Isn't blender good enough for game development?

[Speiderful]

@Sam Deiter;300259

No not really, as with anything in life it’s all about using the right tool for the job. For example the water simulations you can make in Blender, IMO, are light years ahead of 3Ds , Maya, or Houdini because with out any extra plug ins or crazy scripting hackery you can export each frame of the water sim to .FBX meshes. Now you will get more accurate water sims from the other programs but in the end, for a videogame, you do not need all that extra data so it’s waisted. Also due to the internal works of most dynamic sim engines, getting usable mesh data is rather hard with out a lot of work.

Thats nice too hear then assume i can safety continune learning blender xD

[Venged]

I your going to pay money go with Modo. Modo is awesome and can do it all. Before Modo I finally took time to learn Blender and it is awesome as well. The comment earlier about Modo not being a full tool was probably based on early versions of it. I take Blender with me when I have to travel and I use Modo all the time at home.

[minderaser]

I have zero reason to buy MODO indie, regardless of a perpetual or subscription license. I have to invest both time and money into learning another software when Blender already does everything I need for the low, low price of free.

Also OP, if you Google "Blender at game " or something similar you will find at least a few instances of it being used daily in a professional environment.

[Speiderful]

@;300309

I have zero reason to buy MODO indie, regardless of a perpetual or subscription license. I have to invest both time and money into learning another software when Blender already does everything I need for the low, low price of free.

Also OP, if you Google "Blender at game " or something similar you will find at least a few instances of it being used daily in a professional environment.

OK, gonna look into it, thank you!

[anonymous_user_7af3b797]

@;300209

That’s not any faster than what you would do in 3ds , it takes the same amount of actions–in 3ds the transform values are visible on the bottom of the screen, just double click to select and then type it in.

I just downloaded blender to check it out and here’s a few things I’ve noticed:

-Lack of selection options, 3ds has vertex, edge, border, poly, and element.
-Shift+translate to make a copy
-3ds has Reference copy type where it keeps all changes that the original has but you can add changes to it that don’t apply to the original
-3ds has modifier stack–make non destructive changes, and changes on the bottom go all the way to the top
-right-click spinner to make value 0
-Shortcuts aren’t consistent in different modes–for instance, object mode W is translate, E is rotate, R is scale, when I go to Edit mode, E is now extrude
-actually, a ton of unintuitive keyboard shortcuts, though I assume that can be adjusted

You are joking right?

It just confirms my suspicions: You don’t know what are you talking about.

[anonymous_user_7af3b797]

@Sam Deiter;300259

No not really, as with anything in life it’s all about using the right tool for the job. For example the water simulations you can make in Blender, IMO, are light years ahead of 3Ds , Maya, or Houdini because with out any extra plug ins or crazy scripting hackery you can export each frame of the water sim to a .FBX mesh. Now you will get more accurate water sims from the other programs but in the end, for a videogame, you do not need all that extra data so it’s wasted time. Also due to the internal works of most dynamic sim engines, getting usable mesh data is rather hard with out a lot of work. So with that stated, Blender is not useless for big or bigger projects, it’s just picking the right tool for the job and sometimes that is , other times that is Maya and in a very few instances that could be Blender.

Hi, Sam, I would really like to hear from you, what Maya or 3DMax have that Blender doesn’t, but strictly concerning game dev. Would you find time and answer that? Because in your last sentence you’re saying that Blender can be picked as a right tool in just very few instances, and I say the very opposite:
In most situations one will be better off using Blender and only in very few, very special cases (which I hope you will point them out to me) one will need Maya or 3DMax.

That’s what you need to be able to do when using 3D soft for a game:

a) Model
b) Unwrap
c) Bake maps
d) assign material slots
e) rig
f) animate

I say Blender can do all of that much easier/better/faster than of Maya. Please correct me.

[darthviper107]

@;300516

You are joking right?

It just confirms my suspicions: You don’t know what are you talking about.

I missed a few things as stated before, but it seems you can’t support your views at all

In any case, you’re comments are useless, biased, and false.

Support your software in an honest way, and if you’re going to make extreme comments like these then you better be able to support it:

@;299153

No software does it faster/more convenient/more intuitive and better than blender. Blender is the ultimate modeling machine.
It’s a spaceship, takes you wherever you want to. But you have to know how.

on the other hand is a tool from eighties. - Disaster
Maya somewhat better but not much really. - Mediocrity

@;300175

Second that. On top of that, if 3DMax is concerned, when you really think about it there has been virtually no change to how it worked 10-15 years ago, and perhaps even 20 years. No, 3DMax is a total disaster. Clumsy, fat, ridden with bugs, slow and what not. Nope…

Nothing there is true

[Speiderful]

I made the thread just to ask if blender could do the job and the thread became a software war in the end:*(

[minderaser]

@;300523

I missed a few things as stated before, but it seems you can’t support your views at all
Something else 3ds has–Character Studio and CAT, super quick and advanced rigging tools

In any case, you’re comments are useless, biased, and false.

What? Everyone’s opinions are biased, even your own. I’m not trying to attack you personally, but you did not investigate Blender very thoroughly.

Of course Blender has capabilities to do different modes of selection:

Shift+Translate to copy… in Blender that is simply Shift+D for duplicate.

And yes Blender has modifiers… https://www.blender.org/manual/modifiers/index.html
Modifier on: ://i.imgur/gPYRLuB.png
Modifier off: ://i.imgur/9JEiPU5.png

I can understand why is taking a more aggressive stance: some basic searching on Google would reveal all of this fairly easily.

Not to say either product is worse than the other, or that they don’t have their own quirks… and no I am not an advanced Blender user so I can’t explain everything.

@Speiderful;300537

I made the thread just to ask if blender could do the job and the thread became a software war in the end:*(

Yes it can do the job. It is merely personal preference which software you use. I have no troubles personally using Blender with UE4.

[Jezcentral]

@Speiderful;300537

I made the thread just to ask if blender could do the job and the thread became a software war in the end:*(

I think there’s only one of us trying to fight a war.

The others are in agreement. Blender CAN do the job. Is it the best option for you? It depends on personal preference. Some prefer it, some prefer other programs, like MODO, or Maya. Or others. If you are are happy with Blender, and it does everything you want, in a way that is comfortable for you to work, that’s fantastic.

[darthviper107]

@;300538

What? Everyone’s opinions are biased, even your own. I’m not trying to attack you personally, but you did not investigate Blender very thoroughly.

I’m biased but I try to be honest in what I post, if you read what I posted

I don’t really want to argue about software, and I shouldn’t have tried to argue specific features since I don’t know Blender well enough for that. If you read 's comments you can see he was aggressive from the beginning (like most of his comments are). I really hate when people say junk like that, and I’m not going to say nothing and allow it to seem like Maya and 3ds are terrible.

Ultimately—Blender is capable, more than any free program should be, and 3ds and Maya are certainly capable as well considering they are industry standard. One program may have useful features that the others don’t, though part of it comes down to what UI you like the best. Luckily they can all be downloaded to try out for free.

Now for my opinion–(notice, opinion). 3ds is my tool of choice, but the last few years has seen very few useful improvements, and considering the price increases from Autodesk I don’t think it’s worth the cost anymore–the market has changed and there’s stuff like Modo which is much more reasonably priced. Maya has fared a bit better, but I don’t think the pricing there is good either.
Blender I think still has UI problems, there’s a number of things that are more complicated than they need to be that end up cluttering the UI. The documentation isn’t very good, or even complete. People can get used to a UI, but I still feel that some things could be better–calling move/translate “Grab” for instance is a strange choice, and I don’t see why they’d do things that way.

[KVogler]

made the thread just to ask if blender could do the job and the thread became a software war in the end:*(

Yeah, the question phrased in a way that it implied no alternative. As if “if blender can do the job” means that no other tools would be neccessary.

A better way would be: “Should I include blender in my toolbox?”

Personally, I use the right tool for me for the right job:
3DSMax: Simple non-organic geometry. No elaborate booleans.
ZBrush/MudBox: Organic modeling / sculpting
Modo: Complex geometry that involves nested booleans (in the future with MeshFusion )
WoldMachine: Landscape meshes (single mountains, etc…)

(I dont use blender because I cant stand the UI concept. :rolleyes:)

[Sam_Deiter]

@Speiderful;300275

Thats nice too hear then assume i can safety continune learning blender xD

I would say yes but do not be afraid to branch out and try other programs as you might end up liking one better. I started out learning 3Ds inside and out so when I have to work in Maya the only problem I have is finding the button I need to do the thing I want. It’s almost like driving, sure you might learn how to drive in your mom’s minivan but that does not mean that one day you will not drive a Lamborghini.

[anonymous_user_f28231101 (anonymous_user_f2823110)]

Based on my limited experience I would say it mainly depends on what you are used to. I am sure Maya and 3dmax are very powerful programs (otherwise they would not be used as much) but for me they were a pain to use.

I created my very first models with Blender since money was tight so I was never influenced by the ‘proper’ GUI concepts that other programs use.
When I later got my hands on a Maya student license I gave it a try and was completely disappointed. Nothing worked like I expected and I was lost without viewing tutorials for even the smallest things. The same was true for 3dmax and when I tried the Modo trial I made the same experience. I was hoping for something like an ‘easy mode’ since everyone was telling me how difficult to use Blender was. But in the end my own abilities were the limiting factor not the software. Decent uv maps of complicated meshes are difficult to create no matter what.

My conclusion was that there probably is no best modeling software. You like what you’re used to and as long as the software does its job properly I see no reason to switch lanes. Someone who is used to Maya will get the most out of Maya and so forth.

For people without modeling experience I would recommend Blender because of its unbeatable pricing and because I am a huge fan of the search window you open by pressing ‘space’. At least for modeling and UVs that little window is almost all the GUI you will ever need. Except modifiers maybe. (Other programs might have something similar that I don’t know about.)

[anonymous_user_7af3b797]

@;300627

comments you can see he was aggressive from the beginning (like most of his comments are). I really hate when people say junk like that, and I’m not going to say nothing and allow it to seem like Maya and 3ds are terrible.

To the question: What Blender lacks what 3DMax or Maya have, you replying something like:

@;300627

I just downloaded blender to check it out and here’s a few things I’ve noticed:

-Lack of selection options, 3ds has vertex, edge, border, poly, and element.
-Shift+translate to make a copy
-3ds has Reference copy type where it keeps all changes that the original has but you can add changes to it that don’t apply to the original
-3ds has modifier stack–make non destructive changes, and changes on the bottom go all the way to the top
-right-click spinner to make value 0
-Shortcuts aren’t consistent in different modes–for instance, object mode W is translate, E is rotate, R is scale, when I go to Edit mode, E is now extrude
-actually, a ton of unintuitive keyboard shortcuts, though I assume that can be adjusted

And you expect people not to get irritated? I’m not aggressive, tried to politely ask you, to show me the shortcomings of Blender, to which you’ve posted the above. Unbelievable.

Maya and 3ds are terrible compared to Blender.

[anonymous_user_7af3b797]

@Sam Deiter;300690

I would say yes but do not be afraid to branch out and try other programs as you might end up liking one better. I started out learning 3Ds inside and out so when I have to work in Maya the only problem I have is finding the button I need to do the thing I want. It’s almost like driving, sure you might learn how to drive in your mom’s minivan but that does not mean that one day you will not drive a Lamborghini.

Hi Sam, thanks for your reply to my question. Just like I’ve expected.

[mzprox]

I use blender, but when I learn modelling tips I watch maya and tutorials as well. They all do the same (or almost). Sometimes i smile that hey, blender does that much better, sometimes I wish Blender would work the same, but nothing serious. As others noted these daysBlender is getting more and more recognition. One good example that even Epic works on better integration between blender and UE4

[Sam_Deiter]

@;300519

Hi, Sam, I would really like to hear from you, what Maya or 3DMax have that Blender doesn’t, but strictly concerning game dev. Would you find time and answer that? Because in your last sentence you’re saying that Blender can be picked as a right tool in just very few instances, and I say the very opposite:
In most situations one will be better off using Blender and only in very few, very special cases (which I hope you will point them out to me) one will need Maya or 3DMax.

That’s what you need to be able to do when using 3D soft for a game:

a) Model
b) Unwrap
c) Bake maps
d) assign material slots
e) rig
f) animate

I say Blender can do all of that much easier/better/faster than of Maya. Please correct me.

Blender as a piece of software does not do any of what you stated faster, better or easier than 3Ds or Maya. What you are thinking of comes down to the skill of the person using the tool. Sure you can probably do all of that faster than I can in Blender but on the other hand I can probably do all of what you stated faster than you in 3Ds as I have been using 3Ds for about 10 years now. Again Blender is just a tool used to interactively move vertices around in 3D space so that you do not have to do that in notepad. Do not fall into the trap of thinking one program is better than another one as this is not something you should concern yourself with or even worry about as it’s just a tool. Is a spoon that has a longer handle better than a spoon that has a shorter one? No they are just used for different tasks and the same goes for 3D tools.

[Jezcentral]

Does Blender currently have an equivalent to the Maya ART plugin?

[darthviper107]

@;300726

To the question: What Blender lacks what 3DMax or Maya have, you replying something like:

And you expect people not to get irritated? I’m not aggressive, tried to politely ask you, to show me the shortcomings of Blender, to which you’ve posted the above. Unbelievable.

Maya and 3ds are terrible compared to Blender.

Your first post was aggressive:

@;299153

Just two cents of mine:

For game developing, what you need is:

a) Model
b) Unwrap
c) Bake maps
d) assign material slots
e) rig
f) animate

No software does it faster/more convenient/more intuitive and better than blender. Blender is the ultimate modeling machine.
It’s a spaceship, takes you wherever you want to. But you have to know how.

on the other hand is a tool from eighties. - Disaster
Maya somewhat better but not much really. - Mediocrity

I am not biased (as much as it is possible in human power). I’ve used all three of them. Nothing comes close to blender.

I shouldn’t have tried to compare specific features since I don’t know Blender well enough–but, realistically considering your statements about how terrible Maya and 3ds are which are established and widely used software you should be the one defending your ridiculous statements. Which it doesn’t seem like you can.
I’m not going to say 3ds or Maya are better than Blender, but you definitely can’t say that they are terrible—especially when you don’t have any evidence.