Hi, im considering purchasing 3dgs 6.4 standard. I was ust wandering what the differences are between the standard and pro version, what does pro have that standard doesnt? Cheers!

Thanks for the quick reply. Looks like tons of stuff is cut from the standard version. The most important things that interest me are shader support, physics support and network support among a few other things that seem to be limited to just the pro version. I've heard of something called the Sphere engine which supports cool shaders such as parralax/offset mapping, reflection, refraction etc as well as shadows support and other recent technology. If i was to purchase the standard version would Sphere be fully functional with all its shader features etc accessible with the standard version? Also, i know theres the newton physics engine and many other third party additions. Could all of these be added to the standard edition to replace the missing advanced features only found in pro? Cheers!

P.S, what is the pricing for the sphere engine and where can i find a full description with feature listings and specifications? Ceers again!

Well, in your case forget the standard edition. The lowest version where shader works is the commercial edition. This edition costs ~ $ 200,-. The Sphere-Plugin needs at last commercial edition and costs $ 30,-. I suggest you to buy commercial edition for learning.
It also has network-support for four players. AFAIK there are some network-plugins in developement around the forum for more than four players.

EDIT: The Sphere-Website: http://matt.brightwatch.com/sphere/sphere.htm

Many things in higher editions can be faked with creative thinking. I have Commercial edition and with it, mirrors are possible (to a limited extent), an unlimited number of physics objects (just write your own physics engine, possible even with standard), LOD (my method is much better than the engine's very restricted system - so much flexibility, the slight speed difference (sometimes slower, sometimes faster) makes it worth using more than the engine's LOD system). Heh, I even created a fully working 2D game that's on the verge of release for sale where I had to script everything (even without the templates), including the physics, movement, menus, and pretty much everything else. The highest edition you really need for anything is Commercial. Extra can be good in other cases as well. I suggest at least extra edition for starting out. If you don't like it, you can almost always sell your copy, provided you contact Conitec first.

For the file packer, get Molebox. Although not free, it compresses and encrypts your game files into a single EXE and is otherwise very useful as it seems very secure. You'll only need this if you intend on releasing your game and only when close to doing so. Start with Extra or Commercial and build your game. It takes a lot of time to make all those models and levels needed. Also, may I suggest looking into the Benchmark Tester, a tool I made (on the downloads page ) that analyzes how many polygons and vertices per second your computer can render to help optimize your model-only levels? Model-only levels can be 50 times faster than BSP (block) levels along with tons of other advantages.

I also suggest downloading the trial and get a basic understanding of the program. The trial is free and lasts 30 days. Good luck and enjoy making your own games (or 3D programs in general, such as interactive 3D movies).

Sorry for being such a noob, but is the 3dgs demo a demo of the standard, extra or pro version?

According to the dialog when installing it, it has some features of the Extra edition and some of the Commercial edition. It's pretty much a cross between Extra and Commercial. The only difference is is that you cannot publish. For this, a normal paid edition is needed (and not a team edition).

Edit: ... dialog when installing it,....