level making

for what game are you wanting to make levels? is it for your custom game, or for a game that already exists? some games like half-life (or Counter-Strike) allow you to create totally custom levels or maps to play in those games. Worldcraft is best for those (at least it's what I use for counter-strike). Get more info on this here.

[edited by - Apache153A on October 21, 2003 4:39:27 AM]

Almost any free 3d modeler will do. Blender popped to my mind first... though it''s not very easy to use IMO.

GMax is a very light (and free) version of 3d Studio Max, intended for use with games for which you can create your own characters etc.
It has a proprietary file format, however, so it''s not easy to use (unless you pay for the dev license) in your own game projects.

-Nik

oh yeah for my own game. can you use 3d studio max 5 for making levels? if so what would be the best format to use.

you can, and the format would depend on your game. basically you create the level/map/whatever in 3dsmax and then you''ll have to write an importer in your game to import/load the map into the game. use the 3dsmax file data to allow characters interact with the scene and vice versa. Of couse it''s much more complicated than this, but I''m really tired and am about to retire for the night (morning). good luck.

is it easy to do collision detection useing 3ds format.

easy for the programmers working at EA studios? sure it''s easy. easy for me? i wouldn''t say ''easy'', not all that hard though. easy for you????? that''s the question. what''s your programming experience? what language are you using, what can you do with it?

i know quite a bit of c++. and i know quite a bit of opengl. i''ve made several game demo''s. but i havn''t made a game that uses those sort of levels.