Ways to construct a plan.

[deleyt 0]

I'm curious about what ways there are to construct a map for GR not only in the fastest way but also with the least amount of poly's.

Each method has it's up- and downside ofcourse.

Here's what I came up with:

The setup (overall planning).

I like to draw my plan in AutoCAD first so I have all the right dimensions set and the game will go fluently (hallways, doorways, heightclearance). That way I'm pretty sure no AI or players will get stuck somewhere.

Then I export it to 3DSM and that's when the decisionmaking comes in:

A) Use AutoCAD-plan as part of building method.

Extrude most (not all) of the plan I made in AutoCAD and work it out in detail from there.

- Up = you will get an accurate 3D map in the least amount of time since the plan is already laid out in AutoCAD. Fast result.

- Down = once it's extruded it pretty much got your plan nailed and it would be hard to manipulate (modifier) one object as all objects are extruded at once. Sub-object modifying is not the way to go, so manipulating in that way would be no option. Leaving only manual sub-object manipulating hich is very labour-intensive.

B) Plan as reference guide and 3DSM-objects as builder.

The AutoCAD-plan is used as a reference for your map. So this means you have to reconstruct the whole map again using 3DSM's objects and modifiers to get the final result.

- Up = you get full control over the objects and the way they are constructed (parametric). In case you need to take a step back in (object)history it's done in a breeze.

- Down = it takes more time then method A. You got to reconstruct the whole thing from scratch (although the reference is there). The poly count will be higher because it generates all sides, including the baseplane which is not needed. So the baseplane needs to be removed (takes more time again).

C) Plan as reference and using planes

Again, the AutoCAD-plan is used as a reference but this time we don't use regular objects but planes instead.

- Up = you will be certain that you get a map which uses the least amount of poly's and they are still very much controlable.

- Down = each and every plane has to constructed manually. This takes time ofcourse and can become very frustrating after a while aswell (slow progress).

Also, all planes need to be checked if the normals are facing the right way.

There are probably a couple more techniques (one of them being to make the map straight away in 3DSM) so what's yours? And what do you think about mine? Possibly any adjustements? And what do you think is more important: poly's or creating-time/pleasure?

Unleesh yourself