ok so I use 3ds max to do all my modeling and uvwrapping but I am stumped at which program is better for texturing maya or blender. I am sort of familiar with maya but not to the point where I could model and texture in it without heavily referring back to the manual. I have looked at the normal mapping tutorial on how to make panda happy normal maps in maya but it seems a bit complicated when multi-textures are involved. Does blenders egg exporter natively support normal maps or does that require an extra plugin?
Use TrueSpace 7.6 now FREE export to X and use x2egg tools.
Yahou !!!
ps: ThunderZ too happy with the release of TrueSpace 
Hello ThunderZ,
What settings do you use in Truespace 7.6 to export .X File that can be read by x2egg?
I’m unable right now to read with Panda3d the X files generated from Rigged Character in Truespace 7.6
the x-parser was broken for quite a while, was reported to be fixed but sometimes still was broken. so there might still be a problem.
for the maya/blender question. use the one you are more comfortable with.
if you dont know any of those i recommend learning blender. its harder to learn but its very good and the chicken exporter is quite good. worth learning. however if you already know maya. just stick with it.
let me rephrase the question, if I do not know how to use either which would be easier to get my hands on learning material that will quickly get me started because I would ONLY use the programs to add effects like normal mapping, glow mappings, and other special texturing things that arent supported by the 3ds max exporter for .egg. until someone writes/updates the egg exporter for 3ds max I’m stuck using 2 modeling softwares 
which is a bummer! Hmmm, it would be more practical if the creators would expand their engines support with exporters and not just strictly support maya. I know Disney has the money to buy maya but what about the rest of us? 3ds max is cheaper and blender is FREE! 
but as you said I have played around with blender and it QUITE different.
if you just want to add effects. maya has the better support right now. thought blender can do just as good, if the chicken exporter supports exporting those things.
blender has a … quite unique workflow, thus its not like other 3d-packages, but its good once you learned how to use it.
both blender and maya have quite extensive tutorials. blender has its noob2pro books which lead an totaly unexperienced users to good results.
I just export the model without pb depending of the option you set.
Don’t forget to set the output format in TEXT.
x2egg don’t support binary or compressed binary for the x format.
Just for test export the Dexter Zyo model that is fully rigged and animated.
The model is a bit high (50K poly triangulated) but play very smooth and well in panda 
PS: the light is a bit high in Pview but show you the correct model in animation
is that the 3d software that was referred to in previous posts?
also, with a little tweaking I’ve found that maya to be the best solution for me right now. Seeing as though the modeling in it is quite different than I expected I will see what I can do with the tutorials I found online which the ones provided arent half bad anyway!