Attached Link: Free trueSpace

o.k., thx fr the lnk.
it's interesting - their HQ are at (or near) microsoft HQ, but their fax machine is located approx.
2 miles northwest of apple HQ.  talk about synergy!

Attached Link: http://forums1.caligari.com/truespace/showthread.php?p=71696

That link I posted is to the main page, which has the freebie link on it. That then takes you to the page to set up an account.

Wow! Nice jump up from the free 4.3 I downloaded and never really learned.

WOW! WOW! WOW! WOW!

Thank you for the headsup on this one. WOW!
Old TrueSpace user and got away from it (Yes, I'm looking at you Poser!) after v5.2.
In fact I was wondering where I had my patch for v.5  to go to 5.2.

What timing. WOW!

Wow is right ! I always liked Truespace back in the day but then kinda lost interest in it over the years. Seems to have become a pretty capable and cool app in it's latest versions. Wonder why they made it free ?

Also they seem to have a bunch of poser users, anyone here care to comment on how well it integrates with poser ?

Oh and thanks to the OP for pointing this out...

If only they had true dynamic/simulation hair and cloth...then it indeed WOULD be full-featured.

NOTE: They are also making all their extensive library of video tutorials free as well.

NOTE: You can get V-Ray for trueSpace for $299, and maybe this is where the company is expecting to get revenue. That is a GREAT deal.
http://www.caligari.com/store/trueSpace/default.asp?SubCate=S2truespace&Cate=STtrueSpace

I would check the specs, however; it is possibly not the FULL V-Ray suite of features.

::::: Opera :::::

WOW is right!  I checked out TrueSpace seriously some years back and liked it but at that time it did not offer enough.  But this from just a surface scan seems very capable. I thought I remembered that TrueSpace had plugins ect for Dark Basic and some other game dev apps.  I'll have to look alot closer. When I started out I really wanted to learn game dev and got sidetracked with poser and modelling but would really still like to learn game dev. TrueSpace for free!!!!!!!!  :)

Quote - If only they had true dynamic/simulation hair and cloth...then it indeed WOULD be full-featured.

Well even a half-featured app for free is fine with me :P

Oh and the free thing seems to be a result of their being bought out by Micro$oft, the original "sugar daddy" I guess they want to leverage it against google's sketchup or something ?

Great deal! Specifications tells that it works with WinXP & Vista... did someone try using it in Win2K?

Quote - Wow is right ! I always liked Truespace back in the day but then kinda lost interest in it over the years. Seems to have become a pretty capable and cool app in it's latest versions. Wonder why they made it free ?

Also they seem to have a bunch of poser users, anyone here care to comment on how well it integrates with poser ?

Oh and thanks to the OP for pointing this out...

It had a plug-in to handle Poser content, but development ceased probably even before the switch to the new architecture.  I wanted full collada support as a way to get content in an out, but that is not a format Microsoft are pushing.  (Maybe Caligari will extend the x format?)  They did add the morphing though.  The rigging is way beyond what we have in Poser.  The physics is built in, and can freely be mixed with keyed animations.  Realtime cloth.  UV mapping tools.  Realtime displacements.  It's the logical place to go if you use Poser for animation rather than illustration, but don't expect it to give a rat's posterior about your runtime folder.  There's a huge amount of starting over involved (you're going to have to recreate a lot of stuff the long way in an unfamiliar program) but for many users it would be worth it.  Hopefully someone will take up the cause and write a new import plug-in when the SDK is released.

moo gal what does "Realtime cloth" mean? can you describe how it works as opposed to simmed cloth in Poser?

I've downloaded it, looks cool, but unlike previous versions the rendering engine is gone? I'm assuming the rendering engine is V-Ray and without it you can't render in TS7.6?

It also works with Vista

The renderer is a native DX9 renderer.  It's essentially the viewport.  It offers soft shadows, gel lights, subsurface scattering, displacement mapping, etc, though I'm not sure what the resolution tops out at or if it is dependant on your GPU.  There is also the Lightworks renderer built in.  V-Ray is optional.  Or, maybe I have that backward again.  Some users were initially having problems with the new way the plug-ins are packaged, but the renderer hasn't been taken out or disabled to my knowledge.  I think if you look closely though you may be surprised at some of the available images which are just screengrabs of the viewport.  And no, it's not just all of the shiny ones either...

Realtime cloth is cloth that updates with the object as you work without needing to be "simmed".  In fact, there is discussion about how to "capture" its movement as its natural tendency is to react dynamically always.  I'm not sure what the relative performance of it is.  The realtime nature may mean lower polys meshes are more desirable, though I'd expect more complex cloth objects to simply update at lower FPS.  In TS, dynamic and keyframed animated properties can influence each other.  So realtime cloth is presumably affected by environmental wind and gravity, as well as any other physical or keyed objects.

So they DO have a cloth simulation. As part of a physics engine, which handles hard bodys as well. The cloth simulation is new to 7.6, so not mentioned in the comparative table on the Truespace product page.

Additionally, they have strand based hair. They don't call it dynamic, probably because it doesen't play well in the physics engine.

Arrgh. So much to explore, but not half the time for it.

Attached Link: Register and get tS7.6 here

the 7.6 is not a trial but fully featured

Quote - I don't see a link to a free version. Only thing I see is the link to the True Space 7.5 trial?

Go to the first link in this thread.
This will take you to a forum page.
Go down to the long post at the end of the page.
In there is a link to a page that will ask you to sign in or register.
Once you have registered you will be taken to a page with three links: The first one is for the program, the second for pdf manuals etc (in an exe file) and the third for the tutorial videos.

I had trouble finding this myself as I was expecting the link to be near the beginning of a topic.

I took too long typing this! Direct link above is a much better way of doing it!

It showed up as 7.6 Free for me. Sadly, PC only.

Thank you, Darren. Will try this now :-)

from Tom Grimes at Caligari

*"Hey all,

Investigating why the new pages aren't showing up for some of you. Hopefully we'll get you up and running soon, apologies for the inconvenience!

If you want to just get on with the downloading, and not see the pretty page about it, go straight here, this should work whichever version of the website you see:

http://cart1.caligari.com/web/Truespacemainreg.aspx

HTH!
Tom"*

Thanks everyone for your help - I've got it ... Yay :-)

Khai - cheers for that - just nabbed.

It's worth pointing out that the original version of Truespace (called Caligari - which later became the company name) for the Amiga cost $2000.00 !! It was waaaaay ahead of every 3D app out there at the time.

-jjsemp

Quote - So they DO have a cloth simulation. As part of a physics engine, which handles hard bodys as well. The cloth simulation is new to 7.6, so not mentioned in the comparative table on the Truespace product page.

Additionally, they have strand based hair. They don't call it dynamic, probably because it doesen't play well in the physics engine.

Arrgh. So much to explore, but not half the time for it.

I think converting transmapped hair to cloth would be the way to go in tS.  I think it was the way Poser works specifically that we couldn't get that working.  (Unless of course someone did finally manage to do it.)

moogal I read your description of the cloth, and because it is a new concept to me (no separate sim for cloth, but updates according to physics from frame to frame) can I ask....

....have you ever created or have you seen a demo of an animation with realistic cloth moving, colliding, drapping, stretching, damping, etc?

Would you call it actual functioning cloth realism?

Thank you.

I looked in to the fur module back when deciding if I should upgrade my 5.5 license, and while the fur looked interesting, it was not simmed or reactive in a way that could make it even approach modest Poser standards for human flowing hair. That is not a criticism, just an evaluation of whether trueSpace is actually a candidate for movie making when you have humans interacting conversationally, etcl, with clothes and hair.

Man, they are THAT CLOSE.  (By that account so is Carrara).

I guess it is worth looking in on it to see if you can actually get hair.

::::: Opera :::::

as an alternative to going into a forum etc., the link I gave above goes right to the download page

http://www.caligari.com/store/trueSpace/default.asp?SubCate=S2truespace&Cate=STtrueSpace

program 130 MB
PDF Manual 51 MB
Training Vids  132 MB

Thank you Microsoft/Caligari

Man, that $299 V-Ray is burning a hole in my brain right now. It costs $1000 for the plugin for Max

::::: Opera :::::

This is fantastic,my first 3d application was TS 1,  Get ts 7 by free is unbeliable.

I downloaded it. Looks like shit to me. Nothing special at all. Blender has better modeling tools. There are dozens of great freebie renderers out there.

Quote - moogal I read your description of the cloth, and because it is a new concept to me (no separate sim for cloth, but updates according to physics from frame to frame) can I ask....

....have you ever created or have you seen a demo of an animation with realistic cloth moving, colliding, drapping, stretching, damping, etc?

Would you call it actual functioning cloth realism?

Thank you.

I looked in to the fur module back when deciding if I should upgrade my 5.5 license, and while the fur looked interesting, it was not simmed or reactive in a way that could make it even approach modest Poser standards for human flowing hair. That is not a criticism, just an evaluation of whether trueSpace is actually a candidate for movie making when you have humans interacting conversationally, etcl, with clothes and hair.

Man, they are THAT CLOSE.  (By that account so is Carrara).

I guess it is worth looking in on it to see if you can actually get hair.

::::: Opera :::::

I agree.  I wanted them to add Collada support so that I could model my own original content to use with both Carrara and TS.  I planned on using TS' realtime renderer for the bulk of the animation, but switch to Carrara whenever I needed a bump up in quality.  I've also been vocal about wanting Carrara to have GLSL shaders similar to TS' DX9 ones.

The cloth is new, only available to the masses yesterday.  I can say from the videos I have seen that it looks suitable for animation of things like flags, sails, scarves etc.  I haven't yet seen it used in the manner that we are all thinking of, as a way to clothe a rigged figure.  Check out the video on the features page where they interactively toss a ball at a rope ladder that responds in real time as it naturally would.  There is also another  video of cloth blowing in the environmental wind.  The reason Poser sims cloth is twofold.  Their implementation is time consuming, but once simmed can be played back fluidly.  Also, there are many other variables such as damping, stretch/shear resistance, friction etc. that can be tweaked to approximate specific cloth types and condiitons when an animator needs the cloth to nbehave in an exact manner.  All I 've ever wanted was a cloth feature that'd let me make a simple T-shirt that can drape to a figure whatever its pose and doesn't pop off or allow the body to show through.  I'm sure there are many similarities in principle between what Poser and TS are doing when they "sim" cloth, and that were Poser's cloth quicker to calculate they probably wouldn't have it pre-calculated the way they do it now.  TS technically is simming the cloth, but at an interactive rate.  Poser does it slower which is called pre-rolling, baking, or the non-descriptive term simming.   

The physics engine in TS alone is worth it, IMO. Very user friendly and fast. Radiosity, so-so. Interface is weird. But still amazing that it's free.

"I downloaded it. Looks like shit to me. Nothing special at all. Blender has better modeling tools. There are dozens of great freebie renderers out there."

Nice - Thanks for the insite.

TS is a great app I origonaly purchased it on a pre release for 7, I think its great that they are able to provide everyone with a copy a no cost. There are so many features that it will keep you busy for a very long time.

You could use the dynamic cloth on the hair if you require hair dynamics this is how most of the other apps do it.

Quote - I downloaded it. Looks like shit to me. Nothing special at all. Blender has better modeling tools. There are dozens of great freebie renderers out there.

Yeah, show me another one that works in realtime and has an interface a human can use.

Well, I cannot understand some people comments, like call TS shit.

For example, I think blender is great, but its interface is very hard to learn (this is my opinion), I can use ot don't use it, but I never call it shit.

You can try TS if you want, it is free, you can try their video tutorials, they are free too, then you can use it or delete it from your pc.

I haven't used a truly "shit" program in quite some time.  Hexagon is buggy, but very powerful.  Blender is quite powerful but makes no sense to me.  I'm sure there are `shit" programs, but they usually don't make it to version 7 when priced at over $500.

I had my download last night but still have to install and try it. But I am sooo happy that it is free now. :D