3D FPS in MMF2 - Should I keep going? (OpenGL)

[DistantJ]

Look up uScript and Antares Universe Unity plugins. These replace the coding in Unity with events and actions like MMF's.

Those examples are impressive for MMF but you could have made them in an hour or so in Unity and they'd use a lot less memory and run much better, and you'd get a lighting engine with it too. As I say, of you're THAT code-phobic, use uScript, Universe and/or PlayMaker, these MMF-3D examples will have been so, so, so much more work to create than using native 3D software.

[MattEsch]

- What are some ways to reduce CPU/MB usage in MMF2 that I may not know about?

Delete objects that you aren't using. Turn on box collisions where possible (will remove any collision masks you don't need). Render as much as you can using display lists, as this will reduce the render call overhead. Ensure you are rendering on the trigger and nowhere else.

- If you're knowledgeable with OpenGL Base, is there a way to create a sort of "fog" effect that will reduce the rendering range and still look decent? (I know how to reduce the rendering range but it just cuts off and that hardly looks presentable)

I thought there was a fog object which turns on the fog in the OpenGL standard pipeline. Could be wrong.

- Is there a way to prevent MMF2 from crashing when I try and load large Milkshape Models (.ms3d files ) into the internal storage of the "OpenGL MS3D" object? ( This issue is why I haven't added player models for enemies )

This must be a bug in the extension, but fusion does allow you to add binary files to the executable under View > Data Elements > Binary Data. You can try loading these at runtime.

- Is there a way to horizontally flip objects with the MS3D object? I can't flip it in actual Milkshape or it screws up the animations

Can't help you there. Horizonal flip needs you to apply the right matrix, and I presume that the milkshape extension doesn't allow custom vertex shaders or something equivalent to that.

- Is there a way to add a skybox (like clouds or something)? The blue clear color I have now is very bland and wouldn't go over well in a full game. (I am using the "OpenGL clear control object for color and depth buffers by the way)

Skybox is normally rendered by rendering a properly rotated small box around the camera, clearing the z buffer, and then rendering your scene on top.


---

OpenGL through fusion is difficult. Using a scripting tool will probably reduce some of the call overhead, but really just doing horrible fixed pipeline OpenGL as shown in the basic NeHe tutorials is not sufficient for even moderately sized scenes. Ideally you would model the scene in fusion and have a renderer take care of all of the low level calls. It's easier to optimise that and batch rendering performance is significant. Also the drivers can be pretty bad on some machines for OpenGL, making the issue worse. It's fun to experiment, but I am not sure about the quality of the final solution.