Ok, this may partially fall under the subject of modding, but it is also a question of curiousity and I think the question is general enough to fall into the Kudos (General) Discussion area and might help satisfy other curious users and gamers alike.
Just wondering what rendering software you’re using to create the character avatars in Kudos? And are there any other programs you would recommend to create new avatars on top of the software you’re already using? I figured I might as well ask on the public forums because others might be curious also. This way perhaps more people will try to create more character avatars whether they are veteran artists or newbs that are curious but don’t know where to begin.
I use poser 6, and thats basically it although I did buy a bunch of extra models and textures for it. But you could render an avatar in anything you wanted, as long as the finished textures are in DDS file format, and the right size.
Ok, thank-you for the info Cliffski. Personally I’m just starting to fiddle around with a neat little rendering program called Blender. Unfortunately I can’t confirm yet whether textures can be compressed to a DDS file formal within Blender, but I know there are other applications that can convert these textures to the DDS file format.
Blender is a great piece of rendering software that can be used on most platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux) and is fairly small, but surprisingly powerful, and best of all it is FREE! The source is free and the software is being updated regularly. This is a great way for users to try and create thier own avatars without having to spend a lot of money to own a decent 3D rendering software package. It’s great for people who are just simply interested, or aspiring artists, and even veteran artists alike and the only thing spent on this application is the amount of time you want to put into it learning how to use the many different features. It can be a little daunting at first, but this is definately one of the more powerful rendering programs you can find, especially out of the free ones.
If anyone is interested in trying out the software you can find it at:
EDIT - I should also note that while this software is fully capable of rendering 3d objects, it does require some time and patience. There is a fairly large community that seems to be expanding rapidly. There are many utilities and plug-ins that can be used with blender, and you may need to find 3d models of the human body if you don’t already know how to create them on your own but there are plenty of resources out there from which to choose which are also totally free and are made specifically for Blender. However, Poser 6 is very powerful and does have a much easier to use interface. The learning curve isn’t quite as high and there are quite a few plug-ins for it also. The only downside is the fact that it is a little pricey for someone who just plans on being a hobbyist and wants to experiment. But that’s where Blender is useful, and the Blender website has plenty of links to resources and extra utilities plus a lot of documentation and tutorials on how to use the software. For those who are interested though, I have a link to the Poser website here:
ADDITIONAL - Since I’m not 100% sure whether or not Blender can compress and save textures to the DDS file format yet (I’m still tinkering with the software myself and there are many features to explore), so I’m including a link to a converter that should be able to convert and compress textures and create mip-map levels which, from what I’ve read, work with Blender. You can find the converter and the necessary plug-in for the converter here:
As I experiment a little more with the software I’ll try to post whether or not Blender is completely capable of creating the necessary DDS files that can be used with Kudos. I believe this could be a great start and interesting project for those users who do want to create an avatar in the game but don’t know how or where to start. Either way, I’m hoping that this will give some of us (yes that includes me) an opportunity to create our own unique avatars in Kudos, which will hopefully also give us newbs out there some experience with rendering.
Thank you again Cliffski. Judging by all the traffic here in the forums I think there are quite a few people who really enjoy Kudos and I’m just hoping that this information, and the links above, are at least a little useful, and will perhaps give some of the curious and adventurous users out there a little incentive to create some unique avatars.
although I did buy a bunch of extra models and textures for it. But you could render an avatar in anything you wanted, as long as the finished textures are in DDS file format, and the right size.