any 3d modeling software you'd recommend

I am wondering the same thing, I am thinking about 3D developing and gathering info.

 

Blender is a great free 3D modeling and animation tool

 

You might find this helpful if you don't already know about it:

http://iphonedevelopment.blogspot.com/2009/06/using-3d-models-from-blender-in-opengl.html

 

There is google sketchup which isn't as advanced as Blender, but is good if you are new to 3D modelling.

 

SketchUp is pretty decent if you want to do quick and dirty level designs in 3D.

Not so sure it would be good for in-game assets, although there seem to be people using it with XNA.

There's also trueSpace.

 

http://www.wings3d.com/

Wings3D - My favorite. Super, super easy to use and it outputs in portable formats.

 

Blender... buy a three-button mouse... and use SIO2 to develop your games:
http://sio2interactive.com

--yarri

 

I use Blender too, and export to the Collada format which is easy to use in code.

 

I recommend using AC3D as it is pretty easy to use and have quite good features for handling the triangles directly. Not free but fairly cheap.

http://www.inivis.com/

AC3D can export to various formats too...that can be used in various renderers.

But have a look at our 3D lib for drawing AC3D files, feel free to download a demo lib that works in the simulator to try it out.
http://www.memention.com/ac3dreader/

Cheers!
Edward

 

For user friendly commercial modelling software, I recommend Silo from nevercenter.com. Even maya user vote for it.