I would like to see age creation tools or at least plugins to more of the most common 3d programs, such as Max, Maya, Lightwave, and trueSpace.

I'd like to have a go at creating my own age.

Jeff
www.animavitae.com

Even though i can afford to buy some of the professional packages (i own XSI, and have worked with both MAX & Maya at my Institution for Digital Media) i dont think everyone can. Though it might be nice to be able to import OBJ's or something in the tool that Cyan is working on (If they are working on the tool that is).

perhaps Uru can do something like other games (MSTS, Quake, etc.) have done with a gamepak based, say on gmax or blender rather than on the costly version say, of 3dSMax...

but with ability to import 3dsMax files and such. (Blender can do this already)

It would be great to have a user GUI that was approved and supported by Uru rather than being composed of hacks

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Zamboni Scrapmetalus Est
May The End never be written
"Things are not what they used to be -- and they never were." Will Rogers

I'm glad I wasn't the one that started this. I would also love to see age creation tools of some sort.

Even a WYSIWYG type thing would be fine. (if possible) I've enjoyed trying to create ages with blender, but somethings are more difficult to do then others.
Having a age creation tool thats URU/cyan aproved would be nice.

Storywise, I don't think it would be right to see age creating tools unless we come to a point where the DRC has cracked the code of Writing - and we've established a Guild system to regulate its use. I don't know if we surface-dwellers are really ready for the Art yet.

Shorah.

Caligari has a specialized version of trueSpace specifically for game level creation called gameSpace. http://www.caligari.com/gamespace/
We need something like that.

Jeff

Tahm wrote:

Storywise, I don't think it would be right to see age creating tools unless we come to a point where the DRC has cracked the code of Writing - and we've established a Guild system to regulate its use. I don't know if we surface-dwellers are really ready for the Art yet.

Shorah.

Except we're already writing our own Ages, its not up to the DRC to tell us if we can do this or not we already have.

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Beneath - Journey of an explorer in D'ni
UruBlogs - Blogs from Uru Explorers
Tweek@Guild of Writers - Age development Blog.

This gets into the whole "who owns the cavern" thing, if the DRC owned the cavern then ok, but what then of items found on other Ages.

But they don't own the cavern therefore the inks and books lying around don't belong to them.

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Beneath - Journey of an explorer in D'ni
UruBlogs - Blogs from Uru Explorers
Tweek@Guild of Writers - Age development Blog.

OK, you guys are getting way too philosophical for me. I just would like to create my own age and play around in it - inside or outside of the framework of the "game".

Jeff

Hrm it's an interesting problem maybe a writers guild, each age must pass
set criteria before major public use? If you understand what I mean, therefor
ensuring a good standard (as in no major bugs etc)... make sense?

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Destruction is coming... Find a way... Make a home....
>.>
<.<
...wheres my box?!

Within the context of the Uru game, only if we were to make ages which were playable through the Uru engine, where we the cavern-goers could go avatars and all, would we be truly writing ages. What we're doing now (writing ages on paper, creating small 3D or prerendered ages through software, etc.) can't be thought of as real in this game's sense.

And I think a Writer's Guild would be essential, especially if the ages we might create would be available for others to explore.

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Silence. Introspection.
The weighing of possibilities.
Inking the pen,
eyeing over the Elements.

This is my ideal age creation tool:

You start out with a few sample complete descriptive books, which you can peruse within the program, and simple ages which they describe. Every symbol in them is automatically uploaded to your partial lexicon, although you don't necessarily know what they mean. You can borrow complete phrases from the sample texts to add to your own blank book, or pull individual symbols from the lexicon. You save your work by either saving your progress, or having the program convert your blank book into an Age, which you then explore (maybe in a low-quality setting). Slowly you begin to figure out what each phrase means, and then each symbol, and you can record your notes inside the lexicon. We all collaborate to discover what the phrases mean. Eventually, we will be able to write just about whatever we want to, and have the computer invent an age matching the description. Essentially a computer-simulated version of The Art.

This is what I'd realistically like to see in Age Creation tools:

Probably a WYSIWYG Age editor, with elementary controls for all the age basics. I don't know, anything Cyan decides to give us would be good.

Ain't this just a basic SDK for Uru?

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