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Ultimate 3DUltimate 3D is a free 3D engine, which can be used through the game creation software Game Maker. The basic idea is to offer a possibility to make advanced 3D graphics without much effort and knowledge. Ultimate 3D offers a wide range of features, which can lead to impressive effects, but are easy to use anyway. It's vastly superior to the built-in 3D functionality of Game Maker.
Since July 2008 Ultimate 3D for Game Maker is discontinued. The version available here is still based upon Direct3D 8.1. Anyway here is a list of the key-features of Ultimate 3D:
- An easy to use and efficient system for the creation of primitive geometry
- Support for loading 3D models from:
- Animated Anim8or model files, also with bone influences and skin weights (*.an8)
- Animated 3D Studio Max files (*.3ds)
- Animated Quake II model files (*.md2)
- Animated DirectX model files, also with vertex skinning (*.x)
- Animated Milkshape 3D model files, also with vertex skinning (*.ms3d)
- The Ultimate 3D model file format, which can export any data Ultimate 3D can handle and supports simple encryption (*.u3d)
- Vertex tweening, a technique to make frame based animations (as used by *.md2 files) smooth
- An easy to use system for lighting and fog
- Support for sky spheres and sky cubes
- Functions for drawing 2D graphics and text
- Fully automatic generation of levels of detail
- Functions to manipualte models at runtime
- Cel-shading for graphics in comic style
- Multi texturing for techniques such as light mapping
- Spherical and cubical environment mapping for perfect reflections
- A comfortable shader management system for endless effects supply
- Support for post screen shaders for even more effects
- Parallax mapping and bump mapping (i.e. normal mapped per pixel lighting)
- Realtime shadows through shadow volumes
- An efficient terrain renderer for large, detailed terrains
- A complex particle effects system
- Support for multiple cameras (split screen)
- Render to texture and render to cube texture functions for reflections, security monitors and post-screen shaders
- Math functions for efficient matrix and vector calculations
- A portal engine for simple and higly efficient culling
- Support for fullscreen antialiasing
If you are looking for my more recent work, please take a look at my blog Moments in Graphics. |
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