level design

DJMaesen

so im blocking out some level designs
but
if i make my walls single sided i get light leakage, so im modelling them as solids, which is taking more time than i want.
i could go with the modular approach but that makes everything too generic imo.
so is there a better way?

DJMaesen

DJMaesen i know theres the trenchbroom plugins , but it would be nice to have something like a dedicated level editor in godot, and i dont meen CSG nodes.

totoro

That looks like Blender to me yeah?

I often work in stages, so start with generics, then break them down (maybe on the next pass).

Not played with 3D for a while, does making the material two sided help with the light leakage? Back in the day I overlapped walls n floors to ensure edge leaks were outside anyway, but may get the odd flicker line?

DJMaesen

totoro yes thats blender,
this is indeed a first pass,
making the material doublesided is quite the overkill for performance.

kuligs2

DJMaesen can you not encapsulate the whole level in a box, thus no light leaks? and then you can build whatever you want

MikeCL

What I would do is to prototype the level using CSG geometry. Then export that to Blender, then break down the level and start to plan the assets.

I would still break it down to smaller components and avoid having the entire level in 1 mesh. A couple of reasons:

Frustum och Occlusion culling
Reusable instances etc.

Not sure why a modular approach would make things look generic?

Either way, you'd want to chop the level up into different sections.
Then for constructing the levels you could use something like multiple Gridmaps, once you get used to it, it could be pretty fast to build levels with and you have some control over how it optimizes things.

DJMaesen

MikeCL its not a single mesh.
but yes , im gonna go with the modular approach, seems the best solution

kuligs2

MikeCL are we talking about oblivion level design type components?

Seems awfull lot of work for a one type of scene that you want to hand craft.. for a level editor where you have to spew out multiple variation of the maps it would make sense..

Im still interested to see how OP go on about this

MikeCL

kuligs2 Yes. But I wouldn't call that "oblivion level design type components" as this way is a very common way of building levels in the industry and has been for a long time. But it also depends on what type of environments/levels you are trying to build. For dungeons/indoor type of levels, this is pretty common (or has been at least). For outdoor, more "open world" type, then probably use terrain systems, etc. This might, of course, differ depending on the studio (and what in-house tools they use), but I would say this has been a pretty common way of creating levels. You could also break it down to smaller pieces (smaller than having sections like in the Oblivion video) for more flexibility.

But yeah, this is only one way of doing things. DjMaesen has to check what fits his needs. But it could be worth checking out.

DJMaesen Ah 👍

kuligs2

MikeCL "oblivion level design type components"

i said this only because i remember seeing that interview video.. most of us here are not in the industry and do this as a hobby, so how does one know what is common in the industry..

I just thought that creating components so that they are seamless is more difficult than just to lay out pieces on a floor or somehitng, or maybe block out a room type cave type level and then fluff them up with decals and other things to make it look more lively

DJMaesen

MikeCL oh ive checked all the gdc talks about modular level design before. but a level editor and a modular grid snapping of models are two completely different approaches. but since godot doesnt have one that is actually good, ill go with the modular approach.

DJMaesen

kuligs2 yes modular environments are the industry standard as of decades,
but ull need to create a heavy amount of components based on fixed proportions to get good detail and variety.
valve and their hammer editor are way more flexible to get and test interesting environments that dont only just "look good".
extra details like props or hero props make the level pop in the end.

Gaming911

But Hightmaps don't work in Godot 3D for me, i was never happy with my results. First: i feel so limited in scale and couldn't find a good way to texture it detailed. I tried the addon for Godot, but its also not perfect enough for me to be happy with it. Also did i ran into problems like Rigid Bodys not moving properly over the terrain, and sometimes it was impossible to make them stand completely still on the map. I've read something about the mapping problems when it comes to corners/triangles and the collision with it when moving over the terrain. The Bullet engine seemed to smooth it a little, but its not available anymore since Godot 4.0.

DJMaesen

Gaming911 i have no idea what u mean.
im building levels now without solid geo and just use blocking planes to remove the light issues

Gaming911

DJMaesen
I think, im not sure what you mean without solid geo. As far as i know do you need some kind of collision object and every map that has mountains and all that stuff.