Archive for June, 2006

Helix Preview 2

I think I’ve finally settled on what the interface will look like. All the standard geometry manipulation stuff is already implemented (translate, scale, rotate). I’ve added a resize tool , which is like the scaling tool, but allows you to stretch/shrink the geometry by using handles on the sides of a bounding rectangle/box that encompasses the geometry. Next up I’ll probably add more primitives, begin working on the 3d preview, add support for light entities, and file saving/loading support (so I can have some data to work with in Curve).

I’ve also been trying to find some info on CSG (constructive solid geometry); this is what allows you to carve one primitive from another (the boolean difference operation). You can also add primitives together (boolean add) or get the result of the boolean difference (boolean intersection); however, carving is probably the most popular and important for a level editor. So far, the only useful information I’ve found is this QA on Flipcode. This is really helpful, but I think I really need something that goes into more detail. I’ll have to see if I can get my hands on either of the two papers mentioned in the QA.





oh, some of the icons used are from http://www.famfamfam.com/. They’re the work of Mark James. The icons in the lower left (the cyan-ish colored ones) are ones that I created (just messing around with wingdings font and photoshop).