Preview: What I'm working on

Link: LevelEditor.zip

Here is a little preview for you to check out the level editor I’ve been working. It can’t really do much, because most of the work I’ve put into it so far (somewhere around 8-10 hours) is laying groundwork to be able to support what I want to do with it later. I am using my own message system with python that I think is faster than the message system that Nan has built in (not sure, but it seems to be), and using it any object can modify properties of other objects. I don’t even need to use near sensors to get access to an object, I only need the object’s id number. Most of these things can’t really be seen in the demo however, unless you look through the code. If any programmers spot any errors (i’m sure there are a lot) please let me know.

Ok, the controls are:
Arrow keys - Move the 3d cursor on the flat plane - The camera moves with it so the only way to know where it is is by looking at the coordinates
Spacebar - Drop a cube down at the cursor’s location
S - Save all the cubes in the scene
L - Load in any cubes that were saved. Don’t press this unless you have saved at least once

Next version will give you more flexibility in cursor movement, The ability to cycle through different “brushes” you can place (besides just a dumb cube) and eventually I will include a zone calculater to only load objects in your current zone.

Hehe, ok, if your confused, and Im sure you are, maybe I should give you a rundown of what the project is. I have been working on a level editor for the past couple weeks. My goals for the project are:
To speed up the game developement process
To allow you to edit your game as you play it (For instance, adding enemies for you to fight as you test the combat engine, or giving your player extra health if you keep dying)
To have a unified save/load system that can be used for different kinds of games, both mission based games, as well as more non-linear ones.
To have a zoning system, similar to what the first gameblender had, in order to only load objects that really need to be seen - in hopes of speeding up the games
In addition to the zoning system, support for LOD
To make it easier to place objects like trees on a landscape - with the ability to set the tree on the ground, no matter what height the ground is.
Some rudimentary landscaping functions, possibly the ability to modify an objects vertices

As you can see, I have my work cut out for me. This demo is very early on, and you can hopefully expect version 1.0 sometime next fall.

Hmm, I had some problems.

I layed a couple of cubes down and hit S. Right there it froze (blender, not the computer) andwouldn’t let me move the cursor anymore. If I pushed exit it exited back out and I could push P again to work, and L wouldn’t load anything :frowning: . What’s up with this?

Pooba

Ok, well, figures someone would have a problem right away:)

I don’t think you have to have python installed, but I haven’t tried it on a system without python installed before, so that could be it. Another thing is if you didn’t extract it with the full path. Make sure the zone1.txt file is in a directory called zones, and that you run the blend by double clicking on it and not by loading it from blender. But I suspect that python is the culprit. Go to http://www.python.org and install python if none of my other ideas work.

Very nice saluk. Looks very promising. I’d be glad to help you with the scripting or modeling. Just send me an e-mail.

Great ideas! Keep your excellent work up! :smiley: