Ambiera ForumDiscussions, Help and Support. |
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Hello, Just purchased CC6, and have an idea for a couple games I'd like to make with it. One in a more action-puzzle style, and another in an Action Adventure style. I'm wondering which approach to creating the game environments is preferable with CC6... Is it better to import the individual assets (ground, boulders, trees, etc) separately and then lay everything out in the editor? Or, is it preferable to assemble the environment(s) in the 3D modeling software, and import it as one complete scene? Does CC6 recognize each object as its own separate object if it's imported all at once, or will it try to treat the whole thing as one large single mesh? Also, on the same topic, is there a maximum size the engine can handle for a single environment/scene, or otherwise a maximum recommended size? Thanks! |
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I guess it depends on the type of game you had in mind - but the way I've done it so far (bear in mind that I'm fairly new to coppercube) is to import the entire map from an external source as one file (buildings and roads), and add extra assets, details and interactive models, as separate models (water, terrain, doors, collectables, furniture, players, NPC's, weapons, items etc.). Basically - anything you want to be able to access/modify separately in the game (such as a door for example) will be better as a separate file. Be aware that you can clone and child/parent any 3D object (animated or static) and attach them to animated joints or other 3D models to "build" assets from different model parts (handy for mech. games or car-mod games where you can swap out different parts). One major thing is that Coppercube also has a built-in polygon editor with basic shapes (sphere, cube, plane, cone, cylinder, polygon) so you can actually make the assets inside of coppercube itself and then texture them. I use this for making low-poly stairs, doors, walls, spheres etc. By applying "normal maps" with the textures, you can add a "lot" of depth-detail to an otherwise basic/flat model so the built-in editor is actually better than is first appears. There is also a built-in prefab browser where you can import/export items or scenes (including any actions you attach to them) this can make things simpler and quicker in the future for you. As Coppercube is suitable for 3D and 2.5 (even 2D) games and presentations, you could also make effective use of billboards sprites and tiling with either a 1st person view, 3rd person view, or a fixed camera. I would say that most people would use a combination of all these different methods to suit the mechanics and appearance of their individual game. You 3D library grows, it's likely you will have different kinds of assets - sprites, textures, normal-maps, png transparancies and 3D objects and animations. How you incorporate these and make them interact with each other will depend partly on their file-format and partly on what you want them to do in your game (eg: are they a decoration or are they a feature?). Personally, I started with making a photo-realistic 3D city scene from google maps, then used a "city-builder" app to make a low-poly city, then constructed parts using coppercube and even imported models I'd made from spore(tm) and stuff I downloaded from Sketchfab (things I couldn't have made myself). I've made changes as my understanding of coppercube has progressed and my game has developed. As a final note from me, with a bit of work, you could actually generate things procedurally too, using just java scripts inside coppercube. |
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How do you get the normal map to work? When I choose that it just turns the model black. So far as I can see there's no way to use two textures in one slot and multiple slots cover different parts of the model. |
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wrote: I guess it depends on the type of game you had in mind - but the way I've done it so far (bear in mind that I'm fairly new to coppercube) is to import the entire map from an external source as one file (buildings and roads), and add extra assets, details and interactive models, as separate models (water, terrain, doors, collectables, furniture, players, NPC's, weapons, items etc.). ... Thanks for the response! Some good workflow ideas there. I'm curious, too, about performance.. if CC "cares" how assets are imported, etc. I guess I can find out through trial and error, but thought someone might know off-hand. |
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wrote: How do you get the normal map to work? When I choose that it just turns the model black. So far as I can see there's no way to use two textures in one slot and multiple slots cover different parts of the model. I had that issue, too. Would like to know the answer. Might be better to post it as a separate thread, though. People will see your question better if it has its own thread/title, and isn't a one-off post in another topic. And it can kinda confuse this thread if there's answers to both questions going on. |
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I will suggest the same which @VeganPete has already suggested. Create static items for the scene as one single mesh which you don't want to move but please do join them as one object in your 3D editor program. otherwise, they might be imported wrongly and will appear messed up into each other. Coppercube doesn't import objects as separate meshes it will import all as one mesh. what I would like to recommend is that you import all of your objects as individual meshes directly into the coppercube editor. and then join them as one inside the coppercube editor itself with the help of polygon editing tools. That way you can be aware if adding more meshes will slow down the editor or not. if it slows down the rendering of the editor then you might need to reduce the polygon size of your objects and then can add additional objects. and sometimes some model types just don't want to get into coppercube editor just like Pikachu he never liked to live in Pokeball. so coppercube will just throw an error for such models. so importing all models in coppercube will help you minimize the chances that you might get crashes for importing objects in coppercube if they are joined using a third-party 3d program. you can check the number of polygons your scene uses using the scene metrics. there is no accurate data available about the limit of polygons that coppercube can handle. I cloned a whole vice city map in coppercube editor and was not able to see any frame drops. The player sometimes appeared to be jittery or tucked but that was mainly dues to incorrect collision ellipsoid size (colsmallsitance). I hope that answers all the 3 questions that you asked in your thread. ***Regarding Normal Maps *** Normal maps will appear black until or unless there is any light source in your scene. and One can use up to 4 texture slots for one single material type. Coppercube default materials use the max of 2 slots. and you add texture to those 4 slots using the irredit/irrlicht tools. You might need to enable irredit/irrlicht tools from editor options. If you are not able to see it in your view menu. hopefully that answers to bot of yours and @floydness issues with normal maps. 
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Didn't mean to hijack the thread. Sorry. Thanks for the suggestions. I'll see if I can work it out. |
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CC by default uses view frustum culling, which will basically stop rendering the nodes that are not in the camera's view, so by having a single large mesh you'd effectively miss out on this feature, and as a result your games going to be a lot more performance intensive. I suggest you to keep your meshes (specially the big ones with higher poly counts) separate so that the engine could cull parts of them when not needed. However, If you are going to use a single mesh for the map, You probably should consider making use of the camera's far plane for some sort of view distance setting in the game, so that the users could decrease the view distance if they're having performance issues :) |
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wrote: Didn't mean to hijack the thread. Sorry. Thanks for the suggestions. I'll see if I can work it out. No worries! Like I said, it was something I was curious about, too. I just thought it might help you to get the answer if people could more easily see your question :) |
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