Map2Dif, and hows it work?

[James Blade]

ok so this may be blastphomey, but can anyone direct me on how to export from 3D world studio to the torque game engine?

 

i export to half life/torque, and all i get is a map file which torque does not want to accept. for torque takes the dif format. which it states the world studio will export with one click, so i am guessing there is something i need to have checked that i don't have checked.

 

i have searched around and can not find anything to really help me, outside of the torque community is stating that dif support in the engine will be phased out for collada support, which i personally think is a bad move on their part, they just taking away tools for creators to use with their engine.

 

i personally am probubly not going to stick with the torque game engine, i feel it is much too dificult for a newbie like me to get started. but it would be a good place for me to play around in making maps and such and learning modeling for game design.

 

my plan is to use the 3D world editor for the larger builds and ruff drafts of maps, then use like blender for the smaller detailed parts of the maps, such as chairs, tables, flower pots, fences, and so forth.

 

as i get more advanced i will be on the search for a better suited engine to learn the coding stuff with. but one step at a time.

[cassius]

Someone advised me to stay away from Torque as it has messy coding even for experienced programmers. I would go for le or the free version of Unity.

[James Blade]

well i don't know enough about programing to make any calls on how torque is coded. i do know i have seen many places it stated that unless you are a seasoned programers, you are not gonna really get anywhere with the engine. and that i do believe is true.

 

i do know that someone just bought out the torque game engine and they are restructering the engine, supposalbly to make it more user friendly, but i feel by taking away tools such as dif support is not going to make their engine any easier to use.

 

i have been and always will be a firm believer that it is not so much what a program/software can do, it more of what can you do with the program/software.

 

point and case would be like comparing the 3D world studio with a program like blender.

 

ok sure blender can do so much more then 3D world studio. i believe there is no arguement there.

 

however right now i am just starting to learn blender, so i really can't do much with it atm.

 

however 3D world studio is easy enough that a person can dive right in and start creating things with it.

 

i started building things with the evalution version of it without reading a single line of instructions. and i am sure many others have done the same thing.

 

so in that sense i can do more with 3D world studio then i can do with blender. so for me, 3D world studio does more then blender for my needs at this time.

 

so a game engine can have all the bells and whistles to make it as state of the art as it can be, but if people can not figure out how to use the thing. all those bells and whistles don't really mean much.

 

right now i am trying to concentrate on mapping and modeling, my aim is to progress deeper into other areas as i go.

i feel the more i can do, the more i will want to do. i want to start off with something i do know a little about which is mapping.

as i work with mapping i am learning blender, my aim with blender is to learn atleast one new thing each weekend with it.

then i will start working with gui, i feel this would be a good way to get my feet wet with scripting.

and then i will go from there.

 

the LE game engine does look like a pretty decent engine, i really don't know enough about it to make any real calls on it. but from what i seen in the forums most people are very happy with it. which is a really good sign.

 

what i am looking for is something that supports multiplayer without me having to set up a bunch of coding.

something that will give me a good starting point. so i can start mapping in it asap, without having to deal with a bunch of scripting and programing just to get a charactor in there i can walk around with.

something that has good amount of tutorials and is well documented, so not only will it tell me what the feature does, but how to use the feature.

and ofcourse it has to be capadable with the 3D world studio exports.

and yes i am sure alot of you will say well LE is the thing for you...hehehe. and you never know i may end up going with the LE engine.

 

the fact i see the admin on the forums here, is just another thing that encourages me to go with the LE engine.

but i must take things one step at a time.

[cassius]

I think your approach to Blender is the right one. I spent an hour every night with blender trying to learn something new each time and I am now not too bad with it. gmax is good too.Learning some of the keyboard shortcuts is a great help too.