Tools for making textures, models, sounds, mods, …

[Calinou]

In this topic, I'll post various free/libre tools for making textures, models, sounds and mods.

Text below each program indicates the supported platforms, where installation or compilation is not too tricky. There is no particular sorting order.

Textures

GIMP: raster graphics editor, good for manipulation
GNU/Linux    BSD    OS X    Windows

Krita: raster graphics editor, handles graphic tablets better than GIMP
GNU/Linux    BSD    OS X    Windows

Inkscape: vector graphics editor
GNU/Linux    BSD    OS X    Windows

Aseprite: pixel art editor
GNU/Linux    BSD    OS X    Windows

mtPaint: raster graphics and pixel art editor
GNU/Linux    Windows

MyPaint: raster graphics editor similar to Krita
GNU/Linux    OS X    Windows

Pinta: raster graphics editor similar to Paint.NET
GNU/Linux    BSD    OS X    Windows

NeoTextureEdit: procedural texture generator (any resolution), with 3D preview
GNU/Linux    BSD    OS X    Windows

TextureGenerator-Online: Web-based texture generator (any resolution) with 3D preview
GNU/Linux    BSD    OS X    Windows

NormalMap-Online: Web-based normal/specular/parallax/ambient occlusion map generator, with 3D preview
GNU/Linux    BSD    OS X    Windows

AwesomeBump: Qt5-powered tool to make normal maps, specular maps, and much more
GNU/Linux    Windows

Models

Blender: 3D modeller and renderer suite, can export to OBJ format (and X/B3D with add-ons)
GNU/Linux    BSD    OS X    Windows

Wings3D: 3D modeller, can export to OBJ format
GNU/Linux    BSD    OS X    Windows

open3mod: 3D model viewer and converter, can export to OBJ format
Windows

Tesseract: game with map editor, can export to OBJ format
GNU/Linux    BSD    OS X    Windows

NodeBoxEditor: can export to OBJ format
GNU/Linux    BSD    Windows

NetRadiant: map editor, can export to OBJ format
GNU/Linux    BSD    OS X    Windows

Sounds

Ardour: Digital Audio Workstation suite
GNU/Linux    BSD    OS X

LMMS: another Digital Audio Workstation suite
GNU/Linux    OS X    Windows

Audacity: manipulate, convert and record sounds
GNU/Linux    BSD    OS X    Windows

SFXR: generate basic sounds based on waves and noise
GNU/Linux    BSD    OS X    Windows

Code editors (supporting Lua)

Geany: lightweight, yet full-featured IDE, quick loading
GNU/Linux    BSD    Windows

Notepad++: similar to Geany, quick loading
Windows

Kate: lightweight editor using Qt, quick loading
GNU/Linux    BSD

Gedit: lightweight editor using GTK+, quick loading
GNU/Linux    BSD

Atom: fuly hackable editor based on Web technologies (install language-lua package for Lua support), slow loading
GNU/Linux    OS X    Windows

Light Table: fully hackable editor using the Clojure programming language, slow loading
GNU/Linux    OS X    Windows

Vim: powerful command-line text editor
GNU/Linux    BSD    OS X    Windows

Other

Cygwin: run shell scripts on Windows
Windows

msysgit: lets you use Git from the Windows command prompt
Windows

[Inocudom]

Thank you, Calinou. I am grateful that you posted the links to these programs here.

[lightonflux]

Nice post. But i think it would be better if it was a dev wiki article. Then it would be easier to find and maintain by multiple users.

[philipbenr]

Looks nice and pretty complete.

I would suggest pinning it at the top of Modding Discussion/adding it to the wiki.

[Linuxdirk]

Don’t forget Vim in the list of editors :)

[Evergreen]

Don’t forget Vim in the list of editors :)

+1 Vim can easily be a lua editor.
Also, don't forget lmms in the audio section.

[addi]

also dont forgett sketchup
http://www.sketchup.com
its a lot of easier to use and learn than blender or wings3d
I used it to create the new cannon model of my cannons mod.
download via this page to skip the registration: http://www.heise.de/download/sketchup-make-1134171.html

[Krock]

also dont forgett sketchup

I'm not sure if that one is actually free/libre because you must buy a license to get all features.


http://www.getpaint.net/
I doupt it's open-source but still a great tool for Windows.
Windows XP/Vista users can use the older 3.5.11 version from Oldapps.

Both versions can be extended with plugins.

[Amaz]

I'm not sure if this is the right place, but for the text editor Atom, I've made some snippets to shorten registering nodes/crafts/craftitems:

Your phone or window isn't wide enough to display the code box. If it's a phone, try rotating it to landscape mode.

Code: Select all

'.source.lua':
  'Register Node':
    'prefix': 'mrn'
    'body': 'minetest.register_node("mod:name", {\n\tdescription = "Blah Blah",\n\ttiles = {"blah_blah.png"},\n\tgroups = {oddly_breakable_by_hand = 1, cracky = 3, choppy = 3},\n\t--sounds = ?!?,\n})'
  'Register Craft Item':
    'prefix': 'mrci'
    'body': 'minetest.register_craftitem("mod:name", {\n\tdescription = "Blah Blah",\n\tinventory_image = "blah.png",\n})'
  'Register Craft':
    'prefix': 'mrc'
    'body': 'minetest.register_craft({\n
    \toutput = "mod:name",\n\trecipe = {\n\t\t{"blah:blah", "blah:blah", "blah:blah"},\n\t\t{"blah:blah","blah:blah", "blah:blah"},\n\t\t{"blah:blah", "blah:blah", "blah:blah"},\n\t},\n})'

(Yes, the code is a bit of a mess, but I get spaces if the new lines are on new lines... Maybe I'm doing something wrong.)

Just add that to the snippets.cson file in the atom folder (.atom for a global install on Linux).