3D world studio does support entities, even lets you create your own classes of entities, its probably the best level editor I've tried, the downside is that it's not free and has a single author, Josh, who well... lets say doesn't pay that much attention to his customers suggestions and bug reports.Also I think he was going to raise the price way high for the 6.0 version... I should check the site and see what happened, I am supposed to be able to get it for less if its out since I own 5.x.

You can also look for free (as in beer) alternatives like Hammer (link) or Torque Constructor (link).

You already know of the free (as in speech) gtkRadiant, and then there is QuArK (link).

Just one last thing, editors don't just magically create the "people" into the level, what they do is save information about entities (like position, model file to use, texture file, etc), how you handle that information inside your engine is up to you.

Quote:Original post by cemedias
This is going to be off topic but I was wondering what the best way to code simple AI behaviors would be. Should I just use a bunch of if statements to check if certain things are true then have have my monsters play a set animation frame and do the behavior for each if? Like: If monster position is within 20 feet of player position == true AND visible to player == true then charge at player.

Quick comment. It looks like you're writing things like that because you're under the impression that you would have to include the "== true" in actual source code. This is not the case, and in fact it is a bad idea to do so: it is extra typing with no meaning. It adds a place where you could make a mistake (such as putting "= true" instead), and makes things less clear.

In real life, you would say "if the monster's position is within 20 feet of the player". You would not say "if it is true that the monster's position is within 20 feet of the player". Code should be treated similarly.

Quote:Original post by cemedias
This is going to be off topic but I was wondering what the best way to code simple AI behaviors would be. Should I just use a bunch of if statements to check if certain things are true then have have my monsters play a set animation frame and do the behavior for each if? Like: If monster position is within 20 feet of player position == true AND visible to player == true then charge at player.

Thanks again.

p.s. I'm using C++

Zahlman is right, use if(visible) or if(!visible) rather than if(visible==true) and if(visible==false) where possible.

That said, yes, but its a bit more complex than that, you should use states (IE: idle, running, walking, eating, chase, flee, etc) but you have to set those states with if statements based on the variables you mentioned.

Quote:Original post by cemedias
Thanks. I've never made a game this complex before so I wasn't sure how to do this. I have a few more questions. First, how do I access the classes I implement into my level using 3d world studio? Will I be able to use them automatically after I load the level into memory?

Well, you have to write level loading code into your engine, I have no idea what format you're using for your levels, but regardless of which one you use, it is all really up to you, the level file contains data, how you process that data is your responsibility.

For example lets say you have an entity which is meany1 an entity of class meany, it is located at position x,y,z, uses model meany.obj and texture meany.png (I wont add rotation information not to make it any more complex).

That information is in the level file, on your loader code, you should know first that the information belongs to a meany, that its name is meany1, and that you should set your transformation so a polygon mesh loaded from meany.obj and textured with meany.png shows in position x,y,z.

Since a meany is something thats not static, that would be the "start" position, and the loader should also add things like initial HP, and state (IE:idle or patrol), from then on, the AI takes over.

but all this is stuff YOU have to program, unless you're using something like 3d game studio, Torque, some other premade engine, or moding an existing game like Half Life 2, Doom 3 or Quake, you have to code it yourself. There is no built in CreateMonster() in C++.

That said, once you get the values from the level editor, you could have a class like:



and then do new meany([values read from level go here]), but you still have to fill that constructor and all the other methods a meany entity will need.

If you're going to use the 3dws file format for your levels, the specification is on the help file... what are you using by the way? X files and Direct3D? I am not sure if entities get exported or how to X files.

Quote:Original post by cemedias
And second, I've never coded AI before, so I was wondering how it would be best to organize the code. If anyone knows of any tutorials that would help, that would be greatly appreciated. I don't want to do anything too complex, I just want the basic actions as stated: like if the player comes close to an enemy, the enemy will attack. Things like that. I've searched for AI tutorials on the net but they all seem very complex.

Thanks again.

I'd use a state variable and a state function, something like:



of course state changes inside of the functions, for example DoIdle would check for nearby enemies each time and if there are any in close range, it would switch to fire (which may require a target), or maybe if it stays idle for too long, it may switch to patrol, or if firing and the target gets out of range, switch to search, etc.

Quote:Original post by cemedias
P.S: That was the impression that I was under. I know that I'm capable of making this game, I've already made a demo that uses most of the features I want in my game. The only thing I'm really having trouble with is the AI. I don't want my game to become a failure just because I can't program the AI. Like I said in my first post, I'm trying to use this project to further my knowledge.

EDIT: Would it be a good idea to start a new thread and ask these questions?

I think you're overestimating the simplicity of a FPS, I am not saying its impossible for one person to write one, but its not the same as codding pong or tetris.

If you have a new question, hopefully a little more detailed, then start a new thread, if the question is a follow up to the original topic title, then don't.