3D modeling

[mirdza]

What software for 3D modeling could be used best for making natural landscapes, modeling, animating and texturing? Hills, trees, water streams, and a small amount of man-made objects, houses and such. I currently have Lightwave installed, will that do?

 

[Treupp]

Wellll... the best tool for landscapes I know is Bryce, and you can export models created in it to 3ds.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Vue 6 ( http://www.e-onsoftware.com ) is perfect for everything you asked for, except water streams. It doesn't have particle systems so the only way to simulate flowing water is with animated textures, which could maybe be enough for what you need.

There is also an excellent landscape program that has a free version (which is not very different from the full one), and it's called Terragen ( http://www.planetside.co.uk/terragen/ ). Recently released Terragen 2 can import trees and other sort of objects and it can do really incredible things as you can see if you look through the gallery. Again, no particle systems.

There are several other programs that can do the things you asked, both payed and free, but these two I mention are the best ones, really.

 

[mirdza]

Yes, well, I meant to use animated textures for water streams, not particles. Terragen looks great. And it can also save files as LWO which is also great.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Mind you, though, Terragen doesn't have vegetation either. Of course, you can find models online or create your own (btw, if you want to do that, try Xfrog, from http://www.xfrogdownloads.com/greenwebNew/news/newStart.htm ), but Vue has its own vegetation system, that looks great and each plant can be edited really easy. Look at the features on their site.

 

[mirdza]

I guess I'll have to install Bryce, Vue and Terragen and examine all three of them just to make a comparison.

 

[monsharen]

Bryce 4 or 5 was free for a while. Don't know if it still is though.

Add: No, it has ended:

This DAZ special offer will absolutely end on September 6, 2006

But blender 3d is good too.
http://www.blender.org/features-gallery/features/

 

[mirdza]

I have blender installed on Ubuntu but I had no chance to try it out yet.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Bryce 5 is still free:

The program: http://www.download.com/Bryce/3000-6677_4-10590029.html?tag=lst-0-6

The presets: http://www.download.com/Bryce-Presets/3000-6677_4-10589394.html?tag=lst-0-7


It sucks, though.

 

[mirdza]

It sucks, though.

Why?

 

[Davaris]

I'd take Carrara 5 Pro over Bryce any day. The renders are far better and its easier to learn and use.

I don't know much about Vue though. The renders look great, but I've seen a lot of complaints about it crashing in the middle of long renders, so I decided to give it a miss.

Carrara 5 Pro is around $550, but I got it for $120 from Daz when they had one of their sales. They have sales, around the time they update their programs, but you'll have to be a member of their Platinum Club to get the big discounts.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Why?

First of all, the latest version is Bryce 6. Second, Bryce, through its history went through the hands of three developers, causing it to be now far behind other programs in this category. It has only a handful of features, most of which haven't changed since version 4, the render quality is mediocre, the render speed is extremely slow even of fast computers, and so on...

I don't know much about Vue though. The renders look great, but I've seen a lot of complaints about it crashing in the middle of long renders, so I decided to give it a miss.

Vue always had problems, each time a new version was released. However, in the 6 years or so I've been using it, never did it crash during a render. I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, though. It wouldn't surprise me.
Also, I think Vue 6 had the biggest problems of all the versions so far, and still requires fixing, but I can use it very well.