Lots of game books feature new gear, vehicles, etc, often with some illustrations of various quality, frequently made more and more often with 3d modeling/rendering programs.
So do you think more and more gamers will start getting free 3d modeling and rendering software and make their own illustrations for their own stuff? With programs like wings, blender, bryce, inkscape, etc giving excellent results and being free, I can imagine some gamers opting for making their own gear and vehicles with full illos for their favorite systems.
As to stuff you can make with freeware, I've been working on a program called "Blender" for a while now and just got to where I learned some techniques that let me make some decent looming models for the first time. I'm following a tutorial that teaches you how to make a "sci fi dropship" which isn't really a drop ship as it's clearly meant to operate in the atmosphere only.
As I worked on it to learn how to work blender, I began thinking on it in gaming terms and how to stat it out for my favorite systems. I also began changing the model as the guy doing the tutorial suggested to learn how to actually work the program and not just follow instructions to make one thing.
I'm working on this now, when I'm done making the model I'll beging detailing and texturing ("painting) it.
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4138/4884718092_4db293f856_b.jpg)
Front view. The vents are air intakes. The cockpit has those lines alone the top that almost give it a skull like look. The teacher offered a way to diminish them but said you could leave them if you liked them. I decided I liked them and hell, they could be aerodynamic in some way.
As I worked on it I began to think of it in technical and game terms. I decided to call it "Airwolf 2084" and that it would be a ground support craft capable of various missions. The side mounts can carry a variety of pods, frequently but not always weapons like missile pods.
I made some technical assumptions and tried to keep the machine consistent with them. First assumption was practical high temp superconductors, which made extremely powerful electric motors possible. In addition, some type of practical fusion power that could generate megawatts from a unit the size of a combustion engine.
Also, I assumed general advances in materials, such as carbon polymers, fullerene meshes and nanoscale assembling made materials lighter and stronger than today, but not by outrageous amounts.
Given those I made this an electric engine driven airship with a fusion power plant. Subsonic only, as there are real problems with supersonic rotor craft. (Sorry, airwolf fans..)
The forward underside will have a turret featuring a high power gauss gatling gun as once you accept practical fusion power and superconductors, gauss weapons become inevitable. I might or might not add a similar turret to the rear underside.
I will add some gear to the front panels like a spotlight, sensors and an airspeed sensor along with some comm antenna. The windows will be clear when I'm done.
The intake on the front suck in air, pass it thru the heat of the fusion core and expel it rearward as hot thrust.
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4121/4884718062_8b35032669_b.jpg)
Rear view, showing the thrust vectoring system, which allows the thrust to be ducted left, right, up and down for maneuverability.
I'm going to add a structure on top of the flat tail section to suggest a fusion reactor, and maybe a couple vertical fins that look cool. Also a turret might go on the underside for rear/side work and some flare/chaff/ecm ejectors.
(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4082/4884718008_e0c741236a_b.jpg)
Obligatory 3/4 view.
As I worked on the model I was thinking what roles this might fill, mainly ground support. With fusion power and a large crew cabin it might remain airborne for days. if necessary, and between hovering and travelling up to, say, some 600MPH it could fulfill a lot of roles. A variety of pods allow it to be a ground attack craft, surveillance vehicle, critical delivery/retrieval and even maybe to deliver or pick up a few people in special personnel pods.
I think making it and having to work on it to make the model really made me think thru the technology and the ramifications of it, hopefully making the vehicle consistent and technically plausible. These might be fairly common aircraft on some "low tech" worlds lacking AG or other "really advanced" tech.
So now some gamers, those with time and the skill, can create their own vehicles, weapons, etc, and render them out in detail. I wonder how this will affect RPG products in the future. A lot of gamers will not want to invest the time learning to use a program like this, so I think there'll still be a market for game supplements with stuff like this.
But others will likely learn to use this to make their own stuff, like their own ship in travreller or star wars, instead of relying on other people's art.
This thing would spin like a top. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tail_rotor. At least add something like NOTAR.
The front end has a pair of turbofans to suck in air behind those intakes. They're oriented in such a way as to counter the torque from the main prop.