Porting 3D Movie Maker to Linux

(benstoneonline.com)

133 points | by speckx 3 days ago

14 comments

lproven 9 minutes ago

More info from the other chap involved in the port:
https://www.ilande.co.uk/2026/04/06/porting-3dmm-to-linux-pa...
https://www.ilande.co.uk/2026/04/17/porting-3dmm-to-linux-pa...
I wrote about it here:
https://www.theregister.com/oses/2026/05/13/linux-gains-more...
tombert 13 hours ago

Next logical step would be WASM, I suppose. Then I could easily show everyone in the world 12-year-old-tombert's masterpiece "Fatso Man and Tarzan Baby".
ETA: I'm gonna give it a go with Claude tonight. Need to justify my $100 membership somehow.

[-]
- tombert 9 hours ago
  
  UPDATE: About an hour with Claude gave me this: https://3dmmex.pages.dev/
  It actually works reasonably well from what I can tell, though I haven't thoroughly tested it.
  
  [-]
  - tombert 6 hours ago
    
    Here's the WASM source to those interested: https://github.com/Tombert/3DMMEx_WASM
    
    [-]
    - intuxikated 5 hours ago
      
      Doesn't work on brave on mobile, says fonts are missing Maybe you can bundle the fonts?
- Pxtl 10 hours ago
  
  Honestly there's a huge void online for a new xtranormal
  
  [-]
  - tombert 8 hours ago
    
    Agreed. Now that 3DMM is open source, someone should make a video about how Kubernetes is Web Scale.
    
    [-]
    - aaronbrethorst 6 hours ago
      
      For anyone too young to catch the reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2F-DItXtZs
- ksi23 7 hours ago
  
  [flagged]
vintagedave 1 hour ago

Here is the blog series from the dev working on the Linux side of the port. (It was a group effort - both authors are very clear about the contributions from the other, it's really nice to read a story like this!) https://www.ilande.co.uk/2026/04/06/porting-3dmm-to-linux-pa...
OuterVale 7 hours ago

The most fantastic video I've ever seen created in Microsoft 3D Movie Maker is 'Grandpa Found the Car Keys': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGJKeESLBpQ
A very impressive use of the tool to achieve a pretty impressive amount of style within the limitations.

[-]
- AndrewOMartin 2 hours ago
  
  Your point stands, it's very impressive. But Dragon in America was a cut above even that. Just look at the "chase scene" starting at 10:00 (even just 15 seconds should be enough to make my point)
  https://youtu.be/i5IJCAhiBhw?si=qsTJgv6MsfjXmEXU&t=600
  For anyone not familiar with 3DMM, there was no facility to move "the camera" to any apparent camera movement was just moving each primitive object, as far as I know, one piece at a time.
adamsb6 14 hours ago

I had forgotten how much time I spent with this software until I saw the screenshot. Thanks for the port!
hsbauauvhabzb 12 hours ago

Awesome! I can now ditch Windows. The year is finally here.

[-]
- Joel_Mckay 7 hours ago
  
  TPM tamper detection and bitlocker disagree. Backup your key first...
  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/back-up-your-bit...
  Just about any *nix platform is a better experience now, but many Steam games are still windows only. =3
  
  [-]
  - hsbauauvhabzb 5 hours ago
    
    Are you suggesting there are games that are not 3D movie maker that are worth playing?
    
    [-]
    - Joel_Mckay 5 hours ago
      
      A lot of legacy applications will not work in Wine.
      86box is a great option for old programs and games... no herculean porting efforts required. =3
      https://github.com/86Box/86Box
      
      [-]
      - ChrisRR 1 hour ago
        
        Do you find you have issues recognising sarcasm?
matthewhartmans 13 hours ago

I used 3dmm throughout my high school making movies for school projects and side projects for laughs.
This is an absolute gem! Thank you!
wolpoli 14 hours ago

Does anyone know why the 3DMMForever project stalled? Was technical or was it just a general lack of interest?

[-]
- parlortricks 11 hours ago
  
  This one looks to be the active fork, https://github.com/benstone/3DMMEx
  i should have read the article first...
stevebmark 4 hours ago

RIP Pozin

[-]
- ChrisRR 1 hour ago
  
  Hold up. Pozin died? There's a name I haven't heard in a long time
ddtaylor 13 hours ago

I remember this source was released a while back and some people hacked it together to run on modern Windows.
Yay!
pulimento 13 hours ago

wow, such an amazing job! really a gymkhana of libraries to port/change. makes me think in the (unknown future) portability of the software I create today
rossant 12 hours ago

Brings me back! Well done!
DParida08 14 hours ago

That's peretty cool!!
Computer0 14 hours ago

I had never heard of this piece of software before. I would be very interested in trying it out on Linux.