Tools (Content Creation)

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m (Tess Juel moved page Artist Tools to Tools (Content Creation): Changing name to match normal wiki naming conventions)
(→‎Models: Adding a more detailed description of Wings 3D. Adding 3DS Max to the list of Other tools)
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* Type: Program
 
* Type: Program
 
* Use: Mesh models
 
* Use: Mesh models
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* OS: Windows, Mac
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* OS: Windows, MacOS
 
* License: Propietary?
 
* License: Propietary?
 
* Price: Free?
 
* Price: Free?
 
Entry level mesh model editor/creator software. SketchUp is [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_solid_geometry CSG] based which means it tends to generate rather "dirty" and render heavy meshes. As the name indicates, it was made as a 3D sketching tool and never intended for making models for real time rendering. Use it carefully!
 
Entry level mesh model editor/creator software. SketchUp is [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constructive_solid_geometry CSG] based which means it tends to generate rather "dirty" and render heavy meshes. As the name indicates, it was made as a 3D sketching tool and never intended for making models for real time rendering. Use it carefully!
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=== Wings 3d ===
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* Link: http://www.wings3d.com/ (confirmed 2023-05-28)
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* Type: Program
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* Use: Mesh models (and to some degree sculpts)
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* OS: Windows, MacOS, Linux
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* License: Open source
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* Price: Free
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A simpler and less developed free 3D modelling program. This is a good alternative for many since, unlike SketchUp, it offers all the functions you really need to create mesh for opensim and much fewer of the often confusing mass of functions not relevant for our purpose than Blender and the big commercial programs.
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Unlike the other 3D modelling programs Wings 3d also has some limited support for sculpts, limited since it only supports 32x32 format sculpt map. This function is a bit compromised though since it requires special templates that can be hard to find.
  
 
=== Other tools ===
 
=== Other tools ===
 
* [http://www.makehuman.org/ makehuman] - Realistic 3d humans, open source for Windows, OSX, Linux.
 
* [http://www.makehuman.org/ makehuman] - Realistic 3d humans, open source for Windows, OSX, Linux.
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* [http://www.wings3d.com/ Wings 3d] - Sculpty editor
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* 3DS Max
 
* Maya
 
* Maya
 
* Zbrush
 
* Zbrush

Revision as of 00:53, 28 May 2023

Software and online tools for content creators.

Contents

Models

Blender

  • Link: http://www.blender.org/ (confirmed 2023-05-25)
  • Use: Mesh models, Materials, Terrain, Animations
  • OS: Windows, Mac, Linux
  • License: Open source (GNU GPL)
  • Price: Free

Blender is the free open source 3D content creation suite, available for all major operating systems under the GNU General Public License. It is mainly known as a mesh editing/creation program but is also a powerful tool for creating animations, materials and terrains.

SketchUp

  • Link: (Old link broken, add new)
  • Type: Program
  • Use: Mesh models
  • OS: Windows, MacOS
  • License: Propietary?
  • Price: Free?

Entry level mesh model editor/creator software. SketchUp is CSG based which means it tends to generate rather "dirty" and render heavy meshes. As the name indicates, it was made as a 3D sketching tool and never intended for making models for real time rendering. Use it carefully!

Wings 3d

  • Link: http://www.wings3d.com/ (confirmed 2023-05-28)
  • Type: Program
  • Use: Mesh models (and to some degree sculpts)
  • OS: Windows, MacOS, Linux
  • License: Open source
  • Price: Free

A simpler and less developed free 3D modelling program. This is a good alternative for many since, unlike SketchUp, it offers all the functions you really need to create mesh for opensim and much fewer of the often confusing mass of functions not relevant for our purpose than Blender and the big commercial programs.

Unlike the other 3D modelling programs Wings 3d also has some limited support for sculpts, limited since it only supports 32x32 format sculpt map. This function is a bit compromised though since it requires special templates that can be hard to find.

Other tools

  • makehuman - Realistic 3d humans, open source for Windows, OSX, Linux.
  • 3DS Max
  • Maya
  • Zbrush

Textures

  • GIMP - alternative GIMP - GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program for Linux, OS X and Windows.
  • PaintNET Plugins - Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for Windows.
  • WoodWorkshop - Wood Workshop is a free seamless texture editor for Windows.
  • FilterForge

Materials

NormalMap Online

A simple but surprisingly effective online tool for generating normal, specular, AO and displacement maps. NormalMap Online is supposed to use height maps as input but it can be effective for some textures too.

Other tools

  • Materialize
  • Substance Painter

Terrain

Blender

See the #Blender description in the Models section.

Although Blender doesn't have a specific function for generating terrain maps from meshes, it is possible to do so. The process is a bit complicated and the result will never match the mesh perfectly but since there are so few other alternatives for converting mesh to terrain it can still be a useful tool.

Daylon Leveller

Link: https://www.daylongraphics.com/products/leveller.php/ (Confirmed 2023-05-26)

  • Functions: Terrain editor
  • OS: Windows
  • Price USD 49.95 (Confirmed 2023-05-26)

Windows-only tool for producing terrains from from a variety of sources (including Second Life, Terragen, and terrain.painter), and using painting-like tools and filters to create features. Imports and exports region(s) from/to Opensimulator, either as a tileset of one or more terragen files, or via PNG/RAW formats.

Kayker Magic's Terrain Generators

OSSL scripts for generating terrains in-world.

L3DT

  • Link: http://www.bundysoft.com/L3DT/ (Confirmed 2023-05-26)
  • Functions: Generate and edit height maps
  • OS: Windows
  • Price: free (see description below)

An old but powerful and user friendly tool for creating and editing terrain files. Terrains generated can be based on fractals, perlin noise or a combination of both.

It used to come in two variants, a free one and a commercial one with some added functions. The commercial variant is no longer available but there is a free beta version (v. 18.05) with all all functions enabled.

One interesting feature of L3DT is taht it has a special Opensimulator export function. Apparently this is simply a shortcut to the program's regular r32 export option but it's still a nice touch.

Second Life Terrain Import and Export for The Gimp

A #Gimp plugin for importing and exporting images in Second Life's RAW heightmap format.

Terrain.Party

  • Link: https://terrain.party/ (Confirmed 2023-05-26)
  • Function: Generate height maps from RL terrains
  • OS: Online tool
  • Price: Free

Web-based tool for turning terrain from a real life world map into a height map which can be imported into Opensim using "terrain load <texture_name>.png". Note that the textures require resizing, since they are exported as 1081x1081 png files

TerreSculptor

A great tool for auto-generating fractal terrains. The editing functions are rather limited though and it's hard to set a good height range so it's best used in conjunction with a good editor such as L3DT. TerreSculptor was free until v. 2.0 and the latest free version is still available at the website's support page (http://www.demenzunmedia.com/home/support/). Most of the changes since then are about texturing and the textures can't be uploaded or used in opensim anyway.

Animations

Blender

See the #Blender description in the Models section.

Other tools

  • BVHacker - Animation for OpenSimulator avatars.
  • QAvimator - Animation for OpenSimulator avatars.
  • BVH Mirror - This is an online service to mirror a BVH animation/pose file. That is, looking left becomes looking right, the pose of the left arm becomes the pose of the right arm, etc..


Sounds

  • Audacity - Audacity® is free, open source software for recording and editing sounds. It is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.
  • LMMS - Compose sound and music on Windows, Linux and OS X.

Music

  • LMMS - Compose sound and music on Windows, Linux and OS X.
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