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Nice work Josh, as usual. Personally I don't see CSG editing as a very useful central tool anymore. I understand that it's been part of the industry for a long time and Josh I don't think you've wasted any time doing the above - I'm sure plenty will use it.

But I think the focus of the editor of a game engine should be much different. I'm sort of making this up as I go here but you know I'd like to see game engine editors wrap themselves around the industry standard tools most developers use these days -> Maya/Max/Mud Box/etc.

It should be able to take any arbitrary model object and turn it into a useful game object with little to no intervention. It should know when the model is being edited and changed in the native modelling engine and update it in real-time when saved. Etc.

 

Thoughts?

 

Note: I'm pipe-dreaming here. This isn't a complaint about the above article.

Nice work, can't wait to get my hands on it

 

@Scott:

If I remember correctly there was Blog from Josh where he describes exactly your idea: http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/blog/1/entry-758-back-to-the-art-pipeline/

yeah... i'm foaming at the bit to try this out

 

--Mike

But I think the focus of the editor of a game engine should be much different. I'm sort of making this up as I go here but you know I'd like to see game engine editors wrap themselves around the industry standard tools most developers use these days -> Maya/Max/Mud Box/etc. It should be able to take any arbitrary model object and turn it into a useful game object with little to no intervention. It should know when the model is being edited and changed in the native modelling engine and update it in real-time when saved. Etc.Thoughts?Note: I'm pipe-dreaming here. This isn't a complaint about the above article.

That pretty much describes the way Leadwerks3D assets work.

 

It's one thing to download Blender for free, but it's another thing to have a modeling tool you can use proficiently. Even if you're a 3ds max expert, level design is much much easier with unique CSG modeling, rather than trying to piece together a lot of pre-made components. You might not happen to have a hallway or floor the exact size you need, and scaling components to fit will stretch their texture coordinates. Good level design is a mix of unique CSG geometry and prefabricated details.

Hey Josh, everything looks great. Would it be possible to import a model and convert it to CSG?

Actually, I have some convex decomposition routines that will decompose any polygonal geometry into convex hulls, so it would be possible to implement that. Not sure when and if, but it's doable.