Choosing world/level editor
Author
Hi,
I'm having some trouble finding a proper world/level editor for developing a new game. I'm looking mostly for these features in the editor:
- free or inexpensive (< 1000$) license for commercial use.
- works with popular DCC tools (3dsmax, Maya...).
- active development, Mostly for support, fixes and improvements.
- non proprietary output format, so I could use the editor's products in the game engine of my choosing.
The editors I found, which meet those terms are:
- GtkRadiant as editor with Q3Map2 as map compiler.
- irrEdit, the irrlicht engine editor.
Is using one of those options a good idea?
Does anybody have more or better suggestions?
Author
Quote:Original post by superpig
Have you looked at DeleD?
Seems like exactly what I need.
The problem is, since I'm not a modeler/level designer, that i can't tell if the editor compares favorably to other editors. Do you know of any commercial games or successful mods developed using DeleD?
I don't know about full commercial games. You could look in the DeleD User Projects forum to see some of the things people are doing, perhaps, or the Gallery?
Your best option, though, is to ask your level designers/modellers! See what they'd like to use. If they're already highly trained in a particular editor then that's probably the one you should go for.
If you don't have any of them on your project yet, then picking the right tool would seem to be less important as you won't have anybody using it. You could go with DeleD for now to let you put together some test datasets quickly, and then switch to something else later on once you have designers who know what they want to use.
Your best option, though, is to ask your level designers/modellers! See what they'd like to use. If they're already highly trained in a particular editor then that's probably the one you should go for.
If you don't have any of them on your project yet, then picking the right tool would seem to be less important as you won't have anybody using it. You could go with DeleD for now to let you put together some test datasets quickly, and then switch to something else later on once you have designers who know what they want to use.
Author
Quote:Original post by superpig
If you don't have any of them on your project yet, then picking the right tool would seem to be less important as you won't have anybody using it. You could go with DeleD for now to let you put together some test datasets quickly, and then switch to something else later on once you have designers who know what they want to use.
That's exactly my problem. since I don't have level designers in my team yet, I want to choose the right tools because I fear it won't be so easy to switch to other tools later on.
For example, let's say I decide to write my own game engine and I rely on Q3Map2's space partitioning. It won't be so easy to switch to a tool that doesn't provide similar functionality.
You should check out http://www.leadworks.com it's called 3D World Studio, It is a little more advanced then DeleD and a lot higher quality.
Quote:Original post by igal_dvir
For example, let's say I decide to write my own game engine and I rely on Q3Map2's space partitioning. It won't be so easy to switch to a tool that doesn't provide similar functionality.
Well, spatial partitioning is actually irrelevant - it's the raw data that matters, not the derived stuff - but think about this: if you don't have any level designers on your team at the moment, how much stuff will you be producing that you need to keep long-term?
Author
Quote:Original post by superpigQuote:Original post by igal_dvir
For example, let's say I decide to write my own game engine and I rely on Q3Map2's space partitioning. It won't be so easy to switch to a tool that doesn't provide similar functionality.
Well, spatial partitioning is actually irrelevant - it's the raw data that matters, not the derived stuff - but think about this: if you don't have any level designers on your team at the moment, how much stuff will you be producing that you need to keep long-term?
The assets I create with one editor or another are not the problem. The problem is the engine code will have to be modified to handle data that wasn't processed with a certain tool, and thats a little harder than supporting a slightly different file format.
You should be processing the editor's output data to fit the format your engine wants, not changing your engine to adapt to the format the editor outputs.
Seriously, taking a level with a BSP tree attached to it, collapsing it, and rebuilding it as an octree really isn't that hard...
In the short term, I'd go with whatever you can integrate quickly and cleanly, and plan to rip it out later. Hell, you could even skip spatial partitioning for now and just process the whole mesh every time.
Seriously, taking a level with a BSP tree attached to it, collapsing it, and rebuilding it as an octree really isn't that hard...
In the short term, I'd go with whatever you can integrate quickly and cleanly, and plan to rip it out later. Hell, you could even skip spatial partitioning for now and just process the whole mesh every time.
Author
Quote:Original post by superpig
You should be processing the editor's output data to fit the format your engine wants, not changing your engine to adapt to the format the editor outputs.
True.
Still, when designing an engine one should take into consideration the different formats that are available.
Quote:Original post by superpig
Seriously, taking a level with a BSP tree attached to it, collapsing it, and rebuilding it as an octree really isn't that hard...
You're probably right. I guess Q3Map wasn't a good example to prove my point.
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