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Blogs

  3D printing and Games?
by Kevin Gallant on 06/13/12 09:07:00 am
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The following blog was, unless otherwise noted, independently written by a member of Gamasutra's game development community. The thoughts and opinions expressed here are not necessarily those of Gamasutra or its parent company.

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There are a number of cool objects that have been printed in 3D.  Games are software-based and designers and developers can promote their characters, props and levels by 3D printing portfolios.  Developers can print their 3D models  instead of viewing it on a computer screen.

Print Games?  Makerbot has promoted a complete mini-skate park on their website!  www.makerbot.com Creative heads can now rapid prototype their models and bring their game levels to life.  3D printers are a tool that can help.  Start a 3D Model and turn that model into Gcode which is a series of instruction for the 3D printer to understand.  3D printers used to cost a lot of money but now there are in $2000 range.   The setup and installation of the Makerbot works is easy but the preparation of the 3D models for proper builds takes some time.  A whistle was my first demo print and it works.  You can scale your whistles to any size and print multiple colors.  The Makerbot can print nuts, bolts, glasses, ducted fan.  There are hundreds of files that are ready made to print with the  Makerbot.  You can download or modify somebody else’s idea, from thingiverse.com. You do need a computer to prepare models with an open-source design package called ReplicatorG. 

 Your finished products can easily take an hour to print for a small solid 1” cube. The resolution is fine enough to make gears and complex parts but thin parts tend to be avoided because of the heat used in the process.  Give your games a new physical look.

Makerbot

 
 
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