mol on 6/3/2005 at 20:05
There are several nice buildings available as static meshes, but can they be used in any other ways than as facades? Is it possible to build rooms inside them? I'm guessing not, but as I'm just taking baby steps with the T3Ed and editing in general, I haven't yet internalized all the workings and applications of the tools available to me.
bukary on 6/3/2005 at 20:15
Quote Posted by mol
There are several nice buildings available as static meshes, but can they be used in any other ways than as facades? Is it possible to build rooms inside them? I'm guessing not, but as I'm just taking baby steps with the T3Ed and editing in general, I haven't yet internalized all the workings and applications of the tools available to me.
No, I don't think that you could 'build' anything in static mesh (unless you modify static mesh in 3ds max). Use brushes for interiors...
Perhaps I am wrong... :confused:
Gingerbread Man on 6/3/2005 at 20:30
You could conceivably build an entire map (well, geometry only) in Max. But what a NIGHTMARE of material assignment and light-baking that would be. Not to mention the fact that it would run like crap, what with all the polys having to be rendered all the time. And you'd have to set collision brushes all over the place.
It's really a terrible way to do it. Beyond suboptimal.
Meshwork should be used to detail things without having to clutter up the bsp... that's really the point of the static mesh approach in Unreal games: High detail, low load. But the low load part really only applies when you use poly-efficient memory-instanced meshwork.
rujuro on 6/3/2005 at 20:44
Actually from what I've been reading, static meshes actually render faster than BSP geometry. However, you need BSPs to define zones, and I imagine that collision on a really detailed static mesh would be a bit of a problem, so BSP can help there too.
Also, there is no baked lighting in TDS, it's all real-time/per-pixel, so that's not an issue either. Memory probably is though.
mol on 6/3/2005 at 21:54
I notice that what I wrote is a bit ambivalent.
I wasn't thinking about building an entire mission out of static meshes, that would indeed be a terrible idea. But in my naivety I thought that maybe you could place a static mesh building within your bsp and get a nice front/outside for the building, and then somehow add/subtract additional bsp brushes inside that 'facade' for the rooms etc. But now that I think of it, it doesn't make much sense, and the collision would only be the first of the problems. You'd really have to build a static mesh with rooms and everything for it to even conceivably work, I guess.
Can a make a static mesh building's wall climbable, even? In case I'd like to set up a balcony on the wall (of a static mesh building), and make it accesible with climbing gloves? I guess not.
Sorry about not being able to be more precise as to what I'm trying to figure out -- hope someone takes a lucky guess as to what I'm after. :sweat:
rujuro on 6/3/2005 at 22:02
Yes, you can make a static mesh climbable, it just has to have a climbable material assigned and be perfeltly flat and vertical. I have done this and it works.
darkcosmos on 6/3/2005 at 22:08
I'll second that. You can definitely make a static mesh climbable, I've just been playing around with it.
You can change it's material assignment by using the Material>Material Override to set it to "stoneclimb". Then, if the player has the Climbing Gloves upgrade, it will act sort of like a stone wall for climbing. (I've notice mantling can be a little weird, depending on the shape of the mesh, however)
You can also go into the properties of a mesh and add the Climber>blsLadder property and set it to true. Then the player will climb the mesh just like a ladder, but again it gets weird when he tries to "get off" the ladder at the top.
You could also build a BSP house interior and surround it with a static mesh facade, provided you had openings for doors and windows in the mesh.
