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--- hpl2:tutorials:level_editor:level_editor_101 [2013/05/28 04:45]
kiandra
+++ hpl2:tutorials:level_editor:level_editor_101 [2013/09/17 20:48] (current)
kiandra
@@ Line 286: / Line 286: @@
 \\
 **If you're now in Narnia in the Level Editor**
-    * Go down to where **Grid Control**     is
+    * Go down to where **Grid Control**    is
-    * Type 0 in the box labelled Height
+    * Type 0 in the box labeled Height
-    * Press the **XZ **    Button
+    * Press the **XZ **      Button
     * Type 0 in the height box again
     * Press the **XY**button (same as the XZ button)
     * Type 0 in the height box
-    * Press **YZ**     button (same as the XY and XZ button) to return the grid to normal
+    * Press **YZ**    button (same as the XY and XZ button) to return the grid to normal
-====== Part 2: Building a Basic Room ======
+====== Building a Map ======
-{{http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/147/f/1/perspective_mode_by_rueppells_fox-d66ui8q.jpg?direct&485x330  }}For this tutorial, we're going to make the basic shell required for a map. The final product will be similar in layout to TutorialMap_BareBones.map, which is available for download, along with the rest of the tutorial maps here (link will be available by June 9, 2013).
+I'll try to keep this from turning in to a "do this task and then good luck" tutorial (unlike its previous unedited version). Instead, let's think of what any map is going to need. Since Amnesia is generally made from indoor environments (and outdoor environments are my downfall), let's pretend this is some sort of indoor room.
-So we're going to start by creating a new map. Once your level editor has been opened, it will automatically create a new map file for you. Because it's easier to work with, let's focus in on the Perspective screen by hovering your cursor over the bottom right quadrant (labeled Perspective) and pressing **spacebar**. Your screen should now look like the image displayed on the left.
+So first, we should start by figuring out how big our room will be. I'm going to just make an 8×8 room (each wall piece has a length of 4 in the level editor).
-{{  http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/147/6/7/primitivesmenu_by_rueppells_fox-d66uipu.jpg?direct&}}
+At this point, I would like to recommend that you start off making a small room. While large room can look very impressive, it is much more difficult to make them actually look interesting and not empty. What I consider 'small' is anything between 2x4 room (smallest possible room with a door) and 12x12.
-We're going to start by putting in a floor made from a plane. Start by pressing **9**      on your keyboard or clicking the **cylinder and cone **     button in the left side-bar. You should see the menu, displayed on the right, appear in the side-bar to the right.
+To start building the room, press 6 or go to Static Objects (the lego brick in the left bar menu) and click the drop-down menu above the large white box. This will allow you to choose a base to work with. Personally, I find the mansion and castle bases easiest to work with because they have the largest variety of uses, but choose one that you would like to work with.
-This is the Primitives Menu. Pretty simple, actually. Its components can be accessed after you've placed down your plane by clicking on it using the select tool (**1**) and choosing the Primitive or Planes tab (more on that later). Either way, this tab is use to build flat surfaces with [[http://vinterfall.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/seamless-tiled-floral-pattern-vector-background.gif|tiled patterns]]. Let's take a look at these buttons before we move on.
-**Type **     \\ This is a drop-down menu. The only available option is Plane, so there's no use messing around with it too much.     \\  \\ **Material**       \\ Ignore that blank white text box, it will display the file name of the material you choose to use on the plane.     \\ **…**    button can be used to select from a pre-made texture     \\ **+**    button will allow you to create a custom texture from scratch     \\  \\ **Tile Amount**       \\ The three text boxes are in the order X, Y, Z. This isn't of too much concern considering you can just undo any mistakes or fix them later, but it's nice to know. A larger number will create more tiles per grid space (the pattern gets smaller); a smaller number will create fewer tiles per grid space (the pattern gets bigger). For most materials, we will change the tile amounts to 0.5, 0, 0.5 (X, Y, Z).     \\  \\ **Tile Offset **     \\ Again, the boxes are labeled in the order X, Y, Z. These boxes change where the pattern is. Once we've placed in a plane, feel free to mess with these buttons a bit.     \\  \\ **Texture Angle**       \\ This will change the angle the pattern is at. For example, if you want floor boards that are diagonal instead of horizontal, you can change the texture angle to 45.     \\  \\ **Align to World Coordinates**       \\ I'm not sure what the technical talk for this is, but it pretty much ensures that every plane you make will match up with every other plane you make seamlessly. This is useful for when you need multiple planes with the same pattern side-by-side. Instead of having to manually adjust the tile offset, the level editor will do it for you.     \\  \\ **Cast Shadows**       \\ This button's useless because planes never cast shadows. No matter how hard you try, it's not happening. There are ways to mitigate this, however, which we'll cover under the lighting section.     \\  \\ **Collides**       \\ If you want the player or anything to be able to stand on this plane, leave the box ticked. If you're using planes to make water, un-tick the box so the player doesn't [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIlMOaPtePc|walk on water]](completely irrelevant link).
-{{http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/147/3/0/materialmenu_by_rueppells_fox-d66ut12.jpg?direct&436x300  }}So let's choose a material to use. Go ahead and click on the **…**      button. You should be seeing this menu. The **static_objects**    menu (second from the bottom in that screenshot) has the most textures available. Most of the tileable ones will be under the ceiling or floor menus for the bases (eg cellarbase, mansionbase, castlebase, dungeonbase).
-I'm going to make a mansion-based map, so I'll choose static_objects/mansionbase/floor/mansionbase_floor_boards.mat
-{{  http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/147/0/4/plane_by_rueppells_fox-d66uvvh.jpg?direct&147x100}}Take a second to decide what floor you want to put in, and click the **OK **      button when you're done. We're almost ready to put in the floor, but first, we need to change the tile amount. It's currently just a little bit too big (tiles will be too small). The most common change is to switch the two outer columns from 1, 1, 1 to 0.5, 1, 0.5 (note: changing y value does nothing unless you align to world coordinates).
-{{  http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/147/1/4/completedplane_by_rueppells_fox-d66uwal.png?direct&147x100}}Alright, all that's left is to click and drag your cursor across the area you want your floor to take up. The area will be outlined by a white rectangle. Try not to make your floor too large. We can change the size later, but it's always easier when that's not necessary. You should have something that looks a bit like this.
-{{http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/147/5/e/planeselection1menu_by_rueppells_fox-d66v2oc.jpg?direct&150x522  }}We're going to adjust the size of this plane so it will make an 8×8 room. Press **1**      or choose the Selection Tool, then click on the floor. From here, you should see the menu illustrated on the left.
-If the numbers are not the same, that's not a big deal. While we're here, though, let's explain them a bit. I think the name one's pretty obvious so let's skip that.
-**Position**
-There are three coordinates here that tell you how far along any one axis the plane has been moved. **X**     is for the **red**     line, **Y**     is for the **green**     line, and **Z**     is for the **blue**     line. Unlike in some programs, **Y**     is **up/down**.
-**Rotation**
-Rotation is how much the plane (or object) has been rotated around any given axis. All of these should be set to **0**     on your map, like mine are. They will come in handy later.
-**Scale**
-For a plane, this is the exact size of the plane. Since we're making an 8×8 plane (with no Y height change), we'll be changing the **X**     and **Z**     values both to **8**.
-The other two tabs that are slightly visible (labeled Primitive and Plane), will come into use later if we need to adjust tiling size, material, or texture angle.
-Awesome! We have a plane that's big enough to fit an 8×8 room on it. Let's move on to building some walls.
-{{  http://fc00.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/147/9/5/staticobjectmainmenu_by_rueppells_fox-d66v583.jpg?direct&100x359}}Press **6 **      or click the** little red Lego button **      to bring up the static object menu. Yay, new menu to talk about! I'm sure you're getting used to the process here. I'm going to explain all the buttons again (big woop).
-** Static Objects **
-Okay, the first part is this drop-down menu at the top. It will display the base you're using. As a general rule, objects from the same base will always look good together (as long as you use common sense). These will be in alphabetical order. Since I chose mansionbase for my floor, let's scroll down and take a look at what clicking the mansionbase option brings up.    \\  \\ There's now a lot of text in that large white box under the drop-down menu, right? The sections are labeled based on their traditional function. By all means, you do not have to use the ceiling pieces for ceiling - I've seen ceiling pieces used as flooring before - but it's a good guideline of where to start. There should be a scroll-bar on the right side of the list; scroll down until you find walls and choose one of them. If you didn't use the mansionbase, go back to the dropdown menu and find the base you used, then find walls under that one.    \\  \\ **Refresh Button**       \\ This clears the large white area, don't click it unless you want to reset the screen to blank.    \\  \\ **Object Info**       \\ The thumbnail is a preview of what your static object will look like, pretty nifty, but you can't rotate it. BB Size is telling you how large the object you selected is. Most wall sets are 4, 4, 0.—, meaning they're 4 long, 4 high, and relatively thin. The Polygon count is letting you know how many polygons the model has. Translation: a higher number means a more detailed and more memory-consuming model.    \\  \\ **Rand. Scale**       \\ This changes how large or small your object is. Unlike with planes, 1 refers to 100% of the original size. A value of 2 would be 200% (double) the original size, and a value of 0.5 would be 50% (half) the original size. You can change the scales individually in the Min. Scale boxes (ordered X, Y, Z). If Rand. Scale is checked, you can choose the maximum scale of the object. This is useful for models like grass and trees. For now, we're going to ignore it.    \\  \\ **Rand. Rotate**       \\ This changes what direction your model is facing. Like with the Rand. Scale, the Min Rotate boxes can be used to determine the angle of your object. With rotation of walls, we will mainly be changing the **y**-value (the middle one).
-{{http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2013/147/1/a/twowalls_by_rueppells_fox-d66v7ms.jpg?direct&220x150  }}Once you have a model selected, place two walls side-by-side on one side of the floor. You can do this by clicking where you want them to go. If they're in the wrong spot or facing the wrong way, press **1**    to change to the **selection tool**    and move them to the right spot. Don't forget that you can rotate the screen with **alt and left mouse button ** or zoom in and out with **alt and right mouse button.******
-{{  http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/147/5/d/windows_by_rueppells_fox-d66v889.jpg?direct&220x150}}
-A room made out of nothing but plain walls would get very boring very quickly, so lets add some windows to one of the other walls. Let's go back to the large selection of static objects and choose a type of window to put in. Since I'm using the mansionbase set, I'll be using window02_large_yellow for this.
-To rotate the windows so that they fit on one of the other walls, press **W**   or **Q**. The corners will overlap with the other walls if you decide to place the windows similar to how I did, but they're supposed to. Nothing should be outside of the 8×8 plane box we made.
-{{http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2013/147/5/a/completedroom_by_rueppells_fox-d66v9h9.jpg?220x150  }}Now lets talk about those odd little half-walls. They're usually labeled (name of set)_short or just "short". These walls have a width of 2 instead of 4, which makes them great for tiny corners or, for like what I'm going to do, centered windows. Finish creating your walls, and don't forget to include a door way and door frame so your player can leave and enter the room! When you're done, your room should have four walls, two windows, and a door frame similar to the image on the left.
-Next, we need a ceiling. This will require rotating a plane 180° along the **x**  or **z**  axis so that it is facing down.
-//Back in Editing Process, I lied about the update date :D//

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