Good Editors for .3DS Modeling?

[hthth]

Hello everyone.
Long time since I've been here — so long that I'd completely forgotten my password and apparently have switched email addresses as the forgot-my-password reminder didn't work. (I used to be Raven).

Helge, those new projected textures look incredible man!
Great job, and glad to see there are still projects piling up. I'm hoping to jump back into jPCT development myself and make a pet project game. In the past couple of days while I've been familizaring myself with jPCT again, I came across a problem from the past: I never managed to get textures imported correctly. For some reason the apps I was using always messed up the 3ds export beyond recognition.

To conclude what turned to be a much longer post than I originally intended:

What 3D editor do you recommend [that works with .3DS] ?

I'm mainly going to be using it for architecture (as opposed to character design), if that makes any difference. It wouldn't hurt if it had a short learning curve, or if it was free, but at this point I'd be happy with anything that simply gets me going. Do I go for 3D Studio Max?

I appreciate your help.
-Hrafn

p.s. .3DS is still the best format to work with for jPCT, right?

[EgonOlsen]

I don't know about the editors but some people complained about the quality of various 3ds-exporters. That's the reason why jPCT now supports the obj-format, which is better supported by some exporters AFAIK. So maybe using obj instead of 3ds is an option.

[hthth]

That's great, and probably a lot simpler than trying to find an editor. From what I've seen it basically works the same way as when loading .3DS files, right? .OBJ contains a reference to the texture name, and you use the TextureManager to import textures with the same names as the ones contained in the .OBJ file?

I'll give it a shot. Thanks for a quick reply.

[EgonOlsen]

Yes the texture logic is the same as for 3ds. The only difference is, that obj outsources the material definition into a separate .mtl-file. The loader will process both at once.

[Kearnan]

I think AC3D is probably the best 3DS modeler (exporter) available for the price and even without considering the price, it's exceptional if you're just making models for use in 3D worlds.  Many of the modelers out there, costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars, are made for doing much more than making models.  If you just need models for use with OpenGL/JPCT, AC3D is the best option.  It's easy to learn, very reasonably priced and imports/exports most formats including OBJ and 3DS.  It's one of the few modeling programs out there that understands that users would like to make a model and apply a texture without a lot of fuss.

My additional suggestion, as a modeler tool of choice, would be Accutrans.  It can convert models to/from most popular formats and has many tools which you won't find in most modeling programs yet will find amazingly useful.  One I like in particular is a tool which creates a thumbnail picture of every model you own (I have thousands) which you can view at your leisure or use them to allow your users to select a model without guessing what it looks like.  It also has an animation tool, used, as far as I know, in only one framework, that creates sequenced animations.