MageDx Level Editor

Prior to MageDx Tech Demo II, all the levels for my tech demos were build using Autodesk 3ds Max. Initially, this approach worked fine for small scenes, but as i started to create larger scenes, frequent editing and exporting of levels became a big time waster. There was also the need to have 3ds Max installed on the system in order to make any changes. Obviously, a better of way of doing things had to be found. After a few months of work, i am proud to introduce the MageDx level editor.

A screenshot of MageDx level editor in action

Build upon the MageDx 3D graphics engine and utilizing wxWidgets for the GUI, the MageDx level editor is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor that allows for fast and easy creation, manipulation and edition of objects in a level.

Notable features of the editor includes:

WYSIWYG
As mentioned previously, everything (including lighting, shadowing and other graphical effects) you see in the editor will be what you will be getting in the final game. This greatly improves work flow as there is no longer any need to toggle between 3ds Max and the final game for visual verification of the level.

Real-time preview system
The WYSIWYG portion takes care of the visual part. But how about game play? This is where the real-time preview system kicks in. This system allows users to play their level straight from the editor itself. This allows for fast prototyping and testing of game play, a major time saver for game/level designers.

Component based entity system
While not an editor feature, by exposing the functionality to add/remove components in the level editor, users are able to create customized objects with unique properties, all without touching a single piece of source code.

The development of the level editor helped to cut down the time it took to develop MageDx Tech Demo II substantially, which is pretty important since i am doing all this as a hobby on my free time. By using the editor, future demos (if any) should be done much quickly.

Videos will be posted on a later date to showcase some of the functionality of the MageDx level editor.