trueSpace 7.6 is available for FREE (and why you should care)
Thursday, July 24 2008
In case you haven't already seen Glenn "Mykre" Wilson's blog post, I'll just blog bout it here:
Caligari's trueSpace 7.6 is available for free download. (trueSpace 7.5 retailed for almost $600. I'd say that's a damn nice discount!)
So what is special about trueSpace? If you're an XNA Game Studio developer looking for a nice 3D modeling tool, this is the best deal you will find (I like the interface more than Blender, personally).
But wait...there's more! Their training videos are now also free, and there is hours and hours of great stuff to soak up!
Most of you probaby already know that Caligari was snatched up by Microsoft's Virtual Earth team (keep an eye on their blog here -- good hints and tips on modeling with trueSpace as well as how to integrate with Virtual Earth)
When the acquisition of Caligari was first announced, there was a lot of speculation that this would lead to some kind of official 3D modeling tool for XNA Game Studio. That (still) isn't the case, but trueSpace will export to .X, so your models can definitely be used with the default content pipeline importer. Hopefully in the future, we will see some special XNA content pipeline importer that will natively handle the full suite of features that you can model in trueSpace.
The real eyebrow-raiser here is that this is another game-changing move by Microsoft, and is likely the first in a series of strategic steps to create a 3D model offering that is robust enough for multiple application uses.
Of course, the XNA team probably doesn't want to step on the toes of the partnersip they already have with Softimage's XSI|MOD tool (and don't get me wrong -- that is an EXCELLENT modeling tool too!), but it will be interesting to see where that partnership goes once the dust settles on this new announcement.
Until then pass me some popcorn, this is gonna be fun to watch!
Hi Dave!
Thanks for the news! Hope you are doing well at the new job, and that you are managing as well as possible your house selling and family questions ! Keep us updated!
BTW, I'm working on the XNA 3.0 version of my book (the 2.0 version has my aknowledgements to your work as a 'community inspiration', have you seen it?); if now you have some extra time and want to write a chapter or participate in any way, please let me know! :)
Health & Peace to you and yours!
Alex