[Ideas] DarkRadiant - Tools and utilities

[hgdavidy]

Hi this last years i have playing with diferent editors and engines, id tech engines with all radiants , iw radiant, cryengine...

 

I working now with this editor "DarkRadiant" look like best than real doom 3 editor, but in id tech radiants, i dont see a utility for terrain or blend tool and this tool is very useful, now i post how works this tools if like put in the DarkRadiant and other ideas.

 

The Basic Terrain/Patch tool like IW Radiant, for move massive vertices in the patch using the 3d camera window in the editor. (Only for patchs) (For fast change the height of terrains with (Height / Flatten /Smooth...) (3D basic brush in 3d camera window of editor)

*In the photo the green is the patch editor window with the options, and the 3d brush in the 3d window

 

 

The Blend tool, only for patch this use the same tool for change height with different config, using the brush 3d for change the opacity from 100% to 0% with vertices reference. (for decals of terrain and walls decals...)

Here info of cod5 http://wiki.modsrepo..._Alpha_Blending (not by me)

 

 

Other ideas:

 

Add more options of divisions in patch terrain for 2 to 30 all numbers (no 3 to 15 with some numbers).

Add grid 512 option.

BSP menu like doom 3 editor with the options for compile...

2 Buttons for auto drop the entities (1 for drop the select entitie to floor (brush or patch) in Z axis and the 2 button = but change the angle). *In the photo the blue circle.

Textures like clip... option to make semi transparent in the editor 3d view

Option for 2d view at move in this view the display names hide and some entities hide for no lag at move the 2d camera

 

 

For DarkRadiant and mod:

Option of basic collision particles (like quake 4 ?) collision with ground, for sparks for example.

 

 

 

Thanks.

Edited September 24, 2012 by hgdavidy

[SeriousToni]

Oh noes - just another "I wish this and you should do that" - thread?? Okay, I'm in!

 

 

2 Buttons for auto drop the entities (1 for drop the select entitie to floor (brush or patch) in Z axis and the 2 button = but change the angle). *In the photo the blue circle.

 

 

Autodrop is the most aweseome feature I could think of the whole time since I started mapping. It would save so much time if you don't always had to go into grid size .125 and zoom in to place that cup of wine accurately.

 

One thing I also miss is being able to group brushes / objects.

[hgdavidy]

 

Autodrop is the most aweseome feature I could think of the whole time since I started mapping. It would save so much time if you don't always had to go into grid size .125 and zoom in to place that cup of wine accurately.

 

One thing I also miss is being able to group brushes / objects.

 

Yes but for me the best tool is the Blend Tool yes or yes, for make the terrains details of textures all in the editor and dont make external model of ground to import as entity in the editor and using normal terrain textures, no mega textures for one model

[stumpy]

but external models are better, they only exist in memory once.

[demagogue]

We've had a lot of threads and tutorials on alpha blending. It's not a new thing. We just have to use some tricks to do it now.

The problem I don't think is with DR, but what the id4 engine can do. I understood id4 doesn't like transparency and alpha blending in the same patch, which is why you have to use the complicated "blend patch (really just using transparency)" method we have now... So even if you had a DR function to make terrain like that, could it translate into something id4 can render? Of course since we now have access to the id4 render system, maybe that's something we can fix too.

[hgdavidy]

but external models are better, they only exist in memory once.

Yes. But with this dont need exit from editor to make the model or export some brushes from editor to 3d editor for check the sizes of terrain for make this, and dont need import the model of terrain and the texture. This tool is for make this more faster. Create a patch, use the terrain tool for model this, apply texture, clone and blend the 2º layer and end.

[New Horizon]

I thought Dark Radiant already had the ability to alter terrain? Perhaps I imagined that though.

[hgdavidy]

I thought Dark Radiant already had the ability to alter terrain? Perhaps I imagined that though.

Have for move the vertices of the patch but no a tools like first post.

[RPGista]

Yes, we were discussing those same features a couple of months ago, the triangulated patch, with soft move for sculpting, and 3d painting of textures... Those would be insanely useful for a richly textured world like TDM's, but unfortunately most of that would be impractical to consider right now...

[hgdavidy]

Yes, we were discussing those same features a couple of months ago, the triangulated patch, with soft move for sculpting, and 3d painting of textures... Those would be insanely useful for a richly textured world like TDM's, but unfortunately most of that would be impractical to consider right now...

Why if now the doom 3 is open source and have all code to change and see. This to darkradiant for darkmod or other mods or games using id tech 4.

[RPGista]

Yes, but unfortunately I dont think there's anyone working on Dark Radiant at the moment, and the rest of the team is focused on releasing the 1.08 version, that's what I meant. Hopefully someone will pick up work on DR soon.

[RPGista]

DR has some VERY important tools though that make it sooo much easier to map for TDM authors, things like the readable manager, conversation system gui, objectives system and stim/reponse system, all of which allow you to really make your complex ideas come to life without ever leaving it, so it's a great tool nonetheless, even without the modelling features.

[hgdavidy]

DR has some VERY important tools though that make it sooo much easier to map for TDM authors, things like the readable manager, conversation system gui, objectives system and stim/reponse system, all of which allow you to really make your complex ideas come to life without ever leaving it, so it's a great tool nonetheless, even without the modelling features.

Yes. The official doom 3 radiant have some bugs, crashes and more problems, and dont have the layers system...

[demagogue]

RPGistia is right, we're understaffed, and our main DR coder has semi-retired after a job well done...

So it'd take someone working on DR again and being interested in these features.

But you never know...

[HMart]

Now that we are in a " I wish" mode i also would ask for the ability to "paint" decals of arbitrarily size and rotation on surfaces, (maybe using this system http://blog.wolfire....project-decals/ )the decal system that we have now is nice to have but is really very slow and cumbersome, i believe that's the reason that i don't see a more massification of the usage of decal's on fan missions, they can make a very boring looking place look much more realistic, and normal mapped decals can do wonders has can POM (parallax occlusion mapping) enabled ones .

Edited September 28, 2012 by HMart

[hgdavidy]

Now that we are in a " I wish" mode i also would ask for the ability to "paint" decals of arbitrarily size and rotation on surfaces, (maybe using this system http://blog.wolfire....project-decals/ )the decal system that we have now is nice to have but is really very slow and cumbersome, i believe that's the reason that i don't see a more massification of the usage of decal's on fan missions, they can make a very boring looking place look much more realistic, and normal mapped decals can do wonders has can POM (parallax occlusion mapping) enabled ones .

 

These decals have problems in bf3, crysis 2 and other games, with the physic entities, and other models... and add weight to the game.

Edited September 28, 2012 by hgdavidy

[HMart]

These decals have problems in bf3, crysis 2 and other games, with the physic entities, and other models... and add weight to the game.

 

You do know that physics can be disabled on decals? Don't you? Physical objects will not even know they are there, they will just go trough them.

About the height on the game, that is not a cause of concern on modern games anymore, decals are just like alpha mapped blades of grass (they are just a image on a plane), overdraw was indeed a problem in the past, and can be now if you are not careful and go nuts on the grass amount for example, they were a problem because of the alpha testing, but has i said, now games support much more decal geometry , this of course if you don't make all of them very shader heavy with many texture stages and POM.

Btw Fallout is a game where the usage of decals is above the norm, almost all tear and wear is made with decals.

Edited September 29, 2012 by HMart