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Porting 3D Movie Maker to Linux

(benstoneonline.com)

133 points

by speckx3 days ago |
27 comments
upvoteby lproven21 minutes ago|
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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...

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upvoteby tombert13 hours ago|
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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.

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upvoteby tombert10 hours ago|
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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.

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upvoteby tombert7 hours ago|
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Here's the WASM source to those interested: https://github.com/Tombert/3DMMEx_WASM
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upvoteby intuxikated5 hours ago|
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Doesn't work on brave on mobile, says fonts are missing Maybe you can bundle the fonts?
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upvoteby Pxtl10 hours ago|
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Honestly there's a huge void online for a new xtranormal
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upvoteby tombert8 hours ago|
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Agreed. Now that 3DMM is open source, someone should make a video about how Kubernetes is Web Scale.
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upvoteby aaronbrethorst6 hours ago|
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For anyone too young to catch the reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2F-DItXtZs
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upvoteby ksi237 hours ago|
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[flagged]
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upvoteby vintagedave1 hours ago|
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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...
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upvoteby OuterVale7 hours ago|
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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.

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upvoteby AndrewOMartin2 hours ago|
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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.

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upvoteby adamsb614 hours ago|
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I had forgotten how much time I spent with this software until I saw the screenshot. Thanks for the port!
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upvoteby hsbauauvhabzb12 hours ago|
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Awesome! I can now ditch Windows. The year is finally here.
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upvoteby Joel_Mckay7 hours ago|
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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

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upvoteby hsbauauvhabzb5 hours ago|
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Are you suggesting there are games that are not 3D movie maker that are worth playing?
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upvoteby Joel_Mckay5 hours ago|
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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

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upvoteby ChrisRR1 hours ago|
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Do you find you have issues recognising sarcasm?
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upvoteby matthewhartmans13 hours ago|
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I used 3dmm throughout my high school making movies for school projects and side projects for laughs.

This is an absolute gem! Thank you!

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upvoteby wolpoli14 hours ago|
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Does anyone know why the 3DMMForever project stalled? Was technical or was it just a general lack of interest?
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upvoteby parlortricks12 hours ago|
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This one looks to be the active fork, https://github.com/benstone/3DMMEx

i should have read the article first...

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upvoteby stevebmark5 hours ago|
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RIP Pozin
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upvoteby ChrisRR1 hours ago|
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Hold up. Pozin died? There's a name I haven't heard in a long time
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upvoteby ddtaylor13 hours ago|
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I remember this source was released a while back and some people hacked it together to run on modern Windows.

Yay!

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upvoteby pulimento14 hours ago|
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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
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upvoteby rossant13 hours ago|
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Brings me back! Well done!
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upvoteby DParida0814 hours ago|
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That's peretty cool!!
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upvoteby Computer014 hours ago|
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I had never heard of this piece of software before. I would be very interested in trying it out on Linux.
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