Ok, so this is my first post, please be gentle! I am currently a 3d artist for a visualization firm. I have been for 3 plus years and I am a really good 3d artist specializing in lighting and textures. I originally went to school to be a 3d artist for video games, I was offered a job right out of school for architectural visualization so I took it, and here I am. My ultimate goal is to be an environmental artist focusing on multilayer maps for first person shooters (my passion.) I love first person shooters and play them all the time. I have created some concepts but have yet to make them in 3d. My concern is that I don't know the parameters that I need to make them at. I need to know how big or small they need to be, poly counts, texture maps sizes, ect, I need to have the scope layed out for me so I understand what is the pipeline or process. I render in v-ray and use max 2009. What render is used for games. How is that done? I need the basic information.

This varies greatly per game. I'd highly suggest you purchase Valve's the Orange Box or Epic's Unreal Tournament 3. They both have extensive modding communities and their level creation tools are freely available. Both are very, very well documented, including the spec they use with their engines and the processes you'd use to take props made inside of 3ds Max into the level editors.

Great! Tanks!

I dont know if this is an apprpriate question but is there a place I can get the ripped version or a free version? The unreal 3 engine is around 8k and thats pretty expensive. Any thoughts?

Add two more 0s after the 8 and you're closer [wink]

Fortunately you don't have to pay for that. Like I said, both Valve and Epic provide a whole suite of tools to the modding community for free. If you purchase Unreal Tournament III or you purchase Valve's Orange Box (or any of their products, really) the SDKs are included.

Unreal Developer Network
Valve Developer Community

Well I always hear about crysis mods, so you could buy a used copy of amazon. Check out moddb.com, since there are lots of FPS modders there that can help you out.