Level design w/ maya

[Cyonamie]

maybe u should tile the texture itself? i dunno, maya doesnt run on 98

[boonet]

use the UV Texture Editor and move the signle UVs and you\'ll be able to get what you want.

[bbum]

THnx boonet ...i got all my texture problems fixed out now

[bbum]

haha

Inspector Gadjet may not have been the best movie in the world... but the max useage was pretty nice  

[Cyonamie]

hey i was just pointing out movies made by it, and minority report had top of the line effects if u ask me, i like the ferrarri in it(maybe itwas lexus, cant remember), i dunno, maya is good for movies, but there is a tiny bit of competition..i thinki ts just wat u start out wiht, for example, i tried maya on a friends computer, hated it, found that i was to used to max, and then i tried lightwave, it was ok, but agin i leaned towards max, i guess its just where u start, its tough starting over(especailly with only a year of experience)

[bbum]

I actully started with max and moved to maya...

there two very different systems... so if youve been using max for a year or so like you said I supouse it would be hard to convert

[Cyonamie]

i never really spent much time on maya cuz it doesnt run on my system and lightwave costs to much for me

[Tomaseth]

I might actually look in practicing leveling design. I started giving it a try and it\'s pretty fun. But then again, I have a lot of work to do on make models. I\'m working with GMAX, anyone happen to have any tutorials or anything?

[Cyonamie]

i dont have any tutorials i know of, but if u send me a pm ill tell u some basics  i teach u all the bigfoot taught me, and ill give u some links that he gave me (me bows to the big statue kran)

[bbum]

you can buy half-life ( like 9$ now ) and it comes with a level creator called WorldCraft ...good way to get started since Level Design is what its made for. or if you have any other games of the sort ( quake2, quake3, Unreal, SOF2. ) Then theres also level creators for them.

OR.. you could just download the level creator without the game and get started with them ...( BTW theres thousands of tuts for these level creators )

http://www.qeradiant.com -level creator for all games

[Bigfoot]

Its best to make levels or maps in the provided inhouse software that you tend to get with most FPS games now day.  The thing with maya and max is that there unit sizing is realy variable and appying textureing is a pain in teh ass, teh inhouse level makers like Ued(for unreal tournament) and such are more streamlined and farfar easier to use and have tools especialy usefull for the construction of maps and levels after all the developers use them to make the game ^^. Not to mention exporting teh map from maya and max can cause alsorts of problems such as textures being realigned and objects vertexs being moved around to fit in with unit sizes in teh native games map format not to mention getting the scale of teh map right so that you dont end up with teh player being a ant in some giants playground.

Worldcraft is a nice piece of software (is it still shareware?).

The other major problem with map modeling in max is making objects and such, since in teh inhouse editors there are tools for placing things like enemies and lights and such while in max and maya there is not, often you would have to place a Null object in the map and give it the class name of the entitie you needed often followed by the entities properties. and in most cases the properties wouldnt be alterable in such a situation (the way to place entities in a map would alter dependant on the max/maya exporter you where useing)



this is completely unrealted but thought id share it, back in teh days when I would make levels for Doom and Doom2 (almost 7 years ago) the maps had to be made by using enclosed vectors and dependant on the direction you made them that would alter there normals (visable surface) and such and heights and floor heights had to be done all seperate, and you could never see the textures you stuck on untill you demoed teh level. I tell ya its soooo much easier now with the WYSIWYG editors that are the norm now. persoanly my favourite system of map creation is the carveing system that Unreal an Unreal tournament use, rather than creating a map out of boxes comprising walls and floor which have to be fitted perfectly so as to not have any gaps and hence \"leaks\"as they call em you carve intersecting boxes out of teh world \"mass\" to create rooms and shapes, its jsut that much more efficient and faster than the old .BSP way

[Shanky]

I just started working in 3D about 2 weeks ago, i have to say i really like maya for modeling. 3Ds max may be better, but i couldnt even get the darn thing to work hehe. i say in a month i will be good enough to do some nice designs, i already have a few character designs for PlaneShift im tossing around in my head, and after i get those done ill probably start on a town or something, who knows mabye the team will use something i made  :] . Also any tips you more expirienced fellows have, i would greatly appriciate. my email is bot_works@yahoo.com or you could PM me on the forum.

[bbum]

3ds max may be better? hehe ok...

well Im gonna be a little behind on my work for a few days since mario sunshine came out today =)))))))

Probly going to delay any of my PS work for a few days
 

[Shanky]

i only said it may be better because i had no experience to base my comparison off of, all i have worked with is Maya and even that is minimal.

[bbum]

-bigfoot

Yes, world craft and such are still shareware as they are not professional level designor tools. Merly Level Editors such as the Starcraft or Warcraft map editors.

Maya/3ds max provide much more freedom for level creating and all 3d work alike.