Re: [GD-Design] A few questions

[Tom H. <to...@3d...>]

At 05:03 AM 9/16/2001, Death Hunter wrote:
>Hello all!
>
>     I have been waiting for such a game list for a long time now. I hope 
> the following questions belong here.
>
>1. When designing games, engine design is very important. So I was 
>wondering what is your method of choice for culling? BSP? Portals? 
>Octrees? Something else?

It depends entirely on the game itself. You need to decide what kind of 
worlds you need to represent, then chose a level description and engine 
style that gives you performance needed to make the game concept work. As a 
(very) general rule of thumb is that BSP and portal engines are good for 
interiors, and octrees / quadtrees (and their derivatives) are good for 
exteriors. You do a lot of culling in interiors, but exteriors are much 
more difficult do things like occlusion or PVS style culling. Since octrees 
are more flexible, I think we're seeing a lot of them used for both 
interiors and exteriors these days. Also, there's a lot of hybrid solutions 
(like octrees at a high level, with leaves containing BSP trees).

Design the game first, then figure out how much you can support with 
different engine types and at what performance. There's always a trade-off 
but until you know what the requirements are, designing the engine it 
really a waste of time.

>2. I am currently trying many different techniques, and I always need some 
>sampla level data. Can you recommend some (preferably free) level editors 
>with ability to export to a custom format, or at least with a good 
>documentation about the available format?

For interior and character modelling stuff, I'd look into the Quake 
editors. There's tons of free ones, and a lot of people that know how to 
use them.

Tom