what is the best free 3d-program?
wings3d is only a modelling application
so, it really isnt a full featured 3d application.
the povray thingy is a renderer…not a 3d application
so that doesnt count.
3d canvas really isn’t free.
the pro versions need you to pay. (and if you look it that way, there are many more applications out there where they charge you nothing for the older or a low featured application)
so, in the end, only blender remains…
morray is a modeler for povray, so it is quite an 3d app - combined with pov 
Actually, Wings3D is now integrated with YAFray and can render directly from Wings. Just add a lamp, edit the properties and render from the File pull down menu with YAFray.
Oh, and of course, Blender is da bomb baby!!
BgDM
in terms of a full 3d application, only blender from that list meets the requirements.
wings is really only for modelling…you have to match it all up with another renderer to render it all out. so, its not one-application-that-does-it-all.
blender does it all…including animation, rendering…etc…
None of those programs can be compared to each other; they are intended for different things.
emtilt is quite right 
to see blender as a full 3d app, and povray / morray or wings not, is a bit ignorant, if u compare the renderingfeatures of pov to em of blender
'Coarse ya gotta know we are little biased here at elysiun, the main Blender user forum.
A better place to ask this kind of question might be on a general CG board
that’s not asociated with any particular app.
Be interesting to know what people say.
the question were not about ‘full’ 3D tool…it just say what tool is best…
and there are even some artists that use Wings3D for only modeling even if they have 3DSMAX, so why wouldn’t it be a 3D tool then? beats me…
and btw…my opinion is that Wings3D kicks ass in modelingtools, in horse lengths from Blender (runs off and hides here…) lol , no but I am serious, and when having seen a quick look into the latest Wings3D PDF Manual, it all start to look very good :)…never the less, Blenders future is just set…will be great to see the birth of Blender 3.* series…very interesting !!
hugs to you all !!
And it is shareware not free.
Most certainly correct! I still keep modeling in Wings even though I’ve got more refined gadgets accessible now…
Most certainly correct! I still keep modeling in Wings even though I’ve got more refined gadgets accessible now…[/quote]
of course !
damn!!
I kind of envy you, but then, Cinema is Not one of my tools…I have used it before on a course for 4 weeks, and there is some stuff that I dislike very much, like when you need to rotate and move the view, it is the same tools as when you would move/rotate any object…I was very annoyed about this back then…grrrr… :x
I would rather have LW 
, but…now I haven’t…
As Wings3D is growing and getting more features into it and comes with integration of yafray, I like it very much! If there is a possibility to work out a good texture mapping by unwrapping and so on, it would be a much grater concurrent to Blender…
I have to say, that the integration of YafRay in Blender is not as good as in Wings3D, because Wings just doeas everything automaticly for you by providing default preferences and exporting the standard shader and mapping features to yafray… so its simple and I like it.
But the code is quite weird - I don’t understand anything at the moment - this language is confusing me really :)) perhaps there’s someone who can help me out a bit with a tut about writing plugins for wings3D…
Blender is the superior! At least with its post production and compositing features (that should be enhanced!) its really worthy to start working with it. And I like its UI-concept very much. It’s not blown up that much - you have to get into the workflow, but if you got it, you can do great things with it.
At least the export to YafRay with yable is not perfect. You have to do everything by hand - touching every object and every material!! and there are obejct types, that cannot be exported…
Kniffo
Ahem!
Jean
These choices are limited and bias, there’s way more 3d freeware then just those 5
IMHO there is only one honest answer to this question: YES!
or E… Houdini Apprentice Edition