A long time ago one of our associates offered me a copy of 3DS Max 5, but I couldn't go after it myself. A friend said that he would, but apparently he waited too long,. He got me a cracked version, that is more like broken. So...
What other 3D editing/creating programs are there that are compatible with Freedom Force? Are any free?
The only one that I know of that is currently supported is "Blender" (Which is free), but I thought that I read somewhere that SickAlice mentioned "MilkShape" (But I don't know if that one is free or not). I believe that "GMax" was at one time supported and free, though I'm not sure of it's current status. Other than that, I'm not quite sure what's out there that will work with our Nif Files.
Milkshape can be used in tangent with Nifskope (import/export .OBJ) to create static mesh parts. As well it has an easy texturing interface. It can't handle weighting and attempting to import or export a nif is usually going to be flawed and nonworking. Blender is otherwise the best way to go if you can't get the proper version of Max.
Last version to support the nif scripts is blender-2.49b
Don't get anything newer.