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3D Starter Kit
About Truespace Archives
These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
3D Starter Kit // Roundtable
Post by TomG // Jan 23, 2008, 10:39am
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TomG
Total Posts: 3397
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Lots of folks want to get into 3D but it can prove expensive. tS3 is free, but sometimes people want more, so we've come up with the 3D Starter Kit, with trueSpace5.2 and 2 video courses for $39.95. The aim is to let folks get into creating 3D at a price that's the same as buying a new video game.
http://www.caligari.com/store/special/3D_Starter_Kit.html
For those more into gaming, over on the gS web site we have a Group Buy special, where the more people that purchase, the lower the final price will be. This removes the need for us to second guess how many might buy, we can actually price it based on exactly how many buy! If you are interested, be sure to let others know, as you'll save yourself money if more people purchase.
http://www.caligari.com/gameSpace/GroupBuy_200801.asp
Then of course for the folks who want the latest and greatest, the design special gets you tS7.5 itself at great savings, along with some videos too. Not that you need to be a designer to find that a great deal!
http://www.caligari.com/store/special/design200801.html
The Group Buy in particular is a new idea, so we'll see how that works out - it's important to us as a company to not only provide a high-end product like tS7.5, but also to enable those who want to get started in 3D to do so without breaking the bank, and that's where we hope things like the Starter Kit and gameSpace Group Buy come in!
Thanks!
Tom |
Post by frootee // Jan 23, 2008, 10:48am
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frootee
Total Posts: 2667
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Hm...
ts 5.2 for $39? Holy Cow!
There are websites that specialize in posting information about web deals, like dealmac.com, although dealmac is for Macintosh users.
I wonder how they find out about web deals so they can advertise about them.
Through advertisement, the price of this particular "group deal" will go down dramatically.
interesting. |
Post by 3dvisuals dude // Jan 23, 2008, 10:56am
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3dvisuals dude
Total Posts: 1703
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Excellent deals there Tom!
One post to the Usenet group "alt.binaries.3d.poser" would get you about 100 takers on the Starter Kit by Sunday if you posted it today.
Poser users are almost exclusively newbie 3d modelers and wannabe 3d modelers... at a price like that they definitely wouldn't pass it over at all.
I'd do it myself if I wasn't afraid of the avalanche of spam that follows posts there, but if you have a stealth posting program it would be a great idea for sure.
- Mark |
Post by TomG // Jan 23, 2008, 10:57am
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TomG
Total Posts: 3397
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Holy cow is what we think too :) But we do feel that folks should be able to dive into 3D and for many people, hundreds of dollars may be too much, and we don't want to see the door closed to them. While we can't move to releasing other versions of tS for free other than tS3, we can move to making it affordable to purchase tS5, so that is just what we're doing.
Of course most video games cost $50 or $60 these days, so $40 for something that will get you creating seems like a great deal to us!
Don't know on the websites, if anyone knows of any, feel free to announce these offers there, or just let me know about them (email thomas@caligari.com) and I'll see about getting these deals placed on those sites.
Thanks!
Tom |
Post by notejam // Jan 24, 2008, 5:29am
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notejam
Total Posts: 191
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Tom,
If there could just be an upgrade to this version 3 of a few items, then it would catch on in a big way with the vrml/x3 world modelers.
One of the problems right now is its smooth tool, sds, adds mesh, and it adds up fast, not best for 3d world modelers that want, and need to keep mesh count polygon down. In fact, they are recommending all models and objects be buildt in nurbs, rather than polygons. Really all of us are in need of this, as truespace worlds are already having to watch the polygon count of objects they build for shared space scenes.
If a second version of version 3 was made, that had the nurbs primitives presented first so it seems like the tool is designed as default, design in nurbs, but if you want, design in polygons. Had a good polygon to nurbs conversion tool, had the ability to load save in vrml/x3 file formats, and had a good smooth tool that did not increase mesh count, like the smooth tool in blender, and a small ad campaign to post where vrml/x3 modelers can download it free, then I think truespace would catch on a lot more with this crowed of 3d modelers. |
Post by TomG // Jan 24, 2008, 6:26am
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TomG
Total Posts: 3397
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Hi Notejam,
If you mean trueSpace3.2 (by version 3), then it is about 9 years old and definitely not under any sort of development any more!
NURBS are not good for real-time renders and shared spaces (which is why, for example, no games use NURBS as their models, they all use polys). For real-time engines of all sorts, watching your poly counts always happens.
NURBS are always converted to polys at render time, which is why they are not good for real-time renders as although you have a mathematical definition of the surface using less data than polys, to get that surface to your render engine, you need to go and convert it to polys, which makes a lot of polys, which slows down render engines.
This is often not so bad with offline render engines, where vast numbers of polys can be handled fairly well, but is a problem for real-time where large numbers of polys do cause a choke.
For most of what you request, the solution is to buy a newer version of tS - the tS3 smooth tool was replaced in tS5, the foundation of the Starter Kit, and gives much better results. The tool was replaced again in tS7.5, so again if you want an even better smooth tool (and an even better poly reduction tool), then the latest version of tS is the way to go.
Naturally we cannot take the features of a latest version and put them back into a free version - for one, the code is almost a decade different and wouldn't fit. For another, that way would be a dead end in making profit for the company, resulting in no new tools at all!
What we do instead is make the newer tools as affordable as we can - tS5.2 is light years ahead of tS3, and now is only $40 (compare that to a collector's edition video game of $70, or Rock Band at $130 or whatever it is). We think that is a great price for some very good tools!
Similarly, gameSpace takes you to tS6.6 level tools for what could be a sub-$100 price, and then tS7.5 is affordable too with the Design special. So people need not be stuck with the older, free tools - there are affordable ways to move forward to newer (and better) tools.
HTH!
Tom |
Post by frootee // Jan 24, 2008, 6:49am
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frootee
Total Posts: 2667
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You are making me very nostalgic now Tom... <sniff>...
I bought ts 4.3 as part of an Easter Egg special or something, back in 2000 I think, for $99, with fx pak thrown in for the heck of it. Something like that. Then I think the upgrade to 5.2 was $49 shortly after. Man.
5.2 for $40 is one hell of a deal. |
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