3rd Person

[Gildoran]

Although T3ed experience certainly won't hurt, the Unreal engine is subtractive like DromEd. I've heard a lot of people who start with subtractive geometry have a hard time with additive geometry. (and vice versa, as I find subtractive engines harder)

[Arumakani]

Hmmmm...I really need to learn all this stuff. I know my stuff about hardware and such, but software, modelling Lot of learning to do. Then again the rewards of achievement are worth it.

[Gildoran]

Subtractive geometry is starting with a solid block and carving out the empty spaces of the level.

Additive geometry is starting with an empty void and adding solid blocks wherever there are walls and such.

 

In my own personally experience, working with level editors is easier than working with modelling software, though it may not have as much flexibility.

[New Horizon]

I'm working through these at the moment.

http://www.ttlg.com/wiki/wikka.php?wakka=T3edTutorials

Any good you reckon?

 

Komag's tutorial is the best place to start. It will walk you through creating your first level in T3Ed. Simply the best tutorial out there.

[Arumakani]

Do you remember this pic for Doom3?:

 

http://www.wallpapergate.com/data/media/194/Doom3_005.jpg

 

I wished for all the Splinter Cell games to look as good as that. Then after playing Thief DS I wanted it to look as good as that. How do you guys go from a marine type of clothes etc to a Thief style of clothing?

[Arumakani]

Komag's tutorial is the best place to start. It will walk you through creating your first level in T3Ed. Simply the best tutorial out there.

 

 

Cheers mate. You guys are really experienced. I did Electrical and Electronic engineering at University. I really wished if I had done more C++ programming, and did computer systems engineering instead.

[Domarius]

How do you guys go from a marine type of clothes etc to a Thief style of clothing?

 

You don't "go from" one to the other, you make it from scratch.

 

Basically any 3D character modelling tute you can find will answer your question more thoroughly than we have time to here.

 

And making a 3D human is just like drawing a 2D one, in the way that first and foremost, you need artistic talent and experience. It's not a technical plan that there is a blueprint you can follow. Even the technical tips you can learn for the 3D app are just for optimisation and speeding things up a bit, like learning which pencil to choose for which paper - it's nothing compared to the artistic talent and experience you need.

 

This Joan of Arc character modelling tutorial is considered to be the "holy grail" of 3D character modelling tutorials. And it is indeed, one of the best you'll ever see, in terms of quality and thoroughness.

http://www.3dtotal.com/ffa/tutorials/max/j...rc/joanmenu.asp

[Maximius]

I misunderstood what they meant by convex, I thought they meant that the walls were convex, as if they bubbled out into a curved shape. I see now that I cannot merge my objects. Thanks for the info, guys! Now on to texturing!

[Arumakani]

Thanks Domarius.

 

I've planned what I'll do now. I'll obtain the PC version of Thief3, having the XBox version already, and design levels first. I'm going to look at the modelling stuff aswell as ligthing then start to read the DOOM3 stuff later on, closer to the Dark Mod time, where I'll obtain Doom3 PC and hopefully have a bit of experience by then.

 

I was looking at the Doom3 forums and that Ninja Mod looks decent in the 3rd person. The camera is slightly far away. Is it possible to bring the camera closer and also maneuver it to a Splinter Cell/Thief DS style of one?

Edited May 19, 2006 by Arumakani

[Ishtvan]

I was looking at the Doom3 forums and that Ninja Mod looks decent in the 3rd person. The camera is slightly far away. Is it possible to bring the camera closer and also maneuver it to a Splinter Cell/Thief DS style of one?

 

Yes, you have complete control of where the camera goes, once you figure it out.

[Arumakani]

Excellent. Some cameras in the 3rd person especially when you're up against a wall and rotate around behind you have problems. Most platformers have that problem. Thief DS and SC don't. Looks like a lot of hard work for one person though

[OrbWeaver]

I've planned what I'll do now. I'll obtain the PC version of Thief3, having the XBox version already, and design levels first. I'm going to look at the modelling stuff aswell as ligthing then start to read the DOOM3 stuff later on, closer to the Dark Mod time, where I'll obtain Doom3 PC and hopefully have a bit of experience by then.

 

If you want to learn Doom 3 editing, learn it now. There is absolutley NO point in learning the T3 editor first because it is completely different (and a lot less powerful).

[Arumakani]

But won't it help with level design aswell as 3rd person viewpoint?

[OrbWeaver]

But won't it help with level design aswell as 3rd person viewpoint?

 

It won't help with level design that much, because it is used differently. It would be like trying to learn to fly a plane by driving a car - although some things may be similar, it is much better to train on the tool you will be using.

 

I'm not sure what you mean by "3rd person viewpoint" - this is nothing to do with level design, it is a function provided by the final game which you can't control unless you rewrite the game itself.

[Arumakani]

The movement of tha camera, making it more accessible. The camera becomes useful and not a frustrating hindrance.

[sparhawk]

Camera movement is a major problem in any 3rd person game.

[OrbWeaver]

The movement of tha camera, making it more accessible. The camera becomes useful and not a frustrating hindrance.

 

You can't change this in a level editor, you would need to modify the game code in order to do this.

 

Level design == creating the INPUT to the game engine

3rd person modifications == adjusting the OUTPUT of the game engine (which requires access to the source code).

[Bukary]

But won't it help with level design?

It migh help you to improve your overall skills, but it certainly won't help you to learn Doom editing. In fact, I still suffer from T3Ed-syndrome while working with DoomEdit. It makes working with Radiant more difficult.

[Arumakani]

I really think Splinter Cell has mastered it. I'm going to have to try and map 3rd person mod effectively to the XBox 360 USB controller, and the left stick.

[Domarius]

Yep, you are right. It certainly IS a lot of work for one person.

 

I'm sure enough of people like you will band together and make it if enough of you really want it.

[Arumakani]

OrbWeaver, does the Doom3 editor allow access to the source code?

[sparhawk]

Kind of. Depends on how one interprets your question.

[OrbWeaver]

I think he means "Can I improve the 3rd person perspective with the Doom 3 edito?", to which the answer depends on how much you want to change.

 

You could change the model and skin using the editor (and 3D app and image editor and text editor), but I would guess you can probably not do much about the camera's behaviour.

[Gildoran]

The answer to what you meant to ask is yes.

The answer to what you actually asked is no.

 

It is possible to change the source code of certain parts of the engine, but only with a C++ compiler, not the D3 level editor. The camera is part of the source code that you can easily modify.

[sparhawk]

There is another interpreation to it:

 

The sourcecode to the editor is available, so the answer would be yes.

Or the answer would be no if he meant that you can change the sourcecode with the D3 editor.

 

Thats how I read that question.