Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 22
Assembling the thousands of assets needed for a game is not a job for Visual Studio.
Instead, the 3D models, shaders, textures, scripts, audio files, and other data are typi-
cally assembled in a game editor. Sometimes called a level editor, this tool manages
the assets, creates a great environment for game designers to practice their craft,
and ultimately packages everything into a form that the game engine can consume.
One of the most popular game editors, the Unreal Editor, allows its users to have
control over things like lighting, scripted camera control, shader creation, and basic
geometry placement. Let
s not forget about saving and loading the levels, which is
also pretty important. Some editors allow you to view animations on characters,
while other engines break things like that into separate tools. For our purposes, we
want to make sure that our editor handles the most essential task for a level editor
—
adding objects to our level, adjusting its properties, and saving the level to a file.
You
'
ve learned over the previous chapters, while adding a new wrin-
kle. The application layer, view, and logic will be written in C++, but the editor appli-
cation itself will be written in C#.
'
ll see things you
'
Why would anyone want to write an editor in C#? C# is arguably slower than C++,
but it is improving all the time. However, C# enables you to develop complicated
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