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Free tools

Started by Specchum Dec 17, 2004 at 7:44 AM 3 replies 750+ views

Original Post

Dec 17, 2004 at 7:44 AM

I was wondering what everyone thinks are ideal *free* tools for budding game programmers. Tools that allow a game programmer to build resources for a complete game from scratch (apart from the API). Specifically, I was looking for tools in the following categories: 1) 3D Modeler: Can anyone recommend a decent 3d modelling tool that will allow me to quickly and easily create 3d models (including bones, keyframes, etc)? Maybe allow me to export in .x format too! 2) Art program for texturing: GIMP is one free art package. Any other good ones? 3) Sound API: FMOD seems to be popular, but any other good alternatives that can deal with most formats? I suppose I better toss this one in too: what's the best free IDE+Compiler combo currently, in your opinion? Feel free to recommend any other tool that a game programmer may find handy! I'll vote for the boost library and STLPort here! Both are certainly worthy tools to have in a programmer's arsenal!

sebarnolds

Dec 17, 2004 at 7:55 AM

3D modeler :
- Blender is a good one
- Wings3D (not tried)
- DeleD (not tried)
- Worldcraft, GTK Radiant and the others for map modeling

Audio libs:
- FMod (not tried, not free for commercial uses)
- BASS (not tried)
- OpenAL (surely more limited than the others but I quite like it)

As for the art, I suppose any 2d gfx software is good.

A quite good combination for IDE+Compiler is Eclipse+Mingw (under windows) you can also use Eclipse under Linux and mingw is gcc-compatible (I think). I previously used Ms Visual Studio 6 (not free) and now, I use Eclipse. It's quite good though I'm waiting for the CDT 2.1 which should improve some features.

Hope it helps.

Koshmaar

Dec 17, 2004 at 2:36 PM

Quote:
I suppose I better toss this one in too: what's the best free IDE+Compiler combo currently, in your opinion?

Quite good IDE is DevC++ - simple (but not too much), easy to learn, powerfull after you've learned few tricks (ie. what not to do if you don't want it crashed) and sadly not so stable :-/ (but it's getting better). DevC++ ships with MinGW which is GCC ported to windows.

Quote:

Feel free to recommend any other tool that a game programmer may find handy! I'll vote for the boost library and STLPort here! Both are certainly worthy tools to have in a programmer's arsenal!

Not strictly corresponds to programming, but... Firefox rules ;-) Windows Commander (aka Total Commander) is also very handy. I use Doxygen for automatic generation of documentation from comments in source code - neat.

RolandofGilead

Dec 17, 2004 at 11:31 PM

http://www.anim8or.com
is better for beginners than Blender I think

Specchum

Dec 18, 2004 at 1:42 AM

Cheers! Will give MinGW and Doxygen a look. Sound promising. Still undecided about animation and art packages....

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