Tools
A wide variety of tools may be used by someone designing a level. Although it is faster to design models and textures with general purpose multimedia creation tools, games usually require the data to be in a unique format suited for that game's engine. For this, specific compilers and converters of models, textures, and audio data may be required to lay out a level.
Some level editors for Windows games include Bethesda Softworks's Construction Set, Valve's Hammer Editor, Epic's UnrealEd, Leadwerks 3D World Studio, BioWare's Aurora Toolset, id Software's Q3Radiant, Unity 3D and Grome outdoor editor. Multi engine, multi game editors include id Software's GtkRadiant, based on Q3Radiant, and the open source QuArK. Some games may have built-in level editors like Battlezone 2, Cube 2: Sauerbraten and Doom 3. An example of a console game with a level editor is TimeSplitters, developed by Free Radical Design. Sometimes, professional 3D editing software, such as 3D Studio Max, Blender, AutoCAD, Lightwave, Maya, Softimage XSI or Grome is used, usually customized with a special plugin developed for the specific game.
Read more about this topic: Level Design
Famous quotes containing the word tools:
“The besetting sin of able men is impatience of contradiction and of criticism. Even those who do their best to resist the temptation, yield to it almost unconsciously and become the tools of toadies and flatterers. “Authorities,” “disciples,” and “schools” are the curse of science and do more to interfere with the work of the scientific spirit than all its enemies.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“Think of the tools in a tool-box: there is a hammer, pliers, a saw, a screwdriver, a rule, a glue-pot, nails and screws.—The function of words are as diverse as the functions of these objects.”
—Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951)
“No man is born into the world, whose work
Is not born with him; there is always work,
And tools to work withal, for those who will:
And blessèd are the horny hands of toil!”
—James Russell Lowell (1819–1891)