I am studying java programming (almost a year) and trying to develop a
game using jMonkey. I have tried Unity before but since I only know
Java I decided to go with jMonkey.
My problem is that the terrain/world edit in jMonkey is buggy. When I
make changes to the terrain I sometimes can not save. Many others seem
to have the same problem too.
I’m using jMonkey 3 and why do they have a serious bug like that now? like it was beta version or something…
I would also prefere drag n drog exactly like Unity have, but jMonkey doesn’t seem to have that.
Is there any other way I can create the terrain/world (with drag n
drop like Unity) and then import into jMonkey? What are the
alternatives?
I’ve used the terrain editor just a couple of times but I’ve never experienced those kinds of bugs, which os do you use?
What do you mean? In jme you can build scenes with the visual editor but you have always to write some code.
You could build it directly in blender (with the sculpt mode for example) and then import it in jme, but you must be careful to keep the amount of polygons low. Also, if you plan to build a big terrain you should subdivide it in chunks and build a lod system that doesn’t make holes between chunks (see geomipmapping).
With the built-in library (which is the one used by the terrain editor inside the ide but that you can also use from the code) all those things are automatically managed.
I am using windows 8.1 x64. I searched for the problem but no one actually seemed to have any solution.
With drag and drop I’m referring to draging objects like a house, tree or anything and just drop in into the scene. But I guess I will survive anyway x).
I am really confused with anotherthing. I’m new to all this and I do not understand how big an imported house should be, because they are in different sizes and I don’t know if an object is really big or really small. Is there any kind of measurement you use when programming in jMonkey? And if so, how big should a “normal human” be? Maybe it sounds funny but it actually annoys me.
And about that geomipmapping, was that only when importing from blender or should you always use it?
No, wait. My previous answer was related only with the terrain. If you want to use blender for make a big terrain instead of the built-in terrain editor those are the things you should take care by yourself.
Indeed the built-in terrain already has geomipmapping and chunks structure.
Otherwise if you want to import a model like a car, of course you don’t need to split it in chunks and use the geomipmapping… :chimpanzee_closedlaugh:
You should probably use Unity. JME requires one to be a decent Java developer and while it has an SDK it’s definitely a programmer’s library and not a drag-n-drop designer engine.
Unity also has people who get paid to work on it where as JME is 100% developed by volunteers… so the bugs you find are there because no one fixed them yet.
I am an Unity developer in my job and I will recommend it for you. Unity’s C# scripting is similar to Java programming so the shift for you will have little issues and you will focus more on game logic code and let Unity handle the rest like scene management when you load new scenes and unloads the old one for you. The scene editor in Unity is very robust and you can visually debug as you run tests.
in JME you have to do a lot more things yourself. the scene composer can help you group objects to make them easier to load in your code but you have to load and dispose of your objects manually. you have far more control then in Unity which is my ideal but without good programming practices you get poor performance and many unexpected results. JME can overwhelm you if your game project is too ambitious for your current programming skills. It happened to me,
Ok because they save button is grey, so I noticed that if I press ctrl + Z, then I can save. So i have to like raise the ground (even though I don’t want to) and then press ctrl +Z, then I can save. funny
And another question, I was raising and lowering the terrain so much that there became a hole in the terrain, like someone just had ripped off a part of the terrain. Why is that? And The terrain is thin as a paper, should I make it thicker? I did that in unity so the terrain was maybe “10 units thick”, but do you havd to do that in jMonkey or is it ok to let it be thin as a paper?
Nice link for scenecomposer thank you!
Ok great! Thought I had to do geomipmapping in jMonkey first x)
Oh, you are right it seems there is a bug with “raise terrain” tool, when you use this tool the sdk doesn’t detect that the terrain changes and the save button stays gray, with all other tools like the “Smooth terrain” for example, it works :\
You can’t make it thicker, it works with a 2d heightmap so there isn’t a way to express the thickness.
I couldn’t decide how I wanted the terrain to look like so it broke
But I’m becoming more comfprtable with jMonkey now. Will start adding some enemies soon. but one question, is there any tutorial on how to apply like damage to an enemy when you hit with a sword or something? I can’t find any tutorials on how to do that .
