How do I make a 3d game?

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2005-04-22 04:40am

Lets say I'm a complete, utter n00b at 3d level design (and believe me, I am). And I (using an easily led team of malleable sheep, of course) want to create a game in which I can have a character walking around in a Deus Ex like fashion and interact with a medieval Fantasy - like world.

What I need is the following:
* High degree of customizability
* Shadows and lighting
* Particle effects

What I'd like if possible:
* Material properties and physics engine
* Possibility of scripting a day / night cycle
* Large levels
* And make it work in Linux, dammit

Given that, is there anything I can use which would be suitable? What would I need? What programs would I have to get? What tutorials would I have to peruse?

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2005-04-22 04:58am

The only thing I know of is the UT2004 editor. Its quite flexible, and you can script just about anything you need. It can also handle fairly large levels (not massive really, but comfortable). Another bonus is the engine is very robust and easy to work with. Only downside is that I don't know if it works with linux.

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2005-04-22 05:00am

Captain tycho wrote:The only thing I know of is the UT2004 editor. Its quite flexible, and you can script just about anything you need. It can also handle fairly large levels (not massive really, but comfortable). Another bonus is the engine is very robust and easy to work with. Only downside is that I don't know if it works with linux.

What about the Doom3 engine? I really should have been more specific, but with Shadows, I meant real-time calculated shadows. I'm not sure UT2004 handles those.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2005-04-22 05:05am

Eleas wrote:
Captain tycho wrote:The only thing I know of is the UT2004 editor. Its quite flexible, and you can script just about anything you need. It can also handle fairly large levels (not massive really, but comfortable). Another bonus is the engine is very robust and easy to work with. Only downside is that I don't know if it works with linux.
What about the Doom3 engine? I really should have been more specific, but with Shadows, I meant real-time calculated shadows. I'm not sure UT2004 handles those.

It does, at least for players and bots. And I don't know if there is a Doom3 editor out yet.

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2005-04-22 05:24am

Captain tycho wrote: It does, at least for players and bots. And I don't know if there is a Doom3 editor out yet.

So no dynamic shadowing, in other words?

Anyway, what do I need exactly? Just the editor?

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2005-04-22 05:31am

Eleas wrote:
Captain tycho wrote: It does, at least for players and bots. And I don't know if there is a Doom3 editor out yet.
So no dynamic shadowing, in other words?

Anyway, what do I need exactly? Just the editor?

The editor comes with the game, which you can find for 15-20 bucks right now, unless get the editors' choice edition, which is around 45 and includes a ton of mods and new maps.

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2005-04-22 05:58am

Captain tycho wrote:
Eleas wrote:
Captain tycho wrote: It does, at least for players and bots. And I don't know if there is a Doom3 editor out yet.
So no dynamic shadowing, in other words?

Anyway, what do I need exactly? Just the editor?
The editor comes with the game, which you can find for 15-20 bucks right now, unless get the editors' choice edition, which is around 45 and includes a ton of mods and new maps.

Do I need 3D Studio Max, or similar software? And are there modules for dynamic shadows? </obsessed>

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2005-04-22 06:10am

Eleas wrote:
Captain tycho wrote:
Eleas wrote: So no dynamic shadowing, in other words?

Anyway, what do I need exactly? Just the editor?
The editor comes with the game, which you can find for 15-20 bucks right now, unless get the editors' choice edition, which is around 45 and includes a ton of mods and new maps.
Do I need 3D Studio Max, or similar software? And are there modules for dynamic shadows? </obsessed>

You'll need something to make your own textures and the like, yes. After playing through the game a bit, yes, there are dynamic shadows.

Quite a bit of them on some levels.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2005-04-22 06:41am

About UT, yes it runs on Linux, so no worries there.

Your going to want the Editor, some kind of graphical editing program, knowledge of the UT script language, and the SDK.

You can't do anything big without the SDK, and I think its free to download.

Captain tycho · Post by **Captain tycho** » 2005-04-22 06:45am

Ace Pace wrote:About UT, yes it runs on Linux, so no worries there.

Your going to want the Editor, some kind of graphical editing program, knowledge of the UT script language, and the SDK.

You can't do anything big without the SDK, and I think its free to download.

SDK?

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2005-04-22 06:49am

Ace Pace wrote:About UT, yes it runs on Linux, so no worries there.

Your going to want the Editor, some kind of graphical editing program, knowledge of the UT script language, and the SDK.

You can't do anything big without the SDK, and I think its free to download.

What's an SDK?

And how do the dynamic shadows stack up against those in, for example, Thief Deadly Shadows or Doom3?

And is the wacky perspective thing a built-in feature of UT2004?

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2005-04-22 06:50am

Captain tycho wrote:
Ace Pace wrote:About UT, yes it runs on Linux, so no worries there.

Your going to want the Editor, some kind of graphical editing program, knowledge of the UT script language, and the SDK.

You can't do anything big without the SDK, and I think its free to download.
SDK?

Source development kit.

EDIT: Been reading up, seems like the editor has most of the stuff you need.

EDIT: Found the Unreal dev site http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/WebHome You should be able to contact them and inquire.

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2005-04-22 07:33am

Ace Pace wrote:
Captain tycho wrote:
Ace Pace wrote:About UT, yes it runs on Linux, so no worries there.

Your going to want the Editor, some kind of graphical editing program, knowledge of the UT script language, and the SDK.

You can't do anything big without the SDK, and I think its free to download.
SDK?
Source development kit.

EDIT: Been reading up, seems like the editor has most of the stuff you need.

EDIT: Found the Unreal dev site http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/WebHome You should be able to contact them and inquire.

Fenk you kindly.

I will scout around some more.

salm · Post by **salm** » 2005-04-22 07:35pm

You could try the Torque Engine. You can get it at:

Garage Games

And you´ll need some kind of 3D Software. Blender is good and free and actually has a built in Game Engine. So can basicly play Games directly in your 3D Program.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2005-04-23 12:02am

Out of curiosity, why is the Unreal 2004 engine recommended over the Source engine? I thought Source was the new big thing right now.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-04-23 12:21am

Probably precisely because Source is brand-new.

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2005-04-23 12:32am

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Probably precisely because Source is brand-new.

Pretty much. UT04 has been around for a fair while, people are experienced at playing with the level editor, they can offer advice, there are forums for this stuff, etc... Source? Not so much. Gotta relearn stuff for it. And so forth. You get the idea.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2005-04-23 01:06am

Yeah, if I recall, people working with Source are still sort of at the level of messing around with it to see what it does.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2005-04-24 12:41pm

Not to mention, Source is VERY advance, and hence, alot more complex, UT is also VERY documented, and has massive developer support of mods. HL was very modable, but it was never documented properly, and had far less help from Valve other then "Oooh, this is SHiny, lets buy this and sell it as our own"

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2005-04-24 01:48pm

So I guess the process of poking around takes longer than I thought. It's been 6 months now since HL2 came out, after all. I would have thought a lot of eager beavers would have been burning the midnight oil and have it figured out within weeks.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2005-04-24 01:56pm

Arthur_Tuxedo wrote:So I guess the process of poking around takes longer than I thought. It's been 6 months now since HL2 came out, after all. I would have thought a lot of eager beavers would have been burning the midnight oil and have it figured out within weeks.

It took more then a year for nVidia to announce their UT modding competition and get any significent mods, look, just now is Red Orchastra REALLY good.

There are eager beavers burning midnight oil, some of the mods there are awesome, but they are still within the confines of HL2, theres still nothing out of the HL2 universe in the public.

Companion Cube · Post by **Companion Cube** » 2005-04-24 02:03pm

Ace Pace wrote: There are eager beavers burning midnight oil, some of the mods there are awesome, but they are still within the confines of HL2, theres still nothing out of the HL2 universe in the public.

There's Plan of Attack, though that's just a public beta with one map. Good fun though, the reduced damages in comparison to CS do draw out the firefights.

Eleas · Post by **Eleas** » 2005-04-26 11:33pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Yeah, if I recall, people working with Source are still sort of at the level of messing around with it to see what it does.

Personally, I never "got" the Source engine. I mean, it must be good for something, and maybe it's just that I haven't seen it in motion. But every single picture I've seen of HL2 sorta looks like crap to me. Artificial, stiff, and lifeless. Worse, the world it presents looks subtly wrong. I don't know how else to put it, but there it is. It's just not sexy.

Arthur_Tuxedo · Post by **Arthur_Tuxedo** » 2005-04-26 11:42pm

I agreed until I played the game. For some reason, the stills look like crap, and the game in motion looks like a wet dream sandwich. Go figure

.