Searching for the right tools

[NiuHaka]

Is there any software out there that would allow me to replace all the 2d sprites (monsters & weapons etc.) with 3d animated objects. I seem to remember seeing 3d monsters using zdoom back in the 90's. Looked through the Editors & Utilities section but didn't see any mention of this.

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A little of my background that might assist you in helping me.

I'm a professional video game artist. Sounds like a fun job in theory but I'm constantly working on titles that do not interest me in the least and i'm in dire need of creating something good. After a few years of video game art experience I have just fallen in love the idea of recreating the original DOOM monsters so that they at least resemble them (unlike doom 3 which did not seem like doom to me at all.)

Back when I was in 8th grade this brilliantly hellish video game called DOOM came out and I was instantly hooked. A few years later I was creating my own levels, weapons and monsters with programs like DCK, WinTex, dehacked and Zdoom. I have a little experience in creating assets for DOOM but that was over a decade ago.

[Dco16]

There are packs replacing just about everything in Doom with 3d models. Most engines have support for MD2 models. As far as I know, they can run with Doomsday, EDGE, Risen3d, Vavoom. GZDoom also has some model support.

The JDoom Resource Pack is probably the best collection:
http://dengine.net/

[Infinite Ammunition]

This requires the use of a source port that specifically supports hardware rendering and 3D; out of the ones Fiend mentioned above JDoom and GZDoom are probably your best bet and most widely used, plus Doomsday Wiki has some resources for making your MD2 models work with it, as well as other things such as high-res textures. Vanilla ZDoom has never supported 3D objects, though I don't recall if ZDoomGL may have back in the day.

As for more up-to-date (and source-port-aware) tools for modding other aspects of Doom, for starters Doom Builder and SLADE take the place of DCK for most folks today; XWE for WinTex; and WhackEd2 for dehacked.

[Gez]

Infinite Ammunition said:

I don't recall if ZDoomGL may have back in the day.

It did. ZanZan used models pretty much exclusively.

[NiuHaka]

MD2?! Son of a! I worked with md5 and gave me all sorts of horrid rashes because I was working with maya 2009 which is also the version i have here at home and none of the md5 exporters supported anything beyond maya 8 which is pretty old and also pretty hard to find... of course the problem might have been when we converted them over to kmesh and kanim... The knowledge was far beyond my job as an artist so i have no idea.

Oh yes that's right, i think i did use zdoomgl when i saw the 3d monsters in DOOM or DOOM2, at least for a few days or so. Hard to remember. that was half of my life ago.

By the way, I am having a blast looking at all this new software. I would have died and gone to heaven if I had these tools back in the day. I can still remember when i realized i could turn just a normal little candle into a statue which could be viewed from 8 different angles. Man those were good old days. It's good to be back.