Table of Contents
BigWorld Technology is a mature middleware platform for developers of Massively Multiplayer Online Games and Virtual Worlds. Development of an online game usually requires an art pipeline used to create the look and feel of the game levels, and a development framework to create the game logic and AI.
The BigWorld Technology art pipeline is used by artist to create game assets and includes the following steps (see image below):
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Textures are developed using a texture creation tool (Photoshop, Gimp or equivalent).
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Meshes, animations and morph targets are built using 3ds Max or Maya and exported using the supplied exporters.
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Particle systems are built using Particle Editor.
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Model Editor is used to edit specific Models’ parameters (including Lod levels, animation blends, material overrides, and shader parameters).
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World Editor is used to build the final game levels (integrating all art assets which were generated in the previous steps).
World Editor allows creating the scenery of the level as follows:
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Sculpting outdoor terrain scenery.
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Creating indoor shell systems such as dungeons.
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Placement of art assets generated and exported using the 3D modeling tools mentioned above.
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Placement of particles that have been generated using Particle Editor.
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Controlling default weather and lighting of the world.
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Other level specific parameters may be also be modified as required using World Editor.
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BigWorld Technology Art Pipeline
The BigWorld Technology Development Framework is used by developers to develop game logic and AI and is based on the Python scripting language. This Framework includes the following components:
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Standard Python is used as the game engine scripting language.
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The BigWorld Technology engine exposes a rich set of documented Python APIs to be used for game scripting.
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Distributed Python objects are automatically instantiated on the game client and the game server to allow data synchronisation between the client and server.
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Advanced users can extend either the game client or the game server using C++.