I've been reading through some usual gaming websites and discovered that UNITY 3D has become available today for free rather than the normal price of $200




I've used this software before over the last couple of years after buying a license for it. It is a indie game development toolset, which compared to most others, is very easy to use. When I used to model in 3DS Max I would always take my models into Unity game engine to see what they looked like in a First Person setting. It was also possible to create complete landscapes and add your model to them (straight from Maya export)

Another great feature of Unity, is to export your game as a flash-based applet (With all the features of a standalone 3D Game) To see an example of this, and to download the engine, go here:

http://unity3d.com/gallery/live-demos/tropical-paradise

You'll need to install a web-player to view the demo, but it doesn't take long.