Can Carrara be used to design 3-D games?

[medeamajic]

I can use Carrara OK but I have never done any programing. I was aksed if Carrara could work for game development? I am not sure how 3DS Max or Maya get used for developing games. What is needed to use Carrara for gaming development? Does Carrara need scripting? Any info would help.

[isdnmodem]

Carrara does no have scripting but it does have an SDK for creating plug ins and stuff. You can use objects created in Carrara in any game engine. You can use FBX format in Carrara for motion.

[medeamajic]

Thanks for the info.

I do not know how to program at all. If some one wanted to use my talents for designing a 3-D game would I be able to use Carrara (as is) to do it? What does Lightwave or Maya have that would make it better for game design? Any info would help.

[bigkahuna]

I'm a serious games developer and I use Carrara Pro from time to time.

Originally Posted by medeamajic

If some one wanted to use my talents for designing a 3-D game would I be able to use Carrara (as is) to do it?

Carrara 5 Pro is able to export Wavefront .OBJ files, so if the job required you to create -static- non-animated models, you could do this in Carrara.

What does Lightwave or Maya have that would make it better for game design? Any info would help.

Short answer: A lot of stuff. Longer answer: Carrara's weak areas for game development:
- weak character animation tools
- no means to export animated models
- no built in texture baking
- weak built in modeling tools
- weak mesh reduction tools
- no support for GLSL / HLSL shaders
- no built in displacement map creation

The "de facto" standard for the game industry is Max (followed by Maya, then Lightwave and Cinema 4D). Personally, I prefer working with Carrara over any of these others, but due to the weaknesses I've listed, I'm forced to do most of my work in another application. My current most used app is now C4D + Modo...

[Nichod]

- no means to export animated models

No support for gaming formats is the big issue here. Though it seem x. format is coming.

The "de facto" standard for the game industry is Max (followed by Maya, then Lightwave and Cinema 4D). Personally, I prefer working with Carrara over any of these others, but due to the weaknesses I've listed, I'm forced to do most of my work in another application. My current most used app is now C4D + Modo...

I'd say the order of software used in the gaming industry is more: Max, Softimage, Lightwave and the rest are very limited. Maya is used very little in the gaming world as is Cinema4D. Maya is geared more towards film production and in that case might be seen used for pre-rendered scenes in gaming. Cinema4D might be used for 3D paint within the gaming industry, but I see it more in the architectural and motion graphics industry. Lets not forget that Blender is actually being used quite frequently in the industry for UV mapping, and an excellent conversion, multipurpose free tool.

But the original post, Carrara CAN be used within game production, but its no where near the best tool for the job.

[medeamajic]

Thanks folks,

I will let my friend know that I will not be able to help him out all that well with Carrara. Perhaps Carrara 6 will work better for gaming creation.

[CarlLydon]

I've done numerous prerendered games using Carrara, here's an example (screengrabs), prerendered isometric:

http://www.chamberofchat.com/downloa....asp?mi=hStuff

Also, did full-on professional 3d game using shockwave exporter, for a movie site. Unfortunately, as noted above, the Carrara plugin doesn't export lights, cameras, bones or motions, just models, so I had to use lightwave for any animations. Luckily, I was modeling mostly environments that didn't require bones animations:

http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/stealth/site/

[medeamajic]

Thanks for the info everyone.

I hope Carrara 6 will be better suited for game design and programing but I thought Carrara could export BVH motion for gaming.