I have Blitz3D. I am going to make some sports games, starting with a Football Game. I finally have some time to dedicate to it so I am going to get started. At first I am going to use non-animating shapes (like X's and O's) on the field. My question is this:
The field/stadium--> What would be the best tool to do this? It would need to be a BIG field with the hash marks, lines, and stuff on it, so I am not sure whether to use a Terrain type of thing or use a BSP modeler or the Maplet program. I think I can handle all of the rest of the game design stuff, just wanting to do this in the best way.
Later, I'll change the X's and O's to player models and then actually animate the models later. But they have to have a field to play on, so any ideas on this would be appreciated!
Maplet allows me to build a simple "rectangle" for the field but then what about adding the sky later and having detail on the ground? One texture for the field won't do it, I don't think. Will maplet allow a skybox for the sky and also multiple textures on each surface (for instance, the grass texture could be great for the entire surface, but then we need numbers, yard markers, team logos, endzone graphics, etc. on the field. To have all of this visible and for it to look nice it would have to be one hell of a large bitmap to fit it all on one texture map to stretch over the surface. It seems it would have to be several bitmaps which were overlaid onto the surface. Which tool would be best for this kind of thing? Does maplet allow that?
The skybox techinique is actually documented with the example that comes with maplet, and they updated maplet such that you don't even need to create a box outside with invisible textures anymore. however, i still will have the problem of adding textures to the field surface. i think once you select a "texture" (grass bitmap, for instance), then that texture is applied to the entire field surface and then there is no way to modify it (no easy way). for instance, i would like to add the team logo at the center of the field and then the yard markers and goal line graphics, etc. there seems to be no good way to do this with maplet. is there no way to control the textures onto maplet? it seems you only have control of the overall texture used for the whole surface (like the grass bitmap) and no way to add graphics "on top" of the grass (like the chalk marks, the yard markers, team logos, etc.) i am new so maybe i missed it. any ideas?
I thought about sprites being used as "decals". Is there also a "Decals" system that could be used to add a small texture on top of a larger face/triangle which is covered by a different texture (for instance a number graphic that is stuck on top of the field graphic)? I guess I am looking for a way to do this on the front end (with a modeller or something) so that I don't have to add it during the program. The sprites idea would probably work but then I would wonder about speed (rendering the scene). I wonder if it would be faster to already have the "decals" in place in the original .b3d map of the field (model). Using the sprites might be the fastest way, I don't know. any more ideas? I want to thoroughly research this before I begin so that I won't have to start over again when I find a better way-
Thanks,
Mike
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