MAYA 3D STUDIO MAX TRIAL
MAYA 3D STUDIO MAX FREE

I would suggest Blender, Milkshape, maybe some others (there are definately articles and stickies about 3d packages). Yes, they're very powerful, but you'll only be using a fraction of that power. The real benefit of either of them come with support and plugins/scripting. Most cheaper programs have most of the functionality they do. Thanks in advance for any thoughts or opinions!ДЈDS or Maya will both be overkill.

MAYA 3D STUDIO MAX FREE

So given this, and given that my main use (as far as my currently limited knowledge can predict) for this type of program is to create complex meshes and scenes (i.e., model my 3D world), would I be better off going with 3ds Max even though I hate the user interface?ДЄnd along these lines, is all this perhaps overkill? I know Milkshape 3D is a good (free) program for character modeling, but I don't know of any free or cheap 'level and/or mesh' editors. It doesn't work well with DirectX (i.e., exporting to DirectX), 99% of all tutorials and books are centered around 3ds, etc., etc. My stumbling block is that Maya seems to be very poorly supported in the game development field. It just seems sleeker and more polished whereas 3DS Max appears very kludgy, clunky, crowded, and poorly thrown together.

MAYA 3D STUDIO MAX TRIAL

I have been testing out the trial version of 3DS Max, and between the two, I really like working with Maya a lot more for purely superficial reasons: I like its UI better. I already have a little experience with Maya (version 5), and the latest version seems even better. Also, rudimentary modeling, skinning, and animation is definitely going to be needed (by me) at some point I'm sure.

I see myself needing one of these two programs mainly for creating meshes and even entire scenes as it will probably be a long while until I can design and implement my own ad hoc level editor. (Yes, I know this will limit me to the Windows platform, but that's not the point of this post.) My overall goal/project is to design and implement a game engine, probably focusing exclusively on Direct3D (as opposed to OpenGL).

I know both are fantastic, feature rich programs, but my problem is that given the high cost ($4,000 - $5,000), I am understandably not willing to buy both: I must choose one or the other. Before the title of this thread scares you, no, I am not going to ask which is the best program overall, but I am going to seek opinions as to which one might better serve my specific needs.

Maya 3d studio max