In bge level edit for export to other engines

Game Engine Game Engine Support and Discussion
#1

We could really use a system to edit terrain, and place instances of level assembly kits using the bge, and somehow write the data to a output blend,

Making settlements in fallout 4 is easy and fun,
If this kind of workflow was in Blender, wrectified would be finished already.

Workflow = build level design kit, assign terrain atlas, enter bge, manipulate terrain, splatter paint atlas, build using instances(like fallout 4) , press save.

Is tesselation the best method for LOD now or is batched draw calls and a grid?

#2

If you’re exporting to another game engine, then why does the level need to have any editing done inside of a BGE game?

Why not just write a suite of addons to create the tools you want and then build the levels with them (no BGE required)?

#3

So you could easily replicate features in the bge, that are in the full game,

This way you can build, test to see if you like it etc,
Without leaving Blender,

Like climb ladder, or open door etc,

Game logic is very flexible and easy to use,
This way you could prototype,

Also, it would be another neat tool for the bge.

#4

If you mean they would be features in the final game that allows gamers to build things without access to a modeling program, then that would make sense.

The issue though is that the BGE is very limited in what it can do in terms of the actual building and editing of geometry along with its properties (meaning that even using the engine as a prototyping tool will be a challenge). Compare that to many of the other known indie engines where you practically have the means to code a modeler inside of a game if you want to.

Now you might cite previous discussions where people have found a way to create decent geometry-editing features in game demos, but only because they managed to find a very clunky way to hack it in that would become a nightmare to maintain and to add features to.

#5

I think what it would be is a semi robust terrain editor, and instance placer

Each instance could then be replaced by a empty on export or flag of some kind of flag, that says place kit instance here facing this way.

Basically you would not be editing any geometry of the level build kit, you would be editing the terrain meshes only.

#6

I agree with Ace Dragon. You can use Blender as asset editor. There is no need to fiddle with the BGE.

You can’t test anything with the BGE. You would test the map with the BGE not the map with the Game it is supposed to use it.

I know there are such development methods (e.g. developing mobile applications on a PC), but they suffer from the same problem. They need simulators that mimic the exact same behavior as the supposed target platform.

#7

Have you played fallout 4 yet?

Try it, and build a settlement or two,

the idea is to spend some time developing level creation tools, to then spend much less time cranking out a world.

#8

Just use Blender. It is an editor already. No need to create a new one from scratch. It is a good base to add Python plugins that support level editing towards that specific target.

#9

One of the thing that I like about blender is that the level editor and game engine is in the same package, but with that said I still anticipated a more “integrated” experience in 2.8, imagine building a game from inside a game :yes: like you never ever again had to ESC to edit the terrain or texture or anything in your game, or you can pull out a console and code/node logic from inside the game(I believe Project Spark and Peria Chronicles are pitching this idea)

That kind of integration of blender and game engine might just turn the table around, really I mean I have more fun building my own game than playing AAA titles these days :stuck_out_tongue:

#10

This is what minecraft, sauerbraten, second live and opensim is doing.

It does not just integrate game level editing, it allows that in a collaborative environment.

#11

The reason why those games have in-game level editing is to give creative possibilities to the player because more likely then not, they have never touched a 3D application nor do they want to expend the effort to learn one (in-game creative tools are designed to be specifically for the game in question).

Again, this makes sense if Wrectified is to have creative tools for the people playing your game (the people who purchase a copy on Steam or some other storefront), but otherwise I don’t see why you need to replicate Blender itself in the BGE (it would undoubtedly be far slower and far clunkier because of the BGE’s API limitations).