IrrEdit

Infobox Software
name = irrEdit


caption = 1.4.1
developer = Ambiera
latest_release_version =
latest_release_date = March 30, 2008
operating_system = Microsoft Windows
genre = Application
license = The irrEdit License
website = [http://www.ambiera.com/irredit/ irrEdit Official Homepage]

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 engines 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.

History

irrEdit started as a project of Nikolaus Gebhardt. Most likely to reduce traffic and load on the SourceForge page, and due to it and a few other projects of his getting as big if not bigger than the engine itself, irrEdit is managed on the Ambiera website.

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.

Plug-ins

zirExport

Support for exporting standard .irr levels compressed with Zlib. 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.