DeleD Community Edition

[dirkk]

Hi,

I thought I'd give a status on the upcoming exporter which turns out to be a converter. Since this is the last day of the month (why did I pick a short month anyway?), I'd like to state that I am a little behind my schedule but things are progressing nicely. Some more info:

- it will be a converter not an exporter,
- it is written in BlitzMax which has the implication that I can release the exporter as soon as the Windows version of BM is out,
- as a spin-off product there might also a dmf2obj converter.

As for the difference between using the converter vs. an exporter: an exporter, granted, would be integrated more tightly into DeleD. A converter however gives more control about side chains like texture handling.

In general you will just save your dmf, and the map and the map2dif conversion will be just one click away (or even be automated). More info later.

--Dirk

[EdgarRice]

Sounds very exciting Dirkk. I will be looking forward to it.

[dirkk]

Since the question came up: you are supposed to use the new converter with the 1.x versions, which will be easier to use as the former exporter.

[EdgarRice]

Not to be a pest, but I am very excited about this converter. Got an ETA on this?

[dirkk]

You're not a pest . I am at it, but have one of these nasty bugs here, so I am unfortunately not ready ...

[jgrove6875]

I've been playing around with DeleD off and on for a couple of weeks now and really like what I see, but I don't think I could justify purchasing Pro until there is the capability to at least export to Torque formats. Are there any solid plans for such (assuming plug-in)? and if so, what is the schedule?

[Paul-Jan]

Yes, there definitely are solid plans. Once 1.34 is released (november) I'll start working on the Torgue exporter. As Dirkk has kindly provided us his codebase to work with (thanks again, Dirkk!), it shouldn't be too long before something usable emerges.

However, if that is your only reason for considering buying PRO, I'd put it off until you've been able to evaluate the functionality in the Lite version. Buy it for what it can do for you now, not for what it might do for you in the future... or at least, that's how we feel about these things...

[afecelis]

Those are great news PJ!

Can't wait to seee 1.34 out and the Torque exporter. Although for being able to export to dif would require you guys first to export the dmf level to .map format and then use "map2dif.exe" which would finally create Torque compatible geometry.

It would also be a huge kick in the butt to "constructor" (Torque's level editing and compiling tool) since they've been announcing it for months and nothing is released yet.

Finally; it would be cool to have Deled become an all-around level editor, covering different engines. Torque relies completely on Hammer, Quark or tweaked versions of Radiant. Frome these editors only Quark is free but a pain to use. Deled would offer the best of all worlds!

[Paul-Jan]

Yeah, we know about map2dif. In the past, there has been some talk about optionally skipping that step and exporting directly to dif, but currently that's not the way we want to go.

The real challenge is that Torque is very much dependent on "solid geometry". Where Hammer, Quark and Radiant only allow working with solids, DeleD is a 'free style' modeller, often resulting in non-solid geometry. We have to figure out some ways around this, but I think we'll manage.

Becoming an all-round level editor is definitely something we are striving to achieve! If you have any information or suggestions about engines that still need to be covered (or currently supported engines that need better coverage), please let us know!

Thanks for your support!

[afecelis]

PJ: What do you mean by "non-solid" geometry? I thought 3d meshes in all packages (including level editors) where non solid in the sense that you can see their outside walls but they're void in the inside. So wouldn't all geometry be non-solid in a certain way?

..and of course I'll let you guys know of any ideas that cross my wicked mind

[Jeroen]

Solids: closed objects that are void in the inside
Non-solids: objects that either have geometry in the inside (which can't be seen if the object is closed) or are not-closed (or both)

About closed objects: a cube is closed. A cube with one side missing isn't closed.

As you can see, it is perfectly possible to create solids and non-solids (either not-closed or containing geometry inside them) in DeleD. We have to figure out a way to bypass this as we definately want DeleD to be able to build both solids and non-solids.

[afecelis]

Thnx for the explanation Jeroen. So you mean like the case when we select a face and decide to delete it; therefore exposing the inner void guts of a cube, ehehehehhe.

The problem when this happens if that generates ghost zones and "hall of mirrors" effects in engines.

I got some open faces here:
http://www.danielpatton.com/afecelis/Deled/openface.jpg

is this what you mean?

thanks!

[Jeroen]

What I mean is this:



The top object is a simple cube. It is closed.

The second object is a cube of which we can see the inside BUT it is still closed. That is because the "walls" of the cube are "thick" so to speak. The space inbetween those "walls" is void and no other polygons exists there (you have to take my word for that, as you can't see that from the picture ).

The third object is a cube with one of its sides missing. We can see the inside here. There is no thickness to be spotted here. This is a non-solid.

Lesson to be learned is that although you might be able to see the "inside" of an object, it can still be a solid. In that case, its outside has to have a thickness.

[jgrove6875]

Okay...so I bit the bullet and purchased 1.36 PRO, but still no Torque export plugin. Is there an estimated timeframe for this to be available? Could you use some help testing it? I really love the editor, but it is useless to me if I can't export my content to my chosen game engine.

[Paul-Jan]

Unfortunatly, development of the torgue exporter won't start until March. Your offer to help beta testing is very(!) much appreciated, thanks! (Will get back to you on this once development starts, if that's ok).