Is it possible to create 3D objects and games in Scratch?
Any ideas? Maybe someone knows of a 3D version of Scratch or something similar.
Relevant suggestions are very welcome.
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Scratch is very strongly a 2D world.
The simplest 3D world I have seen is the Alice environment (http://alice.org), but it is much more complicated to work in than Scratch, and you are mostly limited to the 3D objects that they have already created models for.
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I agree that a logical next step up from Scratch is Alice. This program is free, Java based and has a nice drag and drop interface. It also has an excellent gallery of 3D objects, but unfortunatly, as noted, they are in an Alice specific format. A free set of Alice tutorials, with lots of examples, is available at http://www.dickbaldwin.com/tocalice.htm
A caution - Alice 2.0 is annoyingly buggy and prone to crashing - save your work and restart the program often. Also don't be surprised if something doesn't work properly (web page export, numeric arrays, …) or at all (export to video) - most, but not all, problems are listed in the bug list accessable from the Alice main page.
There are a lot of free 3D programs for Window (far fewer for MacOS) - one list is at http://www.amazing3d.com/softfree.shtml . Of these, Anim8or has a very nice user interface, while MilkShape3D probably has the best import/export capabilities for commercial games, but is a bit more difficult to use.
A nice beginning 3D modeling program is Object Creator, available at http://www.gravimetricstudios.com/ . Any 3D program, however, is going to be quite a bit more complex to use than a similar 2D program with otherwise equal functionality. If you haven't worked with a 3D program before, either try this or Google SketchUp http://www.sketchup.com/?sid=4 first.
At the high end, Maya is a leading (and fairly expensive) commercial package, but there is a free "Personal Learning Edition" of the software available at (http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/index?siteID=123112&id=7639525 ). This is quite a complex package and requires a fairly high end PC to run effectively - or even at all.
Finally, if you are interested in the nuts and bolts of a fairly popular 3D "gaming engine", take a look at the Irrlicht Engine site, http://irrlicht.sourceforge.net/ . This link is not for beginners, however.
Last edited by DrJim (2007-06-24 21:27:14)
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Duncan wrote:
You can get Bryce 5.5 for free at the moment too - for Macs and Windows.
A great suggestion for a free, high end program. I had a bit of trouble finding the free download - it's in the support/downloads section of the site at http://www.daz3d.com/i.x/support/downloads/-/?product=bryce . I notice you can also download DAZ|Studio for free, which I would think would complement Brice 5.5 nicely (I believe it's now included in Brice 6.0) - but having never used either, that's just a guess.
Also, for those that might be interested (I am), note that as far as machine requirements go, these are far closer to Maya than Scratch. The combined download package for Brice 5.5 and DAZ|Studio is well over 80M just for starters.
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