   3D Studio Max
  I am completely new to computer game programming, although not to computer gaming itself.  Basically, you know the point when you''ve really gotten into a game or hobby or whatever when you say to yourself... "there are so many cool things about this game, but there are so many things that could be added to make it better"  That''s where I''m at.  I''ve come to enjoy the FPS genre so much that I could see myself putting together one of my own someday.  Anyhow, let me ask any programmer (since you''re likely to have more experience than me) how much does a program like 3d Studio Max play in the development of a FPS?  The FPS that I find the most enjoyable (although the graphics aren''t nearly as crisp as those found in SOF) is Counter Strike for it''s network capabilities and it''s gameplay.  The one element that Counter Strike is lacking however is player mobility and defensive manuvers.1.  How much does 3d Studio play a role in map design,weapon modeling, character modeling, character animation/movement, etc... if any?2.  How much would a 3d artist be able to contribute to the process of game dev. using only his/her knowledge of 3d modeling and absolutely no coding experience nor a desire to commit time to learn any coding skills?I am certainly not interesting in drawing shapes/characters, nor am I proficient at using 3d studio or truespace, but i know someone who might help me out.   
  1. A lot. Usually anything that is more complex than a box (and usually even that) is modeled with a modeling software like Max. That also includes animations like character running, shooting etc. etc.2. 3D artist contributes by creating the models, with animations if any, that are present in the game. Characters, vehicles, buildings, weapons and so on. Your job as a programmer is to use these models to create the world that player can interact with.    "Life is very short, and there''s no time for fussing and fighting my friend..." ;  If you look at things and say "well this is how it could be better" maybe you should look into modding the game instead.  I know that the HL engine (you mentioned CS) is very moddable. ;  Ive played a couple games and my favorite as far as changing the game is Jedi Knight Dark Forces 2. you can alter Things like character skins, you can change what a weapon looks like (however unless the game includes that .3d0, the other people you are playing with over the internet wont be able to see the gun as you see it, because their version of the program doesnt include the file), You can change fire rates, damage, multiple bullets, and bullet motion (with some advanced math). You can change your characters attributes like health, armor, speed, jump, ect... You need to take into considderation If the changes you make are going to piss other people off, and if the changes you make are going to get you kicked off the gaming network. If your just altering the game to your liking for 1 person play on your home computer the sky is the limit but as far as networked play You may see the changes (as far as skins, and added 3do''s of your creation) but other players will see your character (and their weapons) as a default model unless the games designers werent kind enough to make a default in which case you probably wont be able to play online with other people until the changes are made. Things I know you can change withought programming are things like character skins (again I dont think other players will see the cahracter as you do unless they too have downloaded the skin, and other 3do''s you made. You can probably use the default script for your new 3do''s depending on how friendly the game is). Things other than that your going have to go into the games default scripts and alter(most likely). Its been a while since I was into this (about a year) so I forgot what they were called but if you want to use your changes in a multiplayer atmosphere with other players, you could Put out a file including all your Modifications and what location in the games files to store them.(Im not sure if you can do this with the game your wanting to or not but I would check before I took the time to make new character models and things like that.) If your planning on changing the characters defense menuvers (WILL involve programming) you also have to change the weapon animations, and possibly jump, run ect... Depending on how complicated you want to get(again you Will not be able to use these new changes multiplayer unless other people have downloaded them also. If you try the game will probably crash at the loading screen). I hope this helped a little and i didnt make myself sound stupid . -anthony ;  Most commercial games seem to focus A LOT on graphis.  I would say that graphics artists (2d and 3D) are very important to games, maybe even more so than programmers.Now before everyone goes and jumps down my throat, more and more companies are licensing game engines, decreasing number of needed  programmers.  Instead of creating tech from scratch, licensing allows developers to focus more of their resources on game content (art, music, story, etc).Now programmers are still needed to bring everthing to together.  They are needed to extend functionality of a licensed engine.  They are needed for AI, physics, etc,  but after they create the tools, the look and feel and nuisances of the game is created by the level designers and artists.From browsing the credits of some my games, its seems like there is at least a 2 to 1 ratio of artists to programmers. ;  If you like playing around so much with fps games you''ll probably like 3d game studio. I''m not saying is the best choice for game programming or anything like that but from what I heard it''s pretty good for fps games. Unless you want to try learning c/c++ or something like that you should try it. When I started out I tried it and I created a level and got it running pretty quickly...But soon I got bored and started learning c/c++, DirectX and all that so I never really got to play around with it much...Anyway if you use it you will have control over everything that happens in the game since you can use a script which is somewhat similar to c/c++... ;  To the AP a couple of posts ago.  How can you possibly say the artists are more important than the programmers?You can create a game without art, but you can''t create one without programming.   ---"When I''m in command, every mission''s a suicide mission" - Zapp Branigan ;quote:Original post by theZapper  To the AP a couple of posts ago.  How can you possibly say the artists are more important than the programmers?You can create a game without art, but you can''t create one without programming.    The thing is that the trend is that the popular games (western ones without a doubt) are tending to ere towards more reality.This means massive amounts of art\anim\texture assets.  Usually these are also tied in to be specific towards the game and can''t be reused or the next version has hardware support for more polygons, higher tex res, more bones etc.The demand for artist in the foreseeable future is always going to increase as more realism is required whereas for the programmers there is a jump in effort but not nearly as much as for the art side.Its common place where I work to have code in the code Bank more then 3 years old but would be unthinkable to be using art assets that old.Creating art assets to compete with big studios is going to have to be the biggest obstacle for indie developers these days I think.;quote:Original post by theZapper  To the AP a couple of posts ago.  How can you possibly say the artists are more important than the programmers?You can create a game without art, but you can''t create one without programming.   ---"When I''m in command, every mission''s a suicide mission" - Zapp Branigan   If you had read the entire post, you would found the line that MAYBE artists are more central to commercial game development than programmers.I don''t think that you can argue that big budget game dev trends are leaning more and more towards graphics.  I think the AP may have been a little wrong, as currently programmers are vital and will be vital for some time.  I just believe that he meant that content is more important than technology. 