Hey guys,
Long time lurker, first time poster.
Just to give a little context to my post, I've been working professionally as a level designer for about 7 years now across a few big companies. I've been working in my spare time with UE4 for about a year, just about to make the jump over to the indie side of the pond.
I'd love for there to be something faster than BSP for feeling out a space, but no such thing exists. I certainly can (and have) used things like 3DS Max to block out a space, but it's akin to using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut. This is even if we forget the fact that I've never encountered anything that can go from creation to playable faster than BSP.
I think there's been a bit of a misunderstanding from some parties about exactly where level design begins and ends. When you're designing levels all you care about is making the space work for gameplay. You may give some consideration for which areas will create vistas but you are intentionally not considering the art very much. You don't care at all about the efficiency of anything you've created, how reusable is, how sensible any topology might be. I get the feeling some people think this is lazy and ask 'why not do it properly the first time?'. The most important thing a designer can do is iterate as fast possible, and spending any time making something neat when you might bin the whole thing is a complete waste of time and very disruptive to your thought process. Anyway, I realise that I am largely repeating what's contained in the original video, but suffice it to say I agree.
For level designers, nothing is quite as good as BSP. The fact that someone has created a tool to port from other toolsets should be evidence that it's something of value. Unreal has always positioned itself as a designer led engine and seeing people dismiss something like this without the full understanding of what we are asking for is pretty discouraging. How important it is vs the other things in the engine is up for debate, but I don't think there should be any debate that good bsp tools are still very useful.
Long time lurker, first time poster.
Just to give a little context to my post, I've been working professionally as a level designer for about 7 years now across a few big companies. I've been working in my spare time with UE4 for about a year, just about to make the jump over to the indie side of the pond.
I'd love for there to be something faster than BSP for feeling out a space, but no such thing exists. I certainly can (and have) used things like 3DS Max to block out a space, but it's akin to using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut. This is even if we forget the fact that I've never encountered anything that can go from creation to playable faster than BSP.
I think there's been a bit of a misunderstanding from some parties about exactly where level design begins and ends. When you're designing levels all you care about is making the space work for gameplay. You may give some consideration for which areas will create vistas but you are intentionally not considering the art very much. You don't care at all about the efficiency of anything you've created, how reusable is, how sensible any topology might be. I get the feeling some people think this is lazy and ask 'why not do it properly the first time?'. The most important thing a designer can do is iterate as fast possible, and spending any time making something neat when you might bin the whole thing is a complete waste of time and very disruptive to your thought process. Anyway, I realise that I am largely repeating what's contained in the original video, but suffice it to say I agree.
For level designers, nothing is quite as good as BSP. The fact that someone has created a tool to port from other toolsets should be evidence that it's something of value. Unreal has always positioned itself as a designer led engine and seeing people dismiss something like this without the full understanding of what we are asking for is pretty discouraging. How important it is vs the other things in the engine is up for debate, but I don't think there should be any debate that good bsp tools are still very useful.
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