Greetings and introductions...

Hullo! My name, at least online, is Foolish Frost. Good to meet you all.

I would like to start by saying what I decided to collect for my design kit, and see what your thoughts are on my choices. I hope this will be of use for others, to see any mistakes I might have made, and to see what tools are seen as the best for use.

First, I decided on Blitz 3D. This was not an impulse choice. After 6 months of leisurely research, I came to the following conclusions:
- While cross platform development would have made me happy, it just would not happen without a mac computer to compile the code on. I also needed 3D for the kinds of development I was needing to do. This means that Torque would have been the only other option, anyway, and was not designed for rapid enough development for my needs.
- DarkBasic Pro was the only other option, and the fact is, there was a significant number of comments across the internet speaking of it's stability. In this case, it's LACK of stability. While I take all comments with a grain of salt, when an opinion can fill a saltshaker? Nuff said.
- The B3D demo allowed me a LOT of testing options. This tells me that they have little to nothing to hide about it's function. The demo for Darkbasic did not offer the same 'open' felling.

Final result, Blitz was purchased.

I also purchased the book listed for it on this website: Blitz3D Programmers Manual

And while I know that all of the data in it will be on this site, let's be honest: I read BOOKS. It's a 'me' thing.

Next, I looked at extensions for B3D that would allow me the options I would need for a wide spectrum of development projects.

The following things were selected by myself:
- PowerPacker by Blitz3Dfr: The ability to combine loading system for models and media is not a small thing, yet this packaging system IS inexpensive.
- BCF 3.0 by Blitz3Dfr: This seemed like a very clean and modifiable addition for making interface systems.
- JV-ODE-V121-Blitz3D: I looked at both this and the EasyTOK systems for physics, using the demos to make some assumptions about the two systems capabilities. The final result was that JV-ODE seemed to be capable of being scaled to the largest number of projects, and the car demo for the JV-ODE just seemed superior in my examinations. Please keep in mind, this was 90% taken from what I could learn in the demos, so it is possible that I could have been mislead about the potential of EasyTOK.
- particleworks by gosse: This free particle system seems to have all the basics I may need. It also seemed to handle the display or particles without too evil a slowdown of screen renders. Also, the ability for particles to stop at meshes should not be underestimated.
- FastImage_1_3_3 by MixailV: This thing's just FAST for rendering images on the screen. What use it will be is questionable, but if I ever need it, it's here.

And that covers the B3D internal additions.

Next up, I had to choose external tools I might need.

- First, Blender3D for modeling and animation, at least for the moment. It's wide range of functions allows it to be used for nearly everything. Except for mapping, it seems... All attempts to export files in 3DS, X, or even lightwave format all end in flawed data that most imports fail on. ESPECIALLY with complex models. Maps are OUT.
- Sooo, I grabbed 3D World Studio. It's built in modeling tools help to limit map design complexity. Considering that the map needs to run with minimal stress on the engine, this is more than a good thing. It did not take long to see that the lighting system it contained was limited, to say the least.
- Gile[s] became the obvious choice. It's ability to light complex scenes quickly, and with beautiful effect cannot be understated. It also comes with a sample importer for B3D, allowing me to even more quickly understand the idea of map-loading code. As a part of this, I would like to also say I grabbed tree[d]
- Gimp was mandatory. I use it for all of my texture development, and it does it well. The fact it's free is like making it out of candy.

Shall we tally up what the total cost of my new hobby is?

I thought we might... <grins>

Ok.

Blitz3D and book: $125
Gile[s]: $50
PowerPacker: $16.90
BCF Library: $28.17
3D World Studio: $80

That's all the ones that actually cost money.

Result: $300

<Looks about>

That's the cost of what seems to be a complete gaming development kit. Anyone else think I missed anything?

Anyway nice to meet you all, and hope to be around for a while.

Foolish Frost

Welcome to the community Foolish Frost!
I'd say it's one of the best hobbies you could have chosen:)

You most likely need a photo and painting editing program also (e.g. Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro)

Edit: Sorry about that, my mistake.

Bubbleboy, he has Gimp..

Welcome aboard Foolish Frost

I was reading your post and saw that you had particleworks by gosse, where can I find the website or download for this particle system? Your first question ha!

Thanks,
Chad

I'd use (and do) Particle Candy instead and maybe Sprite Candy too (for HUDs etc). And MoleBox for packing everything together in the end.


http://www.x-pressive.com/ParticleCandy/index.html

http://www.x-pressive.com/SpriteCandy/index.html

http://www.molebox.com/

Well, Chad. It's here: http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/posts.php?topic=27049#283019

Now, bit of advice, everything I learned, I learned using Google search, BEFORE having access to search these forums. You can still search here by using google and limiting the website parameters to blitzbasic.com

Remember, it's always ok to ask, but finding it on your own allows you to better gather data from more than one source: If you do a search, you can find out what many people think of something instead of only hearing what one thinks.

Hello.

Ok, I do have a question:

Has anyone, anywhere, got any form of animated mesh/skeletal mesh to import from Blender3D? If so, I've yet to get it working...

If not, then what character animation solution is good for B3D? It has to have the following:
- full IK and smoothed keyframing, and the ability to lock joints and positions.
- direct and clean import to Blitz3D, in both skeletal and timed mesh deform standards.
- the ability to import from outside models.
- a UI that allows for copy/paste of full and partial keyframes

Anyone?

I've managed to figure out how to export animated DirectX export from Blender to Blitz3D using simple key framed animation (very easy) and rigged character animations using bones (more difficult) using Fragmotion to export as .b3d format. I intend to write some tutorials on how to do this as it seems to be needed.

For other low cost animation tools like Pacemaker and CharacterFX see the sticky in the Content Creation forum.

Welcome Foolish Frost...
as for UI creation, I would suggest BlitzUI for aplications/Free/, and Sprite candy for in game stuff(its not free but worth every cent), or very handy Aplha GUI, its free too..

Welcome Foolish Frost,

You should look at the demo of Pacemaker by Smiff for animated characters and the like. It is rather good I'd say. Sprite and particle candy are excellent products, so I concur there.

You would be better using B3d as an export format (if it is supported in your modeller of choice).

Hope you enjoy your experience!

All the best

IPete2.