Amidst AP testing and vacation, I've been gone a long time. I have a Tabula Rasa ("clean slate", pun intended) of a mind, and I'm more hopeful than ever before.
I am making an MMORPG with some friends at my high-school (and my teacher), it will be assisted with a graphics-programming class.
At this point, I would like some advice as to how to handle mapping. My thoughts were to create a large model in .obj format (using a terrain program) and then slice it into tons of little squares and use a tile-loading program to determine where each tile should go.
I'm looking for advice on what program I should make the terrain with (I was thinking FreeWorld3D) and how I should approach the tile-loading program. If I import the small squares as different models, they should get culled automatically, right?
(Please don't reply by telling me how hard it is to write an MMORPG. I'm doing it to learn)
I found the "Tools Demo" on the "Movies and Demos" page intriguing… Here's the link if you're lazy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1MuK9W-v6I
Is that software available, and is it easy to integrate?
That is the ncsoft proprietary level builder. It is a program they have developed for in-house game production and is not available to the public. Although there was talk of a community driven effort…
http://www.jmonkeyengine.com/jmeforum/index.php?topic=7967.0
Shame. Oh well, it looks pretty close to FreeWorld3D anyway (www.freeworld3d.org).
My thoughts were to create a base terrain with FreeWorld3D and apply the textures to it, cut it into pieces, make each piece a model, load each model in using some sort of loader, then I would manage Game Objects like Trees using my Game Engine to allow easy manipulation (like World of Warcraft does it, if anybody here has ever been a GM on a private server).
I'll do water using jME and not make it part of the model. My problems are really loading up the model and then the REALLY big problem is making all of the tiles line up properly.
(Would it be smart to put Model Loading into a factory method, so I don't have to copy and paste the Maggie example for EVERY model?)
Would it be smart to put Model Loading into a factory method
I think you will find this is a necessity, otherwise load times will kill you. (amongst other issues)