Mod making support for ET:QW?

(Aratta) #1

Some important questions about QW

  1. What map editor will it use?
  2. How good will modding work on it? Is community/mod support at all planned? (ET modability is limited…thanks to absolutely no tools ever gotten released for it)
  3. Any import/export tools for Maya or XSI?
  4. Can you give some technical details about model/animation formats that will be used, can those be modified?
    Will it be possible to easily convert existing mods from ET to QW or will they need a complete rewrite?
  5. Any specific things that make the engine great for modding? Or rather the contrary?

thanks

(Joe999) #2

speaking of limited ET modability … why don’t you use the source code?

there have been some hints about the editor(s) if you follow the links in the preview & interview sticky here on the forum.

the question i keep asking myself is what the megatexture editor will render. if i make eg a forest level, will it render the trees itself?

(kamikazee) #3

The megatexture stuff will be all brand new.

All your other questions are answered if you would take the time to see how it’s done in D3 and Q4. See http://www.iddevnet.com/ and http://www.modwiki.net/wiki/Main_Page
Since the last one’s main page seems to be down atm, you can acces stuff through here as well: http://www.modwiki.net/wiki/Doom_3

(Hakuryu) #4
  1. It will be very similar to the Doom 3 and Quake 4 editor since it uses the same engine.
  2. Its likely that it will be quite mod-able. Just because an ‘official toolset’ isnt released, doesn’t mean that a game is not mod-able, it just means the people with 0 mod experience cant (or wont try to) mod it (like ET). There are alot of ET mods like ET Pro and even Baserace as a map mod.
  3. I’m sure there will be tools for importing/exporting models, but I dont know the formats. Try looking up Quake4/Doom3 resources on this subject for more info.
  4. I dont think any game has ever had an ‘easy convert’ for mods in a sequel. Maybe map conversion for some games, but never mods.
  5. From a mapping standpoint, if the editor works like Doom 3 and you can switch on the fly between mapping and playing your level, then yes- this gives an edge to mappers not found in games where you have to map and then shutdown and start the game/etc. From a coders view, I like UT based games as you can use things like Undox to make yourself a complete object hierarchy in html pages, and edit code within the editor… I didnt code much in Doom 3 so Im not sure.

I made a mod for Tribes back in the day (http://PlanetTribes.com/Balance), by myself… gone are those days when 1 person can create a mod due to the complexities of the many technologies in new games. If your looking for what would be the easiest to mod, then Unreal Tournament games win hands down imo.

And about the megatexture drawing trees… I would imagine it would if you setup the layer/texture to have trees. They have said that information such as grass will be contained within the megatexture (if memory serves me), and this sounds just like Far Cry’s terrain layers … ie. you set a texture, type (sand, grass,etc), and any foliage as part of the texture layer, so when you paint that layer you are painting texture, ground properties, and foliage all together.

(kamikazee) #5

I believe that the game code based on the D3 one may be easier to mod, as it’s object oriented.

(kamikazee) #6

If Q3Map2 could do this with sprite shaders, why not something like this great-sounding megatexture technology?