Game Development Community

3DMax for buildings?

by Kristian Dupont · in Torque Game Engine · 04/20/2004 (12:11 pm) · 6 replies

We are currently trying to figure out which program would be the best for making buildings.. best for the artist, that is! We are not to keen on using Quark.

Can 3DMax be used for building in Torque, does anyone use it and what are the opinions about it?

Hope someone can fill in the blanks!

- Rasmus

#1
04/20/2004 (12:12 pm)
Using a general purpose 3d modeling tool to build CSG models is a waste of time, plain and simple. In the time you are going to waste trying to fit those square pegs in the star shaped hole you could have learned how to use Quark 10 x over.
#2
04/20/2004 (12:18 pm)
Okay... what are CSG models? and yes it might be a stupid question, but I am not that much into 3D modelling..

- Rasmus
#3
04/20/2004 (12:19 pm)
This was just brought up a few threads down. If something is particularly complex you can try modelling the basic collision in QuArK and doing a more detailed overlay in .dts format. Otherwise there is also a plug-in you can buy pretty cheap for MAX that will let you make proper .map format objects over here:

www.maple3d.com/MainFrameGLB3Page.htm

But it's mostly a toolset that let's you work in MAX as opposed to a converter (though it did have an interesting looking mesh-to-CSG utility).

QuArK is incredibly easy to learn though, I'm not even an artist and could use it relatively well after just playing with it for a day or two.

Oh and CSG is basically an optimized geometry modelling format that in the end is going to give you the most efficient output and accurate collision for objects. In Torque's case it also has the best lighting support (by default anyway). It's the collision that's important, since you'll want precise collision for your environment objects. With more complex objects done in MAX, you use approximated collision with boxes and such. This more or less the same way things work in engines like Quake and Unreal.
#4
04/20/2004 (12:30 pm)
Hmm, when I read about it, it seems to be only for HL maps? do they then have to be converted into something Torque can read?

- Rasmus
#5
04/20/2004 (8:20 pm)
Oh yes, it's only going to give you a .map format object. That's what you would build in QuArK too. You use the map2dif utility to convert them for Torque.
#6
04/21/2004 (11:42 am)
Quote:Okay... what are CSG models?
For a fairly straitforward technical answer: www.planetquake.com/qxx/bsp/

I recommend the article for anyone starting to produce art in Quark or other CSG tools, it will help you understand the WHY of these tools, thus reducing your frustrations at their strangeness.