tiger@sound.net on 30/6/2006 at 14:25
To STiFU, or to anyone around this "Thief III Editors' Guild", which of your messages would have the very best general guidance or at least, some good "over-view directions" to prevent this sort of FM designing-problem that STiFU apparently ran into?
Komag on 30/6/2006 at 14:42
Sorry to hear that STiFU! There's a great shortage of TDS FMs, so nearly anything would be welcome, but I can understand what you're saying.
Judith on 30/6/2006 at 14:46
Hey, it's nice to see that you, T3eders don't give up and keep up hard work. Mine is suspended right now, due to latest big projects at work - we've just finished translation and testing of Oblivion (polish version), and we've already started Guild Wars (as you probably know, a huge project). But that doesn't mean I gave up, T3ed and 3dsmax have safe place on my HDD ;)
Ok, and I made one "time-consuming" mistake, paid for my Eve-online account renewal :P
nomad of the pacific on 30/6/2006 at 18:31
Quote:
Originally posted by Tiger:Which of your messages would have the very best general guidance or at least, some good "over-view directions" to prevent this sort of FM designing-problem that STiFU apparently ran into?
The first and most important step is to start with a good (or at least rough) plan of what you want the level to look like...
Since I've never succeeded in accomplishing the first step, I have no idea what to do next. I guess I'm not any help to you on this. :( I'm probably the worst organized level designer here. I just like clicking the pretty buttons in the editor. :cheeky:
Aristed on 30/6/2006 at 18:50
Quote Posted by nomad of the pacific
The first and most important step is to start with a good (or at least rough) plan of what you want the level to look like...
Oh dear, I’ve fallen at the first hurdle then. I’ve changed the direction of my level at least 3 times now. I keep creating large open spaces and now I’m trying to rewrite it in order to eliminate them. Guess its because I didn’t want to go with any of the ideas I’ve had as a first mission and thought it would be better to start with an enclosed underground space.
Oh well can’t be helped and i think ive landed at a final idea now.
Ziemanskye on 30/6/2006 at 20:25
Same advice as always - know what you want and what you can get away with.
A large part of the problem is that TDS isn't as capable as you'd expect from a UE2 game, so you run into a lot of problems you didn't anticipate.
The insistance on Max5.1, and the lack of in-editor material creation and other random niggles present something of a big hurdle to creating FMs.
There are big things in the works though - just remember that FMs on old engines are difficult and time consuming, and the more up-to-date the engine, the more effort (and art assets) required, so ours naturally take longer when it's levels done by individuals rather than professional groups.
STiFU on 30/6/2006 at 23:25
I think the most important thing is just to know the editor perfectly in all aspects, BEFORE you start to make a map-overlay of your FM. I just started to build my FM with an openair area full of detail. When I loaded the map ingame it ran with 2 to 3 fps. At first I thought "Ok that might be because I am running it from the editor!" and just worked on, but after some time I found what zoneportals are for... Far too late!! :( I tried to seperate the openairareas with gates and stuff, but that was no good solution... Besides it didn't work properly in most of the times. Damn BSP errors...
So I think a concrete plan for the FM you produce is not necesary, but might help you a bit. The most important thing is that you have to know what the editor and the engine are capable of and how all that stuff works. So don't learn by doing!!! :cool:
nomad of the pacific on 1/7/2006 at 00:40
I feel your pain, STiFU! :joke: That's exactly what happened to me. I've started and abandoned more levels than I care to think about, but that's part of the learning curve, I guess. It's a shame that starting with large open spaces makes the best looking levels. It's a real art to make strings of small volumes look large and open. Maybe someday I'll figure out how to do that. :nono:
Martin Karne on 1/7/2006 at 03:31
I am checking the map step by step, when there is a slow down, it's zoning time, reducing flame lights that hits way to many walls.
Even like that is not guaranteed that you might hit some major bug in the future.
STiFU on 1/7/2006 at 08:17
Yeah, you're right! But the problem is mostly : Open Air areas OR many details + lights . In fact it is the lightning which makes Flesh look good in my oppinion (and the details of course too). So If I'd ever start another map, I'd probably have only a small openair area, so that you can go through multiple entrypoints into a building. Hmn but it sucks that you can add very much and nice detail to house-exteriours too and this would just not take place in my fm then. :(
But anyway, I guess I will give TDM a try, when It's out... The Radiant is much cooler anyway! ;) Though the doom3-engine's exterior parts I've seen so far look bad too, but we'll see about that.
