One of the issues I (and from the look on the XNA blogs around) have always had problems getting into 3D modelling, usual problems being:

• Lack of cash (all the big houses cost a small fortune)
• Lack of skill (steep learning curve)
• No design ability at all :-)

Now while I can not do much about the last one and the second can at least be offset with training (but which impacts the time I have to build my killer game).

Now I could just drag in an artist (which depending on your friends circle can also cost cash) or grab free models of the community sites (such as Turbosquid, but the good one’s cost cash again).

So leaving money behind I can embark on the search for a free 3d Modelling tool, so looking around we have:

• Blender (free, powerful, tricky interface and not very intuitive.  Exports are tricky to use in XNA)
• Softimage XSI (Again free, has XNA integration, some training but still a bit clunky to use and importing seems hit and miss)
• Google Sketchup (free and an importer has just been written for XNA, although I've not played with it Much)
• Truespace 3d

Hold on, Truespace, Doesn't that cost $600, why is that in the list.

Well, no longer does Truespace cost you any cash whatsoever now that Microsoft has acquired Calgari.

Since Microsoft Bought it in order to offer a competitive product to Goolge's sketchup, they have now released it for free, there's also some nice training material and other free stuff.

See here

It also supports the following formats

Wavefront
.obj

Stereo Lithography
.stl

Autocad
.dxf

X format
.X

Illustrator and Postscript
.ai
.ps
.eps

BVH motion capture
.bvh

3D Studio files:
.3ds
.prj
.asc

.lwb, .lwo
.geo
.iob
.sob

So as you can see it supports the .X format for exporting to XNA, but it also supports the 3d Studio format, so if you find any good 3d studio community models, you no longer need full 3d Studio to use them (there's $3000 saved already), what's also strange is that it also supports Autocad, so if you happen to work in a CAD office you can also reuse your work?

And if your interested you can also import your creations to Virtual Earth, which is what it was intended for but hay, XNA can benefit as well!.

I always promised I wouldn't do this but here I am.

XNA Game Studio V3 CTP is now out and available.

Grab it here from the Microsoft Download site

BUT!!!!!.  <- there's usually a but with something this big

Buyer beware on this one and dont forget the small print.  Using this CTP will not allow you to deploy to XBOX and PC deployments will only work under the CTP binaries.

Quote from the Download site

Competitions are always a good thing as they make people strive to compete and bring out their best work (or not in my case, hack-1 was never finished enough for my likes when i published it for the XBOX360Homebrew Contest).

Time being what it is these days there's no way I can drag myself through another competition, but thankfully there are people who can, in this case Ziggy has started up yet another Tutorial contest over on his Ziggyware site.

This has always been hugely popular in the past and provided many excellent tutorials, feel free to also browse through the results of the other contest, lots of good stuff for everyone from beginner to experienced XNA developers.

P.S I'm still going to be routing for Catalin Zima, mainly because his work is great and he has won the last few comps ;-), Sorry to disappoint anyone else, you just have to step up your game!! (that means YOU!!!)

More from George

On the flip side George Clingerman has been reinventing himself of late (lie Madonna but with a little less makeup) and hes been rewriting a lot of his old tutorials, the latest series to get the revitalisation treatment is his Wizard tutorial series.

	Wizard Says Hi!	Wizard gets asked to take a bath
	Wizard hides from bath	Wizard shoots at person asking him to take a bath

This tutorial takes a walk through the 2D park and is currently focusing on character development (displaying a sprite and giving it actions and things to do), the series looks as promising as ever and knowing George, should have a few nice extra surprises along the way.  So keep a lookout on Georges Developments over @ XNADevelopment.com (now that he seems to be taking a rest from being constantly on for forums to do some actual Work!!)

Time being what it is, I seem to have less and less to play with.  One of the biggest casualties has been my Game Development progress, including this blog.  That is not to say I've stopped completely (9i'v still got my hands in and do my best to keep up to date with everything going on, especially with the XNA 2 release and the new developments with WiiWare) but time is just diverted to other things such as below.

  Little Baby Nathan Samuel found his way into the world on DEC 28th despite all the odds stacked against him, lovely as he is. (and in case your wondering, that now makes 4, including 1 accident and 1 miracle, as in shouldn't have been medically possible after 3 years, damn human body :-))

Work is the other Factor which has been hell of late, deadlines approaching and such.  At least Charles over at RandomChaos has been holding up the Lanky Brit front and has been releasing some great content, we chat regularly and I am truly amazed by what he has achieved in a short span of time.  his blog recently moved on to the every successful XNAUK user group site, lots going on there as well.

The latest release from RandomChaos, the enhanced GameStateManager V2.

The Main XNAUK User group site, well worth a look.

As for the future, I'm focusing on what I can, scratching up designs for games (pad and pen easier to come by and doesn't annoy the wife) and checking out the background devising for the games while keeping up to date with all new things.  (my blog list is far tooo long).

For the last if anyone is wondering what the heck my new logo is, then visit this link and shout out "Microsoft, Change the world or go home".  New/old way of thinking of how to get a job not only done but done well and in a way that is productive.  Either that or do it right or get lost!, has several meanings.

Nope I'm not drunk and your not dreaming.

The game that started a lot of peoples like for fast paced Strategy fondness and quite a few late nights (for me) playing against your friend (amassing a lot of tanks and laughing gleefully as they run straight over your fiends enemy base, ROFL) is now available for free.

EA are distributing the original ISO's for both the GDC and NOD campaigns (hopefully without the copy protection, else that would be just daft), which you can burn to CD and relive all the delights of a time gone by.

**Warning this game is likely to set back your game development project by quiet a few hours**

SO enjoy and head over to EA's page and play and play and then play some more.

Meet you on the match server!!!!, mwuhahhahahaha

Oh and on another note you can now also purchase your own Kane bobble-head doll to punch or hug depending on which camp you feel at home in.  Hmmm.

And another even more freaky occurrence, Kane has made an appearance on YouTube of all places from http://www.kanelives.org/.  Now that is just spooky.