Ok i have a few questions and i was hoping that someone here could help. I have been doing a lot of reading and i have to say that i am lost when it comes to structuring a level. I am working on an engine for a 3D FPS. Can someone point me in a starting direction? Has anyone worked on a FPS? I just can’t wrap my head around level organization.
EDIT: I’m using JOGL btw…
A good way to get an idea is to perhaps make a map or two for existing FPS. Or at least just have a look at whats out there.
The usual A way to learn coding FPS is to code a Quake 3 BSP renderer, then add collision detection,…
Edit : remove the usual by ‘a’ because, I really don’t know if it’s the usual way, but it is definitely a way to learn.
Is it?
I’ve been doing a lot of reading about portal rendering. I think i understand the algorithm… My lack of understanding is centered around the organization of the actual file format for world geometry. Does anyone know of any milkshape tutorials that deal w/ FPS type level creation and exporting? Like, how can i get milkshape to export the map as sectors and portals correctly? <—This is what i’m having the most trouble with right now… I’d like to focus on manual placement of portals until i understand things a bit more and then maybe use a BSP tree to do automatic placement… but that’s thinking too far ahead right now… Thanks for the replys so far…
IMHO. Scene graphs are evil and BSP is a really bad way to represent interiors.
Assuming you’re talking about interiors, then portals are (most likely) the best option…at least for the main PVS determination. Writing code that takes unstructured geom and generates portals is not trival. I’d suggest using a tool where the world builder (I assume you) defines them explicitly. I know of no available tool for this task.
I think nehe has a tutorial that uses a level file. It might be what your looking for.