gamedevlists-general

[GD-General] Level Editing

[Tiziano L. <tl...@li...>]

Hi to all!
I have a problem in level editing and I wonder if anyone has any good idea.
Let's say that a game uses models created for example with 3DS Max and that 
there are several
changes in the 3d level during the development. For a game (such as a FPS) 
there are a lot of other informations
that are needed (such as trigger positions, paths, custom shaders, lights).
Well, every time that a modified level is exported from Max this data is 
lost and it needs to be reimported.
I thought about some alternatives but no one seems to me the silver bullet 
of level editing (if one exist :)).

- do all the editing inside 3ds Max
I think programming a plugin like this is not so easy... and what if the 
next project uses Maya or Lightwave?

- merge
Starting from the old level the objects are merged in the new (empty) 
level. The problem is that some data are geometry
dependent (eg. shaders, paths) and can be lost or invalid.

- editor
Build a 3d editor with tools to modify or create the level and provide a 
simple interface to import data from Max.
This could be the better choice but it's an huge amount of work and 
modellers'll probably complain because 'it's not max'.
Thank you!

P.S. sorry for bad english 

Re: [GD-General] Level Editing

[Thatcher U. <tu...@tu...>]

On Sep 01, 2002 at 05:02 +0200, Tiziano Lena wrote:

> I have a problem in level editing and I wonder if anyone has any
> good idea.  Let's say that a game uses models created for example
> with 3DS Max and that there are several changes in the 3d level
> during the development. For a game (such as a FPS) there are a lot
> of other informations that are needed (such as trigger positions,
> paths, custom shaders, lights).  Well, every time that a modified
> level is exported from Max this data is lost and it needs to be
> reimported.  I thought about some alternatives but no one seems to
> me the silver bullet of level editing (if one exist :)).
> 
> do all the editing inside 3ds Max I think programming a plugin like
> this is not so easy... 

IMO MaxScript is pretty decent; you can knock out plugins reasonably
quick.  Max itself has some issues, but then so do all 3D editors.

> and what if the next project uses Maya or
> Lightwave?

Tough :)

These days I think making a plug-in of some type is the easiest route.

-- 
Thatcher Ulrich
http://tulrich.com

Re: [GD-General] Level Editing

[Javier A. <ja...@py...>]

Tiziano Lena <tl...@li...> wrote:

> changes in the 3d level during the development. For a game (such as a
> FPS) there are a lot of other informations
> that are needed (such as trigger positions, paths, custom shaders,
> lights). Well, every time that a modified level is exported from Max
> this data is lost and it needs to be reimported.

You might try using custom data => text you can add to your objects,
materials, etc inside MAX.

  Javier Arevalo
  Pyro Studios

RE: [GD-General] Level Editing

[Philip H. <ph...@me...>]

We go for the third option...

> - editor
> Build a 3d editor with tools to modify or create the level and provide

> a
> simple interface to import data from Max.
> This could be the better choice but it's an huge amount of work and 
> modellers'll probably complain because 'it's not max'.

Yes it is a lot of work but there are plenty of advantages. For example
our current editor lets you pause the game, switch to edit mode, make a
change then resume playing from where you left off.

Philip Harris
Batfish Studios Ltd
http://www.batfishstudios.com