DeleD Community Edition

[Chwaga]

Hi,

I have a few questions regarding DeleD. I'm leading a team to make an online FPS game, and we've been looking for mapping solutions. Would DeleD be a good mapping method?


Also, I noticed that when you snap to the grid and place objects, it makes them very difficult to see. Is there a way I can make objects appear in bold (edges >1 pixels wide), so they stand out from the grid distinctly? Is there a way to make snaps work in transformations made in the 3D viewport? Is there a way to make the grid disappear in the 3D view?

Thanks!

[granada]

Hi there & welcome.
Everything you need is in the options window,press view in the tool bar & its at the bottom.



Dave
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[Grandmaster B]

[Chwaga]

Okay, but from what I've seen there are some serious workflow hinderances. Is there any video tutorial or something so I can see a mapping workflow for complex outdoor environments that include buildings with interiors? I'm used to hammer style mapping, and this is more polygon-based, and from my experience polygonal mapping has several major issues (like editing in a right turn in the middle of a hallway would be hell if the hallway is hollowed).

[trucker2000]

Making bsp compatible maps in deled is tough, but can be done. I use deled to make torque interiors and they are the same as radients.
You just have to be super carefull how you make your objects.

[Chwaga]

I guess I'm pretty shaky on using this because it's so ill documented, I can't find an in-depth tutorial anywhere.

[Paul-Jan]

Have you decided on your game engine (/rendering solution) yet? Of course, you'll want to base that decision partially on the available tools, but basically you'll want to decide up front whether you want to go the polygon or the brush way (depending on what the engine requires).

DeleD does polygon modeling. It has a polygon->brush workflow for Torque (and generic .map format), but due to their different nature there are a lot catches. Trucker has so much hands-on experience with polygon-based toolset that for him the efficiency outweighs the drawback, but if you are dealing with team members who are already experienced in a different toolset, you'll probably want to stick with that. Retraining people costs a lot of time.

On the other hand, you'll most likely end up using polygon-based modeling for details anyway (again, depends on what the engine supports), and of course for any animated models. Brushes are simply not made for such things. By the way, the particular example (modifying a hollowed polygonal shape) you provide can be just as easily handled by a polygon-based tool as any brush-based tool, as long as it supports simple CSG operations (like DeleD does). Otherwise you'll end up fiddling with polygons and reconnecting edges/vertices indeed... but any midly experiences polygon modeler in your team will be so used to that process that it'll hardly be a hurdle.

As a sidenote, you'll find there are a lot things there are no tutorials for once you get further in the process of creating the game. One of the reasons why experienced people in your team are so invaluable.

[Chwaga]

I realize that brushes aren't used to make models and props and such. Our engine allows for either method, so it's the efficiency for the mappers that counts here. We'd really rather use the solid and CSG method, but we're finding it difficult to find a good affordable editor for it.
On the comment that there are a lot of things in game development that don't have tutorials: I realize that, but software and purchased editors should definitely be well documented.

[Grandmaster B]

There is quite a lot of documentation for DeleD and CSG. Among other middleware DeleD is very good documented.

Have you visited the Wiki pages? Especially the tutorials section? Its here:
http://www.delgine.com/wiki/index.php/Tutorials

Game development takes a lot of experimentation and patience anyway.

[Chwaga]

Could somebody reference me to someone who has actually made good looking, efficient maps with DeleD, please? I'd love to hear an actual workflow.

[Jeroen]

Perhaps afecelis could tell you (all of us) a little about how he made his entry for the last DeleD compo? That was a sweet little town that looked very good indeed (check the gallery).
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[elementrix]

I think this one was my most efficient map (with all the parts I made and then combined them to quickly produce different looking houses)

http://www.delgine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3278&start=0

I think my forest though is still my best looking map made in DeleD
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[afecelis]

Thanks a lot for the kind comments Jeroen!
To be honest, I just modeled as things crossed my mind and trying to follow the concept ideas and the few drawings I had. Deled offered me all the creative freedom I required. But It's not a good approach from a technical perspective of a game engine as nothing is optimized yet, it could be considered as a first modeling pass to then start optimizing the geometry. I'm sure many things can be improved to get better shadows, many faces can be removed to reduce polycount, etc etc etc. Yet, Deled was the perfect tool to create everything, it's as powerful as working with any other "big" 3d application. You can watch the final shots here, and go a bit back to check the development process:
http://www.delgine.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=3306&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=150
There's a short video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAr_rOADPsc

And an Irrlicht user used it as testbed for his RPG, check the video here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=440Okj_Yp9w

Elementrix's approach, on the other hand, is a very well thought, technical, and professional way of working. From the beginning he defines each of his articulated elements, which will become the pieces of his whole project. And each of the pieces is optmized for realtime rendering. Quite a challenge! And from his work, you can tell he's taking this seriously, and studying and working hard to become one of the best!

So, be it for an informal-casual modeler, or a professional game modeler, Deled is more than capable of achieveing the goals any 3d project requires.

regards,

Alvaro