Google comes through...

With the free 3D modeller.

http://sketchup.google.com/index.html

Sketchup, which used to be 500 dollars, is now free. Mostly. :)

Funny, I was looking at this just the other day O_o

you know what I think is amazing?

it lets you stick the stuff into google earth, which means, in the future, google earth might include these things automaticly and then, google earth will ultimately have the living breathing world inside it. Imagine, change your house, add the new addition online so the world can see. Own a business? A building? Create it and put in google earth. Maybe you can zoom in on it, and get a 3d walk through of the building before you visit it?

All being made possible with these steps.

Google will one day run the world.

Beats having China rule the world.

If you can stick in any models you create, what if people start making up nonsense buildings and adding them to Google Earth?

jhocking...maybe It would work similar to a wiki? They work reasonably well.

Seems that it saves in its own format (.skp) and only exports Google Earth format (.kmz). So, not terribly useful for anything else?

Meh, we'll have some converters in no time.

...Though, from the looks of it, it's a rather simplistic modeller; good for Google Earth and small scale strategy games (which is, fortunately, something I've always wanted to see).

Doesn't it export to obj? I saw that on the sketchup features, but I suppose that probably only applies to the $500 software, not the free version.

Free version is handy for drafting levels.

It would appear (at least with the free version) that all Google is doing, is trying to recruit free help in sprucing up Google Earth by adding 3D models of existing architecture.

I've got the full version of SketchUp.
It strength is in designing buildings, or taking AutoCad dwgs as a basis and creating 3D buildings from them.
It's the best I've seen at what it does - so I bought it - but I wouldn't use it for any other kind of modelling other than architectural.

Yes, there will be a free models area, but I think you will have to buy the full version to access it.

So far, I have exported as 3DS and imported into Blitz3D, but again, I don't think the free version can export in other than native format.

@Kuron: Its like the beginning of the Matrix. First they make us build our prisons, then they drain us like batteries.. Its a conspiracy, I keep telling you all!

Yup.

http://www.blitzbasic.co.nz/Community/posts.php?topic=59109

> Beats having China rule the world.

Beats having America rule the world.

the matrix breaks conservation of energy. Human population consumes more than it produces, while you could keep a group alive for many years on ground up dead people, eventually the supply won't meet the demand, and you'll have less and less dead people to feed the living, and therefore, less and less living. I wouldn't expect it to last more than a few decades, if that. Shorter if you harvest their energy in a way that intrudes on the natural process. Each person can't power their own digital world, therefore, the matrix can't exist as a whole, since everyone in it would require the same state, the math just doesn't add up. And even if you could create a system with no loss, you create loss by taking that power and routing it to the machines.

Has nothing to do with all this, though.

Dude, that rant is so five years ago. Can people please get over the Matrix already?

... and if anyone offers you a red pill or a blue pill, you should only take the blue one if you are willing to have a hard-on for the next 24 hours...