10 réponses à ce sujet

[georage]

Seeing how long it takes to render lightmaps and post locals has forced me into some extreme measures, such as working on the toolset on two computers and using one to actively toolset and one to "compile."

I was curious how Bioware did it. Did they render lightmaps often? or did they just design the level and only render lightmaps and post locals at the end?

I am wasting a lot of time, I think, by constantly compiling and then loading up the mod and running around in it.

What was Bioware's work flow? How are other modders doing it?

[Nithrakis Arcanius]

I think they used a different lightmap rendering solution than the one packaged with the toolset.

[Strike1987]

I put creating areas on hold until bioware releases a patch for the toolset. After reading and trying out some stuff my self it seems to me that the toolset has a lot of kinks that need to be worked out before you can get any kind of real work done.



I guess we kinda got a old version of the toolset or something.

[hunharibo]

Clearly Bioware used a networked solution. They didnt really render lightmaps on desktops. They sent the render job down in the basement to a networked renderserver, possibly 8-16 cores. They also didnt run a single SQL instance on every computer they used to work on the game. They had a powerful SQL instance on a server somewhere that all of them could access from desktop stations (in that kind of configuration checking in and out makes absolute sense).

[georage]

Strike -- I think the toolset works OK, it has bugs but no killer ones. The new lightmapper (released today) helps a lot. The memory hog issue needs to be the next fix, otherwise we will not be able to export even small mods on what most would consider better-than-decent home computers.



My suggestion is to build one small level named test and get accustomed to the awkwardness, then use the cruelly-obtained knowledge to create more awesome levels for your actual mod.

[lowrez01]

hunharibo wrote...

Clearly Bioware used a networked solution. They didnt really render lightmaps on desktops. They sent the render job down in the basement to a networked renderserver, possibly 8-16 cores. They also didnt run a single SQL instance on every computer they used to work on the game. They had a powerful SQL instance on a server somewhere that all of them could access from desktop stations (in that kind of configuration checking in and out makes absolute sense).

this is exactly what I assume they did. They gutted the toolset and culled all their development environment stuff. 

Modifié par lowrez01, 25 novembre 2009 - 11:59 .

[Nodrak]

It was also said they used one of the NWN's for area design prototyping (and even combat iirc). If you can simulate something to your general liking, only minor tweaks will be needed to preserve fidelity on the swap.

[KalDurenik]

Tbh compiling a map lateron (even so the large ones) take 1-4hours for me (and then i can't do anything else on the computer because if it do the toolset might crash.

[BryanDerksen]

Yes, we used a completely different lightmapper in-house. We have a renderfarm of ten hefty machines (I don't know their specs offhand) tucked away somewhere in the building and when a level artist hit the "render lightmaps" button it got sent off to the queue there. It could still take a couple of hours for the lightmaps to show up. Unfortunately the lightmapper we're using in-house is commercial and we didn't get permission to release it, so we had to come up with a new one for the end user toolset.

[FalloutBoy]

I am just starting to get my feet wet with the level editor. Is it possible to test an area without having to render the lightmaps every time?

[KalDurenik]

My suggestion is sadly that you leave the computer on over night to generate the things... The levels im creating right now are huge... And sadly i can't do anything else on the computer while its doing these things.