Hi!

I have a question: I will create few house models for my level, the other house are map entity, now for
the map entity you could build it and create a shadows in according to the sun position, but for the models
If you don`t have a very good program like 3dmax or maya for baking the texture could not, or maybe know
anyone a good way to do this? without have to buy 3dmax or maya?




cia.

salva

You could buy lightwave or bodypaint3d, cinema4d.

They are all extremely cheaper than Max or Maya.

Besides that you can paint shadows and you can calculate shadows for the terrain with Freeworld 3d.

Gile[s] is a special shadow baking software.

So there are a lot of alternatives that are affordable.

u could also download blender at www.blender.org

free software, very good! loads of free plugins too. look around, coz someone on these forums mentioned a plugin that lets u bake textures and other effects into the texture! i think i saw it in the contest forum under "let's rock a6", but ill double check.

julz!

edit: quote from gorthaur:

Quote:

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And editions below Commercial don't do stencil shadows.

If you use Blender for modeling, there is a plugin called RayBaker that bakes lighting, shadows, materials, everything to a UV map. Quite nifty

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it is in this forum (levels, models, etc) somewhere. google "raybaker"

Hi!

I will try with the blender plugin, but the house model I will create in ac3d, and texture it also with ac3d.
As I remember I have read in any forum that blender import also ac3d models, with the texture.


cia.

salva

Hiya.

Blender is one of those "extra-spicy hot chicken wings" for me....*damn* tastey, smells GREAT, looks dilecious, but as soon as I start chewing I'm thinking "For the LOVE of gawd, take away the pain!!!". Then I down a glass of ice cold milk...and take another bite!

Or, in other words, it has a TON of potentil. The quality is GREAT. The PRICE can't be beat. BUT...it's very hard for people who have learned and been using other 'regular convention' software for years and years. The interface is odd and the hot keys make no sense (I think you can change most of them now in v2.42?). But, if you can get over that initial mountain, you're home free!

So...give blender a shot first. Get ready for some pain, but pleasure at the same time (like hot wings...or BDSM...take your pick ).

Well, you could also avoid using any program by simply painting the shadows into a shadowmap [which every smart multitexturing shader has] by hand, if your house is on a terrain.
If you don't use a terrain but blocks, you could make a fake-shadow-sprite [using the alpha channel] and put it right 0.000001mm or quant or whatever over the ground. Not the most beautiful method, but the most painless [learning Blender is indeed a pain, I've tried it once <_<] and cheapest solution.