MilkShape 3D (MS3D) is a

shareware Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer ...

low-

polygon In geometry, a polygon () is a plane figure that is described by a finite number of straight line segments connected to form a closed ''polygonal chain'' (or ''polygonal circuit''). The bounded plane region, the bounding circuit, or the two toge ...

3D modeling In 3D computer graphics, 3D modeling is the process of developing a mathematical coordinate-based representation of any surface of an object (inanimate or living) in three dimensions via specialized software by manipulating edges, vertices, an ...

program created by Mete Ciragan. It is used mainly for compiling

models A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure. Models c ...

for ''

Half-Life Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable ato ...

'', '' Blockland'', ''

The Sims 2 ''The Sims 2'' is a 2004 strategy game, strategic life simulation game, life simulation video game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It is the second major title in ''The Sims'' series, and is the sequel to ''The Sims (video ...

'', '' The Sims 3'', '' Rock Raiders'', and other sandbox

video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

.{{citation needed, date=March 2021 It is also used to create models for a large number of indie games, Milkshape 3D's repertoire of export capabilities has been extended considerably, due to the efforts of both its creator and the community around it, and it is now able to be used for most games today, so long as an

exporter An export in international trade is a good produced in one country that is sold into another country or a service provided in one country for a national or resident of another country. The seller of such goods or the service provider is an ...

for the required format is available.

History

MilkShape 3D was created by chUmbaLum sOft, a small software company in Zurich, Switzerland, which was established in the autumn of 1996. chUmbaLum sOft develops 3D tools for games and other applications. MilkShape 3D was originally created as a

low poly Low poly is a polygon mesh in 3D computer graphics that has a relatively small number of polygons. Low poly meshes occur in real-time applications (e.g. games) as contrast with high-poly meshes in animated movies and special effects of the same ...

modelling program by Mete Ciragan for the

GoldSrc GoldSrc ( ) is a proprietary game engine developed by Valve. At its core, GoldSrc is a heavily modified version of id Software's ''Quake'' engine. It originally made its debut in 1998 with ''Half-Life'', and would power future games developed b ...

engine. Over time many features were added as were many export formats. Though not as advanced as other leading 3D modelling programs, it remains a simple and cost-effective tool for creating 3D models.

Features

MilkShape 3D has all basic operations like select, move, rotate, scale, extrude, turn edge, subdivide, among many others. MilkShape 3D also allows low-level editing with the vertex and face tool. Standard and extended primitives such as spheres, boxes, and cylinders are available. Milkshape 3D can export to over 70 file formats. MilkShape 3D is a skeletal animator. As well as supporting its own file-format, Milkshape 3D is able to export to

morph target animation Morph target animation, per-vertex animation, shape interpolation, shape keys, or blend shapes is a method of 3D computer animation used together with techniques such as skeletal animation. In a morph target animation, a "deformed" version of a m ...

like the ones in the Quake model formats or to export to

skeletal animation Skeletal animation or rigging is a technique in computer animation in which a character (or other articulated object) is represented in two parts: a surface representation used to draw the character (called the ''mesh'' or ''skin'') and a hierarc ...

s like Half-Life, Genesis3D,

Unreal Unreal may refer to: Books and TV * ''Unreal'' (short story collection), a 1985 book of short stories by Paul Jennings * ''Unreal'' (TV series), a 2015 television drama series on Lifetime Computing and games * ''Unreal'' (video game series), ...

, etc. The number of file types that the program can support features all major 3D game engines, including

Source Source may refer to: Research * Historical document * Historical source * Source (intelligence) or sub source, typically a confidential provider of non open-source intelligence * Source (journalism), a person, publication, publishing institute o ...

id Tech id Tech is a series of separate game engines designed and developed by id Software. Prior to the presentation of the id Tech 5-based game '' Rage'' in 2011, the engines lacked official designation and as such were simply referred to as the ''D ...

and

LithTech LithTech is a game engine developed by Monolith Productions and comparable with the Quake and Unreal engines. Monolith and a number of other video game developers have used LithTech as the basis for their first-person shooter games. Monolith ini ...

. It has become known as a useful converter from one format to another.

Controversy

Versions of MilkShape 3D prior to 1.8.1 Beta 1 allegedly contained code which caused itself to shutdown if it detected certain other programs running on the computer, such as Registry Monitor. Versions older than 1.6.5 (April 2003) would go so far as to shut down the offending program and prevent it from being run again while MilkShape 3D was still running. This behavior was removed shortly after it had been discovered. Ostensibly, this was to prevent users from figuring out how to edit the Windows registry to commit

software cracking Software cracking (known as "breaking" mostly in the 1980s) is the modification of software to remove or disable features which are considered undesirable by the person cracking the software (software cracker), especially copy protection featur ...

and use MilkShape 3D without paying for it. However, there was no

End User License Agreement An end-user license agreement or EULA () is a legal contract between a software supplier and a customer or end-user, generally made available to the customer via a retailer acting as an intermediary. A EULA specifies in detail the rights and restr ...

until version 1.8.1, which authorized the program to do this. Some users have therefore accused MilkShape 3D of being

spyware Spyware (a portmanteau for spying software) is software with malicious behaviour that aims to gather information about a person or organization and send it to another entity in a way that harms the user—for example, by violating their privac ...

and have boycotted it as a result. Milkshape does what it wants, with no EULA
/ref> These issues have been resolved since version 1.8.1 Beta 2 (May 2007).

References

External links

The Official MS3D Web Site

File format specification of the ''ms3d'' format

An MS3D viewer
written in C++, complete with animation and weighted vertices for the latest file format
An MS3D loader
written in C++

Blender add-on
to import and export ms3d files Animation software

History

Features

Controversy

See also

References

External links