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THE FREE Software list: major image warning.

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 1:18 pm
by kyraneth
I thought i'd post the list here, since this is the new home for many, hope it will be stickied :)
Also added some stuff exclusively here.

Here we go:

3d modeling apps:


-blender: http://www.blender.org

Pros:One of the most powerful free 3d apps with a big community.
Cons: A really daunting interface.


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-wings 3d: http://www.wings3d.com

Pros: a great subdivision modeling tool.
cons: no animation included.

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-anim8tor: http://www.anim8or.com

Pros: great animating and modeling package, relatively easy to use.
Cons: The community seems a bit inactive... just an impression.


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-Deled: http://www.delgine.com

Pros: A very simple and effective solution to make static objects (buildings..)
Cons: The lite (free) version is a bit too basic compared to other packages.


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-3D canvas: http://www.amabilis.com

pros: a great modeling and animation tool.
cons: once again, it seems that you are a castaway using the free version.

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-XSI mod tool: http://www.softimage.com/products/modtool/

pros: get a renown software for free.
cons: can be a bit scary at first!


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-GameSpace light: http://www.caligari.com/gamespace/gsl/gsl.asp
pros: the light (free) version have all the same tools that exist in the paying version!
cons: restricted polygon usage and limited exporting capabilities

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-Gmax: http://www.turbosquid.com/gmax
pros: based on the popular (And expensive) 3Ds max so its relatively powerful and especialy built for game content
cons: It also inherits the dreadful UI from it's bigger brother

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-K3d: http://www.k-3d.org/wiki/Main_Page
pros: a powerful modeling/animating open source tool
cons: it requires basic knowlege of programming (i don't know a single line of code )

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-Misfit model 3d: http://www.misfitcode.com/misfitmodel3d/main.html
pros: open source modeling tool with support for skeletal animation
cons: the supported formats are a bit limited

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-4D Blue: http://www.4dblue.com/home.html
pros: great modeling and animating tool
cons: it seems like the development on it has stopped (correct me if i'm wrong)

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-truespace 7.6: http://cart1.caligari.com/web/Truespacemainreg.aspx
pros:A commercial package released for free and all it's professional tools are now ours!
cons: It currently has limited exporting capabilities.

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-CBmodelPro: http://www.cbmodelpro.com
pros: Great sculpting tool an free alternative to zbrush
cons: models can get pretty high poly and inapt to put in games

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-Moonlight 3d: http://www.moonlight3d.eu
pros: very active development (nightly builds). If you can run java on your machine you can run moonlite3D.
cons: Hard learning curve. Need some programming knowledge.


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-http://sketchup.google.com
pros: extremely easy to use good for rapid prototyping
cons: lacks the power and exporting capabilities of it's competitors

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Map bakers:

-Nvidia Melody: http://developer.nvidia.com/object/melody_home.html
A great tool that bakes normal maps from high res models, with some other functions too.

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-xnormal: http://www.xnormal.net/Default.aspx
xNormal is an application to generate normal / ambient occlusion / parallax displacement and relief maps. It can also project the texture of the highpoly model into the lowpoly mesh ( complete texture transfer, even with different topologies ) IT"S GREAT.

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- Light Map Maker: http://www.awingsoft.com/LightMapMaker/ ... pmaker.htm
This tool bakes light maps and export them, adding great effects to your game.

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AMD GPU MeshMapper: http://developer.amd.com/gpu/MeshMapper ... fault.aspx

Amd's counterpart for Nvidia's Melody. Use it for displacement and Normal map baking.

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Miscellaneous applications:


-Make human: http://www.dedalo-3d.com
A GREAT tool to make customized characters for your games saving you loads of time and money.

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-faceworx: http://www.looxis.com/en/k75.Downloads_ ... wnload.htm
a great tool that allows you to model a face from just two photos!!

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-3D Object Converter: http://web.t-online.hu/karpo/
A 3d object converter (DUH!) with 524 supported formats!

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-LithUnwrap: http://www.geocities.com/lithunwrap/?200814
unwraps a model to a bitmap so a texture could be painted later on.

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-sprite forge: http://www.d-grafix.com/?page=spriteforge
A very useful app that converts 3d models into animated sprites!


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-citygen: http://citygen.net/
it is still in the beta phase, but it is still useful to procedurally generate cityscape

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-grenfish relief map generator: http://greenfish.extra.hu/downloads.php
Another amazingly useful application to randomly generate relief maps

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-Alchemy: http://al.chemy.org

An ingenious innovating art tool that uses sound to make images. once fully mastered incredible art can be done with it!

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Animation:

-DAZ studio: http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/software/studio/-/?
state of the art features with good animation tools and renderer

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-synfig : http://www.synfig.org/Main_Page
A very powerful 2d vector based animation software

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-Fragmotion: http://www.fragmosoft.com/
A powerful animation tool with modeling capabilities

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Video

-Wax: http://www.debugmode.com/wax/
An amazing free video editing software, a must have for any studio toolset.

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-virtual dub : http://www.virtualdub.org/
Easy and good for personal use but not so powerful.


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Audio

-Audacity : http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

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Web

-Wink: http://www.debugmode.com/wink/
A good software to make flash walk throughs and tutorials

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-Synthasite : http://www.synthasite.com
An amazing free web builder very easy to use recommend for beginner web masters.

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-kompozer: http://kompozer.net
A great open source wysiwyg editor.

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Landscape generators:

-terragen: http://www.planetside.co.uk
A great terrain generator with the version 2 beta released.

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-Earth sculptor: http://www.earthsculptor.com/
another good terrain modeling solution.

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-bryce 5.5: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2007/06/16 ... -for-free/
A great versatile and professional approach to landscape modeling. It also has GREAT material possibilities.

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-landscape studio: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Science-CA ... udio.shtml

Another landscape generator.

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-L3dt: http://www.bundysoft.com/L3DT/

Great potential but sadly, the free version is limited. commonly used for rts mods.

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-HemaHema: http://reinerstileset.4players.de/hemahemaE.html

In my opinion, the best landscape generation tool around, free without any limitations!

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-Nem's terrain generator: http://nemesis.thewavelength.net/index.php?p=8

A great tool for making megaterrains.

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Texture and Procedural generators:

-MaPZone: http://www.mapzoneeditor.com
the GREATEST material tool.

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-Shader Designer: http://www.typhoonlabs.com/
A good tool but unfortunately the development on it stopped

NO PICTURE AVAILABLE (if you could provide any please pm me)

- http://www.imageafter.com
A great free collection of commercial use textures.

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-masonry designer: http://www.trinity3d.com/free3dtools/
this tool provides brick texture generation.


NO PICTURE AVAILABLE (if you could provide any please pm me)

-paver designer: http://www.trinity3d.com/free3dtools/
this tool generates pavement textures

NO PICTURE AVAILABLE (if you could provide any please pm me)

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-bricks'n'tiles: http://www.3d-rekonstruktionen.de/bricksntiles/
A tool that makes seamless brick texture from virtually any source image

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-wood workshop: http://www.spiralgraphics.biz/ww_overview.htm
A tool that generates tons of seamless wood textures.

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2d editors:

-The Gimp: http://www.gimp.org
A great image manipulating tool could be used to make custom textures

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-inkscape: http://www.inkscape.org
another great free 2d editor

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-paint.net: http://www.getpaint.net
A simple yet very powerful tool with layer system capabilities

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-Artweaver: http://www.artweaver.de/index.php?en_version
Aiming at a more artistic crowd, this editor is still capable of fast texture making.

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-Pencil: http://www.les-stooges.org/pascal/penci ... hp?id=Home
A simple 2d paint and animation software.

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Trees and plants generators:

-Dryad: http://dryad.stanford.edu/

A great tree generator.

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-ivy generator: http://graphics.uni-konstanz.de/%7Eluft/ivy_generator/
like it's name says.. it's an ivy generator. And a great one!

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-ngPlant: http://ngplant.sourceforge.net/
another plant generator.

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-Tree generator 1.2: http://www.treegenerator.com/download.htm
an older free version of a commercial tree generator

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-Plant studio: http://www.kurtz-fernhout.com/PlantStudio/
A good plant generator.

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-Tree[d]: http://www.frecle.net/forum/viewtopic.p ... light=tree.
THE tree generator to have!

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world editors:

-Gile[s]: http://www.frecle.net/giles
Specializes in light mapping.

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-LiquidLight: http://liquidlight.edgesoftware.uni.cc
A terrain editor made for game maker but can be used for other software.

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-pnp terrain: http://www.pnp-terraincreator.com/
A community supported world editor

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-Irredit: http://www.ambiera.com/irredit/
world editor for irrlicht but is worth checking out for all sorts of projects.

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I hope you like the list. Any software suggestions appreciated.

Re: THE FREE Software list: major image warning.

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 2:24 pm
by Raven67854
Nice list there Kyraneth. I was wondering when this gets moved over to indie-resource :). Thanks for posting it kyraneth.

Re: THE FREE Software list: major image warning.

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 5:44 pm
by Falken
Great post! Found around 10 programs I never heard of that I thought was very intresting!

Some additions:
Notepad++ (Text editor)
Visual Studio Express Editions
ATI Rendermonkey (Shader tool)

Re: THE FREE Software list: major image warning.

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 6:10 pm
by hallsofvallhalla
very nice will sticky! NM Raven beat me to it...Damn you!! :)

Re: THE FREE Software list: major image warning.

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 6:25 pm
by Raven67854
8-)

Re: THE FREE Software list: major image warning.

Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 8:02 pm
by kyraneth
Glad to see so much work appreciated! :D I found those on the many "halls disease" seizures i had, and i thought categorising them would be helpful for you (and me) for future consultations. Many of them were sadly lost (i forgot their names :oops: )
Some additions:
Notepad++ (Text editor)
Visual Studio Express Editions
ATI Rendermonkey (Shader tool)
Nice additions, i think i am going to add a text editor section. Thanks for the ideas!

Re: THE FREE Software list: major image warning.

Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 7:16 pm
by xezero
i think my bandwidth just blew up

Re: THE FREE Software list: major image warning.

Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 7:17 pm
by Raven67854
Hahahaha mines fine.. I think your PC is just crap.

Re: THE FREE Software list: major image warning.

Posted: Thu Jun 25, 2009 7:21 pm
by Noctrine
Finally actually looked through this list. (Takes forever for this debug thing to start up, gives me a bit of multipurpose time) that pencil thing looks epic.

Nevermind, OSX only.

Re: THE FREE Software list: major image warning.

Posted: Fri Jun 26, 2009 4:18 am
by kyraneth
what pencil thing?