IrrEdit
Encyclopedia
irrEdit is a freeware world editor created by Ambiera. It is designed to allow easy editing of Irrlicht Engine
XML-Based level files, and is the official editor for the Irrlicht game engine, used to allow users of the Irrlicht engine to have a more highly supported file format (versus generic map files commonly used in game libraries). Although most editors can contain more advanced features, irrEdit allows the most common features of level editing. One issue along those lines, is that whereas formats like those used for the GoldSrc
and Source engine
s allow entities (hard-coded objects) to be inserted into levels, irrEdit currently only allows insertion of certain objects, such as Scene, Terrain, and Particle nodes, with the exception that 'Userdata' can be applied to nodes to create the same effect, although currently this feature is disabled and incomplete. The irrEdit level editor, however, does allow plug-ins which may allow one to use the editor in the same fashion as more common editors, such as Valve Hammer Editor
. Despite the lacking features as far as making an interactive environment, it does contain a radiosity
light map generator, able to produce commercial quality lighting. The file format used is open-source, with a simple XML syntax, allowing such creations as the Sourena 3D World Editor to be easily developed.
. To be used with the Irrlicht Engine and the irrZir extension for the Irrlicht Engine. This allows the engine to use less disk space when it contains a large amount of maps.
Irrlicht Engine
Irrlicht is an open source 3D engine written in C++. It is cross-platform, officially running on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and Windows CE and due to its open nature ports to other systems are available, including Xbox, PlayStation Portable, SymbianOS and iPhone.Irrlicht is known for its small size...
XML-Based level files, and is the official editor for the Irrlicht game engine, used to allow users of the Irrlicht engine to have a more highly supported file format (versus generic map files commonly used in game libraries). Although most editors can contain more advanced features, irrEdit allows the most common features of level editing. One issue along those lines, is that whereas formats like those used for the GoldSrc
GoldSrc
GoldSrc, or Goldsource, is the retronym used internally by Valve Software to refer to the heavily modified Quake engine that powers their science fiction first-person shooter Half-Life ....
and Source engine
Source engine
Source is a 3D game engine developed by Valve Corporation. It debuted in June 2004 with Counter-Strike: Source and shortly thereafter Half-Life 2, and has been in active development ever since...
s allow entities (hard-coded objects) to be inserted into levels, irrEdit currently only allows insertion of certain objects, such as Scene, Terrain, and Particle nodes, with the exception that 'Userdata' can be applied to nodes to create the same effect, although currently this feature is disabled and incomplete. The irrEdit level editor, however, does allow plug-ins which may allow one to use the editor in the same fashion as more common editors, such as Valve Hammer Editor
Valve Hammer Editor
Valve Hammer Editor, formerly known as Worldcraft and now commonly called Hammer, is Valve Software's map creation program for their game engine, Source. Old versions of Worldcraft also supported Quake and Quake II. Versions prior to 4 supported exclusively GoldSrc, Source's predecessor. The...
. Despite the lacking features as far as making an interactive environment, it does contain a radiosity
Radiosity
Radiosity is a global illumination algorithm used in 3D computer graphics rendering. Radiosity is an application of the finite element method to solving the rendering equation for scenes with purely diffuse surfaces...
light map generator, able to produce commercial quality lighting. The file format used is open-source, with a simple XML syntax, allowing such creations as the Sourena 3D World Editor to be easily developed.
Issues/Restrictions
- It is only available for Microsoft Windows at the moment, whereas the Irrlicht Engine seems to be more popularly used on Linux systems.
- Light map generation can take hours with only a few objects present given the right parameters.
- You cannot apply some of the features found in the standard engine such as bump mapping.
- Scenes created are generally somewhat non-interactive.
zirExport
Support for exporting standard .irr levels compressed with ZlibZlib
zlib is a software library used for data compression. zlib was written by Jean-Loup Gailly and Mark Adler and is an abstraction of the DEFLATE compression algorithm used in their gzip file compression program. Zlib is also a crucial component of many software platforms including Linux, Mac OS X,...
. To be used with the Irrlicht Engine and the irrZir extension for the Irrlicht Engine. This allows the engine to use less disk space when it contains a large amount of maps.