Map Editor Suggestions

Rilke
04-17-2003, 23:15
Having become well versed in the ways of the T2 editor, I have a few suggestions for a future editor. I realize that things will probably be done very differently with T3 due to a new dev team, so my suggestions are generalized. Hopefully some of the other mappers I've seen on here will chime in with their suggestions because mine are hardly exhaustive.

(in no particular order:)

1. Heightfield Blending:

a. Allow blending of heightfields that have been edited manually. Currently if you edit a heightfield manually, it will be ignored when you blend it with another heightfield.

b. Allow the distinction between blending heightfields with the information inside and outside of the mission area. Similarly, allow the mapper to select which area of the heightfield to blend.

2. Automated Terrain Cutting

a. Currently, when you have any part of your geometry under the terrain, which you would like players to be able to access, you have to undergo a tedious process of cutting holes in the terrain. Perhaps an automated feature could be added to detect and automatically cut holes in the terrain as best possible according to the perimeter of the geometry in question. The ability to cut holes manually could still be used for fine tuning.

3. Object Rotation and Alignment

a. Allow objects to be rotated by the arrow keys on selected axes at selected speeds.

b. Allow objects to be aligned automatically to the greatest degree possible.

4. Keymapping and Hot Keys

a. Provide keymapping for critical functions (whatever would make the dev mappers' jobs exponentially easier, allow the binding of keys for those things, for starters). For example, imagine if you could bind a "change sky" function to [ctrl c]. You hit [ctrl c], select the new sky you want from a gui, hit OK, and voila, new sky. Or, a hot key for toggling between normal and alarm lighting modes. ...

add to, take away, ignore...whatever.

Wils
04-17-2003, 23:42
No offence rilke, but your generalized suggestions are incredibly specific to the T2 editor :)

I would like an intergrated external editor in which objects could be edited alongside terrain. I DON'T want the same system of having precompiled objects which get loaded into a terrain editor... that really sucks, and is the principle reason I've never bothered to complete a T2 map.

It would also be nice to get some realtime lighting in the editor, without having to hit a refresh button each time. Anything like that which slows down a mapper would be better avoided where possible - removing unnecessary steps == functionality++

If T3 is going to include support for things like hardware models/instancing, some sort of procedural editing of those instances would be nice (this kind of ties in with the engine though, and I have no idea how feasible it is).

I guess I'm imagining loading up an object and performing a series of actions on it, which would be saved as a procedure. Once saved, I could then copy this modified object and delete certain procedural actions in order to generate a new variant of the original object.

Being able to take, say, a tree, and twist it as required, then copy ot elsewhere and undo one of the twisting actions to create a completely different looking tree, before remapping it with another texture would be kinda handy for creating non-repetitve environments without needing twenty hours to finish one hillside :)

The terrain editing tools in the current T2 editor are reasonable enough, but I really miss per-vertex editing a la Lightwave/Radiant/Worldcraft. The user interface needs redesigning from the ground up to group common actions together better, and make tools you frequently adjust more accessible (keyboard shortcuts for EVERYTHING would help too, as would being able to redefine them yourself like you can in Max/Maya).

Blarg.

Fidelio
04-18-2003, 00:11
please just make sure there's no hard coded bind to the editor left in the game upon release.

alt-e anyone?

:blowup: :bluecap: :bigmouth: "ALT-E!" > :bsod: "WTF?" > :computer: :bye: "AARG!" > :flame: :mad:

Neofight
04-18-2003, 00:26
please just make sure there's no hard coded bind to the editor left in the game upon release.

alt-e anyone?

:blowup: :bluecap: :bigmouth: "ALT-E!" > :bsod: "WTF?" > :computer: :bye: "AARG!" > :flame: :mad:

AMEN!!

Hi Fid! :)

Fidelio
04-18-2003, 01:27
hey bro. :bigups:

Rilke
04-18-2003, 02:05
ya wils you're right. :P

I can't see T3 supporting a proprietary 3d modeling program, but that would be sweet. It couldn't be token though.