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In everyone's experienced opinion what is the best world editor to purchase. I've played with CS4 and it really is pretty easy to pick up on but still not sure how to make a matrix with it SO then I started looking at Gile[s] and Geoscape. Kind of ruled out Geoscape after realising it wont help build dungeon's etc. (if I can get 1 tool to do both terrains and dungeons then thats what I want). Giles and CS4 both seem to fit that bill but wich to go with ?

x1b

Just my personal opinions here (I have CS4 and Giles)

CS4
Firstly, I would wait until CS5 is released before considering shelling out on a soon to be old version. CS4, I have found, is limited by two main things, which make it pretty redundant: Firstly, you cannot import 3d models, created in a 3d modeller, into CS4 properly. (You can import them as a mesh, but they loose all their uv data - so textures get lost and you can't reapply textures to individual faces.) That means that any objects you want to put into your level must be created within CS4 - and CS4 is no modeller. You can create basic objects, but nothing as intricate as in a dedicated modeller. Secondly, (in my experience) the light mapper works fine for objects with flat surfaces - but really badly on objects with curved surfaces.

Giles
In Giles - you CAN import models from a modeller into Giles with all their uv data intact. (You can create primitive models within Giles, but even more limited than CS4). It DOES lightmap curved surfaces really well. The only problem, is the export to DBPro. There are two ways (as in CS4) of doing this: Export as two models - a .x object for the model, and a second .x object for the lightmapped object, the latter being ghosted over the top of the former within DBPro - costly on performance though having two models and twice the poly's. Or, you can export as DBO - one single, lightmapped object. Much better for performance, but at the moment, the dbo exporter doesn't work reliably - bits of the scene go missing, or have positions changed. I think the author is working on it, though.

So, personally, I would either wait to see what CS5 has to offer, or get Giles once the dbo exporter is working properly.

i use CS4 for my worlds, i dont think u can make a matrix for it though, you may have to make the matrix in DBP, then just position the world over/under it, if your wanting to use it for the ground.

Hey, I think DeleD does both with the help of the landscape plugin.. You never specified how expensive, if that matters. It's $70 (and no this isn't trying to get you to buy it, this is my personal oppinion)

Ric: That sir was an most excellent reply. Thank you.

Gil: I infact bought CS4 pre 4.1. Do you think CS5 may be a free upgrade for registerd users ? And I must admit I was not aware that one could make a world from CS4 (.x world ?) at all. Might I bother you to break down how you have been going about doing this.

dj: Price isnt an issue if I can import .x models into the tool and/or model in it. Create worlds && dungeons in it as well. But I will look into DeleD after this post.

What I have at my disposal at the moment (and legally purchased) are DBPro w/ Advanced Terrain,3D Cloth & Particles,Enchancements,EZ Rotate Enhanced,Blue GUI 2,GMax (no gmax lectures pls),Gimp,Maya 6,XSI Mod Tool. (yes alot of money spent but I am a Network Security Engineer and IDS Developer w/ Game Dev as a new developing hobby. I dont intend to try and profit from it)

I was looking at the "Terrain Example" in the 5.8 Beta patch and would love to know what all was used to build that and can a dungeon be thrown into that map.

The help is massively appreciated guys. Thanks thus far.


x1b

Josh K. said that there will be a discount, but it wont be free . But yeah you can make worlds using CS4, go to the Cartography Shop board, and one of the sticky threads is screens from CS4, there are some very cool shots in there.