Can i make a level in programs such as 3dmax

Kamazy · Post by **Kamazy** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 3:08 pm

just wondering if i could use 3d modeling programs to make levels.
cuz thay look much better than BSP.
And in a book i red last year there should be a static mesh with per poly colision detection.

hike1 · Post by **hike1** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 4:06 am

Search my site for gamebuilder 2.2 , for Max and Gmax.

http://terrymorgan.net/download.htm

get it at Maple3d.com

Post by **QuestOfDreams** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 9:00 am

just wondering if i could use 3d modeling programs to make levels.
cuz thay look much better than BSP.

for max there is the gamebuilder plugin; there are some other tools to convert 3ds files to .map or .3dt files. however these levels may only consist of bsp compatible objects (i.e. convex shapes)

using the StaticMesh entity is another way to add geometry with per poly collision to your level (without the need to be convex), however it is not optimized for large polycount yet (i.e. more than 500 - 1000 triangles), so for high poly models you have to split them into several low poly actors...

Kamazy · Post by **Kamazy** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 1:59 pm

Thanks that site is great and i also found lot of other great tools and plugins. Now my levels can look more like Halo that Half-life 1. And i can always make the levels in parts and put them together in the RF editor.

hike1 · Post by **hike1** » Thu Jul 21, 2005 4:55 pm

What kind of FPS increase could I expect if I sliced a 5,000 poly
static mesh into 1,000 poly pieces? Because there seems to be a limit of 30 FPS or so on a 20,000 poly terrain, and do you
have any other optimizing tips?

Kamazy · Post by **Kamazy** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 5:06 pm

A good looking level wont need to much polys. Lets say HALO how much polys do you think theyr levels are made of.

GD1 · Post by **GD1** » Fri Jul 22, 2005 6:17 pm

I actually got into game dev trying to make a mod for Halo, so i remember specifically that at any given point they planned to have no more than 10,000 triangles visible on screen, this includes all level geometry, weapons, vehicles, and charcaters. The entire levels consisted of much more than that though, and LOD played a large part.

with the exception of overbright blooming and cubemapping, as of release 075, RF will be able to do everything Halo did, just in different, less efficient ways.