We need a 3D view

System

Not sure if the Foundry tools currently will have a 3D view for map editing (i.e. seeing the map as rendered by the game where you can place objects and such) as the one screen-shot of the system map editor released had just a 2d top down view. If not at launch, it would be a very good thing shortly down the road to include a 3D view as for fine tuning placement of objects and NPCS that would really help. I would be quite surprised and a tad dissipointed if this is not in the toolset already...so i am crossing my fingers! but even if it is not, if there was some assurance that it will be in time i would be happy.

Archived Post

Very true, it's hard to properly paste something without knowing how it'll actually look. And popping in and out of preview mode is a bit too much of a hassle. There must be a way to add 3D view?

Archived Post

Adding wireframes might be doable but an on-the-fly placement of 3D objects, displaying in real-time might be too resource intensive for many users.

A side view of these huge maps would not be optimal either - it would need to be isometric but that only does so much.

Honestly, 2D is great for getting a simple idea of where things are and then checking them out (by moving the spawn point) is how you verify.

Doing this, I have:

• Placed guards in guard towers
• Placed NPCs in XL compounds
• Ensured Objects are below the terrain on unlevel terrain (i.e. nothing floating) etc.

Archived Post

Darren_Kitlor wrote:

Adding wireframes might be doable but an on-the-fly placement of 3D objects, displaying in real-time might be too resource intensive for many users.

A side view of these huge maps would not be optimal either - it would need to be isometric but that only does so much.

Honestly, 2D is great for getting a simple idea of where things are and then checking them out (by moving the spawn point) is how you verify.

Doing this, I have:

• Placed guards in guard towers
• Placed NPCs in XL compounds
• Ensured Objects are below the terrain on unlevel terrain (i.e. nothing floating) etc.

Well there are some pieces, kinda like half blocks so to speak that you need to snap together in place for them to be useable. They're under the Fekl part of the place-ables. I'm having a hard time snapping them in place where they're supposed to be with the 2D map view as it is now.

Archived Post

Meynolt wrote: »

Well there are some pieces, kinda like half blocks so to speak that you need to snap together in place for them to be useable. They're under the Fekl part of the place-ables. I'm having a hard time snapping them in place where they're supposed to be with the 2D map view as it is now.

I agree that more precise boudning boxes would be useful.

This is a long-term feature to be improved. During closed beta, we had to work around it by hitting PLay Map frequently.

Pro-Tip:

Move your spawn point right next to whatever you're working on at the moment. This allows you to "play map" and see how it is.

When the servers aren't hammered, you ought to be able to do this rather quickly.

Archived Post

Darren_Kitlor wrote:

Adding wireframes might be doable but an on-the-fly placement of 3D objects, displaying in real-time might be too resource intensive for many users.

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Not really, i have personally successfully worked with 3D tools like "3D Studio" and "Maya" in times where i wished i had the machines of today (ok maya is not a good reference)

And 3D placement is really easy once you have adopted it.

Archived Post

stargazer1820 wrote: »

Not really, i have personally successfully worked with 3D tools like "3D Studio" and "Maya" in times where i wished i had the machines of today (ok maya is not a good reference)

And 3D placement is really easy once you have adopted it.

Except we're not talking about graybox objects - we're talking about fully textured models where lighting has to be calculated before entering a map (not dynamically).