my first world
Author
hi at all.
I'm on the starting in 3D game programming, so i need to know also the bases.
I have mutch books of game programming but nothing explain how load a simple world as a terrain or a room and put inside a character.
What i've uderstand that either the character and the room (level) are meshs, ok isn't it?
Now if i want to animate the mesh ok ok let me start to the begin.
I make my character in the 3ds max, now if i texture it.
Now how can export it so i can load with direct3d either the mesh and it textures.
For the level if i add in 3ds max lights and shadows how can i export it so i can load it in the game?
Tnx
I hate to be the one to tell you this- you're at the bottom of a cliff. There's *a lot* that goes into making a 'world'.
The good news is that game programming (and 3d programming in general) is THE funnest thing to learn about (at least for me it has been)
You should look into Microsofts .x file format for getting 3d models loaded into your directx apps. They have a plugin so you can export models directly from 3dsmax.
Another way is to learn the MAX SDK and write your own exporter. Then you can export anything you want (models, lights, cameras, entire scenes).
Try reading some of the articles on this site, searching the forums. There are some affiliate buttons on the gamedev main page. Try them. And if you still can't find what you're looking for- google it.
My advice to you- Read the DirectX documentation like it's your bible before you get started. You won't get anywhere unless you know the API.
Good luck!
The good news is that game programming (and 3d programming in general) is THE funnest thing to learn about (at least for me it has been)
You should look into Microsofts .x file format for getting 3d models loaded into your directx apps. They have a plugin so you can export models directly from 3dsmax.
Another way is to learn the MAX SDK and write your own exporter. Then you can export anything you want (models, lights, cameras, entire scenes).
Try reading some of the articles on this site, searching the forums. There are some affiliate buttons on the gamedev main page. Try them. And if you still can't find what you're looking for- google it.
My advice to you- Read the DirectX documentation like it's your bible before you get started. You won't get anywhere unless you know the API.
Good luck!
There are indeed many many ways to load a world. For example: the unreal 2 engine loads all the objects in the world as meshes and then renders them on there own way (bsp, static mesh). The quake engine loads a pre made bsp tree. The quake map is one object. While the unreal2 map can be made of 1000 objects.
Bas
Bas
Load a quake 3 map.
When I was at the point where you are now. I thought of two things:
- Make an importer for quake 3 maps (or some other game)
- Create my own map builder, and let my friends create maps (I'm the worst artist ever)
I choose for the first.
Now, I have made my own map builder. I wouldn't recommend it, it takes a lot of time creating it, and you don't have maps like in quake 3.
It also totally depends on what kind of game you are creating.
When I was at the point where you are now. I thought of two things:
- Make an importer for quake 3 maps (or some other game)
- Create my own map builder, and let my friends create maps (I'm the worst artist ever)
I choose for the first.
Now, I have made my own map builder. I wouldn't recommend it, it takes a lot of time creating it, and you don't have maps like in quake 3.
It also totally depends on what kind of game you are creating.
Author
i would make a simple terrain and load some wall, trees, and some object for a platform game.
I don't think i need a map editor. Isn't it?
I don't think i need a map editor. Isn't it?
Terrain is a whole 'nother issue.
Yes, when it boils down to it, all types of objects in a 3D game end up being just meshes which the video card renders. But sending a million triangles every frame to the video card is just massively wasteful. There are TONS of ways of cutting down this load, in fact so many I just recommend you go buy some intro-to-3D-games book and sit down and study.
It's actually not at all hard to load a mesh and render it. But organizing your world data is a lot more complex. For example, you first said you wanted the character in a room. Rooms can be rendered with all sorts of methods that will cut down the number of polys sent to the card. (So, if you are standing in room A of a giant structure consisting of rooms ABCDEFG, a lot of the time there's no reason to render ALL of those rooms.) For example: BSP, octrees, portal, etc.
But you also mention terrain, which I suppose you mean as in outdoors type terrain? That's a whole different set of spatial-representation algorithms, for example: ROAM, CLOD, SOAR, etc.
Instead of trying to re-invent the wheel, especially if this is your first game ever, I'd rely upon code that has already been written for you. (You can get samples of code for DX that will load and display Quake levels, or terrain.) Then try to figure out how it works so you can eventually write your own.
Oh, and I didn't even discuss all the myrids of ways of lighting your terrain/objects, like lightmaps, shadow volumes, projected shadows, etc. :)
EDIT: I realize now this might be a bit discouraging, if you are new to all of this. Don't take it that way; But do try to keep in mind there's a lot to 3D. For all the stuff I mentioned above, you CAN ignore it for simple games. It really depends on what you want to accomplish. For example, I'm working on a simple puzzle-like game, where all 3D objects are displayed onscreen at once. So, I don't need any sort of complex visibility culling, other than just the basic backface culling that DirectX will do for me. And since the game world is very cartoony, I'm only using extremely simple shadows and no self-shadowed terrain.
[Edited by - FenrirWolf on August 19, 2004 2:40:25 PM]
Yes, when it boils down to it, all types of objects in a 3D game end up being just meshes which the video card renders. But sending a million triangles every frame to the video card is just massively wasteful. There are TONS of ways of cutting down this load, in fact so many I just recommend you go buy some intro-to-3D-games book and sit down and study.
It's actually not at all hard to load a mesh and render it. But organizing your world data is a lot more complex. For example, you first said you wanted the character in a room. Rooms can be rendered with all sorts of methods that will cut down the number of polys sent to the card. (So, if you are standing in room A of a giant structure consisting of rooms ABCDEFG, a lot of the time there's no reason to render ALL of those rooms.) For example: BSP, octrees, portal, etc.
But you also mention terrain, which I suppose you mean as in outdoors type terrain? That's a whole different set of spatial-representation algorithms, for example: ROAM, CLOD, SOAR, etc.
Instead of trying to re-invent the wheel, especially if this is your first game ever, I'd rely upon code that has already been written for you. (You can get samples of code for DX that will load and display Quake levels, or terrain.) Then try to figure out how it works so you can eventually write your own.
Oh, and I didn't even discuss all the myrids of ways of lighting your terrain/objects, like lightmaps, shadow volumes, projected shadows, etc. :)
EDIT: I realize now this might be a bit discouraging, if you are new to all of this. Don't take it that way; But do try to keep in mind there's a lot to 3D. For all the stuff I mentioned above, you CAN ignore it for simple games. It really depends on what you want to accomplish. For example, I'm working on a simple puzzle-like game, where all 3D objects are displayed onscreen at once. So, I don't need any sort of complex visibility culling, other than just the basic backface culling that DirectX will do for me. And since the game world is very cartoony, I'm only using extremely simple shadows and no self-shadowed terrain.
[Edited by - FenrirWolf on August 19, 2004 2:40:25 PM]
Author
thanx Wolf i'm referring right to this:
i want start by a simple world and a simple character for a stupid puzzle game, what do i may start by?
Quote:It really depends on what you want to accomplish. For example, I'm working on a simple puzzle-like game, where all 3D objects are displayed onscreen at once. So, I don't need any sort of complex visibility culling, other than just the basic backface culling that DirectX will do for me. And since the game world is very cartoony, I'm only using extremely simple shadows and no self-shadowed terrain
i want start by a simple world and a simple character for a stupid puzzle game, what do i may start by?
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