I got TIRED OF those map/level editors !!!!

[dawasw]

I am ugly. And i know that. But it is not the time to think about my ugliness. Now i have much serious problem, i mean those EDITORS. Damn, FRUSTATING!! NON COMPILING BSP COMPILERS, CRASHING!!!! AAAARGGHH !#@#%%!@$@#$ RADIANTS etc etc etc. Also Delgine .x modeller in which i cant export textures in jpg etc etc.

Please help!! I want to use some easy, and fast to make level editor, i dont want to make level 1 hour and then compile/finish it through software by another 1 hour. I want a fast good map editor for Irrlicht... Is there any? Beucause if not, i think i will foregive up irrlicht ;( ;( ;(

[BongoMan]

Welcome to the club.

I've been searching for a while now. There are lots of alternatives, but they all suck in one way or the other.

[dawasw]

Yes i think this club will have a lot of Irrlicht users... NIKO !!!! DO SOME .MAP integration , i mean .map of half life 1 so i could finally make any map.... I heard something abot g-max, afcelis was doing in it? i saw the integration part..... 6 tutorial files?? this is crazy, heeeellllppp!!!

Please someone, help us , we need level editor.... ;(;(;(;( ;( ;( ;(

[Guest]

yws i have problems 2 with creating maps every where i go there is a limit or something the editor cant handle but i learnt to life with a bsp

[Electron]

I'm seriously considering using gmax for level editing. It's more powerful than any of the Quake3 editors. It can export to .bsp, but there's also .md3 and .obj exports. Those can't hold lightmap data (as far as I know) but IrrlichtNX will load files generated from LMTools lightmapper (free), which comes with a maxscript to output light data from gmax to the .scr format which LMTools takes it's light data in.

[vermeer]

forget about md3 for that : non uv sharing (a seam wherever an uv island ends in uv space) , and a limit very weird of 8.192 tris. Bad for a level.


Instead, if ur just porting geometry in a first step, no other better format than OBJ.

There's a gmax script for EXPORT OBJ, look at faq and tools forums, it's both in a recent thread all in capitols "old tools not available anymore" or something like that, and also with same title in page 2 of the sticky TOOLS thread (in my sig also)

The script itself is : gMAX2OBJ.ms

In that post about old tools there's a link to the local download that Bal provided for my rare to find tools, click in it and u'll be able to download that script (and way more stuff)

Well, needed and very little known trick with Gmax : As usual, all is output to listener window that Gmax has...well, ok. If you select all, and paste then in notepad or wordpad, it will only paste a very smal paragraph...this can become a paing for a 65k tris, or 200k tris, etc...

trick: select all with left mouse drag...not releasing left mouse, once at the end of it all...tap in the right mouse button...now , depending on the kind of OS you are, you can just go to the "copy" command in the context floating menu that u know so well, and only then, release the left mouse button.

That will allow you to copy the full content of the listener without needing nothing extra, just using so the mouse...

BTW, there's an md5 exporter, exporting weights and bones and anim, all. But not an x exporter, sadly. Also can be used with this trick.

About Gmax capabilities as a level geometry editor : extremely good, maybe the best for that Of course, much better than any of those bsp based editors...

You have splines, boleans, great snap abilities, an huge etc, besdes u can use many available maxscripts for even more extra functions.

And is usable for comercial.

[vermeer]

even better....


of course you could do as I mention....


but that'd mean you having to go moving left to right, down bellow the horizontal scroll bar of the window, to keep it scroll-selecting... But that would be REALLY tiring...many minutes till u have a 50,000 tris mesh fully selected...

Instead, and only in case (which I recommend strongly for 3d) u have a 3 mouse button mouse , being third the same wheel, that besides allowing wheel zoom in most softwares, is clickable, and as that, works as an standard clickable middle mouse....The u can do much quicker this way :

-maximize the listener window.
-select the two first lines for example of the whole thing, up there. never release left button.
-with cursor still there, click MIDDLE mouse(not keep pressed). If ur os, or mouse driver (I think most windows will adpat it automatically, but in other mouses would be needed that u installed well its driver) is wel setup, there's will appear that up-down arrows with a circle in the center...I think newer oses does this automatically...is for scrolling pages. As u'll know, if u now move down a bit the mouse, it starts to scroll down.And as u'll also know, the more far downward u get, the quicker it scroll (usually getting to quick to control,lol) .Well, the key here is...do with window maximized as I said, and without never clicking again on middle,left mouse still pressed, carry the cursor to the lower part of ur screen...so, it considers the highest distance possible and scrolls down really fast.
(Still, took me like a miniute I think to have a 50k tris obj text selected...remember... I have left allways pressed. If u click middle again, it'll cancel all.)

-Ok, once at the end, the double arrowed icon still there, u'll see, as when scrolling uber fast, that looks like nothing was selected...nope, it has been selecting, is just too quick to refresh...yet not clicking middle (actually u never click middle again) , but (of course!) left mouse yet pressed, you move mouse over the final line (it says something like "end") and now u can breath again, as u see how it got black, selected, till there...ok, make it cover till last line moving ur mouse, and like in first explanation, without releasing left button, make a right click press (but a click, I mean, releasing the RIGHT after the click!!) and so, u'll see context floating menu ,appear with typical options, choose "copy". U're done

-Now go to whatever u use as notepad...if is limited in 64ks, like old notepad were, then use worpad or the like.Paste it . Save as TEXT file (ascii, ansi, plain text, u know the concept ) . Then go to the folder, and rename as whatever the name with *.obj extension. Finish.

This way is much quicker.
A 6k tris level gets exported in little time. And a 50k , in a reasonable time, I mean, it makes u be there some minute hearing an music or something...


Of course, if u control how things go with ur mouse driver and is one of those over powered drivers, u may change the scroll speed in its control panel, so u could set it to a crazy value...anyway, i don't use even that funtion, is never good fo rme, i use just the wheel to read text...


Also, I recommend equally Blender, as is also fully open source and quite powerful, though not so extremely good as max or gmax, for its greater splines and and snap functions, and other accurate modelling features.
-besides some people don't find their way in Blender-


But for me are two very good options.

[vermeer]

anyway, a 50k tris level (I exported a 50k tris box now, and was not huge time) for modelling and editing it in Gmax, si quite hard even in a pentium4 with 512 ram, gf4ti4200 128mb. True that I have my OS allways a bit waisted, hd quite fragmented, and when doing this, to many other softwares loaded at a time...

And 50k is a LOAD of detail... Maybe not much for a terrrain, though.

Remember Max is probably the package of all big ones that handles worst the hi res meshes....well, gmax is quite slower than Max...is easily noticeable.

Blender handles better hi res meshes... But has other disadvantages.

Again, depends on the machine you have, and what count are u after.

Is not that u can't edit a 50k tris mesh in gmax. Is just that is slow.

[vermeer]

...a way -there are others- to make it quicker, is ensure u work in wireframe mode.

Also, can be done (but makes harder to select and edit!) is configure viewport to show only every nth face, like 15 or so....

This is usually when not much more edit is needed, but then, if only need to rotate / relocate objects, u can set in each oject properties "display as box", and of course, allways leave as default is :backface culling on....

Also, if ur level is not a huge single mesh terrain, but different objects, u can just hide those ur not editing, increasing a lot the speed. Or display em as boxes, as u see...

[Electron]

Thanks for all that information Vermeer. Without your help and advice with 3D packages I would have been lost long ago.

BTW, there's an md5 exporter, exporting weights and bones and anim, all.

cool

[Guest]

What is wrong with GTKRadiant?

If you don't have an Id game to use it with download the FREE Wolfenstein:Enemy Territoy and it will load perfectly.

I mean they used it for heaps of commercial games why is yours so special that GTKRadiant doesn't suffice?

[SARIN]

anim8or, anyone?

exports to obj, as u were mentioning, and a heck of a lot faster than gmax.

also, there is a load of tools that go with it, even terranim8or, wat i use for all my terrain generation.
plus, free, and no license (that i no of)

[Plateau]

Quake Army Knife (QuArK) is the best, i think...

It can do anything... As for me, I use it the following way -

1) Create height-maped terrain with Photoshop...
2) Create any type of structure with QuArK and save it as .BSP file...
3) Create another structure and .... bla-bla-bla....

So use QuArK))

[Guest]

I've tried Quark, but I find it less flexible and powerful than a real modeler. Also, some of the Quake stuff gets in the way. Also, Quark cannot export to .bsp. It needs an external bsp compiler. Anim8or is pretty good for large scenes, btu I find it not a horribly powerful modeler and IMHO it's camera is hard to use. Blender and GMax are more advanced modelers.

[INM8]

I just use Blender You dont NEED the .bsp format, you can model and export your map as a .x .obj or w/e u want 2 use! Besides, if you NEED the format, im sure there's a Blender Export script for this or some sorta converter thingymajig!

Oh yes, and Blender is VERY easy to learn, you model 3x faster than in any other modeller, and its COMPLETELY FREE and OPEN-SOURCE!!! You can use it for your levels, character modeling (u can rig them and etc), and etc etc. basically EVERYTHING you need in this small, awesome package! What are you waiting for?? >>http://www.blender3d.org<<