level geometry import tool

by da_5_id on 01/25/2006 23:47, 9 messages, last message: 02/02/2006 11:57, 1257 views, last view: 05/03/2024 08:05

i was wondering if someone might be working on this. i'm looking for a tool to convert the geometry of a standard format (.obj .lwo .3ds anything) into sauerbratens native oct-tree format.
i realize that this might be quite a task.
i saw aard's converstion of the native format into an .obj file. but doing the reverse seems to have many more built in problems. the way i think of it is that you essentially be filling a space with different size cubes. starting with the largest first and so on down the line. also these cubes would have to conform to the grid so there would have to be some way to figure the most efficient best fit.
even after the cubes where all placed the geometry wouldn't be perfect because you only have a finite set of cube sizes. from there edges would need to be pushed and pulled to conform to the original shape and meet up with the nieghbor cubes.
needless to say it would be hard to do.
and while i can conceptualize the process of solving this problems i lack the actual coding skill need to complete it. so in my capacity as an artist who creates game assets and a person with limited funds, i'd like to offer a trade. build me this tool and in echange i will give you art (2d or 3d) or cash (reasonable student rates).

textures wouldn't be an issue, as no matter how much you deform a cube you can still scroll through textures in editing mode.

furthermore there may be those of you that say i should just model maps in editing mode and quite complaining. i completely agree that the editing mode is way super useful. but when expirementing with scale of shapes it becames very tedious.

i hope this sparks an interest

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#1: that be quite pointless

by Aardappel_ on 01/26/2006 06:53

the whole format is really about realtime in game level editing. If you want to use other modelling tools, you are best of with other engines, really.

If you're talking about objects, you currently can pick from md2 and md3.

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#2: trying

by da_5_id on 01/29/2006 00:53

i was trying to think of something to respond with. like that i'm trying to help or that "pointless" is in the eye of the beholder. but it doesn't seem like you or anyone else care. and that's fine. it just doesn't seem in the spirit with what open source projects are about. i guess currency in all this is usefulness with coding. and since i can't contribute no one will discuss it with me. again fine.
good luck. good bye.

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#3: Re: trying

by tentus on 01/30/2006 02:04, refers to #2

the engine is itself a one man project, so in a sense it is radically different from the typical open source mentality.

But as you said, the currency here is the ability to code. People won't do your project for you... if you want something new, you'll have to make it yourself, and then hope people will contribute once you have something to show for it.

it doesn't help that this is a very busy time of year for most of us. I haven't been able to work on CL for more than an hour since mid december, much less help someone with their ideas.

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#4: ..

by makkE on 01/30/2006 04:22

Well I must say offering art as a currency is a good thing as well, but if aardappel doesn´t want to do a converter, I doubt anyone else here could. At least da_5_id offered something instead of just requesting.

I myself would have appreciated a converter, I know myself the in-game editing is the way to go for cube/sauer, but on the other hand I understand that people who are used to build environments in max or other apps are requesting it, since you just get used to the workflow of the apps you work in.

Imho, a max converter could attract some more artists, but I guess it´s a just a time/revenue issue.

Scaling is of course an issue, but on the other hand just getting used to getting the scale right on the first approach is something to be learned as well.

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#5: ..

by Flynn Taggart on 01/31/2006 19:58

md3 too?

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#6: Sauer Maps in MAX

by MeatROme on 02/01/2006 04:08

I guess this is already possible ...
... one way or the other ... not sure :-/
http://sauerbraten.org/sauer_maps_in_max.jpg

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#7: Re: Sauer Maps in MAX

by spentron on 02/01/2006 12:40, refers to #6

That's conversion in the easy direction. Still, other engines they use add-on and import tools such as Terragen to aid the mapping process. But I would rather see improvements to Sauer itself.

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#8: Using terragen

by pushplay on 02/02/2006 04:32

Well that's a case where the program you're transferring from provides something different.

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#9: maybe this

by da555id on 02/02/2006 11:57

how's about this. is there someone who could work on detailed documentation of the doubley compressed binary format of the .ogz map files?

it may be technically explained in the source code. but i think a more laymanized version would be a helpful thing to everyone.

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