We have a growing selection of game-ready 3D models, including a variety of free model packs.
Each paid model also comes with a free sample.
We're also running a never ending cycle of competitions, where you can win any paid model pack. So please take the time to enter our current competition by answering an easy gaming-related quesiton (if you don't get this one, you don't deserve the title of 'gamer').
As your advertisement here is clearly game-related I’ll leave it as it is but it would be appreciated if you could tell us a bit more about what jme3-compatible model formats you supply and generally how especially jme3 users benefit from your model selection.
Sweet, always nice to see free stuff out there, the models look great too!
One little thing with the license however which might make people reluctant to purchase your models:
a) The products must be a part of the compiled program.
b) Every possible attempt should be made to protect the products from theft by using resource encryption or some other form of concealment.
Often games distribute models in a separate folder, apart from the compiled program. This has advantages that if you need to patch the code (which you always have to do more often than patching a model or texture) then you only have to make the user download a small part of the application to fix a bug, and not a gigabyte with the assets bundled too. If the models have to be bundled in the compiled program, then they can not be used this way. Many games also distribute the assets in a zip file, or in JMEs instance, a jar file (which is just a zip file). JME does store the models as .j3o files, so that kind of covers this case, but then comes item b:
Item 'b)' makes things very difficult, and remember that someone can just decompile the program and decrypt the data if they need to, unless you build in some sort of crazy DRM scheme, and in that case you can afford your own art team anyways. Jme is also open source, as are many game engines where people will be looking for affordable art work, so it becomes really hard to protect the data in any such a way.
These are both significant items to make people shy away from purchasing your assets. The other terms in the license are manageable and fully protect your IP legally, items A and B are forcing DRM on the game developer.
Often it is enough to protect your work by just charging for it.
Hey @the3dmodelstore I’ve seen your website back in 2010, but since then I haven’t see much change, please correct me if I’m wrong. And I totally agree with what @Sploreg said, with such license, I doubt a large amount of developers could use your models
Yes, the site had a previous incarnation a few years ago. At that point it was just the work of 1 guy (myself). I’ve now got another guy working with me as we’ve decided to make it a permanent venture. This means you’ll see far more updates and models being added more often. Contrary to what you say, there are nearly twice as many model packs as the old site had- with more on the way.
@normen said:
As your advertisement here is clearly game-related I'll leave it as it is but it would be appreciated if you could tell us a bit more about what jme3-compatible model formats you supply.
+1, would be good to know about the pipeline used so problems can be anticipated.
@the3dmodelstore that’s great news! It will definitely help developers adopt your models into their games. And as I hinted above, if someone really wants to re-sell or rip off the models/art, then a license won’t stop them. Same goes on the software side.
Your work looks really promising and I’m looking forward to seeing it in games. Hopefully some Jme ones soon
The samples are for people who either don’t plan on spending- (so they could be used as just a lower quality model or personally retextured) or for people who want to check out the geometry and uv-mapping etc before buying.
You can see the formats used on each of the item pages. If you’re desperate for another format, send a request to admin@the3dmodelstore.com and we’ll see what we can do (if it’s a popular format we’ll also include it all future model packs).
Thanks, and yes I agree. The conservative license was just a relic of me being uncomfortable with legal stuff and wanting to stay as safe as possible. Luckily I think the current climate of fear among filehosts, that’s been created by the whole megaupload incident, is making it harder for people to illegally redistribute.
Also, the new license is now up on the site and is being currently updated in the downloads.
We also encourage more people to take part in the competition- despite being impressed by how many visitors we’ve had so far, hardly any have taken part in the competition! Your odds of winning are pretty good at this point.
I didn’t check the site for more than 2 mins, if that, but I’m wondering if you guys will be adding space ships, like LOTS OF SPACE SHIPS. Oh and, if it comes to that, you guys would be opened for special orderings I hope?
If that’s all detailed in the website just tell me, I’ll go take a looksie.
@madjack said:
you guys would be opened for special orderings I hope?
That's something I have thought about in the past: pay to have a model produced, but at a discounted rate and then the site can re-sell the model. Sort of like 'sponsor a model'.
@madjack said:I'm wondering if you guys will be adding space ships, like LOTS OF SPACE SHIPS. Oh and, if it comes to that, you guys would be opened for special orderings I hope?
I'd like to concur in this, as I'd be willing to pay for some good low-poly spaceships, although we don't want war ships or weapons, so maybe it would be harder to resell. Special orders would be very interesting, depending on the price and quality, of course.
I think we might be ok with a special order being resold as well, though, if it meant you could do it at a lower price, but we'd have to discuss this in our group if the above would become possible.
@madjack said:
Honestly, if I'm to pay to have model(s), I do -not- want it/them to be resold to anyone else.
That way the models raise the price. They can be pretty expensive if they are not able to resell them. You can ask for not to release the model within a period of time, let's say, 6 months after the game release date, or 1-2 years after purchase. That's a great deal for me.
I have no idea how many times more a model that won't be reselled should cost. I think that it can vary from 5 to 100 times more.
Take the number of hours to complete the model (8-10 minimum) and multiply by a fair hourly rate ($30 minimum I’d say… $50 for quality)… if you are thinking of asking for less than that (~$300 or so) per model then you are probably being as fair as the people who will demand the source code to your game just because they played it once.
If you want exclusive models then it’s probably best just to hire an artist freelance. You gain no real advantage going through a distribution site other than that you get to see some work up front… but I wouldn’t hire a free lancer without seeing samples first anyway.
The potential benefit of paying a site like this to develop a model is that you might get a discount because they will make continuing money off the model. You just get first crack at it. For exclusivity, pay someone directly for their time.
