I was thinking about learning Irrlicht by creating a simple level editor. The concept of the editor should be to assign relations between different meshes in 3D-space, done in the same way as the 3D drafting software Inventor. For instance, one can create two meshes in a 3D modeling program like Blender, and then make a contraint between two of their faces. This constraint could make the meshes align, or force and angle between their normals. Different dynamic tags could then be assignes to a mesh to tell the game engine what material, texture or special effect that should be assigned to that mesh. I don't know if this would be the ideal way of designing a whole level, but it's at least a very intuitive way, and a level can be build in 3D-space using a set of building blocks. At the same time, the levels could be fairly portable between different Irrlicht-based engines, as the information could be saved in XML.
Is this a good idea, or do any of you see any serious problems with that concept?
Idea for a level editor
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HardcoreWizard
- Posts: 13
- Joined: Mon Jul 10, 2006 12:54 am
- Location: Denmark
If you want it to be a good level editor, make some way to add custom objects, like Ammo Boxes and Weapons for example. If you can only add static geometry, people will have to make their own editor to place those objects.
A good way of doing this would be a plugin interface. This would allow for advanced objects like waypoints that need more than just a position and orientation.
An easier way would be an XML configuration file, containing the different object types, their IDs, the model representing them in the editor and what variables can be set on them.
A good way of doing this would be a plugin interface. This would allow for advanced objects like waypoints that need more than just a position and orientation.
An easier way would be an XML configuration file, containing the different object types, their IDs, the model representing them in the editor and what variables can be set on them.