last weeks i worked hard to make the editor useful in the meaning that i actually build full level with physics, lights, logic and all game play feature i could and would want to have.
to support future feature that i might want to have but i can't really think of them right now, i added something i called "generic entity system", this system basically allow me to define any entity i want by specifying entity params which also define the ui elements needed to define and set those params, i also support serialization, which load and save those params automatically.
params can be scalar, vectors, color, file, string, multiple selection values etc...
with the system, i define the main entities that allow me to build full working level:
1. light entity - define lights in the scene such as: point/spot/sun/dir light
2. player entity - define player start position when the level is up
3. physics constraints entity - define physics constraints such as spherical/hinge/fixed etc.
4. fx entity - define special effect using my effect system
5. model entity - define geometric model to be placed in the scene
the last time i wrote about the editor is said that i added boolean operation which helps me to build brushed that i could build the level from, after long thinking i decided that it wont be good in the long term as brushes i good for old school bsp and stuff like that.
the things is my engine doesn't do any assumption about the scene is being static, this means that everything can move and the engine will handle with no problem.
as for the visibility issue, i want to replace my portals with hierarchia z buffer occlusion culling (but this will be in another post...)
when i finish to work on the scene, i save it as a .map file, this is very similar format to the old quake map because it fit my generic entity system and all the entities written into it will all the needed params. it also very easy to parse it, used to load q4 maps, so i fit like a glove ;p
anyway, here is a screen shot that shows my progress:
the left toolbar is my action bar which i create all entities, manipulate scale/rotation/position.
the right window is the entity property grid which allow me to modify selected entity params.
the button window is the log windows, where i write all the action and info to the user.
that's it for now, cya...
