Free Doom3-like renderbump maker

[EsH]

Just thought I'd post this link:

soclab.bth.se

It's really easy to use, once you learn the commands. A lot of people seem to still be confused about how the Doom3 tech works, what it really looks like in action, think it can only run on a DirectX 8.1 card, etc.

This ORB app requires only an NV10 level card (just bare, basic DOT3 instruction needed, with 32bit color/8bit stencil, which just about everyone has), is free (I just downloaded it), and even creates texture coordinates for you (so you don't even have to texture map the model). It uses native 3DStudio ascii formats, which just about every modelling app out there exports (one way or another). It even generates a low-res mesh for you, all in the same app!

Basically, it's a fun, easy thing to play around with if you want to see how some of Doom3's graphics are done. Kudos to this SOCLAB for producing such a quality product, free for download to everyone.

As a final note, this program doesn't seem to use the specular highlights that a lot of people claim will ruin Doom3 if turned off. But the output of this app still looks quite amazing, sans specular. So there ;)

[Fletcher`]

EsH said:

This ORB app requires only an NV10 level card...

Yes I'm somewhat clueless about newer cards, since I still got my GF2 64mb.

[AndrewB]

What the heck, I still have a Voodoo3 on my desktop computer, and have absolutely no desire to upgrade. But then again I have no desire to download this thingy, so it works out.

[[noob]plonker]

sorry 4 beeing stupid and soooooooo.... lambe but wtf is this proggy ? a game or a animation studoin , or none of them 2 ?

[EsH]

It's a tool that lets you take a detailed, high-resolution mesh (such a character from toy-story), and convert it-- doom3 style-- into a low-resolution, bumpmapped model. What this does is vastly reduces the number of polygons that the original mesh had, but magically keeps just about the SAME visual detail.

Because the mesh is actually much simpler, though, the toy-story caliber mesh can actually be used in a real-time consumer level game.

The tool lets you view the results of this operation, so it helps get a feel for what Doom3's graphics will look like, and how they work.