Game Development measures

[BLOCKQUOTE class=’ip-ubbcode-quote’][font size=’-1′]quote:[/font][HR] So basically I can size it however I want to? I just have to keep it so the objects go together? [HR][/BLOCKQUOTE]
Yes, but.. you will find it easier if you can stick to a real world scale from the start. Then if you ever get to write another game you can re-use certain models and everything will fit together.
If you build everything to a different scale it would become a nightmare trying to fit everything together.

Bazza

Well…the wheel has official started rolling! My main programmer is starting his first program and and I am starting my first game levels for our FPS. Or am I? NO I’m not! <!– s:( –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_sad.gif" alt="" title="Sad" /><!– s:( –> I need your help. I need to know about the measurements for a game. How do I size everything? I heard a door should be about two cubes in height, but what about the rest? The walls? Two cubes or a bit higher right? How about the guns? How should I scale those? If anyone has a link or some sort of information helping me model my game it would be so greatly appreciated. You’d never know my gratitude and I’d never be able to pay you back. Please help me!!!!

~Ranbinous

Scale is only relevant to certain aspects of your scene
The size of a doorway for example, is governed by what needs to pass through it. For a figure of average human proportions you need an average door height and width. However if you were going to be chased by some creature which is much taller the doorway would need to be larger.

To start, measure the doorways and wall heights in your own house, you can then use these as basic measurments when building your scene in 3DC.
Assuming you have the units in 3DC set to meters (you can check this by going to tools menu andgt; options ), when you drop a cube onto the scene it measures 1 meter x 1 meter x 1 meter.
If you scale the cube to x = .45 y = 1.8 z = .3 you have a cube scaled to an average size of a human figure.
Also this is were using Blitz helps, 1 meter in 3DC = 1 meter in Blitz.

Remember in a game the size of your rooms/corridors/ceilings etc are governed by the size and type of your ‘bad guys’. If some of them are of the flying type you need to increase the ceiling height to give them some space.

The scale of your weapons depends on how they will be displayed. For a shotgun you can get away with just modelling the barrel, as this is usualy all that is seen. But for a pistol you would need to model the whole object.
A shotgun barrel is about 1 meter….maybe a bit less.
If you build everything to a scale of 1 meter = 1 meter you can then measure all sorts of objects in real life and convert these to your 3DC models.

This is were writing a good story line comes in handy. If you do it well and include the sizes of your monsters etc you can then build your level accordingly.

Most games writing software will allow you to scale your models, so if you do make a blunder you can usually correct this, but remember, if you scaled down the size of a room, you would also scale down the size of the doorway.

Scaling In Blitz, after you have loaded the model, it goes…..

ScaleEntity Gun, 2,2,2

This would double the size of your gun along every axis, likewise…..

ScaleEntity Gun, .5,.5,.5

would halve its size.

Hope some of this helps.

Bazza

Here’s a VERY basic nailgun type thingie with animation to give you some idea. The animation could be improved, it was just a quickie. It’s about a scale 2ft 4ins. long (.7 of meter)

From the start, you will have to try and keep the face/poly count of your models as low as possible, so you could remove all the underside faces on a model like this, plus any internal faces that wouldn’t be seen.

For things like walls it may be best to start with slabs built from a cube, say .15 meters thick x 3 meters high, you could then move these around to make your rooms and corridors. Remember to remove ALL unseen faces.

If you don’t keep the face/poly count down you will most likely run into problems with the frame rate for the game.
The nailgun in my game fires about 15 rounds per second, each round has a lifespan of about 5 seconds. So when its fired I can have up to 75 rounds on screen at once, plus say half a dozen ‘bad guys’. If there was only one you wouldn’t be using the nail gun.!!! <!– s:) –><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt="" title="Smile" /><!– s:) –>
Add to this, that the bad guys are more than likely firing back at you, and your computer needs to track each round, to see if it hits anything.
So if you don’t keep your face/poly count for your models as low as you can, things will start to slow down and the game becomes unplayable.

Bazza

So basically I can size it however I want to? I just have to keep it so the objects go together?