Modelling a level

[johnnymoha]

Well there are entire books written on the subject of level design. Those books take chapters to describe the way a map should flow and feel based on the gametype your playing, mood your trying to convey to the player, etc.. Very large concept there. I would just suggest buying a good book on level design because what I've seen online never compares to good old fashioned book learnins. lol. As far as scale, do you mean scale of object/assets to the player or scale of map as in size? Can you specify what engine your developing on and what gametype you plan to implement?

[muniraj]

Thanks johnnymoha , i mainly want to know about scale of map as in size. I was trying to get the idea from various game levels.But not getting properly how to start. Secondly we should start by character size and then level size or level then character. Right now i am working in max.

[johnnymoha]

About the level then character or character then level: I would say that it doesn't matter as long as you pick a scale and stay consistant to your measurements; the only limitation you should have in any engine is maximum map size. Unreal Engine, for instance, has a maximum grid size you can use for your world before it gets really chuggy or won't allow it, but I would image that CryEngine 2 would have a much larger allowed playable area. To decide on the size think about the gametype. Campaign maps tend to be a lot bigger compared to 16 player deathmatch maps. When I asked what engine you are using I meant what game engine do you plan to use when you put your 3d model into the game i.e. Half life-2(source engine), UT3(unreal engine 3), halo,...etc? You can work in max or maya or whatever as long as you have a ploygonal mesh to import into a level editor to place in your map. If your not already working with an engine and editor I would suggest using UE3 because it works great and I can help if you have problems.

[muniraj]

Right now dont have any engine to work on. But definitely I will try some editor. Thanks johnnymoha.

[johnnymoha]

No problem. Give Unreal Engine 3 a try. It comes with Unreal Tournament 3 and Its incedible. Or If you have the computer for it, Crysis comes with the sandbox editor and you can do so many more things with it than UE3. When you get into normal mapping assets you'll like cryengine better than Unreal Engine because the normal maps aren't as destructive if you leave a seam somewhere visible.

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