Hi,
I’ve got to the point now were i need to generate a txt file of data which my program loads in. Rather than calculating all the co-ordinates by hand, i have thought about creating a level editor, and would like to bounce some ideas around about how i may go about this.
Any suggestions?
Paul
Worldcraft (".map" format is plain text) 
Q3Radiant 
Buy 3DS Max 
Or try Blender or Milkshape or other free/share ware modellers. If you want to write your own level editor it’s a significant project in itself.
Hi,
Blender looks cool, how do i export models created with it and use them in my openGL program?
Paul
Export models in some format (3DS Max’s ASE format is popular) and write your own file format loader 
Lots of people ask questions about loading 3DS Max models so do a search of this and the advanced board for info. You can also have a search on these boards and google for 3DExplorer. It produces some kind of C++ output from many popular file formats AFAIK - I’ve never used it. You will learn a lot from writing a file loader for your models anyway.
Hi,
Thanks, i will probably spend the rest of me day playing around with these programs and thinking about importing them. I may one day write my own level editor…some day. Thanks
Paul
The problem with blender is that there is basicly no export option and almost noway of lading/converting/importing anything made with it. It is a shame but me and several other people on this forum have found that there is no ‘useable’ solution although you should be able to get something from it. I would try world craft, unreal editor is also quite good although a little tricky to import.
Tim
As a student I bought 3DS Max R3.1 recently. Cost me AUD$270. Although not cheap (on student’s wages ), it’s certainly cheaper than the $1000’s it usually costs. It’s the full version (for educational purposes) and while not the latest version (V4, using DX8 pixel shaders/vertex programs/texture shaders, etc) it’s good enough for me to use. I only want simple models anyway. I’m sure that there’d be similar student deals in the UK (Tim, you’re a student?) and the states. I have to smile every time I use it thinking of the money I’ve saved, although it hogs resources. I’ve got an Athlon 1200, GeForce2 GTS 64Mb, 512Mb RAM, etc and sometimes 3DS brings it to its knees
for a level editor u could use the UT one or gtkradiant (which ive used before i just convert the bsp file into your own format)
3D Explorer is by far the easiest way of getting a model into one of your progams, however, there are disadvantages. Since the program generates a .cpp file with all the v coords, t coords and normals, you have to recompile the program every time you want to load a different model. 3D Explorer is a good interim solution, but for really serious projects a model loader is a must.