GMAX or 3D MAX

[cvkiwi]

Hi all I was wondering what is better for Trainz GMAX or 3DMAX
and where do I find it
Also is there anything else that I might to build ROLLINGSTOCK for TRS2012
cvkiwi

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

The downside of gmax is that it's no longer supported by its owners, so there will be no patches or upgrades for it, and it doesn't have all the bells and whistles that 3DSMax has (whatever they are). The upsides are that it's free and will do most of the things you need for Trainz content and there will be no patches to change it and screw it up with a new set of bugs. There are still many Trainzers around who use and maybe even prefer gmax and they can help you with the learning. You can get gmax 1.2 from the turbosquid website.

3DSMax is a full-on professional program and is still actively being developed. It costs thousands of dollars. Autodesk is the company that makes it, they probably have a website. The interface and underlying methods are similar to gmax, but just different enough to be annoying if your brain has been hard-wired to use gmax for a long time.

Some say Blender is easier if you are starting out fresh, but others dislike the way it relies on lots of keyboard commands.

 

[cvkiwi]

Ok mate so what are you using
chris

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Crystal meth...I mean gmax.

I think you were also asking what other things you might need in order to build things.

You won't get far without a good graphics program to make your texture images, unless you're one of those guys that is happy with plain featureless solid colours, but honestly, they make even the best mesh look like Lego blocks. By 'good' I mean one that uses Layers (so you can easily assemble various images into one big efficient image instead of 23 inefficient separate images) and alpha channels (for transparency and specular effects).

The program I'm lucky enough to have is Adobe Photoshop - it does all those things and more but it might be costly. Photoshop Elements is (or was) a basic and cheaper version, but I'm just not sure how much it can do. Paintshop Pro is another one they say is good. GIMP is free but just personally I thought it was horrible last time I looked. These days it's helpful if your graphics program can create normal maps. My version of Photoshop doesn't have that ability built-in, but you can install normal map 'filters' such as the free NVidia plug-in or payware programs like PixPlant.

The full set of PEVSoft freeware utilities is almost essential too.

 

[cvkiwi]

Hi mate can you please tell me what utillities I well need I now have Gmax downloaded
But I think I am going to need a lot of help
Would you be happy to help out please
All of the running stock and locos well be for TRS2012
chris

 

[Dinorius_Redundicus]

Get all the PEV programs. If you don't use some, who cares, they are free.

Don't ask me about rolling stock or locos, I have never made one and in fact I still don't know how to animate a model. And I don't own TS12 so I can't say what might have changed in terms of the 'rules' for the assets.

Surveyors, Operators and Engineers is not the best place for this subject Chris. You might want to take up your request for help in the Content Creation forum.

 

[cvkiwi]

never thought of that thanks mate
chris

 

[ray_whiley]

Just to add to the above, I use Trainz Asset Creation Studio/GMax (for free) and Serif PhotoPlus (this is not an advertisement!) which is not free but came in a bundle including PagePlus, DrawPlus and WebPlus which all work easily together. I use GIMP occasionally for my first go at correcting perspective in a photograph of a building, then finish the correction in PhotoPlus which enables me to place a node anywhere on the image and tweak it in any direction. I also use GIMP for making a texture seamless, to use it tiled on a model. I have only used PaintNet for an instant view of a saved tga. file without having to open PhotoPlus.

These do all I want to do at the moment in the way of asset creation, which does not include locomotives as I have not learned how to animate (apart from animating myself to begin a new model!)

Ray