3D rendered images

[tuka]

Hi all,

I am not sure this is the palce to ask this question but here goes...

Can anyone indicate a freeware or opensource 3D editing software that could render images images with wood, concrete or brick surfaces dependent on light source ? I am looking to produce a 3D image of the interior of a room.. animation is not necessary just looking to produce views.

Thanks for any help with this.

PS: Also what are the most common formats for this type of 3D images - it seems 3DS is preety common...

[ajimenez]

One app you can look at is Blender (http://www.blender.org/). It's an excellent free program although it's got a bit of higher learning curve. I'm not sure of the file formats though. I'd think you be able to use most common 3d file formats such as 3ds.

[metalman3d]

A couple of common extenstions are .obj, .3ds, and .max. I haven't run into any major 3d suites that won't import these extensions. For a pretty good shareware 3d Editor, check out MorRay:

http://www.stmuc.com/moray/

There's no difference in functionality between shareware and the registered version, and there's plugins out there for importing and exporting the more common files.

Hope this helps.