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Can I do this with maxscript?

Started by HexDump Nov 22, 2003 at 6:43 AM 0 replies 450+ views

Original Post

Nov 22, 2003 at 6:43 AM

Hello, For our new game we´re trying to use max as our game/level editor. The 3d man will have to create the game entities geometry and save each one in a separate file, so, we will end with a lot of .max files (orc.max, sword.max, hero.max, etc...). What I would like to do is to present a dockable tool bar to our level maker and let him create instances of this objects in max, so, it could position them in the world, etc... This entities, will have some properties we can edit in the editor (I´m thinking about load this properites files from xml files as I load the entities geometry, and create rollous on the fly when the level maker selects an entity of a type). Has anybody tried to do this? could anyone give any tip or piece of advice? Thanks in advance, HexDump.

Teknofreek

Nov 22, 2003 at 7:34 AM

Yes, in theory you could do something like that. One way to do it, for instance, would be to make a new object type(via SimpleObject scripted plugin). This new object type could point to a file, where it''d get it''s geometry from, as well as hold some properties.

However, be aware that bringing thousands of regular objects into Max will slow it down into oblivion. Having thousands of scripted objects, which reference other files will simply bring it to it''s knees.

Max is great for modeling and rendering small to medium size scenes. It is not great at handling the amount of objects that most games need in their worlds. Neither is Maya, for what it''s worth.

If your levels are small, or if you feel confident that you can break the levels up into areas in a way which will not drastically impact workflow, then I''d say go for it. If that''s not the case, then I suggest you think twice about it. Sure, it''ll seem nice in the beginning because you''ll get things up and running fairly quick, but over the long haul it''ll be painful.

-John

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