Microsoft trueSpace: Free Alternative to 3ds Max, Google Sketchup

Wow - all I can say! truespace is very decent - and this just made it a no brainer!

Hardly that trueSpace can compete with Blender. Bender’s functionality, range of features, additional renderers ae someting that will take Microsoft years to achieve. And it is doubtful that then they would give all thaqt for free. And then, while free of charge, trueSpace is still not opensource.

Wait…did they just use the words “free” and “Microsoft” in the same sentence? Are there flying pigs around here? Is Hell still hot?

@Dandellion Kimban: you are forgetting this product is not something new from MS that as you say, would take years to get decent.
The product is mature already (used to sell for $600), they just bought the company that made it and then released it for free.
It’s a pretty big deal.

MS does offer quite a lot of free stuff actually - the Visual Studio Express versions and related stuff, Virtual PC, Media Encoder for example. Students in a number of countries can even get the usually $1000+ Visual Studio Pro for free.

I wonder why there are getting more and more Microsoft freeware. The first one I know is Microsoft Accounting, then Microsoft WorldWide Telescope and then this one, trueSpace.

truespace, as in Caligari TrueSpace??? wow

Then again, you can also look at Daz3d for 3d authoring. The Daz3d program is free, as well as many starter models. Nifty program (does take horsepower), an active community, and many many models available for free or for small fees.

link

As noted above, more freeware from Microsoft, though generally for the lesser required products. Maybe Microsoft Word might be universally free one day…

Daz3d is an aweful piece of software.

Blender may be powerful but it’s NOT too convenient (and I am an experienced blender user). Truespace is a mature software while Blender is still not (booleans and nurbs are useless in blender if they exist at all).

Truespace is an awesome piece of software to get for free.. I am still amazed it’s free! wow.. go go Microsoft!

Funny how you all seem to be surprised at a free product from Microsoft… Go on their download site - you’ll soon see that the only things Microsoft charge for are, pretty much, Windows and Office applications. Most things are free to download: Internet Explorer, Media Player, a host of smaller utilites, etc.

Anyway, about trueSpace - it looks good. It can’t be any harder to use than Blender (which has the worst interface on the planet). But, of course, if you already have Lightwave, you’re not going to ditch a $500 program for a free one…

I have used paid Caligari (now MS) Truespace since version 2, some 14 years ago, and it is really an excellent software, with two superb integrated renderers, and optional Vray. It has simulation, excellent interface and now it is all free. By watching the free video courses it is even easier to learn for newbies. For game development, it is just great.
For those mentioning DAZ3D, I use it too, but it competes only with POSER, since it is a model posing and renderer only, not a full modeler.

trueSpace is NOT free. Blender is free. You should try to understand the difference between free like free speech and free like free beer…

trueSpace cannot compete in any way with Blender, which superiors it pretty much in most aspects.

@kamran (#10) You are probably the first “experienced” user of Blender that doesn’t know there are Booleans and NURBS in Blender. And yes, they are easy to use. Duh….

Yes, Pete, Truespace IS free. Go to: link . All the training videos are also, Free. Not quite sure what you are referring to. Could you please elaborate? Thanks. :D

Blender is open source, so you can download and modify the code, sure. Truespace is not.

Jason, there is more in freedom than just having something without pazing for it. Pete is referring to that. Where is the freedom if I cannot change the code I run on my own computer?

Jason: as dandellion already mentioned. It is not free. It is just inital cost free.
Actually it’s not the point if you can change the source code, but if you are allowed to see and modify it if you want.

Anyway, closed source development is going towards a dead end… so it would not matter after some time.

Oh PLEASE! For the majority of users, they are NOT going to care if the code is open source or not for their own purposes. They will simply look for a product that A) Does what they want to achieve a goal, and B) Costs them very little or nothing monetarily to achieve their goal. So while it may not be OPEN, it is in fact, $FREE$. Quit being so elitist about the terminology. As far as closed source development dying, there will always be people out there that do NOT want to have to compile source code from a TAR file, blah, blah. Some people just want an executable install package that they don’t have to spend time finding tools they don’t normally use to open, compile, install and run an application.

Being precise about terminology doesn’t mean being an elitist. It is just that some people need to have a good working aparatus for their thinking. it’s also respect of the language.

Using open source software doesn’t mean one have to compile the source code. There are precompiled packages which are, believe it or not, easier to install than regular windows procedure: ok, ok, ok, agree, ok, next, next, whatever, ok, ok… blah blah, restart….

I agree that majority of users doesn’t pay attention if the code of the software they use is open or not. But, in the long run, it does matter to them. Security, updates, new custom features, support of the community is something wise user takes in consideration.

I use 3DS Max, and have downloaded truespace to see how it compares - tried blender several times, but interface is crazy.

We’ll see what comes of it… this could be very, very good news - especially if you’re allowed to sell what you make.