good directx authoring tool (for maya)??

[sebast1an2]

anyone?:shrug:

[djwarder]

Not sure. What are you intending to spend? I expect there's something out there - at a price!!

What about the Blender? Free authoring tool with game engine tagged on!! Not sure of features tho!!

Also, I think GameSpace is an authoring tool? If you provide more info on the project, I could look/ask around ...

Dan

[sebast1an2]

thx for your answer.. the price should be not that important for me if it's not more then 3-4000k for the package, because i got some bigger projects in the next time... and now i found out hat virtools could be better then i thought.. so i got only one more question:

"is there a better tool then virtools which supports layered textures and some directx 9.0 features???"

p.s: it's thought for architectural visualization, not game progrmming. so maybe there is a little less complex tool then virtools for it..

[djwarder]

Off the top of my head, Wildtangent and Blender might be sites to go to for cheap authoring packages that have a real-time engine side to them.

Had a quick look at varying feature sets, and I guess by 'layered textures' you mean texure blending/multipass texturing for lightmaps, detail textures, etc ? If so, most systems support this now, and Dx shaders are pretty standard I think.

Another idea may be to license a commerical game engine? Usually they cost hundreds of thousands, but for an architecture scheme they would cut that price down a lot.

Any help?

Dan

[djwarder]

Just had a thought!!

How about buying 3ds Max 6 ($3k) which is more multipurpose than Virtools, and is a lot more proven for modelling/animation/rendering, and then purchase RTRE ($1k) to create self-contained real-time exe files?

Try these links :

http://www.cubicspace.com/img/Success_IgorKnezevic.pdf
(article about an architect using this system)

http://www4.discreet.com/3dsmax/
(3ds Max product site)

http://www.discreet.com/dcp/rtre.html
(RTRE page)

What ya think?

[djwarder]

Just a quick reply. I saw this review of Virtools on the net and thought it might be of interest to you?

http://greggman.com/games/Virtools-Review/Virtools-Review.htm

Dan :thumbsup:

[Antimode Siker]

Hey,

It sounds like what you want is a .exe file which when run will allow a user to explore one of your architect 3D models.

I think that since you don't require that many features, it might be cheaper to just hire a freelance graphics programmer to write the program for you. If the programmer bases it on an LGPL system like OGRE and just adds the special things you need like preset flythroughs, the number of workhours necessary shouldn't become all too many.

[Tombed]

Have you looked at www.quest3d.com ? It does all you want I think and you can program it yourself using a channel graph.

[DCJones]

Indeed, i agree with Tombed... it has all the features you describe (just check out some demos, I have a feeling you'll be pleasantly suprised).

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