Another LD Interview

Gamsurge have posted thier 7th and second last Level Designer interview with another Senior Level Designer at Legend Entertainment, Scott Dalton, who has previously worked on Wheel of Time and is now currently working on Unreal 2. Heres a bit:

Where do you see level design taking us in the next couple of years?

In the near future, I think we're going to see more Maya Paint Effects style tools in 3D games. Tools that procedurally create elements - For example, a "Tree Painter" which acts like an airbrush tool, creating unique fractal trees which grow and change as you paint in an area. These sort of tools will require a lot more programmer front-end time than current tool sets, with the backend payoff of much faster mass asset creation. Procedural weathering of world geometry, layering of effects and materials, etc. These things won't change the way we approach the game design part of level design, but will help to create more complex, natural, and unique environments without requiring unimaginable asset creation time.