I have just worked through the manual. Now I would like to develop some standard first project game: Just walk around in a world. I used Genesis3D before, but I am a little bit lost now. How should I start? When using G3D, I built the game world first to get started, but in Panda3D I can’t do that, because there is no world editor like in Genesis. I need a little “starting help”, isn’t there something like a “how to build your first game in Panda3D”-guide somewhere?
Thank you for your help!
Hello! No, there isn’t (afaik). But there are some open projects (look for them on the forum), you could study those. And there is a world editor, but currently is under development. Basically, you could build your world with other tools (for example Blender) and import it in your Panda app.
Thank you! I can’t just imagine how to build (for example) a house in Blender. Should I just place some very big, flat Boxes / planes as walls, floor and ceiling? Seems easy to me.
Is there anything I need to watch out for? Let’s say I am going to create a house with a garden, do I just need to place a big plane as bottom? Nothing more? Sounds great!
Yes, basically, this is the way. Obviously, you can exploit Blender’s power obtaining better worlds than boxes/planes ones.
No, you’ve to know that Panda also supports more advanced features than “planes” grounds, like this, and you could remain on Blender for these advanced worlds. And you could use Blender as a game editor even for logic aspects. So you could consider that a “complete” world editor.
Thanks to you for your Info.
Yes, I would be happy with a plane at first. But how would a real pro do that?
darthrig: I’ll check your link as soon as I can.
Again, thank you all for helping.
Thank you, but I already knew that. My old engine worked (almost) the same about models. It just used a so called BSP or binary space partitioning tree, which allowed to create Maps easier as long as they were indoors. I changed to Panda3D because I wanted to make outdoor levels
OK, thanks for the info. I digged myself through the terrain generator now and I think it is a much better way to build outdoor maps than Genesis3D had (OMFG I’ll never use this cr**p again. Panda3D rules!). I must honestly say, as soon as you understand how to work with this engine, it’s much better than anything else I ever tried.
I kinda think its a better idea to learn to use panda3D without a map editor, because then you get a feel for how 3D games are built programmaticly, rather than visually. Its just allows you to learn more and later be able to make more flexible, creative games. Theres less limitations.
I agree, to a point. The issue at hand is ‘outdoor maps’ - terrain. An editor is invaluable here, even if it’s just a basic image editor you use.
Elsewhere, however, I’d say you are right. I picked up far more by raw coding as opposed to way back when I used Torque. It had a nice editor for positioning objects, editing terrain, doing all manner of things really… but what you do visually, you don’t get to understand programmatically.
Yep, I agree. As I said, I started the mygamefast tutorials and it is really easy to work with Panda3D. I do use a terrain editor for now, but when I have some programming experience, I’ll try building things using code only. Thank you for your help.
…any and all feedback for MGF is much appreciated (probably best to PM rather than clutter the forum). I’m trying for good content but that requires good feedback. Issue 4 should be out over the weekend.
but see link in my signature, it might help. Also, to get going quickly, I’d recommend downloading the art pack from Panda3D:
Issue 4 should be out over the weekend.