I would love to have a blockout feature where you place down primitives to form objects such as buildings, bridges, etc. Adding the ability to export the objects as OBJ format would be something that goes right along with this feature.

Sorry if I didn't see this on the roadmap or it's already implemented!

Forgive me if I am misunderstanding, but isn't that what modeling programs like Blender, 3ds, Maya, etc are for?

This would be in the editor. For instance if you had a river and you wanted an artist to make you a bridge. You would 'whitebox' the bridge with simple primitives like Boxes. The bridge you whitebox would be the approximate size you want, then you could export it out as an OBJ to give to your artist so they had a 'general' idea on what side object you wanted. It's like make a mockup of your object.

now that would be a nice feature.

lol not really..
1. Give the artist measurements
2. Give the artist a rough object, ie like in your picture
3. Tell the artist to break to an object into small parts/sections so you can construct it to your size
4. Buy an extra license, let the artist use it until he's finished.

Basically it sounds like what you're asking for is a CSG editor. I agree it would be very useful. Not only for blocking out but for some types of games it would be useful for your actual levels (non organic ones at least).

CSG (Constructive Solid Geometry) is actuall in the engine API.. However, there is no editor for it currently. It is however on the roadmap: "CSG models editing in world editor" A fair way down though.

Was in version 1, but not in world editor stand alone.

Version 1 is a life saver for modellers. If i screw up in Blender and I'm too lazy to redo a mistake, I can change the size of my UV Map, Flip the texture, Rotate it at to any angle. Sure, I can do these things in blender, but I like having luxeries, and things that will help me develop level designs in less time. I believe in the defense of programmers, they don't realize that these features are missing because they don't use them. That's okay....Modelling is not their job. Now that I have defended programmers, I'm going to defend Modellers. Modellers have really been left behind and kind of forgotten about with 2.0 I'm asking Mr. Esenthel to remember us again. The ones that make models and that are equally important to makeing games. Please put these features in 2.0 soon. I can't even fully make the conversion to 2.0 because I'm a modeller stranded in 1.0 The features are just better for us. So please help us out Mr. Esenthel like you did in the past.

import box 1x1x1 m -> scale -> got size ->profit

I can understand the dilemma. Garpalika, I thought about that, too, but let's say your bridge has a road with a dashed yellow road line down the middle. You need to stretch it 15% longer to fit, now all your textures are stretched, ugly, and the player can easily see the lines on the bridge don't match up with the rest of the roads-on top of the architecture not looking quite right. And if you scale uniformly so it doesn't look strange, you now have a bridge made for giants in a world for regular people.
From a logical standpoint, I'd say make everything so it scales 1:1 on import, and have the designer tell the modellers the dimensions of the objects they need. But as I'm not a modeller, nor have I tested this, I wouldn't be able to verify this is the best method or even a good method.
Scarlet, from what I understand, he just wants the ability to export a primitive so the artist has a visual set of dimensions to work with. For instance, in his picture, he would export that elongated cube and his artist would Modelize it into a bridge without modifying the dimensions. When imported back into Esenthel, it would be the perfect fit for that spot.

What I do in UDK:

1. Block out using CSG/BSP, I leave space open for where I will put my meshes (window/door frames, ...).
2. Using middle mouse, you can measure distances.
3. I create a block in 3dsMax/Blender according to the length, height, width that I measured in UDK.
4. I export that block to UDK, just to check if the dimensions are correct (this takes less then 10 seconds).
5. Model away.

Getting the dimensions from EE is pretty important, since you don't really want to scale everything (especially non-linear).
Being able to export the BSP from EE is not that needed, imo (considering how much work it would be for Esenthel to integrate BSP brushes in the editor). Getting the dimensions with some sort of "line" tool is though.

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(05-24-2013 12:31 PM)Shatterstar Wrote:  Version 1 is a life saver for modellers. If i screw up in Blender and I'm too lazy to redo a mistake, I can change the size of my UV Map, Flip the texture, Rotate it at to any angle. Sure, I can do these things in blender, but I like having luxeries, and things that will help me develop level designs in less time. I believe in the defense of programmers, they don't realize that these features are missing because they don't use them. That's okay....Modelling is not their job. Now that I have defended programmers, I'm going to defend Modellers. Modellers have really been left behind and kind of forgotten about with 2.0 I'm asking Mr. Esenthel to remember us again. The ones that make models and that are equally important to makeing games. Please put these features in 2.0 soon. I can't even fully make the conversion to 2.0 because I'm a modeller stranded in 1.0 The features are just better for us. So please help us out Mr. Esenthel like you did in the past.

I see what you mean, but I'm afraid I completely disagree.

Now, before you mention I'm just a programmer, I do quite some 3D modeling as well.

Being able to change stuff in Esenthel after importing your assets sure is handy, but you're just fixing the mistakes you did in the export. If your texture needs to be flipped, flip it in Photoshop, Gimp. If your model's origin is in the wrong position, fix it in Blender.
It's a good habit to do it anyway, and it will save you time in the long run.

(05-24-2013 12:31 PM)Shatterstar Wrote:  Version 1 is a life saver for modellers. If i screw up in Blender and I'm too lazy to redo a mistake, I can change the size of my UV Map, Flip the texture, Rotate it at to any angle. Sure, I can do these things in blender, but I like having luxeries, and things that will help me develop level designs in less time. I believe in the defense of programmers, they don't realize that these features are missing because they don't use them. That's okay....Modelling is not their job. Now that I have defended programmers, I'm going to defend Modellers. Modellers have really been left behind and kind of forgotten about with 2.0 I'm asking Mr. Esenthel to remember us again. The ones that make models and that are equally important to makeing games. Please put these features in 2.0 soon. I can't even fully make the conversion to 2.0 because I'm a modeller stranded in 1.0 The features are just better for us. So please help us out Mr. Esenthel like you did in the past.

Although primarily a programmer my routes are in 3D modelling and I do a fair bit of it myself.

The problem I see with this is that you only fix the problem in the esenthel version of the file. The moment you want to change anything big and reload the file you would have to fix all those things again. I think it is probably better to fix it at the source of the issue permanently and be doen with it.

This is not about replacing a product like Max/Maya. This is about exporting a reference model for an artist. I am an artist and we use this all the time, its very handy. A designer can whitebox out an object very simple with primitives, such as a bridge, or a house. They even can put in sizes they want for doors, porches, whatever. Then they export this and the artist has a 'reference' object. The object exported from Esenthel would never ever be edited in your modeling software, its just reference.