questions about game design/setting up maya

# 1 28-12-2004 , 04:44 PM

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Hi there.

I'm hoping someone can help with this but basically, I am new to Maya and am interested in designing video game levels. The areas that I need help/reccomendations on include:

1. What is the best way to figure out scale for your polygon/nurb models? I am interested in making large cityscapes and outdoor levels and am not sure how the above is accomplished best.

2. Is there any particular lighting that should be used specifically for video games?

3. I'm having problems with the camera.. specifically I can make a new camera and adjust it's placement.. but the viewing angle always seems to point downward and not sure where to edit/change this. I'm also interested in how the camera will relate to scale in question number 1 and anything else I should be aware of?

4. related to question 1.... have adjust depth of field I believe it is called and a few other settings related to draw distance... but is there anyway I can specify dimension for an entire map/gameworld area in maya.. I find myself making huge ground planes but after zooming out.. portions of the plane always dissapear and don't know if there is anyway around this?

Thank you to anyone that has any suggestions/links.. .I really appreciate you taking the time to help out a newb. user added image

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# 2 28-12-2004 , 06:50 PM

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The answers to your questions are highly dependent on which game engine you are using or plan to use. For instance, each game engine handles lighting differently. Some allow you to create the lighting in Maya. Others require that you use their built-in editors to add lighting.

Scale is also something dictated by the engine. Maya's default unit scale is 1 unit = 1 centimeter. Some game engines respect that value. Others are more arbitrary.

As for the camera issue, you'll want to adjust the near and far clipping values. Also, you can just rotate the camera around. To make manipulating the camera easier, set one of your viewpanels to be the camera, then navigate it into place like the perspective view.

Danny Ngan
Animator | Amaze Entertainment
my website | my blog | my job

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# 3 28-12-2004 , 07:27 PM

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Re: questions about game design/setting up maya

What he said! user added image

Originally posted by vion
1. What is the best way to figure out scale for your polygon/nurb models? I am interested in making large cityscapes and outdoor levels and am not sure how the above is accomplished best.

Originally Posted by

When working with games polygons are the only way to go, so don't even bother with nurbs... As for creating enviroments, my guess would be that you should keep the polycount as low as possible and add as much detail as possible to the textures instead of the model itself...
Not really what you asked for, I know, but a few pointers...

Looking forward to seeing some WIP's user added image

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# 4 28-12-2004 , 07:48 PM

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thanks for the replies everyone

appreciate all the replies and have other questions if anyone has time....

My main interest in maya is learning how to make game levels and I might be going about this in the wrong fashion.. what I've been doing so far is making multiple models such as buildings/stores/complexes and been creating them in the same scene under the assumption that I am creating the foundation for a "map". Do I need to be making individual models and then import them into game engines such as the unreal editor or use renderware etc? Or is there any way to make an entire map within Maya? If this is the case... any suggestions for setting up map boundries so that I can scale in porportion to these boundries? What I've come across so far is that when I'm scaling my buildings to what I believe would be comperable to let's say buildings inside games like deus ex.... unreal tournament and such that my building are too large to see in its' entirity. I also would like to know if there is anyway to enlarge the main grid when you open maya to assist with scale.. I haven't used any of the measuring" tools and this might be another mistake on my part. Thanks again for everyone replies...

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# 5 28-12-2004 , 07:53 PM

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I'm a game art noob, but my guess would be that you would probably have to make the models individually and then import them into the engine somehow...

But as I said, I'm a game noob, so you should probably wait until Mike pops by... He's the frikkin' guy to talk to when it comes to games user added image

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# 6 28-12-2004 , 07:57 PM

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It depends on the game. Some game levels may be one large file, others might have a lot of small files that have been placed in an editor.

-Mike
The Maya Toolbelt

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# 7 28-12-2004 , 08:12 PM

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thanks again everyone

the replies are helpful...thanks everyone... and btw Mike... your web page is going to come in very handy.. I'm glad you linked that user added image

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# 8 02-01-2005 , 07:11 PM

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I'm assuming this is for unreal game engine.

If your making a map then use the seprate unreal game map editor that will make your game map.

You have to basicly crave out a game world then you can place objects into the game map.

The objects can be made in maya for unreal, then you use the unreal model exporter to output the end product for the game.

not really sure on object sizes etc, or how the ojbects work exactly but a preson object say a player is around 80 3D studio standard measurement blocks, which you'll find it going to be pretty big in 3D studio or maya for that matter, the unreal devs made the objects with maya, but the game engine renders all objects a bit smaller so it won't be the same size in the 3d modelling program.

Bit of a bitch hey.

I've gotten unreal purely to mod and got maya to help me to make the models for it.

So if your making a game map then use the worldcraft editor I think that's the name of the program you use to make the game map.

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