4 replies to this topic

[smakazmi]

Hi Ppl,

I am trying to program 3d games as an indie.
I will be using an open source 3d engine such as Irrlicht. and 3ds max for 3d modelling.

Now here is the question:

What do i use to create levels or maps for my games? Can 3ds max be used for the purpose,

Thx

[Reedbeta]

Yes, 3DS Max can generally be used for level design. However, Irrlicht may have some special requirements, I don't know much about it. You should consult the Irrlicht documentation for more specific info.

[roel]

Besides that, I doubt you can generate maps with 3DS Max that work well with LOD on your map and specific things like that. I'll be glad to hear if I'm wrong :)

[Wernaeh]

Hi there.

Basically, you can use any 3d modeller for creating your game maps.

However note that the interface of many modelling tools is not made for creating largescale objects with many details at many places (i.e. the level geometry).

For example, most modellers do not offer a "free" but rather an "arcball" camera. The arcball can just rotate and zoom around the center point of your object. Practical when modelling a rather centered object such as a human being, not so practical for larger objects with many layers (hallways, dungeons, etc)

Also note that your basic modelling tool might not support some features required for creating all required objects - such as instanced objects (think many copies of the same pillar, all requiring memory for basically just one mesh instance), or entity placement. Actually, this was one of the reasons the development of the Jurrasic Park computer game around 1995 was so unsuccessful. They did all level building in MAX and had enormous problems with that (see the gamasutra postmortem for details).

That said, you have two or three alternatives left.

Write your own tool (takes a lot of time, but gives the best results). If you want a simple version, just allow placement of instanced objects, and importing a level file.

Then, there are freeware or at least not too expensive level editors out there (DeleD for example, www.delgine.com).

Finally, you might also get away with using a commercial quality game editor (Worldcraft, Hammer, qRadiant, whatever), and see that you somehow are able to import the resulting files into your project.

Hope this helps,
Cheers,
- Wernaeh

[smakazmi]

Thanks out to all those who took the time to reply. I finally have it figured out, thx to the great advise by Wernaeh . I will now be using GTKRadiant to do the level creation.

Thx once again.