Why am I bothering with a level editor?  Because merged 3DS files have drawbacks, as I found out trying to make that tree canopy.  You lose opportunity to set culling and transparency.  Also, I don't want to hardcode interactive objects or guess placement.  I want to be able to dynamically load and place objects and assign attributes such as culling / transparency and save as XML.   Also, it is really hard to place compound 3DS objects because once you translate the mesh all the child objects lose orientation and its a huge hassle reorienting them.  The Level Editor will help persist coordinate offsets etc.  It won't take very long to get something useful working.

While I'm on the topic - anyone have any experience with jump animations?  Should elevation/gravity be controlled in JPCT?  Do your models literally jump in your animations or do they just do the jump without elevation?  I don't see how you can use a elevated animated jump in JPCT if you plan on jumping up to an object.  The animation will have an unwanted arc on the way down.  Animation is starting to be a full time job!