Anybody using GameSpace?

Hi all,

Just curious to see who all is using gamespace to create their media content for their games, And/Or using it to model in general? I recently purchased a gamespace license from a very good friend of mine that was using gamespace to help create the media content that Me & another friend of mine needs in order to finish our game currently in development! Since I recieved it, I have found gamespace extremely easy to model with! The UI is very well put together, And it's very straight forward indeed. I downloaded some of the tutorials from the gamespace website, And after watching their video tutorials and also going through the tutorials that came with the package, And also the user's manual, I have already managed to model some very interesting things already with it! I've tried the other caligari products from the past, And I found them at that moment very difficult & confusing, And I was very skeptical at trying out gamespace since it's UI follows in the same footsteps as the previous incarnations of TrueSpace! I changed my mind after giving it enough thought to realize that my very good friend and freelancer "Lucid" here in the blitz forums, Managed to create some very impressive models with it! I explained to lucid about my past experience with the other truespace products from caligari, And he explained to me that the UI was extremely easy, And that anybody could model with it if they spend a little time to actually learn it! So I downloaded gamespace Lite, And I gave it a try to see if anything was different about it compaired to the other truespace products.. After watching the video tutorials & going through the tutorials on their website, I was amazed at how easy gamespace was to actually model in!!! It just took me a little time to go through the tutorials to actually learn their UI! Once I got a grasp of the UI of gamespace, I was able to do alot of things that before I couldn't do! I also realized now that I could actually re-install TrueSpace 5.5 again and probably manage to actually use it this time around with my new knowledge I've obtained now! Thank's to my good friend Lucid who helped me understand how good a product gamespace actually is, I can now use it for my low-poly modeling, And use TrueSpace 5.5 for my higher end modeling! I hope that there is other people on here that managed to realize the ease of use of gamespace. I guess this thread might bring forth some interesting results huh?! Let's watch & see! ;)

Doctor?

Your cheque from Calagari's in the post. GameSpace is not the best 3d package by far, but it is the best valued for what you get and it is, in my view, extremely easy to use. Still some problems, the Blitz 3d exporter is out of date and there is some stability issues that occure under certain circumstances. But a good deal, no less.

You guys will be happy to know that we are working on a number of issues for the next patch of gS (i.e. v1.6). Not the B3D format, unfortunately, but hopefully fixing puppeteer issues (one big source of gS crashes), .X and 3DGS format compatibility, and (best of all in my book) doing some work on the UV editor.

If someone can give me a list of stuff that's wrong/out-of-date with the B3D exporter maybe we can do something about that one too at some point soon. Drop me a line at michaela@.... Cheers,

Michael

Hi Mearrin69! I was wonderinf if the changes to gamespace will also be applied to the GamePak?

I have truespace 6.6 and the Gamepak and they rock together. I think an update to the UV editor sounds tops.

Also, how come your guys at caligari keep doing these lowcost deals? I mean its great coz I got the top package now so I'm not complaining. :)

I was using lite, but found it too complicated :)

Way to go, Mearrin69, that sounds very good. :)

Amon,
It won't happen simultaneously but we will indeed propagate the changes across other products. The UVE is actually part of the trueSpace core so I think the plan is to take that back but it might take a bit longer.

I don't have a firm date for any of these updates to happen but it won't be too long.

We keep doing deals because we want to attract new users to trueSpace. If we can get a customer using our products they usually stay around for later versions - people either love or hate our interface. ;)
M

Happy to hear that Caligari are fixing the puppeeter issues, actually it was a disaster.

Gamespace looks like a great tool. Is it on anyones Christmas list? ;)

Mearrin,

- What changes/improvements of Puppeteer are planned?
- Why isn't the B3D exporter being worked on?
I have troubles trying to use the B3D format features and I
know that gameSpace can do them, but they seem neglected
in the exporter.

DangerDave,
The Puppeteer changes are happening outside of Caligari, as that is third-party code - so I do not know exactly what changes are coming. Stability improvements are the major changes but I do believe a few of Greg's new features will make it in too. No guarantees on that though - as we don't have any control over it.

As to the B3D exporter, as I said above:



We're not working on the B3D exporter because, as far as I know, we do not have a list of known issues for it. We do have some stuff for 3DGS (i.e. support for the file format update) and .X (i.e. just some general fixes of bugs that have been reported as well as update for 9.0c changes).

If you've got problems with B3D export from gS then please report the specifics to tech support - and feel free to send me a list of them as well. I will certainly lobby for any needed fixes - but I need specifics.

HTH!
Michael

Good to read these comments - I'm a contented Gamespace user myself. A noob 3d modeller really but I put in some time to learn the main Gamespace icons and UI and it really just took a day or two of study to make it feel pretty comfortable. But recently I went back to using Wings3d for pure modelling. Gamespace for me is good for texturing, animation, and exporting but I hit some problems trying to cleanup some bad geometry and putz with some small details. And I've had display problems when zooming in close to geometry, where the shading gets offset from the actual wireframe model. I do need to hit the Caligari forums and see if anyone else is getting this shading offset in the display.

Overall though I think Gamespace is a great product for game modelling and a very good value. I'm using it now to export DTS format models to the Torque engine.

Paul

Hi
After watching the Gamespace video tutorial
(more than 1 time)i was able to do this.
it is my first attempt to model a "human".
Great tutorial! i have never been able to
model anything before i watched that video.

Bye Henrik



the model have 498 polygons

I have also downloaded GameSpace Lite, and watched the tutorial videos. These one are great to learn how to model a character. They show that in fact that's very easy if you follow simple rules!!
GameSpace Lite seems very cool, but I wonder if anyone was able to import a character + its animation from there to Blitz (using the .x format, as it's the only one available in the lite version)????

Not if it's boned as blitz only supports hiarchical x animation.

So I have a stupid question: is it possible to do hiarchical x animation in GameSpace (instead of bone)?? (In fact, I never understood the difference! If someone were kind enough to explain me...)

Boned animation means the object has a skeleton in side it that controls the animation - you move the arm of the skeleton and that deforms your mesh. With hiarchical animation you move/rotate individual meshes in relation to each other (their children and parents) for example:

For example to animate a "boned" arm waving all you need to do is draw the arm, stick a skeleton inside it and move the skeleton. But to make a "hiarchical" arm wave you'd have to draw the arm, then cut it in to pieces (like forearm, elbow, upper arm) and then rotate/move the relative pieces. This means that with hiarchical animation it is very hard to make organic things look realisted as it difficult to disguise the fact that your arm is in reality 3+ different objects.

Hope that makes some sense, and yes you can do hiarchical animation in GameSpace

OK, Thank you very much for this explanation!
So no bone in .x in Blitz3D (but bones are OK in the .b3d format I guess?).
So if I understand correctly, Gamespace lite is not usable for good character animation, as this hiarchical animation is not practical for this...

It's a pity, I was beginning to appreciate Gamespace..

That's a limitation of gameSpace lite not the full version.
If you have a program like Ultimate Unwrap, then you could convert the file.
I'm not not sure if gS Lite will export a boned animated .x file, but if it does then you could use UU to save it as a .b3d file.

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Don't forget that the .x file would be fine for static meshes and for robotic/rigid like animations. (eg. fans rotating, elevators, etc.)