- last post: 01.01.0001 12:00 AM PDT
Don't confuse yourself =þ
Heres a bit;
H2V will come with the game, Sapien, Guerilla, and Tool (assuming that is...)
Sapien - Adds most all the crap you see in game like crates, creatures, weapons, vehicles and so forth. It also adds most all tags that the engine uses to place objectives, spawn points, and such. This runs an engine that is for the most part the same engine the game itself runs, so what you see is usually what you get.
Guerilla - Edits tags at a down low level. This is where the meat is and how you can screw up a map fast.
Tool - Compiles tags and screwes up stuff for you =þ (j/k on the screwing up part... usually) This is how you get your textures from the .tif files to the game-usable .texture files. It also compiles your creations that are in a .jms format to be usable in game.
Now, how do you create these .jms files for your models and terrain? You need a 3D editor. The 3 of them that are typically used are:
3DS Max - Expencive Professional program that studios like Bungie use to create everything from people to plants to entire worlds (literaly).
Maya - Just as expencive program that does the same thing.
gmax - An old, old free version of 3DS Max that still floats about. Slower and older, it still can create maps. You need to dig up an exporter to export to a .jms (or other formats that tool uses)
Wait, you need an exporter?!?
Yes. Gearbox (or bungie, I dont know) gave us Blitzkrieg which was the exporter for 3DS max. There are also exporters that are floating about for gmax and Maya, but you need to find them yourself. Just search for ".jms exporter" and either "maya" or "gmax".
ALSO; you most likely can NOT edit exsisting Bungie maps nor edit other peoples maps. This is to prevent plagerism and stealing of other peoples maps (when you create a map, you own anything that you create, but it is very wise to give thanks to anyone that you borrowed anything from, since that is their intellecutal property)
Bungie will provide you with assets that are already in game. This includes textures and models. Note that you probably will get both the textures as a .tif and as the .texture, but you only will get the models as tags, not an editable format that you can import into your 3d modeling program.
[Edited on 04.18.2007 3:09 PM PDT]