I bought 3DGS 4 months ago, and a friend of myne is interesting in buying an engine too.

I talked about 3DGS to him and he show me IrrLicht, Torque, Cosmos Creator, and soo on..

And i've been thinking since then.. There are some good engines out there, some of them are free, in wich way does 3DGS makes the difference?

Until now i saw some BUGs i didnt like too much, for example, large maps cause script problems, because of the nexus Acknex.exe "eats". WED is too limited, and soo is MED, but MED can convert well from another Apps like 3DSMAX.
And WED cant convert too much thing to Hammer for example.
I mean, the engine is the only thing that makes it worthy, in my opinion, if we forget things like 8 dinamic lights limitation, the COM e PRO physic engine limitation, and the memory it takes to make some detailed maps.

I've seen huge maps in other games detailed that dont take that much memory.



When i look to 3DGS i see a great engine that is being "ruined" by small and stupid details.

I wish that A7 can be more elaborated in performance and in tools list.

Talking about the tools, i think that the tools can born just by imagination, even the most stupid and absurd tool with no purpose can make even more creative results that the old tools, create cube.. create sphere, and now good luck..

Improve the ways that WED and MED convert models/maps so that users can use a variety of tools and import again.

Great model apps are cinema 4D and 3dsmax, i like cinema 4d a lot, its easy and it has many tools and filters that deform models and shapes, like splines, hipernurbs, and soo on.

WED could be a copy of Hammer, Hammer is really good, if 3DGS and Hammer could join forces, 3DGS would be soooooo awesome!!!


Hope you accept this as a construtive critique, i wish a better 3DGS for everyone that inspires creativity.

Good luck!

torque's polycollision is totally submental
i actually think 3dgs is pretty durn powerful and awesome and worthy

you can make aaa quality games with it if you had the art team and good programmers, it's good enough, and if you have a good art chain

Wrong Forum for a 3DGS sux/rox thread.

Its true that hammer is out of date, but the good thing it has that WED could have is the variaty of tools (they're not much, but they are enough to build a map quicker than in WED).

At least i feel more confortable in Hammer than WED, i'll be direct in my ideas then, (+) are positive things, (-) are negative ones.





===WED=====

(+) When you zoom one 2D view, the others make the same;

(-) We could control the 3D view like in Hammer;

(+) I like the list of textures in WED, better then opening a new window

(-) We could edit the textures of many faces at the same time (massive texture editor) like in hammer, a way to edit the X/Y of a texture in many faces at once, and with the right mouse button (like in hammer) copy all the configurations of a face's texture to another face. In hammer you do that by selecting one face and then to right click on another different face;

(+) Like the vertices and faces WED has;

(-) The way you resize objects should be like hammer to, like if you want to resize an object only for one side and not for both sides, i mean, a GUI like this one with the 4 dots marking the 4 faces of the block/object:


Image: http://xs116.xs.to/xs116/07235/manipulate.JPG

Open powerpoint and get some ideas from it, i made that screen on it


(-) The grid could be even smaller in order to solve the problem that appears like blocks that should be together look like this:



Im not kidding, it makes me remember an earthquake, the current WMP2WMB does that with blocks, even if they are in the same grid,one becomes taller than others and soo on..

(-) The 3D view could be more clean, actually it inst too nice, textures dont appear right on it, and there's a great distorcion in the visibility in the corners of the view.





(+/-) The knife tool, but i know you are already making one


(-) WED could have a library just like in Flash, i hope you know Flash:








(-) WED could show models with skin instead of the wireframed model, in cubic models we cant see what's the front or the backwards face.


(-) We could give the same action to multiple entities at the same time.

(-) We could select multiple entities from the 2D and 3D windows and not only from the object list.

(-) Wed could scale the selected objects with the given value, for example 0.5 (resize the group to half of is size).


Picture of me applying this size to multiple blocks

(-) The selected block should become red for the user see wich block is selected in 3D view, like this:



(-) We could draw the object before WED create it, for example, instead of choosing Small/large/... cube, e could draw the cube before it really appears in the map:




(-) The selection tool could be just like in Hammer:


In this picture i'll select all the blocks as soon i press the ENTER key.







====MED=======

(-) Splines + Filters are a great way to create great models in few time, for example, with a spline i created a Hi-poli cup (or low-poli) in 2 minutes that i would take 30 min to build in MED.

Some ideas here: http://www.tutorial4you.com/c4d/index.php?id=tutorials&tut=boole

This is an example of a boole filter, it makes this:



The result is this:



You can see all the new things you can build only with this tool?

See more:

http://sunjester.freepgs.com/forum/index.php/topic,1652.msg2803.html#msg2803
Create 3D text for example.


This ones are very usefull:
http://www.4dtutorials.com/Lathe_NURBS_and_Bezier_Splines.html

Where this



becomes this:






I think its all that i have to say untill now.
I cant be more clear than this, and sorry for my bad english

Hope this post helps 3DGS growing and dont fall in the black hole of the last pages that no one reads, because i took almost 1 hour to make this post, by selecting the ideas and taking the screens.

If for some reason you cant see the screens/pictures, just tell me, i hosted them in xs.to

Keep the good work

in reply to the boolean thingyfoo...
i'd suggest not to use it often, only when no option is left.
same goes for CSG substract, they both destroy an objects triangle lay-out (dont know any better word for that).

best bet is to try and model it,

in reply to all the other stuff, try updating the newest DX9 dll's cuz i NEVER had any similar problem (or atleast it didnt bother me that much that i still remember:P).

regards,

a7 has unlimited lights.

a7 has physics engine in all editions.

in terms of MED problems, i just use blender which does EVERYTHING and use ventilator's exporter.

in terms of WED block-gap problems, increase "snap" if you want to makes sure blocks touch each other properly. if you want more precision, maybe you're making your level on too small a scale.

those "huge maps" in most games that don't take up much memory are usually broken into smaller pieces which are dynamically loaded before the player can see them. far-off objects are usually replaced by really low-detail models.

with most engines, even if they DO come with extra tools, they are often unused because of products that are specifically made to be stand-alone, feature-rich editors.

3DGS does have its shortcomings, but in my opinion they are almost exclusively related to the tools. i agree that the tools do need to be improved for those who need to use them.

julz

OK, where should I start?...

Quote:

---

-) The way you resize objects should be like hammer to, like if you want to resize an object only for one side and not for both sides, i mean, a GUI like this one with the 4 dots marking the 4 faces of the block/object:

---

...has it

Quote:

---

(-) The grid could be even smaller in order to solve the problem that appears like blocks that should be together look like this:

---

...has it

Quote:

---

(-) WED could have a library just like in Flash, i hope you know Flash:

---

...has it

Quote:

---

(-) The 3D view could be more clean, actually it inst too nice, textures dont appear right on it, and there's a great distorcion in the visibility in the corners of the view.

---

...Thats simply your textures problem

Quote:

---

(-) WED could show models with skin instead of the wireframed model, in cubic models we cant see what's the front or the backwards face.

---

...has it

Quote:

---

(-) We could select multiple entities from the 2D and 3D windows and not only from the object list.

---

...WTF? WED definatly has supported this for a while...

Quote:

---

(-) Wed could scale the selected objects with the given value, for example 0.5 (resize the group to half of is size).

---

...has it

Quote:

---

(-) The selected block should become red for the user see wich block is selected in 3D view, like this:

---

...again, has it, and has had it for quite a while...


3DGS supports many of these features and more. You need to spend more time figuring the tools out before you complain about them. I also recommend that you upgrade to the latest public beta (A6.6), as it seems you are using A6.20.2

Only skimmed the other posts:

Most of these errors or problems or bugs are none of the above. You can't just create any old level you want and expect it work in 3DGS or any engine efficiently. There are rules of level design and certain ways that specific tasks are done and creating levels and those tasks based on these rules and protocols will help insure a smooth or smoother running level and more pleasant experience.

Also, reading the manual, reading the current tutorials, and exploring the forum for advice is going to help out immensely as well. I've been creating fairly complex levels for years, and I have few problems, bugs, hiccups, etc. I'd like a few specific features which I post in The Future from time to time, but sometimes they can be a bit on the esoteric or specialized side, and I don't expect Conitec to come to my rescue any time soon. I hope they do eventually, but there's always helpful, friendly, and willing programmers around here that might help out if they feel like it (or if they like the color of your money ).