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Only use milcshape if you want to make extremely simple models less than 1500 vertices. The gui is designed for maximum slowness. Because it only has front ,side and top views that can be used for modelling, there are always vertices that are imposable to select because they are behind other vertices. If you miss align them so that that can be selected, you end up with extremely ugly modals. There is no renderer so you cannot gage how the modals will look in game. It is like comparing ms paint (useless) to psp (exhalant)

Now can you sea why I hate ms3d. it is only useful as a file converter.

Get ms3d trial version learn the basics and move on to something more advanced. Otherwise you will never progress. Blender takes longer to learn. But this is because it is a advanced program. I suspect that any program of this level is difficult to learn.

Good things about blender
A modal that took me 2 weeks to make in ms3d only takes a few hewers max to do in blender.
Blenders composing nodes can be used to make textures very quickly
It is open sconce so if you don’t like it then change it!

There is no point making lo polly models anymore because computers can run medium -> high poly no problem. If dbp cant then there is something wrong with the software.
Next gen game caricatures are around 10k+ vets. Isn’t it time to move on and dump old technology?.
Sorry about the long past.

Milkshape has a bottom view as well.As far as redering goes there is an option in the 3D view called "textured" that allows you to see what your model would look like in game.
I have used Milkshape to make models with well over 3000 vertices.
And if you know what you are doing you can select what vertices you want to play with (there is an "ignore backfaces" option in the vertex select mode.
Now I am not going to jump on the bandwagon about which modeling program isx the best.Simply put,whichever one you can use to your advantage that has the features you need and is within your price range is the best one for you.But please do get your facts straight.

We'll move on when DBPro can handle more than a handfull of 10k poly models - really I don't think I'd use that many poly's unless it was a beat em up with 2 characters on screen.

Normal mapping on low poly models is the way to go, although there's always the problem of making damn normal maps - which I think blender can do.

Thing is, I'd like to use blender to bake textures and create normal maps from higher detail models - but it's not straightforward (for me at least). I'm investigating other methods of making decent normal maps, it's just a shame that the only modelling package I'm comfortable in is Rhino3D.

What I meant is that it isn’t the best program available at the moment. It could be improved a lot if it had a isometric view, this would aid the selection of the vertices you want. Sorry if I sed something wrong, I don’t know everything . Wen I was using it, the animation system kept bugging out. Yes i turned off the anim button before exporting/ saving. all the bones did the exact opacite of what they wore supposed to do!

Well, I guess it's all a matter of opinion really...But here is my basic rig:

Blender
Photoshop
DBPro (with add-ins)

That's all I really use. IF you want to see some decent models that I created in Blender check out this thread. ClickHERE.

I am always learning new stuff in Blender, I am by no means an expert but I do have a a pretty good working knowledge of it. This is an excellent program but is not without it's faults. If it was perfect then there would be no need for other 3D studios...

Take a look at that thread to squash any notions about Blender and low-poly stuff.

Cheers,
Dave

to make bump maps in blender you need the ZUtilz Plugin. more on blender bump maps at the wiki

http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Manual/Bump_and_Normal_Maps