[MKG]

Thanks for the reply ... I was beginning to think this was one of those sites where tumbleweed blows across the forum every now and then. Although your renderer does look fantastic, I think I've made up my mind after a week of intensive (and I mean up till dawn, can't take any more coffee, have to sleep intensive) looking around.

Blender, as far as I can see, is pretty sharp for everything except rendering (maybe where your advice may come good) although POVRay seems to take over there. So the kit I'm looking at is:

GIMP for textures, blueprints.
Wings for simple low-poly stuff.
Blender for most work.
POVRay if I need it.
IRRLicht engine to deliver anything except static graphics.

All free, as far as I know, and all good at the job they're asked to do (again, as far as I know). Have I missed something obvious? Is this what I need to make my 12th century village? That's a real village, by the way - the one in which I live - for which I have a host of contemporary documentation.

I'm a lot further forward than I was a week ago, but I tell you - this 3D game is NOT simple. Oh no.

Believe me, any advice at all about anything at any stage would be most welcome.

Cheers ... Mike