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DarkBASIC Professional Discussion / Best level editor to use in conjunction with DB Pro?

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Schnide
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Posted: 20th Jul 2011 13:03
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Can someone recommend a relatively simple but powerful 3D level editor to create worlds to import into DB Pro?

I downloaded the demo of 3D World Studio but there appears to be virtually no tutorials for it. I was going to go down the route of building everything using objects within the code for the sake of performance, but I think in terms of creating the world I have in mind, it'll be quicker to use a level editor.

With thanks as always,

schnide
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chafari
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Posted: 20th Jul 2011 18:08
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Try with Deled, one of the best free programs I have ever seen and with the ability of lightmapping.

Cheers.


http://www.delgine.com/index.php?filename=product_deled

I'm not a grumpy grandpa
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Mobiius
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Posted: 20th Jul 2011 19:44
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Or truespace now it's free.

My signature is NOT a moderator plaything! Stop changing it!
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baxslash
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Posted: 20th Jul 2011 21:07
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Mapscape is also very good, free and allows lightmapping.
Mapscape

You can also easily use evolved's flashlight shader on levels made with Mapscape.

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Schnide
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Posted: 21st Jul 2011 11:47
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3 helpful answers in the space of a day.. I'll investigate. Outstanding as always, thanks guys.
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Greenster
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Posted: 21st Jul 2011 12:05
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3D World Studio. Does what all the others mentioned here do just without the nasty UI.
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baxslash
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Posted: 21st Jul 2011 12:25 Edited at: 21st Jul 2011 12:25
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Quote: "3D World Studio. Does what all the others mentioned here do just without the nasty UI."

Well, I did like it but then it stopped working and I have never been able to get it working again despite multiple attempts. Just my experience.

With regards to the UI, I can see very little difference between 3DWS and Mapscape:

What do you think?

Oh, and mapscape is free, 3DWS is £31.99...

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Schnide
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Posted: 21st Jul 2011 13:06
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Quote: "3D World Studio. Does what all the others mentioned here do just without the nasty UI."


Thanks.. but did you read all of my original post?
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Mobiius
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Posted: 21st Jul 2011 20:54
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Quote: "With regards to the UI, I can see very little difference between 3DWS and Mapscape:"

Isn't it the same product, just with a different name? 3DWS is the old name, MapScape is the latest version?

My signature is NOT a moderator plaything! Stop changing it!
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baxslash
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Posted: 1st Aug 2011 11:08
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Quote: "Isn't it the same product, just with a different name? 3DWS is the old name, MapScape is the latest version?"

Is it? If it is I hadn't heard that before. I'm not sure but either way I'd rather use a free and working editor that does pretty much exactly what a none free editor does... personally.

Using Mapscape probably went quite a way towards me winning "Best Graphics for a Netbook" with my game "The Last Stand". I used it for all of the levels.

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Max P
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Posted: 1st Aug 2011 11:34
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Quote: "Isn't it the same product, just with a different name? 3DWS is the old name, MapScape is the latest version?"

Mapscape was made by Evolved: http://www.evolved-software.com/mapscape/mapscape

It works quite well and gives nice results, but it has some random crashes... sometimes while saving and I lose my whole map, so I stopped using it.
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Hodgey
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Posted: 1st Aug 2011 11:39
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I really like T.ed but it is more for terrains than buildings/cities etc but you can import objects. The UI isn't the greatest but does the job nicely and it is very easy to import the terrains into DBPro.

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anwserman
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Posted: 1st Aug 2011 13:52
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I use Cartography Shop. It's older, has some flaws, doesn't have some cool features (e.g, slow lightmapper and only has point lights) but I've really gotten used to it and extended its shortcomings in other ways.

Plus, it's free.

In addition, I've been trying to extend it a lot, and have been posting a lot of code on here. I actually just posted some code a few minutes ago - that probably could use a couple other pairs of eyes for review's sake - that basically allows you to do paged collision detection, paged visibility, hardware lighting, dynamic shadows, and animated textures from the get-go.
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The Slayer
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Posted: 1st Aug 2011 17:03
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I use Evolveds' Mapscape too for a horror fps, and it worx fine.



Quote: "You can also easily use evolved's flashlight shader on levels made with Mapscape."

Yep, including dynamic lights.

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baxslash
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Posted: 1st Aug 2011 17:14
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Here's what Evolved himself did with mapscape and his lighting system...


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Greenster
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Posted: 3rd Aug 2011 13:48
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Both 3DWS and MS have random crashes.

I also did read the entire post.. the reality is it's either one of those two, or a bulky&redundant UI of a 'pro tool'..

Just be thankful you're not doing character modeling&animation where zbrush is the only thing that doesn't look like 3D modeling software did in 1994 ^^
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Disrupter52
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Posted: 4th Aug 2011 06:54
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Hey thanks everyone. I had a similar question because i was reluctant to drop more money of 3DWS, and i guess MS is free, so ill give that a whirl.
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anwserman
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Posted: 4th Aug 2011 08:37
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I would strongly advise against 3DWS. It costs money, plus there isn't an official 'loader' that has been released for DB Pro that allows you to import maps.

Cartography Shop has Apex Now's loader (and I just noticed a pimp lookin one for Dark Basic and c++) and Mapscape loads in one command if I am correct
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baxslash
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Posted: 4th Aug 2011 10:46 Edited at: 4th Aug 2011 10:51
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Quote: "Mapscape loads in one command if I am correct"

Mapscape exports your level as a dbo object (you can export by selection too if you want to optimise). If you use lightmapping you will also need to apply his lightmapping shader to the object but the code is fairly simple I'll dig it out and attach the FX file here.

EDIT: Only 3 lines of code

FX file attached...

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baxslash
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Posted: 4th Aug 2011 11:31
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If anyone wants to try out the code above I've attached one of the levels from my game "The Last Stand" here with all the necessary code etc. to load and view it.

Enjoy!

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Disrupter52
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Posted: 5th Aug 2011 06:56
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Hey, real quick, i just went onto the EVOLVED site and they have a material editor and particle editor, as well as Map Scape. Anyone ever use those two or know anything about them? Just curious.
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baxslash
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Posted: 5th Aug 2011 10:45
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Not personally but the Quake demo in the video I posted will have used them to set up the effects in there.

I think if you want to produce these kind of graphics in DBP it's the best system to learn but a little complicated...

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