NxtGen Media - The Freeman View

Blender 2.5 Alpha Available

The Blender 2.5 alpha is out for testing. I have not been a fan of Blender in the past, but seeing as my favorite hobbyist 3D modeling software (Caligari Truespace) went belly up, I gotta start looking into something that will be around for the long haul. You can still download Truepsace from the what’s left of the Caligari site, but who knows how long that will be kept up? I’ve used Truespace since version 2.0. I also use it because it has a swf exporter plug-in, and works well in Windows 7, and for the moment it is free. That being said, who knows how long that will last? If nothing else happens to Truespace, I’m giving it two years of useful life, hence the reason I am looking at Blender.

Blender never really set well with me because the interface was so difficult to get used to. This new version is supposed to address the interface, and I am rather excited about giving it a shot. Up until the release of Unity Indie, 3D modeling was never really anything more to me than a hobby. With Truespace, I could design interfaces and export them to Flash, but that was pretty much it. For anything more powerful, I needed a 3D engine. Now, I have to get serious about 3D if I hope to produce quality work in Unity. Truly a game change is on. Could the days of the lone wolf developer be coming back? Very exciting days ahead.

D

A New Hope

I’ve been working with Unity3D for a few weeks now, and I am totally pumped. In fact, I am more than just pumped, I am inspired. I had no idea how long I have been waiting for this day to come, hell I did not think it was even possible and so quickly. It is like being in the desert with a limited amount of water, and coming upon an oasis with not just a spring, but a well of ice cold water. I had some idea of what I wanted from a development environment, but had no way of realizing it. Director and Flash were as close, as I could get to having an app that would allow me to produce the type of web media I was dreaming of, but fell short in way too many areas.

This move by Unity to make the indie version free was not only brilliant, but I am starting to believe that this could be the start of a new era in web media. A revolution if you will. The power that Unity has is simply immense when it comes to web. It supports 3D gaming now, but how much of a stretch would it be to add flex-like support to Unity? I mean seriously, it will be trivial for Unity to do 2D apps. I already know that as soon as I can save enough pennies I will be upgrading to the pro version for home. My boss was so impressed by the quality of Unity that our next projects are now all slated for Unity. Flash still has a place in our tool kit, but it may be losing its prominence very soon. It is truly a great time to be in web media.

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Unity3d free?!!

Last week, I sent DiamondTearz an email asking him was he still excited about Unity3D. I sent this, because I was considering buying it, despite my reservations about player penetration and such. He wrote me back that not only did he love it, but that the indie version was free.

Shocking? Absolutely. The few things that were holding me back from pursuing development were obviously player penetration, and not really wanting to spend $200 on a technology that I was not sure was going to be around for the long haul. With the $200 barrier gone, I would be crazy not to seriously begin developing with this engine. All I have to lose now is time, and I am betting that with the release of the indie version, player penetration is going to increase and Unity will be around for some time to come.

Excited? More than you can imagine. The little bit I played with Unity before, gave me the impression that this was huge, but I was just not ready to spend time with something else over my beloved Flash. Too many years in the development relationship with Flash, but god was I tempted. Now with this release, I see at the very least I can begin to realize prototypes and experiments that were simply not possible in Flash. I would often go home from a day of working in Flash, and work on games and experiments in Flash. Now I will be doing that ‘homework’ in Unity. I can’t remember the last time I was so excited about a home project. Oh yeah, back in the days when I first started using Flash. This move by Unity was brilliant. It will be very interesting to see what happens in the industry as a result.

DCF