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[KappaX]

Anim8or was not make for the purpose of game making so there's problems when it comes to level design

Please post any tips & tricks that work around problems here.

One of the problems I had was that in anim8or scenes it would cut off parts of the level that were far away. I fixed this by going to "Scene" -> "Enviroment" -> "Advanced" and setting the "Far" plane to much further.

Occasionally you might want to move your objects just forward/back, just upward/downward, or just left/right. You can do this by unchecking the "X Y Z" buttons in the left corner in anim8or.

[mcheccyb]

make the whole shape of the floor before you add walls and stuff

also draw a top birds eye view in paint first, just a really simple one for reference

dont bother about how clean the mesh looks it will be viewed in a way that no one will really notice and its not being animated (usually)

only ever convert all to one mesh right at the end if you want to test it save it as a backup and then convert all to mesh

[Pirate92]

Tip/Trick:


When you do not want your charracter to slide down a hill/ramp just add in it's *step event* *Apply damping 1000* and in the movement action (Up arrow to go forward). Just add *Apply Damping 0*

[Kevinaz]

To reduce polygon count, use the "plane.a8s" plugin for floors, which is only one polygon.

[mcheccyb]

another great plugin is the rock plugin, it randomly creates a rock from a seed. but you need to select all points and convert to a mesh before converting to subdivided

another great plugin is the stairs plugin,

get them both here: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/w.watson3/asl.html

[JAS]

Simply see the scene as like the rooms inside GM. Here in anim8or you place the objs and what not.

Another optional trick is to make it all peice by peice. Turn on the snap to grid only on the scene editor and your able to put together a nice level like in an editor!

[Pirate92]

My tip #2.

Using bad guys with health and variables are verry hard to controle. Try making sure you only have one bad guy at a time in each level.

If you wan't mor ethat one bad guy in 1 room at a time. Make sure you add the first bad guy closest to you then start moving away so the variables go in order.

[Sonic The Hedghog28]

My tips and Tricks:

Tip/Trick #1.
To make a spining platform that can stay up in the air there are two ways to do it,
one is to put an invisible flat object under it and use a tourque force to spin it, then apply damping so it doesn't spin out of control
the other way to do it is to use the Buoyancy effect in the WATER IN GAMES tutourial.

Tip/Trick #2.
To make curvey paths or slopes, use the warp modifiers in Anim8or

Tip/Trick #3.
For computer players in racing games, use separate objects (such as a cube) and make it so the computer player will move towards and turn towards the first object, then if he is in range of it, he'll mave towards and turn towards the second object (Which would be off to the side for a turn) then if he's in range of that object he'll move towards the next object, and so on...
If you don't want the cube to be visible, go Entity->>Create and put the hide action there

Tip/Trick #4.
If you want to turn your objects, but don't want them to stand strait, use a tourque force and apply damping

Tip/trick #5.
You can fake a particle effect by using a random object for the origin of the particle then make a separate object for the particle. Position the random object where you want the particle to be. Go to the Entity->>Step event and put Create Relative and set it to your particle object. Make the coordinates whatever you want. Then go to the Particle object, entity->> Step and put Force:
X= 0.0
Y= 50000 (Depends on the Mass and damping on the Particle object)
Z= 0.0
And there you go. If you want it to be fire, make the object red, if you want it to be water, make it blue.
(I havn't tested the following statement it's only a thoery) For explosions use a center point object and inside it say Entity->>Step create Relative= Particle Object, then go to the particle object and inside entity->>Step put move towards entity Force -500000.

[nintendogamr123]

Of course, this topic is DEAD. Good things can't last forever, huh?

I don't have any tricks to share, (because I suck.) I just wanted to let everyone know that this topic has not been posten in for at least 120 days, so possibly, I could get a few more interesting tid-bits of information. (as well as every novice in the forum) I actually didn't realize that most of your ideas were even possible, thanks everyone! (Oh, and by the way, version 0.3b of Dylan 64 is now available on the front page of my website: http://ratio-games.forumotion.net/forum.htm !)

Be sure to check out the Dylan 64 topic (in the Dylan's adventures forum) to know how to perform some of Dylan's new tricks! (and to learn what's new!) And no, you don't have to register or post to download or read anything, but it would be nice, as my forum needs it. (I don't expect you to come there every day though, all I need is some posts to boost forum reputation, and possibly get some loyal members in the process, but DO NOT post if you don't want to, as I cannot make you do anything, because I do not have jedi mind powers. (and because I didn't realize how dorky I just sounded there))

[Killer_Shoe_Box]

Topic revive!

When you want to make an object smoother without using the "convert to subdevided" button, I always click on "subdevide faces" and put in anything from 0.2-0.5

It makes your model smoother without an insanely high poly count.