I'm working on a technical demo, my first game ever featuring indoor rendering. (I've made a couple of games using terrain before). I was wondering if anyone would be kind enough to share some advice on which level editor to use... Some details about the project: -Planning to use shaders, normal mapping, light mapping, etc. -High poly counts, targeting NV30+ / Radeon 9500+ -Very short development timeframe, so need something easy to import -Only need to make ONE level, so "ease of use" is not important -BSP compiler is probably not necessary -Lighting: static for walls, but will have option to create dynamic lights, e.g. attach a light to a particle system. So, I will need some utility to create lightmaps. I assume this would be a feature of the level editor itself, or are there some separate tools that could create the light maps? Would Radiant be the tool of choice for a project like this? It's oriented towards Quake 3 (older tech) so would it scale well to a project like this? Also would the fact that I'm not going to use BSPs be a problem? Any other level editors you guys would recommend looking into? Thanks! roos

Since BSP is not a neccesity, why not consider just using a standard model format from a 3d modeling program. BSP is outdated tech as far as I can tell. Our studio simply uses exported .x file format objects. So 3D studio is our level editor of choice.

Whoa, ppl responded already! :) Thank you guys very much...

@ AP: How do you generate lightmaps in your situation? Wow, if all I have to do is create a level in 3dsmax and export as .x that would be very easy :)

@ Vamypre: Thanks, will check out the link!

I liked GEdit (the editor that came with Genesis3D); it built BSP maps quite acceptably. You might also want to look into Worldcraft or a Worldcraft clone (I liked Tread3D).

I agree with the AP. If BSP compiling is not needed by your engine, use polysoup modelers (3DS MAX, Maya, etc) to make your levels, since they allow you a GREAT deal more of freedom than the brush-based map formats, like accurate UV manipulation and the ability to adjust normals at vertex-level.

MAX and Maya also allow you to use their own high-profile renderers to bake lightmaps, so you can get much superior diffuse lighting, with global illumination and radiosity effects.

Great! Thanks for the advice. It looks like 3DS Max is the way to go

I'm not the OP, but I have some questions.

1) If a 3D Modeler (3DS MAX, Maya, Milkshape, etc) is used to create the levels of an indoor game, would space-partitioning (Octree?) be needed? Or would this depend on the size/polycount of the levels?

2) Assuming the same situation above, would you need to calculate lightmaps using radiosity yourself? Isn't that really hard to do? Or can some 3D modelers calculate lightmaps for you, and save them as part of the model file format?

Thankyou,
Julien