Suggest something similar?

[Spinell]

Two days ago my trial for MArvelous Designer unfortunatly reached its end. I loved the program: its cloth simulartion was spectacular, mush better than Blender's, who seems to operate outside Earth's gravity sometimes.

Unfortunatly, Mervelous designer isn't free and I've been desperatly trying to find another programme similar to it, at least when it comes to cloth simulation. I haven't been able to find anything, so I'm turning to the forums.

A free programme (like blender) would be ideal, but I'll take a trial version if I need to. They won't give me another trial for MD... T_T

[Dilbert Dilweg]

I havent tried this sewing patch for blender yet. Sewing like MD. But here is the plugin http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?258004-Patch-for-Sewing-Clothes-in-blender

 

Or you could just learn modeling the conventional way

[Maeve Balfour]

Personally, I'd find it easier (and quicker) to simply model the creases and folds into a mesh by hand, in a clean, low poly mesh (MD works entirely with randomised triangles, from what I understand), and then work on baking in AO etc from a higher resolution version of the same mesh (keeping in mind that normal maps and specular maps will be available in SL in the near future for additional detailing).

However, if your heart is set on cloth simulation, I'd suggest taking a look at Poser (if you can find an older version to purchase, you can most likely pick it up fairly cheaply (Poser 7 upward would do)).

Poser's dynamic cloth section is pretty impressive, and generally very underutilised (even within the Poser 3D community). It will accept suitably modeled clothing meshes, and drape them over a posed figure - keep in mind that this is primarily designed for 3D renders or rendered animations. However, I imagine it can be useful for taking a quad-based mesh (modeled to suit the target figure's T-pose) and then letting the simulation run to get some nice clothing folds drape into place. You then export the mesh as an OBJ file at the animation/simulation frame which has the best looking result, where you can continue working on the mesh etc. (I've seen tutorial videos which demonstrate the process - quite impressive, when done well).

Note that this isn't a magical "make clothing" program - you will still need to model mesh clothing in a 3D modeling program, to then import into Poser, from where the cloth simulation would be run. You will need to get the SL AV imported into Poser as a figure (a bit of messing around, due to how finicky Poser is with its folder hierachy demands). Also note that Poser's interface is pretty non-standard when compared to general 3D programs (although I've used Poser extensively in the past, I've actually grown to hate its interface these days, after experiencing Blender's vastly superior controls). So be warned, you will have some hefty learning curves.

You could try searching Renderosity.com for tutorials on Poser's cloth room, or the forum there. If you are willing to cough up some cash, search the Renderosity marketplace for video tutorials by Fugazi (probably the best source of cloth room tutorials available, from what I recall).

:matte-motes-smile:

[Spinell]

Thanks so much for the replies.

The blender script for seams sounds amazing! I'm definitely giving it a try. I'll also be sure to look up poser: a friend of mine had mentined it, but for animations. I had no idea it had a cloth simulator.

I tend to aproach mesh clothing from a more "real" world aspect. I used to do cosplay and messing with fabrics, so I aproach clothes-making from a sowing point of view, instead of modeling something out of clay, which I've never done before. I suppose that's why I loved MD so much.

[Spinell]

Hum, ok. I can't find instructions on how to install the patch. I tried to download a blender veeson that had the patched compiled, but it didn't seem to work.

Could I get a little help installing this?

[Codewarrior Congrejo]

Often writers offer a precompiled version of blender along with their patch.  
But yeah the one you got didn't seem to work.

All his file links contain just the .patch file (and the link to the compiled version is not valid anymore)

So as you probably already found out. (and to answer the question 'how to install that patch'):


You have to deal with the source files and 'build' Blender along with this patch. 
It is stored in a SVN tree. (here: http://www.blender.org/download/source-code/ or here http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Doc/Tools/SVN_checkout_and_usage )
It's basically what the other people there did too after he announced: he hasn't gotten around to make a new build of blender yet.

To help with this subject: 

U need a program called patch. But I think you can also use Tortoise SVN.

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:Doc/Process/Patches (blender wiki on patches)
http://www.blender.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=19639&sid=a361565c05c60380bc83e1a3e0e5f65a (info on 'patch')
http://tortoisesvn.net/ (link to Tortoise SVN)*

* with Tortoise, as far as i remember you can rightclick the patchfile in the explorer and choose to 'patch' a target file with it (Blender). It integrates into the File- Explorer.

Commits are separated into 'trunk' or 'branches'. This is where patches can be made and run / tested.

A Patch is a textfile that contains the differences between the raw version and the patched version  - so to say.
The program called patch is what is keeping track of the changes in the code and adjusts them.

Windows does not have something like this on board. But here is a link to several helpful tools:
http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages.html

Once you know how to compile it
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Dev:2.5/Doc/Building_Blender/Windows (How to build Blender on Windows)
just run patch with a '.diff'  file on the Blender source code.
(command: patch -p0 < patch_file.diff )


Another Solution: Maybe post in the thread and ask if he has an updated compiled version to offer.

Cheers, Code!