last week I was programming a shader for level geometry. it is a base shader. using 2 textures( level texture and shadow map) but I noticed the rendering was around 5 or 6 times slower than the normal built in geometry renderer. I know the more passes there are used, the slower the shader, but has anyone some tips for me?
It might be that your shader could be written in a more optimized way, but we can't judge that without seeing the code. However, shaders applied to level geometry are always slow. Personally, I use models for all my levels.
autoUV mapping could be a solution for you, means quick mapping with cube/sphere/cylinder/face setting. Functions like this come with blender, c4d, (g)max, wings3d [there are the ones i know for shure) and many others.
Yes, texturing is the most difficult thing about creating a level from models. In MED, it's especially difficult so I suggest looking into another modelling package like blender.
I am creating a game that has levels that are indoor and outdoor. it would be difficult to make them with the model editor. and I don't think it is very fast at rendering if you convert wmp 2 mdl. because you keep the blocks