I really am stumped to how im supposed to make a 3d world.
I know I could maybe make my world out of blocks and that would work, or maybe some sector based system
like doom, but both ways im sorta lacking in a way, both ways are too simple to make something complex.
What ways does anyone know of for making 3d environments, anything would be helpful, im just thinking about
the subject at the moment. Maybe theres something id like that I havent thought of yet.
Heightmaps are a pretty simple and effective way to do terrain. Triangles are the general thing used to build up any model or environment.
I was wondering if someone could tell me something a little more specific than “its made of triangles”
This next shot of a doungeon interior is made by placing each individual stone one at a time.
I think thats what ill do, but it TAKES AGES!
I was thinking what if there is an alternative thatll save me alot of work.
Just build the environment in a 3d modeler program like Blender, Maya, 3dstudio, etc.
Have u actually done that before personally? Its actually quite challenging, if near impossible.
heres another shot of the dungeon.
ahh stuff it, ill just do it like this.
‘Impossible’ is a strong word given that that’s how pretty much every commercial game is made these days. Of course environments are made by specialised artists who spend most of their time doing it, with expensive tools like Maya so it might be out of your reach.
Having said that, both those screenshots look really good. 
If you’re looking for faster/easier ways then it’ll depend on what you want your environment to looks like. Heightmaps (where you take a greyscale image and treat each pixel as a height value) are good for outdoors (rolling hills and mountains). For your kind of interior shots I’d probably go something tile based - create a bunch of predefined tiles (like your stone archways, walls and floors) and then have some kind of simple file (like a text file or image) which assembles and duplicates the tiles into a proper map.
Or if you want to be programmatic, do a search for procedural content generation (although this is a hard problem by itself).
I know I’ve seen papers which do exactly what you want, so I second doing a web-search. Giving it a couple of minutes of thought one possible way to do this is as follows (but really, do the search):
Define the interior is a very basic way, where each of your polygons is the desired outline. Using a set of parameters, generate a number of random point inside of each. The parameters might be something like min/max gap ranges, etc. A Voronoi map will give you the “gaps” between the stones. Generated the stones w bevels.
Producing content for a 3d world is a lot of work. Writing code to render it is a lot of work. There is no “app” for this. If you don’t want to do a lot of work then i think you are picking the wrong hobby (but anything worth doing is usually a lot of work). It is however not only possible, but a lot of people are doing and some even make a living out of it.
2d is a lot of work too, but its a lot less work.
I had a good read of what everyone had to say.
Really I guess you gotta use your imagination and its A LOT of work to make an environment. Like I can make standalone models really well, like I make tanks and planes and soldiers and because there isnt the huge amount of surface area to cover I find detailing them isnt as much as a problem as an environment where it can become overwhelming the sheer size of what your trying to make.
You make “units” looking from the outside in, right… you make “environments” looking from the INSIDE OUT! and I find it more difficult!
I have no idea how to set up the camera properly for editing an environment thats actually alot enclosed from the outside so you cant even get to the inside to edit it in blender or whatever… I know what you mean, Ive seen environment models before modelled in 3dsmax but Id need to read a good book before I went about doing it - and it IS skilled work!
3d artists do make an impossible job possible, dont underestimate 3d artists, they are amazing… without the knowledge you couldnt really make an environment just out of verts and triangles, thats why I have so much trouble and am asking questions here again.
Making the stones algorythmically and just using bevels sounds interesting!! (What Roquen said) , the tile based system I thought of myself cause then at least the work is easier in the end its just making the 3d tiles which is the hard bit.
Maybe ill go for a tile based system, ill do a bit more thinking and then ill decide eventually.
I dont think really there is an easy way to go about this unless your willing to make sacrifices to the finished quality…
Thanks for the kind words about my screenshot, it is something at least.
The damn computer deleted my map file for some reason so I lost it all!!! God I hate it, so after that maybe it is a good time to change tactics I just gotta figure something out.
But what delt0r said is true, whichever method I pick, there is going to be work involved, so ill just have to decide on something and then work at it for a couple of weeks and hopefully my data writes will stay consistent… risky stuff…
Saw some professional inhouse engine a while back, and they had taken it to the point where in the editor, you were painting different types of undergrowth onto a relatively crude terrain map, adjusting random seeds, and with a few fell swoops of the mouse you’d have this blend of forest, shrubbery, clearing, water stream, all generated from the seeds and settings, using varieties of models and colors and so forth… Tools are a massive part of game development these days.
Theres no sense in hand placing everything, in this you are indeed correct. Some guy I think once said, anything he has to repeat more than twice or thrice he wrote a program to do it for him.
That said, manual labor is also still a huge part. And my level editors are still one piece at a time…
Thing is, the 3d editors these days are so advanced they probably already have most of the features you want anyway… Learning Blender at the moment myself to keep a hand in
I think with what you have there you could already arm yourself with grouped objects and make a castle in the same time you got those together… the more material you have the faster it gets
oh yeah this was about open environments… david braben’s virus is a pretty good starting point i think
here’s one with source code
http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~FX6M-FJmY/java07e.html
comes with a genuine flactalMatrix.
Each tile here is rotated each 90 degree angle.
Ive decided to go with tiles, Ill even fit in a spiral staircase and archways.
Ill spawn a light every random tile, and ill completely random generate it with computer dice rolls.
It is possible to couple both approaches, programmatic and hand-made elements as I do in JFPSM, it allows to generate contents (mostly indoor) procedurally and to assemble/organize hand-made models.
I just have to say I really like how those screenshots look!
Thanks, heres another after a bit more development (got real tiles now, just havent written the tile based dungeon generator yet)
looks great.
try to make the tiles with overlapping stones, so you don’t have the straight lines for edges.
You are doing a good job for being stumped. What framerate do you currently get? Have you tested adding texture mapping?
Hey thanks… this whole system was just a stab in the dark!
But this blockyish tile based system should be good enough for a game, ive got a few ideas for slanting and curving walls but ill need to get the basic block dungeon finished before I add more.
I was actually going fine frame rate wise till right now, and its starting to lag a little now ive added the real tiles.
Ive got a trick i can employ still, I havent implemented PVS (potential visible set) yet so ill only draw the room your in and possibly connecting rooms and the framerate should be smooth as.
Im not implementing texturing as im not using the video card, maybe ill leave that till later when ive got the whole thing finished and ill shift it all over to open gl then ill think about prettyifying it a little more.
Ill have a signed applet online in a couple of days where you can explore a randomized dungeon, it might go in this thread or I might just start a new one in showcase.
Added a bit of colour and specular, quite pleasing results even just for flat shaded.