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Posts with tag 3d

Breakfast Topic: Figureprints

When we first heard about Figureprints, everybody seemed fairly keen to get one -- there were thousands of people trying to get in on the drawing, and lots of folks were more than willing to put down their $100 for a custom, real-life figure of their characters created directly from the in-game models.

But as the Dude (if censored) might say, new stuff has come to light. We've seen the first Figureprints off the press, and the quality, so far, hasn't been impressive, to say the least. We should note that Figureprints is replacing that figure in the gallery, but we'd like to know: has all of this new information changed your mind about Figureprints?

Are you still excited to get one, or have you changed your mind from originally liking the idea to not so thrilled about the actual product? Or, like Matthew Rossi, have you said "This aggression will not stand, man," from the beginning? OK, that's not really what he said (I just wanted to quote the Dude agaIn), but where are you at on Figureprints lately? Yea or nay?

Wowhead now knows NPC abilities

Wowhead has gone live with a few new updates to brighten up your April Fool's day, and help you get the pink residue of Hello Kitty out of your eyeballs with some of their tasteful black (just don't check their front page).
  • The new 3D system I wrote about previously has gone live, featuring improved quality, NPC models, armor models, and the ability to preview items on any race or gender character model.
  • Quest tooltips are now supported for sites powered by Wowhead, which includes us. This allows me to mention, for instance, that Sunfury Attack Plans is a good quest to group up for, since the Plans are a group drop.
  • Most NPCs now have a tab listing their abilities. A few NPCs are missing them due to a couple of reasons: no data has been collected on them yet (e.g. Techbot), or there are two (or more) mobs with the same name (e.g. Kael'Thas). This latter difficulty has been fixed, and NPCs affected by it should have abilities listed the next time Wowhead parses data.
This last one is what I'm most excited about. It's nice to be able to see what a boss (or just a random mob) can do ahead of time, or, in the inverse, to see what mobs use a given ability. If this had been around a while back, I wouldn't have gotten all excited about Holyform, since I would have been able to tell right away it was just used by some Sunwell trash mob.

Wowhead to add character models


A couple of months back, we relayed that Wowhead gained 3D models. Now, they're set to become better. We mentioned in the previous post that player models were in the works, and I'm here to bring you an exclusive preview. Users will be able to see items on any race and gender character model, so if you're trying to figure out how those boots look on a female Tauren, you're in luck (although it's a good bet that they'll look odd). Wowhead sister site Thottbot will be receiving this improvement as well.

Competitor WOWDB has had the ability to preview items on a character model since they launched a bit over a month ago, tying into their profile system. However, they seem to lack Wowhead's impressive high-quality mode.

In fact, the quality of Wowhead's 3D renders will be increased in the upcoming update, especially in the high-quality Java version. See the gallery below for some examples and comparison shots; the image above is also a Wowhead render (not a screenshot). This has got to be the most accurate preview I've seen on any database site.

Gallery: Wowhead's new 3D system

AshbringerEdwin van CleefT6Al'arAl'ar

A shinier WoW


WoW is a fairly good-looking game, especially when compared to some other MMOs, but let's face it: it hasn't had much of a change to its graphics quality since its release in 2004, and you can tell. To give you an idea of how pretty it could be, Youtube user qelss has rendered several models from WoW with more light and some additional filters; you can see one above, and more on his profile page. As MMO-Champion notes, these are fan-made and not previews of anything, but it's still fun to look at the gleaming swords and armor.

[via MMO-Champion]

Brunch Topic: What's the most beautiful weapon?

Now that we have 3D renditions of items on Wowhead.com, I've been playing with them a bit, and it really does give a completely different sense of what a particular item looks like. Since I'm on a Mac, I've never had a chance to play with the WoW Model Viewer before, and I imagine such a web-based version is pretty fresh and interesting for many other players as well.

Since there are so very many new 3D models to choose from, let's narrow the choices a little bit and just talk about weapons. Have a look at all the different weapon models, copy your favorite link into a comment, and then tell us why you think it looks the best so that we can go check it out for ourselves!

Bring your character home with FigurePrints


Sure, there are already licensed World of Warcraft figurines by way of DC. But those are just so generic, you know? Now, what if I told you you could get a figure that looks exactly like your in-game character, outfitted in any gear you own? That's exactly what FigurePrints, a new venture that is set to go live on December 11th, promises to do for you. They are apparently official -- check out the "Licensed Blizzard Product" badge in the bottom-right -- and I find the idea quite intriguing. From one perspective it's the next logical step in merchandising, but really, look at the future we're living in: create a character in an online fantasy game, and have a third party step in, take a model of the character, make a custom 3D print of it, and mail it to your doorstep. This type of stuff has been done before, yes, but the quality on the sample FigurePrints is quite impressive.

Here's some information from the site's FAQ: The data is pulled from the Armory, which makes me wonder: how do they get your appearance right? The Armory, unless I'm mistaken, doesn't include things like hairstyle and the other various customization options. The actual statuettes are built using rapid prototyping (AKA 3D printing) using vertically-stacked slices of "plaster-like powder" and then hand-finished. The scale is 1:18, which means a male human comes out about 4 inches tall, not counting the base. And the price? $99.95, plus $14.95 shipping and handling. They warn that availability is limited, and that the best way to guarantee you get one is to make an account at their site, although I wasn't able to get past the "Open December 11th" banner to actually click on anything. So how about it? Will you be lining up to pay $100 plus shipping to bring your toon out of Azeroth?

Around Azeroth Extra: WoW in 3d!


Rob has sent in these amazing stereograms he created from screenshots of Stormwind City. What's a stereogram, you ask? Well, Wikipedia has some information on them, but the quick version is that they're an optical illusion that makes flat images appear to be three-dimensional. If you're familiar with those Magic Eye pictures, these work the same way -- to view the image, simply let your eyes cross slightly until a third, 3d image appears in the center. (Wikipedia has far more detailed instructions, but I'm guessing they will inspire a TLDR response.)

If you think you understand the concept, why not try to see them yourself? Rob sent in two stereograms for us to enjoy: a shot of one of Stormwind's canals (with the cathedral framed in the background) and a shot of the General Turalyon statue in the Valley of Heroes (taken as a ghost).

Do you have a unique shot of Azeroth or Outland that you'd like to show off to the rest of the world? Tell us about it by e-mailing aroundazeroth@gmail.com! You can attach a picture file or send us a link to one -- and don't worry about formatting, we'll take care of that part.

See more of your pics from Around Azeroth.

Gallery: Around Azeroth

3D Printouts of Your Virtual Self

OGLE, the OpenGLExtractor, is a little piece of software that can be used to extract 3D geometry data from 3D graphics applications running on Microsoft Windows. What this means is that it can pull out images of our favorite alternate reality for our own entertaining uses. While some people use this to make backgrounds or videos, one of the most interesting uses of this technology seems to be making 3D printouts of your character, using a special 3D printer. And, most recently, color 3d models. While this little gnome may appear to be venturing around Un'goro, it's probably just sitting on a tree in someone's back yard. (Which, to a tiny gnome figurine, is probably about the same.) And if you're just that kind of fan, you might be able to get one of your very own...!


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