I recently came across this package of 5000 models, some of you might know it. It's called De Espona 5000 Model Library, which would be awesome to have.

I really don't know where to ask for that but I have quite some questions about this.

Does someone here own it? How are the textures of this pack?

Are the models well seperated in parts? Can you remove the gears from airplanes?

700 bucks for this package is something...so I'd better check what others have to say about this package =/

thanks in advance...

One of the better known examples of false advertising. Most of the models in the package are very crude, look nothing like the pictures shown in the packaging and advertising.

You better check the available formats in there. I have something in mind that it is for 3D Studio Max - and when it is in .max format you have a bit of a problem bringing it into Vue.

But I can be wrong, no question.

Quote - One of the better known examples of false advertising. Most of the models in the package are very crude, look nothing like the pictures shown in the packaging and advertising.

are you sure?

I heard they have them in 4 different quality versions from 200.000 down to 700 for lowest.

Have you seen the ships?

PS: Wth, 3rd click in google search and I see them pirated with downloadlinks.

I have the 2 sets of 500 from Taschen on CD(which are the de espona) - I'd say most of the models need lots of texture work & in addition some need fixing up in a modeling program - funky polys etc etc.  I only paid 50.00 per 500 about 3 years back.

If you check at vanishingpoint.biz he has redone most of these with new textures & poserized some.  The CD"s I got came with a book w/pictures(as Forester has stated the pics represented in the book are WAY over exaggerated as to what they look like once imported into ANY 3d program)

Glad I only spent $100.00!

Edit: they did com in various formats usuable in any 3d app.

Are there multiple old de espona versions? I mean the guys from Espona should re-do them every 2nd year I think. Are there just old versions or ?

XPleet, Taschen is not the package that you can buy at De Espona. Definitely not because the Taschen objects costed only something like $20 each.

This is the warning you read when you look a bit deeper into the details:

WARNING: The collection is only available in 3DSMAX Autodesk format, valid for Version 2.0 to 3DStudio MAX 2008. If you wish to use these models in other platform you need to translate the models previously to your application. 3D Studio Max is a closed format, then you need a 3dsmax, 3dsViz or gmax license running over a Windows PC to open our 3dsmax collection files, then exporting them to .3DS, VRML or DXF, then import into your application. Some maps and textures can need to be reapplied after conversion. Pls contact www.discreet.com for software licensing info.
Many of our models are available individually at WWW.VANISHINGPOINT.BIZ in other formats for other platforms, as VUE, Poser, Lightwave, Macromedia or Electric Image. Pls try to use "order individual model" option to access the list of available formats for each model.

So be careful - max is a VERY closed format and you'll need the software to be able to read it. How it then converts to other formats like 3DS or obj nobody really knows.

Are you talking about .max or .3ds ?

THEY talk about .max when I read it right. They say that some of the models you can buy at Vanishing Point in other formats - as 3DS, vue etc. SO it is obvious that 3DS is not the source format here.

Espona has allways had trouble getting them correctly exported out of Max. He's hired several companies to try to do it, including the folks over at Poser Works. (which is where I came across them)

They are really a mixed bag. Some are quite good...some very sloppy...some that can't be used outside of Max...some that are just broken and can't really be fixed.  A lot of mirrored geometry problems. A lot of texture mapping issues.

I'd say you would want to look at his whole catalog and see if anything really floats your boat. 

i see, thx

I did a little research.

The Taschen package obviously offers 500 models in low polygon format! Are the textures also defined in high, middle, low formats?

obviously, the high poly formats are quite acceptable http://www.deespona.com/3denciclopedia/models/myflower.html

about 100k

I mean I'm not overhyped but do you think they're lying about the polycount?

I mean objects like these are obviously "decently" textured.

The Taschen ones are a mixed bag as well - some good - some not so good.  That said, I've had luck in remapping & fixing some up in modeling programs.

Quote - Here is that same ship from the CD's I have(taschen).  Poly count around 8900.  As you can tell the version I have is pretty hideous. Not even comparable really.

yeah looks ridiculous.

I'm just totally confused now, I just googled this, and get pirated links everywhere, totally overtoning actual links to the products.

I have used some sample objects from this collection in some images. The ones I got were quite good, but also very complex with lots of different objects and materials.
I had to simplify this ship model a lot in order to be able to export it in .obj format from Max and use it in Bryce, for instance. And the .obj exports from Max did not work very well at the time.

Most, but not all of the models, do come in 3 levels of detail. Low level was made  to be background objects and to render quickly. High resolution for close-up detail. Medium resolution for everything else. Mind you, these resolutions were determined back when the available RAM on most computers was usually less than 100 megs.

The texture resolutions are not very important as they are mostly small seamless (supposedly) tiles.

Thanx for the info.

Has someone tried .3ds export? I find that the best format when I use xfrog plants for example.

In their gallery, by the way, they were cheating on some of the ship models, that actually don't come with sails...

Here is a freebie site - Russian - but just click on the links. Tons of free models. Some good - some bad. Most in .3ds but some are in MAX and will need to be converted. The price is right, LOL! http://sw-in.narod.ru/

This one is not bad also...

http://www.archidom.net/ddd/model_F.htm

Great WareZ page. A lot of stuff stolen from other sites (cars for example from DMI I would say, a lot from those Taschen models too). And I thought Renderosity is a 0% tolerance site.

Xpleet, it kinda sounds like you are wanting this package of models to be OK (into wish fulfillment), but it really isn't. Nobody knows why this big model collection was marketed this way, but this was back in the days of MAX Version 3.5 (or maybe even earlier), when hardly anyone could afford the price of MAX. DeEspona was/is a talented modeller, and he got the proportions right on just about everything he tried. But, very many of the models didn't translate out of MAX correctly (and back then it's file format was exactly *.3ds. So, yes, everyone has tried *.3ds.) Others were partly OK, maybe go0d for one scene from one angle, but flaws in the model from other sides. Others, had many other kinds of flaws. Almost as if somebody tried to clean them up before packaging, but only alloted 20 minutes per model. So, if it couldn't be cleaned up in time, it went in just "as is." Nobody knows why - the riddle of the Sphynx. Anyhow, there are maybe 12-17 good models at a decent resolution in the package, and that's all. DeEspona is active again this year, and he is slowly cleaning up his collection. The "good" versions are slowly coming onto the market over at TurboSquid, as well as elsewhere. (But check the submission date before buying!) Over the years, almost every beginning modeller has tried to take these things and fix them. For many people with no real modelling skills, but access to a 3d modelling package, that has seemed the path of least resistance. Even today, every day, someone takes a DeEspona model, changes the textures or fixes up a part, and then tries to sell it on TurboSquid as their own original product. Drives the site managers nuts. Millions of man-hours wasted on this thing over the years. And the most widely pirated set of models in existence. But, you are better off saving your money to spend on a good model that you really want for a purpose that you have clearly in mind at the time. Otherwise you are going to buy a junk collection of stuff that is just going to mostly sit on your hard drive until the day it wears out. Better to spend your time searching the web for freebies - there are thousands and thousands of outstanding models out there for free. Just takes some search time, and some good bookmarking. And save your money for the real stuff. And, if you can't find the real stuff that you need, ask a modeller to build it for you, or ask if someone knows where a good free version might lie.

Attached Link: http://www.vanishingpoint.biz/marketplace.asp?memberID=4877

Mazak

Which is Warez? Kind of hard to tell since site is in Russian.

Both are - unless you are familiar with the Taschen/de Espona/DMI models you wouldn't be aware of this. They both have identical models on both sites.

Just to let you know the official word.

The models on De Espona are not the same as the models from Taschen. The Taschen models are only the low polygon models.

The collection on De Espona is not 5000 models, it is 1250 models, roughly, in four different resolutions.

At Vanishing Point we are taking each model, fixing it in a modelling program, often retexturing and mapping from scratch, and converting to Poser and Vue. The final models we release bear very little resemblance to the original model in some cases.

If you are looking for the MAX versions, the MAX versions on our site are redone in MAX 7 or 8, the originals from De Espona where done in MAX 5, some in earlier versions like 3 or 4. Remember, this collection was modelled ten years ago, so it is, for it's time, an awesome collection, but you cannot expect ten year old models to compete with products being made in modern programs and newer versions.

If there are any particular models you need, we will move those up on our list of conversions, but at this point the models we have requests for is standing at about 50, so don't expect your conversion to be done tommorow, lol, it takes us between 2 to 9 days to convert and fix each model, so we are going to be busy for quite a while on this collection.

Attached Link: Youtube

For this model we added the engine, re-modelled and retextured, rigged, added extra features like the flags, and to get the model to move like this we had to alter the mesh quite significantly, so that we could get the windows and things to work.

This model took me the longest so far, 9 days.

Thanks for the info Helgard.

Darn, I guess that means that I couldn't just go and grab those models in 3dsmax and simply export them as 3ds =/

You can get the De Espona set, it is not bad for the price, but like people have said above, some models don't export well, and with many of them there are problems with inverted polygons, texture settings, scale, etc.It really depends on how much work you want to do, and how many of the models you will be using.

For example, the set is 700 dollars. If you are going to use 70 or more of the models, going through the whole process of exporting and scaling and applying textures, etc, then it is worth your while. But if you are only going to use 20 or 30, then it is cheaper and easier to buy the models that someone else has already done the work on of fixing, scaling, texturing, rigging, etc.

It is basically a question of how many models you will be using from the set, and how much time you have, and how much work you want to do. I have been working on this set on and off for a year or so, and I have only done about 20 models.

Quote - You can get the De Espona set, it is not bad for the price, but like people have said above, some models don't export well, and with many of them there are problems with inverted polygons, texture settings, scale, etc.It really depends on how much work you want to do, and how many of the models you will be using.

For example, the set is 700 dollars. If you are going to use 70 or more of the models, going through the whole process of exporting and scaling and applying textures, etc, then it is worth your while. But if you are only going to use 20 or 30, then it is cheaper and easier to buy the models that someone else has already done the work on of fixing, scaling, texturing, rigging, etc.

It is basically a question of how many models you will be using from the set, and how much time you have, and how much work you want to do. I have been working on this set on and off for a year or so, and I have only done about 20 models.

Actually my decision is not depending on the count (I'd use as many I'd have fun with lol)
but rather how easy it is to convert it from max to 3ds.
Friend of mine has max on his pc and if it is just a matter of let's say 10 mins - ok -
But who's talking about about days???
Why is it so problematic, because they're old?

I'm not really plannin to do any changes to the models just keep the polies, and textures can be adjusted in Vue. I hope the .max come in multiple bodies so the texturing won't be much of a problem.

That's what I'd do anyways. But spending hell of a time just to get 1 model in Vue .- nah that'd not be my thing to be honest.

This is what I've always told people about getting models out of Max...

Max has 2 somewhat dependable export formats...and they're not 3DS or OBJ.

The formats are ASE (Max Scene's in ASCII format) and WRL (VRML II)

ASE is a complete text description of everything in a Max scene...so complete, in fact, that ASE files are about 10 times the size of any ordinary 3D file. Format conversion programs such as Deep Exploration can read ASE format, and convert them into other formats such as 3DS, OBJ, LWO, or COB. (the files will be much smaller when converted) The exported geometry will be import correctly about 90% of the time, and the UV mapping about 75%. 

WRL will sometimes work when ASE will not, especially when there are problems with flipped geometry. However, materials don't always translate properly. WRL does have the advantage that it's read by more programs than ASE

Whatever you do, don't try using Max's 3DS export function. Quite frankly, it's junk. (weird, I know, since they're the one's who invented 3DS format)

Absolutely, 100 percent true! But the file export problem is not the only issue in those old models, of course.