Design levels in 3D editor

Hello.

I am about to start a new game project and I think about levels.

Is it nice idea to create levels in editors like 3Ds max?
Like base level’s geometry and put there meshes with special names/tags, which I will replace by for example enemies or traps?

How do you guys design and store levels for your games?

Hello, don’t know what kind of game it will be, i think a good way could be a json file with levels, enemies and traps (example: level, xlocation, ylocation /or/ level, xlocation, ylocation, enemyId (or trapId)) but it’s just my opinion.

I meant, is it necessary to make level editor for game?
It will be arcade game with mazes levels.

So to find out positions of my enemies, firstly I have to place them somewhere.
I think, I can do it in 3D editor, export with geometry and replace by real enemies in loading stage.

Well the level editor can help you to see the level while you build it but it’s not essential. You can build it on paper with a x,y grid and copy it in the json file. For the enemy you need an enemy entity (or more than 1) and clone it when you create the level for each enemy location (in the same way you clone the floor tiles).

PS: since destroy an entity and clone a new one dirt the memory is better if you reallocate the cloned tiles and entities.

Yea, sure, it’s trivial, but thanks for point.

My levels will be little bit more complex.

So my plan is:

  1. Design level’s geometry, draw textures, etc
  2. Place special flags on geometry like cubes 1x1x1 with special names. Like “enemy”, or “laser”.
  3. Write function to parse level’s meshes. Replace this flags-cubes with real badass enemies and lasers.

Just don’t use default playcanvas geometry as cube to do that it’s more expensive than import an fbx model :wink:

Yes, I use 3Ds max for modeling :slight_smile:

Aww…my 3ds stopped working…don’t know why and don’t work also if i reinstall it sigh

There are some hotfixes for 3Ds max, maybe it would help.

Thanks a lot i will take a look :slight_smile: