, to the fact, that you are human, Im human, TD is human, and you don't 'get away' with talking DOWN to people .

What about that, is difficult for you, to grasp ? YOu are one to say, 'ah come on', so Im asking you, --really, come on now! wink

I guess your blinding intellect, blinds you to the finer points of accommodating other peoples FEELINGS. We aren't robots with no feelings, but even so, if we were and were more like the 'doctor' on voyager then we'd still be feeling the marks of your stinging comments.

I also see you replied with more detail, and that's just lovely of you, but I've no interested in reading it, as I could not get beyond your arrogant attitude, long enough to concentrate on your response.  If I saw an apology, I could prob. do it though wink I see a lot of people making seriously mean  comments, and not offering apologies afterwards. There seems to be a trend going on around here lately....Is this what it means to be a programmer ? To be mean, and disprectful to other peoples feelings ? Count me OUT if that's what all this means ;)haha.

Just, Wow.

There are consequences in life, usually, for  arrogance such as yours, but I guess around here that might not apply.

'can't we all just get along', isn't going to work really well, when someone is willing to throw out nasty bombs. Just sayin...

If you are having posts cut off TD, you might need to switch to using IE browser as a experiment ?, My friends were having similar issues with firefox ( and other things) which caused him to switch to IE as well. good luck!

And btw, before anyone presumes Im ANGRY or going on and on, this is not the case. Just ask my local friends , when they get in their arrogant little 'moods', and then ask them what happens :)hahaha. I hold THEM accountable, and fire right back at them, so they know they did wrong. This doesn't mean Im not vulernable to not being rude at times, as we all have faults and try hard to 'overcome' them, but in the part of the world IM FROM, we apologize afterwards for rudeness.

If I've ever been rude to someone, and it wasn't called for specificially by their actions, then I apologize right now in advance. Stuff happens, but apologies SHOULD be offered always. ;)heh

28

(23 replies, posted in General)

zester wrote:

Here VeganDev I tested it out for you.....

Story: As Zester, TD, VeganDev  enter,  what appears to be an abondoned alien spacecraft, Zester smiles at TD clips a lifeline to VeganDevs harness and pushes him over the side. As both Zester and TD ROFL they can here VeganDev whimpering "THAT WASN'T FUNNY GUYS!!!!" Zester reply's with "Ohhh hush your not hurt, by the way how far is the drop and do you see anything that looks like alien eggs?" VeganDev responds with "YAH its far and I see .... there is something moving down here" Zester then pulls his flash light from his belt turns it on and tosses it over the side. TD looks at zester confused. Zester responds  "he is from Missouri, its the 'show me' state well, if there hostile or hungry he will find out in a min." TD "Gocha good thinking".

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-mjO4kMlfvWI/UmYhEdh2AnI/AAAAAAAABtc/R3ZqV3KlTAU/w960-h540-no/untitled.png

5 Min later TD turns to Zester "He doesn't sound to good down there" Zester responds "VeganDev you want my LazerBlaster?"
VeganDev "Ahhhh oh god its in my mouth, caugh caugh ahhhhhh no no no no!!!!!!". Zester "Hmmm nope looks like he has it under control, besides he is non-violent I don't think he uses firearms"  TD "Ohhh thats right ok".


And that ladys and gents is the power of a short story, a 6 poly cube and a motherboard greeble, and why irritating me while on a strange alienship is typically a bad idea.

Captain's Zester and TD were later accommodated and ranked to General, for there bravery and heroic efforts and discovering the mating habits of the "Vocteee" a previously unknown and intelligent species of space squid originating from the third moon of saturn.

Sorry  but NO, haha. I remain unconvinced, as your image is very lackluster, compared to the 'starwars' ship, which Im almost positive now given your lame attempt )( lol), was done via the software/automated setup noted on the wiki page wink

Your ahem, incoherent story telling rambling aside , I'm still in the 'SHOWME' stage ,,haha

Somehow I seriously refuse to believe, that a  multimillion dollar studio like lucas arts, is going to be doing what we here on a oss engine website are doing, at least when it comes to making starwars ships look 'authentic'. And no, I don't particularly find your 'borg' cube impressive LOL.  E for effort wink

So just how bored are you lately zester, or is that some type of psychotic disorder doing on there ? ;0-0heh

29

(23 replies, posted in General)

I think what's not being said here, is that to get anything that is going to look appropriate for the type of game you need, most likely is going to take a lot of artist time, that or maybe for some prototype, or a game where detail is less an issue, then a greeble might be ok. Example, I find it very very hard to believe, the starship above, was just made by greebles, because the detail looks to me to be very precise.

Until I see a video showing the entire process of such a highly detailed object done, the starship for example, I refuse to believe that's how it was done. SOrry, but sometimes I call a spade a spade wink Im also from Missouri, its the 'show me' state wink Words are cheap. THe normal map thing is obvious  but that's a far cry away from making something as complex as a starship skin from the offered picture wink

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greeble < if you checkout this page, it sure sounds to me as though greebles were : "  created automatically by specific software in order to avoid the time consuming process of manually creating large numbers of precise, custom geometry. This can often be tedious, and repetitive work, and some consider it a task best suited to automatic, software based procedural generation, particularly if a great degree of control is unnecessary or the greebles will not be particularly large on screen. Most greeble generating software work by sub-dividing the surface to be greebled into smaller regions, adding some detail to each new surface, and then recursively continuing this process on each new surface to some specified level of detail. Similar algorithms are used in the creation of fractal surfaces.  "

30

(19 replies, posted in Showcase)

Speaking of plugins, was this ever resolved, as in can we now have multiple plugins ? That is mandatory to do any serious game, right ?

Also, unless the info is contained in your archive, I doubt TD is going to know much about the subject matter involved, as I wouldn't either. He barely programs in lua as do I (  adequately ), and c++ is a leap of faith at this juncture, if you get my drift <harhar> tongue

To be great at programming, or so I hear, takes 10 years and I think those that are already there, sometimes forget that .

cu
VD

31

(23 replies, posted in General)

zester wrote:
Tutorial Doctor wrote:

Hmm, so a greeble is a combination of normal maps and displacement maps?

Greeble  "A greeble or nurnie is a fine detailing added to the surface of a larger object that makes it appear more complex, and therefore more visually interesting."

You could use displacement maps but normally, I think normal maps are all that's called for.

Trouble is though  I don't think you are giving us all the info. Where do we get the normal map from if not the high res texture ? Where does that come from, if you don't create it first ? That doesn't sound quick, or easy to me at all. Details needed wink We don't all work for game studios and therefore have this info at quick retrieval wink

thx
VD

zester wrote:

Welcome back VeganDev.

VeganDev wrote:

I don't use blender, actually I avoid it whenever possible ( because sculptris is SO much better for this, and SO much easier!!! )

Sculpting terrain in Blender like, Roberto Roch teaches with his "Create a Rocky Video Game Terrain in Blender" defiantly isn't a method I would recommend, it takes to long and requires to much artistic capability. Sculptris might be better suited, I don't know "not a program I use". I use a different method entirely, its fast, easy to do. The above terrain took about an hour, but that was to figure out a good workflow. I(Anyone) can do the same terrain in about 20min or less once you have the workflow down. And then if you want to multires in Blender or "Sculptris" you can.

VeganDev wrote:

I
Oh btw, just in case; I want to state emphatically , for the record, that while some posts may contain references to disgusting, bloody, gruesome,  violent things, that I in no way condone them on any level ( I am not here to support or accept them whatsoever ), wish we could all create non violent based games.

Violent content can also be used to build empathy or used as a deterrent. You can show me one or two articles arguing your point, I can show hundreds of millions of examples  proving mine. I once made a video game for a anti-smoking campaign, as effective as it was it was deemed to be far to explicit for there targeted age range, and never viewed outside of the test group.

I can still see it ... "Want to play again? "NO" Want a cigarette? "Tears" ... "Is that really how you die from smoking!!!"  Ummm yahhh kid thats really what its like.

Note: I doubt any of those kids ever did start smoking after I traumatized them.


I can't wait for the Oculus Rift, I have a whole line up of Anti-Gang, Drug, Bullying, No Means NO!!!!, .... simulations.

Well we all need heroes, and that won't ever change. Sad thing is, some kids take as heroes, those who should prob. be in jail, or are in jail. YOu had a bad childhood, I didn't, that's how life goes, but thankfully we can sometimes take that negativity, and turn it into something good. That's the preferred turnaround method wink

However having said that, your example, is just like my high school days where the 'movie in drivers ed' was quite gruesome, and aimed at making sure we would 'slow down' and be extremely dutiful students behind the wheel. I suspect it worked overall , at least for a time, and then, based on childhood and peer pressure, there was another group determined to do nasty things regardless.

It's kind of comparing apples and oranges.  I was mostly referring to  unnecessary and gratuitoius violence in games, like GTA5, which my friend tells me, is even more violent than their predecessors ? NO idea, I've not seen it nor do I plan on it wink

IF the game would leave out the stupid stuff, and leave in the driving around, the snorkeling etc. etc., it would be far more popular I suspect, at least with the kids that have good grades and aren't in life just to cause trouble.

My path is about giving kids/adults less incentive to consider violence ( and the domino effect it can have, as has been seen) by offering games of equal or great enjoyment ( Hitchcock vs todays gruesome nonsense), and there are solid ( as I've shown on these forums) articles backing me up, and your path to use a degree of violence to alter certain types of negative behavior. If so, well then, we get to the same conclusion via a bit different journey wink

I liked your last terrain  more about the texture honestly but it all looked nice wink

All of our entries into game creation at the end of the day, if they are to be a lasting entry, are going to be all about the details and how much it draws in the player into the world we create.

Doubt that ( I know you don't of course), and play WoW sometime , or any similar MMORPG. Allods also looks very nice, though similar to WoW, having simplistic goals that please the masses. Fun at first maybe, especially with a friend, but it soon becomes oh so boring.

cu  around wink
VD

33

(5 replies, posted in Tutorials/Examples)

Ok ty very much for the videos, and I shall have a peek as time permits.

Cheers
VD

I don't use blender, actually I avoid it whenever possible ( because sculptris is SO much better for this, and SO much easier!!! ), but having said this, I was successful, finally, in getting textured terrains into Maratis. I was pleased to have success, though honeslty its way too much of a headache for words. It should be a streamlined process, not a invite to calamity wink I hope somehow over time, this is fixed wink I may throw up a tutorial of my own, who knows wink It seems to be a popular thing lately, and now that I have a MIC and a good recording tool both audio and visual...

Oh btw, just in case; I want to state emphatically , for the record, that while some posts may contain references to disgusting, bloody, gruesome,  violent things, that I in no way condone them on any level ( I am not here to support or accept them whatsoever ), wish we could all create non violent based games, and that my signature makes that clear. I am here to partake in the use of a promising MIT based engine , that unlike many other engines, has a decent overall editor with promise.

So thanks Anael for that, though I hope someday you fix the plugin stuff so we aren't a split community ? wink

35

(5 replies, posted in Tutorials/Examples)

Game theory and game mechanics are what help you to establish a good "OORR WE DO": < I don't think OORR WE DO, is helping anyone not see this as spam.

I know TD ( only from the forums, not in real life), and  have no specific reason not to trust him at all, but I too won't be clicking.He/she would have no control over any spam that might come from this site, and given I 've never heard of this site, Im also resisting going to it. I have antispam here, but I'd rather avoid than attempt. NO offense TD, those are my real thoughts and have no bearing whatsoever, on what I think of you as a  helper for these forums.

It's great that you want to help others, but, I would vastly prefer you give us the original document URL, instead of giving us the information through your eyes, because you might not have understood all the relevant information. NO matter how smart someone is, does not prevent them from misunderstandings. I see this everyday, with my neighbor, so while thanks are in order for your attempt TD, I think we should have  the original document so we can view it ourselves in its original format/content.

36

(42 replies, posted in Showcase)

Cute level TD smile Decent music, nice space background, but I still think that the method of movement you have chosen is very annoying.                   

Think of how world of warcraft allows movement, and I think you will see just how difficult your method is on the player. It's difficult to rotate player and have it line up JUST where you want it, to move in that direction.  WOW"s system is much more intuitive I think, but again that's just my opinion and take that for what its worth. Your method might apply to other games, but I think when you want accurate/quick responses from player to the environment, that you need a more tactically accurate feeling system like what wow uses.

AS a example its fine, but I also think the sponaza example is a far better movement system as its so easy to point/move precisely where you want wink

Good job otherwise, and please accept this as constructive criticisms as its intended wink

Cheers
hs wink

37

(11 replies, posted in Gossip)

VOidworld looks quite nice, but the only problem is, its rather old software, meaning in windows 7, even with compat. mode ON, it refuses to leave the ' visual tool' open, even though the tool starts up on initial run. I even tried  the view menu, and it blinks for a split second, but wont' stay up. That caveat should be included, so people are wondering wth ?

I c hecked out tutorials for this very interesting app, but I saw nowhere in the few  I found where it said anything about this 'window' not showing up out of box on first run.

It's a good topic, but I sure wish we would stay away from language like    a zombie eating someones face. I think its better to err on the side of caution given we don't know the age of everyone coming here wink

http://ithp.org/articles/violentvideogames.html

39

(19 replies, posted in Gossip)

Don't blame autodesk, that's cheap wink BLender must stand on its own, or not at all , but judging by some comments I"ve seen over time, I'm not entirely sure they care. Time will tell.

As I say and to reiterate as its important, OSS is the great equalizer vs apps that are outside the realm of possibility for most of us, but thankfully blender is far from the only choice, and with assimp that should make it all a non issue.  I'm not sure about shaders or other specific things about maratis exporter in blender, but I'd rather learn all that the hard way than be stuck using blender.

40

(19 replies, posted in Gossip)

It's just such a shame, that the blender community ( and obviously some devs) can be so thoughtless;)

Such a shame...I've seen it over and over again, and the proof is on the forums ( blenderartists and I've seen other things on CGartists and  blender itself ), and I have zero desire to be any part of such disgusting behavior, even if others there are less disgusting..I'd just rather not take the chance of running into that 'attitude' ever again. That's how I feel about it, and you might too had you gone through the 'turntable vs trackball' discussion as I did, and have to deal with such arrogance and hostility. It was disgusting.

I'd be happy to leave blender in the dust and just use Maya , if money was no issue.

I am definitely glad that blender has a presence here in maratis though, because I always said to myself that I wanted to try to use all OSS , because its the great equalizer between the have's and have not's, but I can't betray my values just to use such things. That's why I steer clear of blender and have dedicated myself to Art Of Illusion, which is equally capable in many areas wink

41

(6 replies, posted in General)

For starters,I wish some other website than uploadmb could be used, as I never have much luck with the download 'automatically' starting,so I wind up waiting far too long. There are other places to upload to like skydrive or dropbox or whatever wink

But ya, I agree, if you fix something, indicating how  you did it might help someone else struggling with this issue.

42

(40 replies, posted in Engine)

http://www.maratis3d.org/?page_id=53 < why not just use this for now...GUIDEMO at bottom of screen.

43

(14 replies, posted in Tutorials/Examples)

I think you are confusing terminologies or have expectations not being met ? What makes you think it is offset ?

When I test sponza, it perfectly lives up to my expectations as in you press UP arrow and you move throughout the building. That is expected behavior wink The floor is flat, so as you move there is no alteration in those phsyics , as expected. The same holds true if I walk over a 'terrain' mesh ( just a mesh ) and its not flat but hilly and uneven, whereby your player now moves along with the surface contours, as expected.

Same with any mesh.  I won't get any difference in behavior, faik, until you for example, create 'feet' and have an animation as in yofrankie level.

Short of that, Im not sure what you are getting at, so maybe someone with more knowledge can chime in on this and help us out wink

44

(14 replies, posted in Tutorials/Examples)

Tutorial Doctor wrote:

For some reason, when I use sphere the object hovers above the ground. I don't know why I keep getting that. I understand why sphere is used in the example (along with angular damping and angular factor adjustments) so that it would "roll without rolling.

There should be some visual cue that let's us know where the center of rotation/mass of the physics object is, so that the pivot point of the mesh can be in the right spot.

I'll fix it soon, working on some animated objects

Unless Im not understanding your point, the pivot point comes from the export from your 3d application. That's what I've always seen anyway. If the pivot isn't centered in 3d app, then it will not be in maratis either.

Im not sure what you mean by, object hovers above ground using sphere, as if you try both convex and sphere , and the play the level, there is no effective difference in how the 'player' moves along the area, at least none that Im seeing here, at all.

The difference between the two as I noted, is just the type of collision needed, based on accuracy and what  you want to do, and as described to me, the difference between a simple player moving along, and the need to fit a triangle piece, into a puzzle triangular hole, with the puzzle analogy being a lot more ( depending how many in the scene, etc.) expensive on performance.

45

(14 replies, posted in Tutorials/Examples)

Ok I have a question...one of the examples from maratis itself, shows making 'player' a sphere I think.or box whichever I guess, but you used  convex hull , and Im wondering if there was a reason for this ? Convex hull is expensive on performance, unless you have a really good reason to use it, which in this case there would be none that I can see wink ( thanks sadwolf for explaining this to me)

Thx a lot for doing tutorial ( though I think you should leave out AO as its rather long with it there, and put ao in a different tutorial), as this would help those unfamiliar with  sculptris though I actually knew how to do it by now.

thx
vd

46

(14 replies, posted in Tutorials/Examples)

I wish you had tried to use a  video application to make this and that it wasn't laggy, as I don't even have  a PDF viewer. All the free ones require you to sign up for something too. Windows 8 comes with one thankfully,but I use windows 7 atm. I just looked to be sure, and there is no free PDF viewer that I can find, that I trust won't install malware or spyware on my computer. I 'd MUCH rather see a AVI therefore, but if you can't create one without lag, then that's just how it is and I understand that.

I just wanted to make it clear, why PDF is also not the best format for many people.

I could download adobe's PDF viewer which is 'free', but its 80MB, and that's just ridiculous. So options out there are very limited or not free sad

47

(19 replies, posted in Gossip)

I think that is a bit unfounded to say '3ds max is the past'. Such a strong statement requires proof. HOw is it the past, when its used in all major universiities and prob. most game studios ? Doesn't make any sense, unless you have stats you would like to share wink I personally really like maya as it works on many platforms, and is also used    extensively in the industry.

Oh and btw, blender's  userbase doesn't mean much if they get so nastily animated over obvious things that almost all other 3d apps take for granted (* turntable):

http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthr … ball/page6

^  this is one of the biggest reasons, I decided to take another look at not using blender as much. I respect blender for the liberty it gives people who have little to no money, but given we have choices like ARt Of Illusion, shows I can try something else and not have to deal with people upset so easily ( not fun), and I've yet to see any squabbling like that on the AOI forums. Clearly they are a professional community, unlike blenderartists. 

Things like that matter a great deal to me, and I'm sure to a great many others. I've seen several times over the years where people ask for change, on some level, and are kinda stonned for it, which makes you wonder....( a thread on blender.org that I can't find atm, but I remembered it very well)

thx
vd

48

(19 replies, posted in Gossip)

P.s.--its SO not true, that if you don't have max, you are STUCK with blender ( short of maratis exporter for blender).

There is anim8or, art of illusion, k3d  , sculptris, milkshape 3d ( which is very cheap, but Ive no idea how good it is )and also :

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/25-free-3d … -not-miss/

Some url's may be bad, but anyway there it is.

SIlo 3d is prob. a great bet for game dev, and its not that  hugely expensive compared to max/maya etc.

Also I found this in reference to blender or 3ds max, and specifically game development of course:

http://www.crydev.net/viewtopic.php?f=315&t=103477

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/133112 … nd-Blender

Both game development forums, and there are pros and cons, so you decide.

Also, I suggest ( to get a similar feature list of  blender or max, etc.) :
http://www.artofillusion.org/downloads < Art Of Illusion , if you are truly still seeking alternatives and want to keep modeling, animation, texturing, etc..

If you go that route, these tuts are invaluable, with myself going through them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFiRH3f … 7B_2jBpqB0

A added note, I really think AOI has potential to be a easy alternative to , name3d app of choice, as it has animation compositing modeling blah, and you can by default, import DEM files, and we all know how kewl things are if you want visually kewl terrain support ( via model of course);) It also has a plant module, but It looks a bit complex so Ive not tried it yet.

49

(19 replies, posted in Gossip)

Crucio777 wrote:

Hmm i use blender and i am quite comfortable with it . i kinda like the maratis editor as well because it has resemblance  to  blender  (weird i guess) .
the video by andrew price was not to discourage anybody to use blender  but to discuss issues in design of blender and fix them .
Yes blender has a interface that takes time to learn and be comfortable to be able to use i don't know if its worth it or not because there is no good choices except for blender for me other softwares are not affordable at all .


Rather than "Unmix" blender and maratis  .we should add support to other 3d pacakges and leave the current pipeline of blender to maratis as it is .

Btw its not really maratis or blender's fault here if you can afford and use other 3d packages use them for your pipeline who is stopping you? (adding support to other 3d packages wont take that long )

Trouble is, who is going to do that..the  max author on these forums no longer seems ? to be maintaining that as he hadn't the time ( he hasn't posted here in ages, literally), and the community is just too tiny atm for anyone else, likely, to   be either a good enough programmer to do it or have the time I guess...All fair points, just saying...Either someone has time and the knowledge or they don't, and on top of that its going to take someone doing a LONG night or two or ten, because this community is just far too small to see various people take up that particular challenge.

I also agree about stability...Iv'e seen blender crash and otherwise have video artifacting on moving the preference menu, and 3ds max does none of those things that I've ever seen.

50

(19 replies, posted in Gossip)

If max is SO MUCH more powerful and flexible, then why do schools use  max ( or maya) or why do almost ALL studios use maya/max for game development ??? Do you mean to tell me , that they are forced to use it out of some obligation, or is it that max has the tools studios need and want, for  development. I suppose mudbox has something to do with that as well, as mudbox is king in the world of 3d painting. I've tried blender , when I can stand to u se it at all, and its slow in many areas in that regard. No idea why, but it is, and my    cpu is Athlon II X3 3.2ghz and 8800 gtx GPU and 8 gb ram.

I mean there  is like zero comparison between blender and max/maya. Just zero. Yes blender is free, with is a godsend for those with little or no money, but I guarantee you, if I did have sufficient money, I"d be using maya or max and never look back one day.

The blender devs have ego issues, and if you doubt that, just check out the blenderartist forums, and see what a MESS they  helped make out of the discussion about 'turntable vs trackball'...I know, because I was in there FIGHTING to get turntable made default..and I was right, because well ahem, now IT IS wink. But it took moving mountains and MEAN spirited language by 'michael' and some weird comments/suggestions by Ton himself , to get there.

Is that a good community ?

That is in huge measure, why I refuse to use blender today, unless I have no choice.

You can't tell me, that a 'free' program , is more capable than a $4000 program, because Ill just laugh out loud.

If you say it is true, then show me,,Im from Missouri, and I want you to show me how a free app overcomes a $4000

application wink

Yes on the having to go through blender,,I also find that very annoying, because I'd rather use ANY other 3d modeling app but blender, and sometimes going though 'import 3d model' doesn't quite work, but going through maratis export does ( like for sculptris, blah).

This is a free engine, so having blender use maratis exporter exclusively isn't a mind blowing fact, but I think its a problem in other ways that max, maya or others have nothing but assimp, and we can't count the exporter the other guy ( sorry can't recall his name atm) is working on for max, because he doesn't have time to fix it so it runs everywhere ( all max versions), and there is nothing for maya or any other 3d app like 3d cinema for example.    Ogre3d at least has most of those covered pretty  nicely.