Okay so I've got a little bored with waiting for afew friends to finish what they are doing for their qualifications before I can try and persuade them into writing an Online game.

In the mean time though, I want to try and find some modeling systems that would be of use to creating some graphics.
I've played around with COREL but it's a little old and it's rendering package to time and resource consuming.

I've messed with a few CAD packages, they too are time consuming, and awkward.

I've even taken a trip to http://www.pixar.com/ to have a look what they've got on offer... But their price list looks like the amount that a millionaire playboy might lash out on.

Does anyone know any decent 3Dimensional rendering packages out there, Either for purchase or as freeware?

(I can see myself having to program something for parallel processing the rendering)

I would suggest you to get 3D Studio Max (http://www.discreet.com/products/3dsmax/) . It is said to be the best out there

I have an old version of 3d Studio Max, but I never had the patience to learn to use it properly. Maybe some day...

However, I think you might like to have a look at http://www.renderosity.com. Browse their galleries of art from different modelling packages, see what you like. They also run forums for learning and discussing this stuff.

Edited link.

3D Studio Max is very expensive ($1000 at minimum, depending on which version you want - if you want to get it legally that is). We've been over this kind of thing a thousand times on the SWAT 3 forums.

You can find Milkshape (yes, it is a microsoft program, but it works all the same even if it is a knock off program - the interface is different than 3D Studio Max) for about $25 :D

Here's a link to a shareware version of Milkshape. It's also got some info and plug-ins http://www.swissquake.ch/chumbalum-soft/

All hail to Furrycat, creator of the GSM exporter! :D

Oh, you can also get a version of G-Max from Discreet for free....

http://www.3dlinks.com/software_modshare.cfm