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Hi all,

Don't worry, this isn't a "Which 3d app is best?" post.

I need to create a small cul-de-sac or some similar layout with 5 or six houses on it then be able to walk around it. That's it.

I have detailed 3d house models in 3ds Max and I need to first simplify the models to reduce polys and use textures in place of detail. Once that's done I was thinking of exporting them as .x files and converting them to prefabs to be used in FPSC. Then once my scene is setup in FPSC saving it out and importing it into DB Pro to add finishing touches and save out the final .exe file.

My question is; is this the best way to go about it? Should I convert the houses to Entities instead of Prefabs?

Or should I go a different route and use 3D World Studio or something instead?

(Sorry if this is in the wrong place but wasn't sure where to post it. There is a mention of DB Pro though)

Any help much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Mike.

I think that you could do it all quicker with just DBPro. I think it might be a good idea to make a really low poly collision version, with each building laid out - then on your collision map, use the limb position of each building to place the real detail model. That way you could lay it out however you like in Max, no need for an external editor. You would have some trial and error, finding which limb corresponds to which building model, but I think that's a very fast an efficient way to do it. Once you have a collision model, adding sliding collision would be real easy with Sparky's collision plugin.

Hi, Cheers for that.

I'm unfamiliar with collision maps, limbs and sliding collision etc.
Sounds much simpler from what you've said though.

I've only played around with trial downloads of these softwares very briefly. Once I know the best way to go about this I will buy whichever software is necessary.

Based on what you've said I'll have a look around the forums to figure out collision maps etc.

In the meantime if you know of any examples / tutorials which use this method i'd appreciate a link to those.

Thanks again.

Mike.