You probably read the title and thought oh great not another one of these threads! But I do have a specific question that hopefully hasn't been brought up yet and was wondering what engine you guys thought would work best for this concept. I basically would like there to be an in-game map editor so that while the player is playing he can create world of his own. An example would be if in a Source game there was a very simplified version of the Hammer editor where perhaps the player could chose from a few materials (wood, stone, etc) and that would determine the texture of the players walls, and then player could select some width and heights for his walls and build buildings. Similar to source forts or natural selection but more like the Sims in that the player could define wall width and heights and create buildings, then save his maps. For the interface maybe the player would have a grid diagram laid out before him like graph paper where he could select the height and width of the walls. Obviously It would have to be a very basic in-game world editor and not allow the player to change terrain, only to add buildings onto existing terrain. The other issue is I would like the player to be able to save his custom map file and perhaps host a server so that a friend could join and download the map quickly and easily. So which engine would best allow for quick downloads of map files while connecting to server? Personally I like source alot and think the bsp files would be great for this. Im not too familiar with UDK but I do like the enhanced graphics and maybe you guys think it is better? And I know there are so many other engines out there so maybe you have some suggestions. Thanks! [Edited by - yamahaalex37 on April 10, 2010 1:47:04 PM]

for the looks of it you have to change allot in UDK to achieve that. and wen u get it done you have to pay the UDK license. if you plan to finish this one UDK might not be the best option for it.

If u have no programing knowledge you might wanna try dxstudio
its really really easy to make something on it.

If u fell comfortable whit scripting you can try Unity 3D


dxstudio is free for non-commercial (400usd for commercial i think)
Unity 3D is free till 250k € annual revenue. (1000usd license for more than 250k)

and changing width and height will lead to stretched texture unless you provide only simple color material. one way around that is Floors first second etc etc.

btw whats your knowledge programing or CG (modeling) ?

http://www.syntensity.com:8888/tracker/overview/
Based on the cube 2 engine extended to be more moddable with the inclusion of
Google v8 &#106avascript engine<br>Example of ingame editing in saurbaten(cube 2 engine)<br><div class="ipsEmbeddedVideo"><div><iframe allowfullscreen="true" frameborder="0" height="344" width="459" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9oBDPQw6nks?feature=oembed"></iframe></div></div>

Have you tried C4? It has sculpting terrain editing and as the source is provided this should be much easier to do. If you check the license just now it is still free lifetime updates.


http://www.terathon.com/c4engine/index.php

I really like what I see with the Cube 2 engine, the graphics seem nice, only problem is the terrain looks a little blocky sometimes from far away. Not sure if this would be good since I want some large scale terrains. Does anyone know how the Cube 2 engine would work in a MMO type environment? Obviously I'm not thinking about having the in game editor during MMO play (huge lag fest), but instead want players to be able to enter an instance where they can create a map then save that map, then go back into the MMO environment, find one to four players and invite them to into their personal saved user-created level instance.

Would it be easier to script the network code into Cube 2, or find another better suited MMO engine and try to develop an in game editor into that?

What about Cryengine? Specifically CryEngine 3, I recently read this in an article:
"CryENGINE 3 also introduces CryENGINE 3 Live Create. It allows developers to work with a single editor, but see and play the results in real-time on PC, PS3 and Xbox360, hooked up to a single dev PC. The engine takes care of the conversion and optimization of assets in real-time; enables instant, cross-platform changes to any part of game creation and as a result materially increases the speed, quality and significantly reduces the risk of multiplatform development."

And I know Cryengine 3 will work with MMO. Obviously I have alot to learn and a long way to go until thinking about using such an expensive engine, but maybe I can create a version of my game in Cube 2 to put together a team, gain popularity, and test the mechanics of the game.

I know alot of this sounds far fetched but like I said I just need help getting started in the right direction so I begin creating content in hopes of hiring a programmer. Example - start with crysis mod, cube 2, realm crafter, etc. I would hate wasting time creating content for another engine if Crytek 3 is the ultimate goal and you guys think it is possible. But if this all seems possible in an easier accessible engine I would be glad to start there.

[Edited by - yamahaalex37 on March 11, 2010 4:53:16 PM]

I don't think it has problem with terrain especially if you use the 6 directional height maps

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x7vtsv_sauerbraten_videogames

However the maps cannot be infinite so you have to insert loading points
As for the network in a mmorpg setting it wouldn't be too hard to modify
If you limit the position updates and make the right smoothing algorithm

Also we use enet(actually more like cube2 made the library)an udp protocol that can send reliable and unreliable(mostly for postions) and automatically sequences them to make sure they are received in oder,heres some interesting reads about the different protocols in different circumstance

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=related:Gtd_oEbPY9YJ:scholar.google.com/&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=2saZS5f7MYfJ_gao7ITZCw&sa=X&oi=science_links&resnum=2&ct=sl-related&ved=0CBQQzwIwAQ

For more info contact kripken on the IRC #syntensity on FreeNode
Or use http://www.syntensity.com:8888/tracker/forum/

Dont use FPS engines to make RTS that means lots of trouble.

And also expensive license.

Even if the game is successful porting it from cube 2 to CryEngine Means Millions of €€€

and starting in cube means changing alot of the source code.

Try one of the 2 engines i suggested and keep things realistic.

Quote:Dont use FPS engines to make RTS that means lots of trouble.

Why?and also where did he mentioned rts? he told he wants to make mmo

Quote:Even if the game is successful porting it from cube 2 to CryEngine Means Millions of €€€

Not really,syntensity uses Javscript for game development so you could easily prototype the gameplay

The more difficult part with be porting cube2 maps to cryEngine but even that could be done by dumping geometry and modifying it
Besides the project seems to develop pretty nicely so he might even stick with it rather then porting

If it's a FPS engine it is geared toward FPS and you are trying to fit a square peg in a round hole (e.g. it is possible but you will struggle). Using the wrong tools is a common mistake and it can set you back much more than if you properly research the tools to match them with the job.

If you are porting it from Cube to Cryengine then if you want to sell it you will be required to buy CryEngine3 and this isn't even publicly talked about so you would probably have to have a very nice bank manager (in these days???) or a lot of money under that mattress.

Try C4 as it is very open and has a FPS demo and a RTS tutorial. If you can code in C++ I'd highly recommend it. The engines serialkiller mentioned are worth a shout too.