Level editor

As far as I know, all the editors out there are coupled with their own custom engine - hence, you will have a big problem using their editor, unless you write an exporter for it.

You could always write a custom exporter for a commercial 3D package, such as 3ds max or maya (that''s if you have them ).

It would be beneficial for you to learn C# - I heard it''s great for RAD (rapid application development), like VB, but still maintains all the power of C++.


Dustin Franklin
Mircrosoft DirectX MVP

Word on the street is, write the game engine in good ole C++...Write the editors for the engine in C#, as dev time is low.

Maya has a ''Personal Learning Edition'' which is free to the public. Not sure if you can export the data generated in the ''free'' version.

Q3 editing tools are good for creating test data (and free to boot, but just for no-charge and/or personal use) - if you don''t want to parse the .map file, create a .bsp file and read the triangles from that (you can ignore the BSP info).

Blender is another free option, but there is a learning curve and you will likely end up writing your own exporter.

AC3D has some good points. You can add textual properties to each "object" (collection of faces), and it''s pretty easy to write export plugins (or any plugins, for that matter).

Milkshape is good for small levels - last I checked (over a year ago), they had relatively low polygon limit, but it may still be worth checking out.

Wings3D is the bomb. Be careful not to drop it.