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hello. I was wondering if someone could make their own models, and textures etc.. from scratch using dark basic. and does dark basic have a world editor for making levels, models and such? any help would be great thanks.

you can programatically design models with rudimentary shapes applied in a series of limbs.
you can increase the look of these shapes with csg commands.[dbp only]

you could start with a mesh and warp the vertices so its all one polygonal shape.
you could programatically apply a uv to this same shape and paint to it.

all of these techniques however will require a lot of knowledge to the format your applying them to and would extend to the edges of the commands within the language to achieve this result.
not to mention the time it would take compared to a 3d application.


It would be better to design the mesh in a 3d applicaton like milkshape as an example.

there are a few world editors out there and you could design your own as well.

@indi: isn't CSG only for DBPro?

yes sorry shyguy, thanks sixty, the rest is still valid.

shyguy...I agree with indi. What your question seems to be foreshadowing is the dreaded...what is the best modeller/map making program...its been covered about a million times, in a million ways.

I will share with you what I use and why...and what that gets me. For worlds, I currently use Quark. Quark is as good as any map making program...its the most mature one on the market that is totally free, and it uses the same bsp compiler tools that id created. id provided q3radiant as its map editor. It is also free, but is now open source, and called gtkRadiant. I nonetheless use Quark. It is awesome, and did I mention that it is totally free? In the next few days, I am ordering 3DWS because it will let me use a graphics tablet, and also it exports in DBO format. I also like the terrain generator in 3DWS...at least I think I do...we will see about that next week. Seriously, I highly recommend Quark, although getting it set up is quite involved. I can use maps and their textures in the same manner that QIII does...in a pk3 file. That is pretty cool...one line of DBPro code loads the maps...minus the entities, but...I can live with that...I know how to parse the entities already. The main thing is the bsp collision, that is one of DBPs best features to me.

For modelling, I use 3D CanvasPro, but...I have not used it alot. I used Milkshape for a while, but...I am not wild about Milkshape. It is somewhat cumbersome for me to use, but...it is really powerful, and only about $25USD. Most free modelling solutions are incomplete, or inaccurate for DBPro use. People use Wings, but...I don't know about it, and there are some issues about animation, I think.

The most important 3rd party software to me is the paint program used to make my textures. That doesn't really explain why I still use Paint, which is not very powerful at all for this purpose...there are no layers, for example, and it is pretty limited. I have a scanner/printer, and also a few cheap digital cameras...that helps alot. Really, I should have already bitten the bullet and bought TextureMaker3...I only just today realized that I need the Professional, and not the Basic license...more expensive, but worth it to me. I go to great lengths to make this work for me. I even disassembled a camera to make it focus up close for macro work. Once I go ahead and buy TM3, though...my textures will be easier to create, and better, too...I'm sure.

What I am trying to say to you is this:
Making a video game is a demanding and onerous task. All tasks can be reduced to management of time, talent and money. Whatever you lack in one category can usually be replaced in the other two categories, but...you will have to take alot of time if you haven't sufficient talent, and money. Your best weapon is still your own brain...your time and talent combine better than your money and time, or your talent and money do.
The tools offered here are selected for the reason that they marry well to DBPro, are affordable in general...and there is a vast pool of knowledge here from which you may partake.
Blender is a totally free solution for video game development...they even have a game engine and API...but that is Python, and Python is interpreted...not the best answer for high fps games, imo. Blender is a little difficult to use (I am being nice here, I find it most annoying.), but I have seen absolutely beautiful results from Blender. You could use Blender to make both worlds and models with animations...it is that complete. That would be all time and talent, and would likely suffer comared to something you did with some of all three.


Again, I have chosen the catalog of products here because it is not necessary to go to any great lengths to create and utilize assets this way. The alternative of using DX9 or OpenGL at the API level is very daunting...I've done it...its ugly, but loads of fun. How well you do, and how you feel about it is ultimately more about how well your toolchain works than how much you paid for it...in terms of cash, time and frustration, that is.