In-Foundry 3ds Max/UDK-like "3D View" Mode

gtdcarthage

Hello guys, back to talking about Foundry features again.

Neverwinter is a F2P game so I'm not exactly into suggesting something ambitious but I'm hoping to see what kind of community support this would get for that matter.

After playing a variety of quests that go all the way from insane quality to rather... unmentionable, I'm starting to get a hang of not just relying on preset environments and the rooms->populate feature to build things, but I'm actually putting together models I find in the editor catalogue to create more customized areas, such as outdoor ruins. Creating areas entirely out of models and assets found in the editor catalogue instead of simply picking from a list of pre-made ones, I believe, is basically the highest standard for creating environments in the Foundry...

However, the Foundry itself is the biggest obstacle to this matter as particularly aligning objects is a huge pain, especially since you cannot 'noclip' nor open the editor model catalogue and place new models during in-game testing mode. Placing a single decorative model from inside the Foundry, going into play (loading screen delay), and aligning it in-game from awkward camera angles is EXTREMELY cumbersome, almost unnecessarily so.

My idea here is simple... I believe the Foundry should have an In-Editor 3D Mode with multiple viewports, where I can place objects directly on-screen and align them... like in the oft-touted Unreal Development Kit.



I believe this will essentially grant all Foundry authors significantly more power in creating more imaginative levels much easier, much quicker, and at a grander scale than what we see now. We can easily align absolutely everything on various planes, we can create multi-level dungeons like there was no tomorrow, we could practically have MORE Z-axis in-game than plain, flat-looking places.

I understand, of course, this is a huge sweeping feature for the Foundry, having a huge built-in 3D View when the playtest mode already has it is something to consider as well as the bad performance a 3D mode might bring.

But I'm still interested on people's opinion on the matter. What do you guys think?

If a 3D view is too ambitious, I'd at least like the test mode Foundry Tools to be expanded... three things, really:
* NOCLIP! Ability to fly around your level and pass through solid walls!
* A menu/catalogue for models and the ability to place them at the mouse pointer! The benefit here is obvious.
* Alt + mouse drag = duplicate/clone item and position it anywhere. I'd really like this over plain ol' copy paste and drag the object that appears from far away into its intended place.

kerlaa

OMG yes please. I am having the hardest of times trying to align buildings in an uneven landscape. Drop-load-look-edit-delete-drop-load-look-edit makes this so much harder.

prunelander

would like too, was expecting more creativity by tools ...

fugln

gtdcarthage wrote: »

Hello guys, back to talking about Foundry features again.

Neverwinter is a F2P game so I'm not exactly into suggesting something ambitious but I'm hoping to see what kind of community support this would get for that matter.

After playing a variety of quests that go all the way from insane quality to rather... unmentionable, I'm starting to get a hang of not just relying on preset environments and the rooms->populate feature to build things, but I'm actually putting together models I find in the editor catalogue to create more customized areas, such as outdoor ruins. Creating areas entirely out of models and assets found in the editor catalogue instead of simply picking from a list of pre-made ones, I believe, is basically the highest standard for creating environments in the Foundry...

However, the Foundry itself is the biggest obstacle to this matter as particularly aligning objects is a huge pain, especially since you cannot 'noclip' nor open the editor model catalogue and place new models during in-game testing mode. Placing a single decorative model from inside the Foundry, going into play (loading screen delay), and aligning it in-game from awkward camera angles is EXTREMELY cumbersome, almost unnecessarily so.

My idea here is simple... I believe the Foundry should have an In-Editor 3D Mode with multiple viewports, where I can place objects directly on-screen and align them... like in the oft-touted Unreal Development Kit.



I believe this will essentially grant all Foundry authors significantly more power in creating more imaginative levels much easier, much quicker, and at a grander scale than what we see now. We can easily align absolutely everything on various planes, we can create multi-level dungeons like there was no tomorrow, we could practically have MORE Z-axis in-game than plain, flat-looking places.

I understand, of course, this is a huge sweeping feature for the Foundry, having a huge built-in 3D View when the playtest mode already has it is something to consider as well as the bad performance a 3D mode might bring.

But I'm still interested on people's opinion on the matter. What do you guys think?

If a 3D view is too ambitious, I'd at least like the test mode Foundry Tools to be expanded... three things, really:
* NOCLIP! Ability to fly around your level and pass through solid walls!
* A menu/catalogue for models and the ability to place them at the mouse pointer! The benefit here is obvious.
* Alt + mouse drag = duplicate/clone item and position it anywhere. I'd really like this over plain ol' copy paste and drag the object that appears from far away into its intended place.

This shouldnt be so hard to get working. As I remember even Worldcraft/Hammer Editor had it over a decade ago.

gtdcarthage

I was thinking, honestly, the the Foundry by default was something like this. In fact, I initially thought the Foundry was more versatile, like the Aurora/Electron toolset from Bioware NW games, perhaps with much more modernizations such as customizing maps outside of tilesets but with common level design practices. (putting static meshes/models/environment whatevers together)

As it stands, there's quite a lot of story telling that can be done with the existing tools already - but I must say I found them rather limited, if not at some point rather thrown-together, as a more cynical criticism of the current Foundry tools especially when looking at some spots like the Items, Costume, and the in-game Foundry 3D Tools rather limited. When I clicked on the 'advanced' mode in the costume editor, I was really expecting a bottom line approach of putting together entire pieces of armor from different choices... not the predefined templates at the moment that is somehow existing over what I can easily see as more hidden choices than is offered. (all the way from underwear, to certain body features such as beards, and even as far as what looks like skin overlays)

The way the tools are presented at the moment, most especially... they rather give the 'what you minimally need to get things done' impression rather than the 'exclusive innovative intuitive quest builder toolset' I was expecting.