Ok, I downloaded unity, and set it up. I also, imported a free unite asset package to work on, in order to speed up development. But, where is the level editor? The only thing a see is a basic model placement tool, with the ability to create some cubes and spheres here and there. If you call this a ‘level editor’, I will suicide! It has so many little capabilities compared to the other industry standrds. Unity is supposed to help indie developers and make their life easier. I expected something more sophisticated than this.
I can level design pretty beatiful worlds with Radiant(specifically, the call of duty version), but I can’t even aply a texture on a plane without having to calculate the tiling x,y vars. Seriously, what should I donow? Is there a hidden editor I didn’t notice? What do you suggest me?
there is an editor. You place things in the scene and can drag on components. There are plugins for BSP-style level creation.You create scenes by placing level components together. Unity isn’t tailored to one style or scene, so the editor is very general. I’m not quite sure what you are complaining about other than being forced to not be lazy.
Unity is not meant to be a 3d modeling tool. A majority of Unity users use an external 3d application such as Blender or 3D Studio Max to do their level design.
That being said there’s a couple plugins that allow Unity to act more like an external 3d application. GameDraw comes to mind.
How would I be lazy for asking a level editor?
I am just shoked by the simplicity of the stock scene editor. Google promts me to other forum topics with people saying the same. And the common answers are like ‘hey make your geometry in 3ds max/maya/blender’ and import it to unity. But here’s the problem.
There’s a difference between a 3d modeling and level designing. 3d modeling programs are complex, and they detail really good. On the other hand, level designers are simpler and more engine-orientated. 3d artists≠level disigners
I have plenty of experience with Radiant, but I can’t model in blender/maya/3ds max. Does this mean that the only way to create levels is to use modeling software?
As for the BSP-like plugins you said, GameDraw is not free, and ProBuilder’s free edition is not for commercial use.
Thanks for your help anyways…
Part 1: Your modellers create modular content. They work in Maya/3dsmax/blender. Model items. Texture items.
Part 2: Level designer uses those pre-made assets to put stuff together. Drag in tower. Add door. Put interaction and collider on door. Add character. Add behaviors to characters. Link animations and controls.
Unless you’re going to go with something like ProBuilder, a level designer should not be touching texturing. Keep them away from artwork. And seriously, don’t complain about having to buy ProBuilder. Great tool that adds great value to Unity for low price. Worth every penny to quickly prototype ideas before creating the real geometry.
Unity, from my point of view, does exceedingly well at what it does - to assemble your assets (models, scripts, music, textures etc) together to create a game out of.
Are you thinking of game or genre-specific level editors? If that is so, I’m afraid you need to pull up your socks and get coding Unity so that it can work the way you want.
I’m not sure what Radiant is, the first hit I found is gtk radiant - that appears to be specifically designed to create levels for FPS games.
you’re right. Gtk radiant is the first version. This tool(and derivatives) has been used on countless games like Counter strike, call of duty, quake, medal of honour and more…
My problem is that it’s really hard to adapt… Making a simple room will take much more time than it used to, and unity stretches the texture most of the time.(I need to manually calculate the x,y coordinates as I already said.)
I hope that the scene editor will receive some critical enhancements in the near funure.
Unity takes content that you build, then lets you place it where you want and put any script you want onto it, along with providing strong foundations for hierarchy so you can organize your project that is built from content you constructed. When you start a new project it creates an empty scene. Scenes are the “levels” and the Project Hierarchy is the warehouse of the project stuff, like rocks, buildings, textures, materials, physics materials, weapons, scripts, players, prefabs, collision boxes, meshes, terrain data, imported store assets, documents, databases, etc…
So grabbing stuff from the warehouse and throwing it into the scene is how you build levels, telling it to execute different scenes is how you load different levels. But first - you populate it with assets so you can build the levels.
Dude, there’s no need to change it. I don’t think CoD, etc were made using that software, unless I’m wrong. But they probably used Max/Maya to construct their levels. Unity won’t model for you.
I’m sure the Unity editor will be enhanced with every revision, but to expect Unity to work exactly the way you want it to, or to expect it to work similarly to Radiant, I do not think that will happen.
Unity is an extremely flexible game engine. I’ve prototyped bullet hell, tower defense games, studied AI with it. What you are looking for is a very specific tool to solve your problems.
Unity, is a flexible game engine used to put all our assets together. You must understand there is a big difference between a game engine, and a level editor built for specific game/genre/engines - which is what gtk radiant appears to be.
Unity can be that editor, if you put in time to customize (code) it to your needs.
Well this is what I saw when I run Unity for the first time. This is why I created that topic.
There are two possibilities:
You didn’t understand me, because of the level of your intelligence, or I din’t explain it correctly because of the level of my intelligence, or maybe both!.
First of all, Radiant, like hammer and UnrealEd, aren’t mod tools. They are industry standard level design tools, being used to create stunning levels for AAA games.
BUT, I’m not crying about them. As I said, modeling is used for props, while the editors do the big stuff.
FOR EXAMPLE, on a quake based engine, If you want to make a simple room, FIRST you make the basic layout + decal placement in the LEVEL EDITOR, and THEN you place the PROP MODELS you created in MAYA/BLEDER e.t.c. But the problem is that I have to make every peice of geometry in blender/maya as the stock scene editor is not enough. TO BE HONEST, unity has some neat terrain editing tools, but that’s it. It is very time consuming when it comes to making the layout of the map.
There are many free 3d model site out there, but you can’t just spawn those models on the air. this is where a level editor comes.
Taking everything into consideration, Unity itself is a great way for indie developers, but there is a bid GAP in the level designing part.
Of course you have to create the level in the modeling app. A level editor is a level editor… not a game engine. There are differences, as zerobounds stated. You’re looking for something to take an easier route with, which is alright… but a 3d model editor is not just for props. It’s a 3d model editor for a reason… to create any 3d model in.
From what your’e looking for, it sounds like a way to make a room, add decals, add textures, add props. This is a basic level.
Unity can do this, its just less automated…
Create cube, set x scale to 10, z scale to 10. This is a small floor.
Drag a texture onto the floor. update the material scaling properties, now you have a textured floor.
Create a plane. Draw some image onto it, play with settings. Now you have a decal.
Repeat above steps for walls, doors, etc
This is what something like hammer is doing, except it allows you to edit vertexes a bit more (from memory), and it takes away the pain of creating rooms by having carving functions, etc. All hammer is is a catered 3d modelling tool.
You can achieve the same results, but its slower. But that’s because Unity is designed to be game genre inspecific.
This is why using something like blender will be faster. Eventually you will need to know the basics of a model editing tool anyway, so why not create a basic level… easier than trying to learn by modelling something complex.
THIS. Learn how to work with the technology, not against it. Just because it doesn’t fit how you want to use it does not make it wrong or have a gap. It means you have to learn how to use the tools. In this case, you need to consider something like ProBuilder or 3d modelling to take over tasks to do things normally you’d find bundled in a level editor.
It’s not our intelligence level, it’s your unwillingness to accept the differences and work with the changes rather than fight the changes. You’re complaining about something being too hard, but the truth is that making a game can be challenging work regardless of the editor used. If using a hammer isn’t the right tool for the job, grab a screwdriver, wrench, or drill press. One of them will work best for whatever it is you’re trying to do.
For me, none of the tools you’ve mentioned will pull off what I want. Unity3D does.
