Cub508:
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Maya is the 3D renderer used in almost every big CGI movie for the last several years.  The registered student version has all the features of the $3500.00 boxed edition. You can go to the Autodesk website and see some examples of Maya renderings.

hyperpep111:
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"Huge" does not automatically mean "good"  (though, by no small coincidence, in this case, it does!).  As far as being for professionals, only because of the price.  OTOH, since the student version is free, you really can't complain too much. One of the main reasons its such a huge package is that it has a crate-load of other Autodesk/Maya utilities and apps included.  As far as appearing complicated, that's only because it does sooooo much that it's hard to think of what it can't do.  The 3D model making is just a tiny part of Maya's whole purpose: Rendering 3D animated movies.

Otherwise, I found it easier to work with than the "Bang your head on the keyboard twice, click and drag, while humming the Beer Barrel Polka" GMax method. It only took about 1/2 an hour of playing around, and about five minutes of manipulating shapes to create this (Very inaccurate, at the moment) Star Trek "Vulcan-ish" ship.



The reason it's inaccurate is because I was just fiddling around, and haven't taken the time to DL any good images of any "Vulcan" ships similar to the example. (For one thing, the support strut should be below the main hull, and more robust)

But, to bring this back to the main topic at hand; Freeware development:  I expect there will be more *payware* add-ons in the beginning, at least until the artist/model maker sells enough to pay for Maya.  The registered student version is free, and as far as I know, the registered student license does not expire.  Unregistered "evaluation copies", student or otherwise, expires after 30 days.

Club508 wrote on Aug 27^th, 2011 at 9:49am:


Practice makes Perfect?


Renè

machineman9 wrote on Sep 6^th, 2011 at 9:41pm:


It isn't a question of how the software creates or renders the object, it's a question of how the software saves the content.  If the software cannot convert to the format specified by the program, then your object is obsolete.  If, for say, the playable format of the finished product is in *.FDU (doesn't exist) and the program you are using can't convert to that, the program is obsolete.

gMax cannot convert to the files necessary to run FSX, if I'm not mistaken.  And even if it can, the way they have programmed Flight from the ground up would mean that any program that can produce 3D aircraft has to be either 3DS Max or Maya.

Travis wrote on Sep 12^th, 2011 at 2:17am:

It's a fair point, but it was Microsoft who packaged GMax with their games for the users to construct addons with! As far as I know, there are plugins to allow 3ds and OBJ format outputs. It's still not bad for free. I personally use Anim8or, which has a lot of useful features... Although, it requires the hands-on approach as it's not a highly automated procedure and it's a 'what you deliberately do is what it will end up like' sort of program.

I loved using 3ds max, but if the addon community has lasted this far, I don't see why they'd change the software required. I really hope they integrate some sort of aeroplane creation software, a bit like X-Planes', where you can adjust the dynamics.

I believe FS3 had a creation engine in-game.  You could manipulate all the functions of the aircraft and come up with some really wacky stuff.  For instance, I remember making aircraft with wings less than a foot wide and hundreds of feet long.  The interesting thing about it was that you didn't have to program the flight characteristics.  The sim automatically did that for you based on the physical dimensions of the aircraft itself.  It would be interesting to have something like that again.

Whoops!  My apologies, I thought service packs for Gmax were discontinued after FS9.  However, I would be surprised if Gmax export was supported for Flight.  Since the basic coding is being rewritten, I would expect that MS will require a program that has seen some improvement or development in the past ten years.