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level development and collision in shooter games

Started by TheSkiD Apr 5, 2012 at 6:29 PM 1 replies 1.4k views

Original Post

Apr 5, 2012 at 6:29 PM

Hello, I'm trying to realize my own shooter game based on a game from the past. My question is the following:
I don't known how to build the levels and how to realize a good collision detection system on it.

Another question is the level by itself. Is it one complete level mesh created with 3d programms like Maya or is it divided into different peaces ? In a practical term of my study, I've worked on a webbased 3d object viewer. This viewer can load one or more objects at once. Also it can load one complete level mesh like a house, a apartment or something like that. Nevertheless, this program does not include any collision detection for walls or objects.

I've searched for some reason and I found some simple collision detection posibilities (for example in 2D), but nothing of this results are really satisfying.

How do game developers building levels ? Are they using level editors programmed for the game ? Or are they use 3d software like maya ?
Are there some good solutions for collision detection ?

Really big thanks. :-)
Manic.

WhiskyJoe

Apr 5, 2012 at 8:07 PM

Most games that have a big environment use scenes, in its most basic way it's a file that tells where which mesh has to be placed with with orientation, scale or whatever additional data is desired.

As for collision detection. If you want to write it yourself, the most basic way you can go is to calculate a collision hull for your models or even the scene, perhaps portions of the scene, whatever best suits the need. With that you can cast rays to check if you hit something. You can use libraries to do the most for you, libs like PhysX or Bullet. They are physics libraries, but also handle collision detection.

Krohm

Apr 6, 2012 at 7:12 AM

Is it one complete level mesh [s]created with 3d programms like Maya[/s] or is it divided into different peaces ?

How do game developers building levels? Are they using level editors programmed for the game? Or are they use 3d software like maya ?

Are there some good solutions for collision detection?

It used to be one single block in the beginning (I'm not really up to date). Static meshes were then added (instanced) in the world. The line is very thin nowadays, Unreal Engine 3 for example will light and deal with static meshes pretty much like it will deal with level geometry. Internally however, the "big level mesh" is always somehow partitioned. Games dealing with big world often partition some pieces of world manually.
There has been a time in which having a dedicated editor was considered cool. Those times are long gone in my opinion. Most of the time, is some DCC tool like Maya, interfacing to a set of input filters. Editors are still there to a certain degree but AAA is done with fully featured DCC tools.
Believe it or not, there is no definite solution. Physics libraries (I advice for Bullet) give you incredible value but also still leave some problems up to you. Many people claims "Bullet integration" because they have a complex world filled with spheres colliding with each other (dynamic objects). I can tell by experience this is a cakewalk. Properly moving my player is still being a major challenge for me. Said that, I cannot quite understand how could you say this is unsatisfying, the provided value is incredible.

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