🚀 go-pugleaf

multi tim wrote:

> // Needing advice choosing game and editor for architecture university
> project. //
>
> Hi!
> In preparation for a university undergraduate course in architecture we will
> be using computer games (3D Shooter or similar) as a tool to discover
> "virtual space".
>
> We'll be happy if you share your knowledge about which GAMES and EDITORS
> appropriate for this task.
> We don't need to create a "real game" with a dramaturgy, all kinds of hidden
> dangers, monsters and all that. We will focus on exploring a) space and b)
> player interaction.
>
>

snip

>
> 4) Playing / Moving / Interacting
> ++ allows several different ways of interacting with the environment:
> manipulating objects, moving, lifting, shifting them
> + free movement in space: Nice, if "6 degree of freedom" movements (like in
> DESCENT) are possible.

As an architect, avid 3D computer game player and Descent level builder I would
recommend the Descent series as a way for architecture students to explore 3D
space relations.  Descent 2 has a relatively easy level editor and there are
thousands of player-created levels on the net in which to explore.  There are
also online games in which students can observe the behaviour of others within
the space.  The same is true of  Descent 3.  Whereas Descent 2 levels (like
Doom) are based on six-sided cubes whose sides can be distorted and where space
is created by removing cubes from a solid, Descent 3 levels are created more
like 3D objects in AutoCad or 3D Studio, where solids are created from a void
one vertex at a time.  The Descent 3 editor is not at all easy to learn but is
capable of producing much more realistic environments than Descent 2, which is
much easier to learn.

I have several Descent related links on my web site, as well as screen shots of
one Descent 2 and one Descent 3 level I created -- hopefully architecturally
inspired which might interest you.  They illustrate the different capabilities
of each game/editor.
http://www.phobos-station.com/page5.html

>
> THE EDITOR(S)
> +++ editor is easy too learn, easy to use; is well documented.
> ++    Most preferably geometric data can also be imported from CAD programs
> which are well known to the students, for instance in *.dxf format or
> similar..

As noted above, the Descent 3 level editor is similar to creating 3D objects in
AutoCad, however I don't think it accepts outside input, as in a .dxf file.

>
> ++    allows the creating of spaces in all directions, rather than just
> vertically
> extruding 2D floor plans.
> +      allows to link or merge levels which different students have created
> separately. "Living" dynamic spaces like in  VRML is not necessary though.
> -       less important: Actors in the game / Creation of geometrically
> complex models of players, monsters etc..
> -       less important: sound design, complex animations, design of monsters
>

Again, given your probable time constraints I'd recommend Descent 2 and its
Mission Builder.  Descent, IMHO, is better than the Doom-type games because of
its true 3D movement capability.

>
> What do you suggest?
> Thank you in advance.
>
> tim edler
>

HTH,
Will