How different is the BF2 editor to Radiant?

[paco]

Some specific questions:

I see alot of prefabs in BF2 maps. Does that mean that it's hard to make your own buildings/objects on the fly, in the editor?

Does BF2 maps use portals in the way the Quake engine does? You know what I mean if you've used any of the Radiant versions after Quake 3. I'm only asking this because portals were/are a frikkin PITA to get done well.

Is the texturing very different to how Radiant does things? For example, would you build everything with "caulk" and then texture it? (Caulk is just a texture the computer doesn't have to draw, for example inside a house you can't enter, saving resources)

BF2 maps are huge compared to any game maps done with Radiant and the Quake 3D-engine heritage. What's the catch? Is there one or is it just Swedish design?

Any info on these things would be nice, mainly to see if I should try or just enjoy the game. I've done mapping for Action Quake2 and Call of Duty 2. Both of those used a variant of Radiant, which seems to be completely different from the BF2 editor.

[TexLax]

i've had experiance with the cod 1 radiant and the bf2 editor

i see almost no similarity's. every single building is a prefab, infact, every bush and tree are too. its not an actually "prefab" its more of a model. you can't make building inside of the editor. christ, i hated protals too, i always did stuff that you didn't have to mess with them. texturing in cod 1 wasn't fun at all. the ground is the only thing that you actually texture.


the BF2 editor can be a lot easier in comparison with radiant. its just placing prefabs, moving the terian around (which can be a ***** to you sometimes) and messing with the water/lightbox/fog settings.

[Rhino]

If I'm right then the Radiant editor is somewhat siumilar to the hammer editor for HL2? never seen or used the Radiant editor so i wouldnt know but if its like the hammer editor, then its very diffrent. All objectys / buildings need to be models, ie meshes made in a 3d modeling program etc. in the editor you have your terrain, ie heightmap and that is molded into the shape you want it really, painted over the top and afew other things. Its very diffrent to the hammer.

[paco]

Ok, in CoD2Radiant palm trees and such were done in Maya or whatever, but it seems BF2 takes it even further and requires everything to be done outside of the editor.

I understand portals and can make them work. It's just that it takes great planning ahead to make the most of them. Do it wrong and your computer is working harder to make the portals work instead of the other way around.

Maybe I'll try the BF2 editor after v0.6 is out. Thanks for the info.

[mrmong]

radiant is subtractive mapping, Hammer/BF2 is additive mapping

[vfn4i83]

Radiant is a little unstable, but BF2 editor is a 1.000.000 more unstable but less complicated.
With were possible to make maps without the bf2editor everything should be done at 1/3 of the time.

[paco]

Cod2radiant would crash if you had some custom maps with custom textures installed. I have no stability issues with the BF2 editor. Doing the terragen tutorials, but I only get the heightmaps done with terra.

teh Gibs0n 1 - paco 0 (so far..)

[vfn4i83]

I was a bit unfair, just because it never worked in my machine I get a little resented.

But, BF2editor works with a statics the same as Prefabs, nut made it in 3D program and exported, so the editor is concentrated more in the terrain editor, where u can build the whole terrain with montains and rivers, very different from radiant, where its made with brush and pieces of terrain.

One of the best features of it is the Terrain textures layers, u can use 6 differents textures in the same terrain. Other feature is the Overgrowth and Undergrowth, this con put vegetation all over the terrain instantly.

But the editor cant handle a large amount of statics. I never were able to finish a map, so I cant tell about the roads or the lighting process or how it is done.


But beware, as in radiant, save as most as u can.

[blud]

In Radiant you are actually creating all the geometry, and in BF2 Editor you just set up your terrain and then slap a bunch of models on it. I mean, if you wanted to re-create a map from radiant in BF2 editor, then.. basically you would have to create the whole thing as a model, and then drop it on the terrain you make.

[Dylan]

But beware, as in radiant, save as most as u can.

If you are to work in the Bf2Editor, his piece of advice is also my piece of advice to you.