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I came across an interesting observation. The current game that we're working on has mostly custom media. Levels, Models, Terrain etc.

I've gotten onto the internal level stage where I have to model rooms of the inner building, so obviously I'd switch to using segments. However with a simple room of perhaps ~30 segments, my "calculating object light" skyrocketed from about 200 to 8800. Kind of strange since 1 segment wall shouldn't be more than 1-6 poly and my custom media utilizes a slightly over that.

Looks like I'm going to custom model all the levels of the game.

Technically most segment walls are 2 box models and sometimes corner models as well. And the minimum polys they would contain for 1 wall is 12. Each face is a square which is comprised of 2 triangles. so really a single wall may actually (inner wall, outer wall, and 2 corners) would really be 48 polys. The real drain is because that segment wall is set up to be cut if necessary by a door or window. That is your major resource eater. So if you are modeling your own buildings you would be better off.

Yes, however with FPSC any larger custom walkable media has collision problems with the camera and so I am really wondering if perhaps switching to DarkBasic Would be better... A little more programming and lack of a GUI level editor for entity positioning is a strain though.

Hi Tobias_Ripper

I found a way of creating an entire level in FPSC just using custom models (no segments), with no collision problems, everything working almost 99.99%, and most important, with no lags, everything running at almost 60 frames per second!

Just take a look at this thread:

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=208457&b=21

Best Regards,

007.

Yes this was just the thing that's been on my mind all day today. I figured using Maya Mental Ray lighting and shading will bring forth results much greater than the core FPSC light mapping render.

However I am going a bit further with this and actually thinking that since I am dropping out the FPSC light render and buggy model collisions which are significant chunks of what FPSC is, then I might as well drop FPSC altogether and get my game done in Dark Basic, licences of which I've had for some time now...

I figured why limit to 40 by 40 blocks in FPSC and all its features that get Compiled but will most likely never be used in some projects than have dark basic contain exactly what I need.

YES it will take a bit longer and there are no GUI editor to place items but them Maya will be my level editor and the rest I believe I can figure out from PDFs and tutorials.

Yes bro, if you are a professional programmer, you can do it.

As i am a 3D artist, i don`t have enough skills to learn a complete new programming language (also i don`t like it), my area of work is 3dsmax, Adobe Flash, Photoshop, and so on.

However, as far as i know, you will need to create your own engine in Dark Basic Pro to be able to create a game.

From what i know, Dark Basic is a Programming Language, and i don`t know if is possible to you create a game directly in the core language. I think that like any language, you need to create your engine, which will be the core software that will make your game work.

So, i am not understimating you, my dear bro, however, i think it will better for you use one already made engine. Yes, i know by the moment FPSC is very limited, and i know FPSC Reloaded will have a long way to go until we be able to create a full working game with it.

However, there are always ways to overcome FPSC Limitations, like, as you use Maya, so model one big level, and then divide it on sections, and make each section one separate level in FPSC, and then you use the FPSC Jumping Level System. So you can split your big level into smaller levels, and then run them smooth.

I don`t think is worth that you dropp all the FPSC light, because you will have a imense ammount of work, which i think no one will like or be patient to do it. As i explained in my tutorial, indeed, you need to break too much your level, a lot of pieces to don`t have collision problems. So if you will render to texture all objects of your level inside Maya, you will take forever and forever to finish it.

So in my case, i used baked textures only on the floor objects inside FPSC, because they need to be dynamic (to the player be able to walk smoothly and also the enemies), and as dynamic entities don`t cast shadows, so i needed to pre-render the shadows on them.

Also, if you place the lights correctly inside FPS Creator, to match the same lighting you have in 3dsmax (or Maya), so you will get even better results and more beautifull. Also you will get a very beautifull specular effect in the gun model (player hand).

Look at this screenshot of my test level, i think it`s looking very good: