I am a Newbie at this editor...

[PalmTropyx]

Okay... here it goes...

I have used a few 3D level editors before. However no editor has ever made design so difficult in the way of item placement.

See, this is what I did. I placed a cube. But when I tried to make another shape, all it did was change the cube to the new shape (which was a spiral stair case). Then I tried to unclick the cube and make a new shape. But it did not happen.

So here is my first question: Once I place on shape on, how do I make a second shape?

My second question is shaping and sizing. I clicked on a point of the box to drag it wider... It did not do anything but sit and look pretty! Darn box... :( How do I resize any shape?

And my third question... I think this editor requires the design of a floor / base. How is this done? Thanks all for your help.

I have an awesome level designed on paper but I am not able to put it on the editor. It is a full old Hospital on a dark and scary night. You roam the blood splattered halls, and blinking near-dead lights. The halls are lined with old, rusty gernies, and a few carcasses... Some rooms have chairs, and the odd table. And one room has an old playboy mag on it (as a joke). Also, a couple of the inner walls and two outer hospital walls can be blown out. I know it is a big task, but one walk into the bloody, scary operating room will be all worth it.

Thanks for all your help :)
Palm Tropyx!

[Chester]

hey there, I had this problem when I first started as I was used to worldcraft.


basically the way the editor works is that you first shape your brush then subtract it from the world, this is by pressing ctrl-s, then you can build structures by using additive brushes. this is ctrl-a. I know my info isnt very explanitory , but I hope it helps.

As for shaping and sizing your brush, depending on which editor you are using , click on the brush scale button, (if you hold the cursor over the button a little word pops up telling you what it is) then use the ctrl key in conjunction with the left and right mouse buttons. basically most of the editors functions are performed with combinations of the ctrl key and the mouse buttons.
Even better than my explanation are tutorials
http://www.planetunreal.com/uedlab/

http://www.planetunreal.com/unrealed/

I hope I have helped.

[stu84]

Ok, the best thing would be to look at some tutorials, there are tons around. The two chester mentioned and also another good place is Wolfs unreal over at http://unreal.gamedesign.net.

A quick answer to your problem which im sure people will post about if wrong or right is that to create rooms etc you must use the subract button. The red box you see is your "brush" which carves out the rooms. So when you get the red brush to the sizes you want then you must subract it from the world which will hollow out a room. Then, like worldcraft you must select the surfaces and apply textures. To further understand what im saying then i recommend reading some of the tutorials.

The map which you have designed on paper sounds really cool and i hope you can learn to use the editor to make it.

good luck

[Fuzzpilz]

Don't ever use the scale tool to scale your brushes. They won't fit the grid and thus often not line up properly, which causes BSP errors. If you want to scale something, go into its properties under Brush, MainScale, and do your scaling there. If you simply want the builder brush to be another size, the best idea is to right click on the cube button (assuming you're in need of a cube) and enter the exact dimensions you want. You should best use powers of two or multiples of 16 or at least 4.

[PalmTropyx]

Thanks all for your help! This is awesome news.

Needless to say, the cutout of rooms has brough me to a new set of questions.

1. When cutting out a space / building / room that has more than one level, do I add a floor into the room or cut the room leaving the floor?

2. What is the proper size a bmp/tif/format for texture I must use inorder to be even with shapes I am making. (For example: a cube has a 16x16 sides. What size texture image must I use to make it clean and crisp instead of stretched and blurred?)

3. And lastly. Is it better to construct a break out wall by making each individual piece of the wall, or by "breaking"/cutting a whole wall?

Thanks again!
Palm Tropyx!

[Zaphrod]

Ok I think this might help.

Ued is a solid universe that you subtract rooms or areas from so if you were going to make an outdoor level you would subtract an area the entire size of your map then what you would have would be a 4 walls (or more) a floor and a ceiling.

Everything outside of that brush is still solid and you would only be able to move around in that room. then to add stuff you add solids to the room, solid (adds) will be blue and subtracts will be yellow. You dont need to add a floor for a subtracted room unless you want to add maybe a walkway or something.

Basically if you were, for instance, 20 story skyscraper you would add a rectangle that was a 2760 high, thats 128 for the 8foot ceiling height and another 10 for the floor thickness for each level, then you wouldmake a rectangle 20 units narrower in each horizontal direction and 128 high, starting at the bottom you would subtract this making sure the entire bruch was inside your first rectangle then click the subtract button. then you would move it vertically so that the bottom would now be 10 units above the top of the first subtract. and subtract that, and continue till you had all the stories subtracted.

Most people begin building as if they were actually buiding in the real world by adding each wall seperately or if they didnt do that they might subtract the entire height of the skyscraper and then add a floor for each level. that would soon become way too complicated and you would have a terrible map because of the poly count

If you imaging you have a huge block of wood and the only thing you can do is carve out rooms from it but cannot replace material then youll start off right, of course you will add stuff but you need to keep it to a minimum.

[Zaphrod]

Ok to answer you last question

1. when you cut out a room you will have a floor and a ceiling and some walls, the only thing you will have to do it apply a texture to that surface that looks like a floor.

2. All textures in UT are based on 16x16 or multiples of that. The standard size is 256x256 and anything over that starts to cause problems. If you have a wall that is 128x128 and wanted to use a texture that was 256x256 on it then you can size the texture after you apply it to the surface by right clicking the texture and clicking texture properties, I will leave you to explore what properties you can change in that window.

3. Concerning the breakout wall, you are jumping in the deep end of a shark infested ocean with fresh bloody meat strapped to your ass. That is a pretty complicated function which you will need to read and follow a tutoral to understand. its not like you can do it whatever way you would like and that one way is better than another. There is one way todo it and thats the only way

Go here and read all the tutorals starting from the first beginner tutoral and work your way through, dont skip ahead or you may find yourself confused and you will definately be making good maps quicker if you go through one by one.

http://www.planetunreal.com/unrealed/

These tutorals are based on the first Ued they still apply to Ued2 but the layout is different now and there are more features.

[ChrisToth.hu]

Textures can be larger than 256x256 but they are not recommended to be used...
1. It's a pain in the ass to import them sometimes
2. It's pointless because a lot of 3d cards don't support that texture size and will scale it down.

Cracked wall:
You can do it by subtracting pieces from the wall but there's a better solution. It will have a lower nodecount. Subtract a Rectangular form from the wall and then add a cracked wall brush.

[Zaphrod]

I think hes talking about an exploding wall like exploding glass but not set to transparent.

[ChrisToth.hu]

Then check the tuts...it's too long to type in. I'm tired... :)

[Luminuis]

Breakaway stuff, is really really annoying, I'm restarting my WMP, my Warzone Mapping Project, I'm also taking requests, so far I have DM-Warzone done, or at least a very early beta, but that's OT,

To make a room, do this, this is how I learned,


make a square and rightclick the brush button, set it to 512 by 512 by 512.

find the subtract button, click it once, there will now be a yellow-ish square where the red square was, move the red square away for now, and look around in the 3D mode of the editor, then bring up the texture browser and left click on the floor, I'm sure you don't want the standard white/gray bubbled rock texture that you'll have, so leftclick on the floor (just once) and it should highlight with blue dots


then bring your texture editor up and there should be an open or laod button, load in ancient, there will be a bunch of textures, click on one you like, Voila, you've textured the floor.

When your done bring up your acto browser and go to actors/navigation points/player starts

click it once and then go back to your 3D view, right click and there will be a small menu, choose the one that says add playerstart here, click that, then rightclick elsewhere and repeat


save your map as DM(mapname) for Unreal1 and DM-(Mapname) for UT, you have now created your first DM level.