Author Topic: Using the Mission Editor  (Read 7278 times)


I will NOT teach you how to install the Mission Editor, There are plenty of tutorials around, And we have this magic thing called "Search". If you can't figure this out, You shouldn't be using the mission editor anyway.

This one has a bit more content than heedicalking's and is merged with Squarehead's


The basics.
I would recommend you to use the flatlands map, Available here
Camera Controls:
WSAD for normal movement, Right click and drag to look around.
F8 and F7 won't work, You will need to use Alt+Q = F8 and Alt+W = F7.

Brushes and sizes:
Click the Window tab > Terrain Editor > Brushes. You can select shape and size here. Hard has sharp edges, soft is a bit blurry.

Landscaping.
Still in the terrain editor, Go to action > Adjust height and select your brush and size.
Always do Action > Smooth and smooth spikes, This makes your map look better.
There are more options here, All pretty self explaining.

Texturing.
Select the Terrain Texture Painter, 6 Slots should appear to you right, one being in use. (If you're using flatlands)
To add more textures, Click and and select a texture. Only use default textures, Or textures you add to your map's zip later, Ignoring this will give errors to people who don't have the textures. (More explained later)
Now you can just paint on your terrain! Make sure you are using a hard brush, Soft brushes will not paint the entire size and just fade out a bit. (Can be useful)


Advanced use of the editor.

Water:
Go to Window > World Editor Inspector. Click the "+" Sign and click the waterblock tab.
If you are on Flatlands change the scale to be 2046 2046 100 and click apply, your water should be flying in the air.
You can drag the blue line (Z-axis) To lower the water into place.
You won't sink down in this water. If you want to, change the scale to 2046 2046 1, click apply again and you will.

Skybox:
Still in the World Editor Inspector, There's also an item called Skybox, Select it.
You can change things like Fog and Skybox texture here.
To change the skybox texture, Minimize blockland, and go to: Blockland\base\data\skies
Choose one and open blockland again, Click the media tab and change Sky_Blue2 to the name of the skybox you just chose and click apply.

Sun:
Click misc and some options for the sun will appear, If you want your map to be dark, change the color to 0.100000 0.100000 0.100000 1.000000 then change ambient to all 0 except for the last one which is 1.00000. Hit Apply, you should be Darker now, in addition you can change it back to 0.9 0.9 0.9 1.0 and 0.55 0.55 0.55 1.0, There is also two other things. Azimuth and Elevation, change the numbers and the Lighting moves around you.

Interiors
I won't teach you to make a Interior but I will tell you how to add one to your map.
Go to window > World Editor Creator. For Foliage go under Static Shapes, then base, then data then Foliage, You will have some trees. Find one in Blue Lettering and click it once. You can drag it around using the axises.
For interiors go to interiors then base then data and then interiors again. Click one with a blue name once, But, Oh no! Its black! You can fix this by pressing Alt+L, this will relight the mission and after a few seconds its done!

Finishing your map.
Go to Window > mission editor inspector and expand missiongroup - simgroup.
Select missioninfo- scriptObject. Leave class and superclass alone but change the name to whatever your map's name it going to be. Savename is the name when you save bricks. Click apply and then File > Save As, Target folder Addons and save as yourmapname.mis
Then go into your addons folder and find yourmapname.mis and yourmapname.ter and copy those to a folder named Map_yourmapname. Also place your custom textures in this folder (In PNG format). Open up notepad, and enter this:
Code: [Select]
Title: Yourmapnamehere
Author: Your name
Description: General map description.
And save as yourmapname.txt

Add all this to an zip:
Code: [Select]
GOOD:
Map_Yourmapname.zip > yourmapname.mis
BAD:
Map_Yourmapname.zip > map_yourmapname/yourmapname.mis
Put it in addon folder, Load the map and open the mission editor again.
You can now paint your custom textures.
Finish up your map and make a screenshot, Edit it in any software to 800x600 pixels. then save it as yourmapname.png and also put in in the zip.

Your zip should now contain
  • Yourmapname.mis
  • Yourmapname.ter
  • Yourmapname.png
  • Yourmapname.txt
And maybe your custom textures.



This concludes my tutorial, Credits to me, heedicalking and squarehead, because i took parts of their tutorials and made a more complete one.

Nice tutorial! ;D

This is a link to how to open up the mission editor for Mac and PC for people who can't be bothered to search.

Camera Controls:
WSAD for normal movement, Right click and drag to look around.
F8 and F7 won't work, You will need to use Alt+Q = F8 and Alt+W = F7.
the numbers and the Lighting moves around you.

You may also Self Delete, then open the mission editor window.  This will automatically put you into the F8 Mode.

Also, can you tell me how to make interiors and/or trees loop over terrain?
« Last Edit: May 01, 2010, 04:37:43 PM by SWAT One »

Also, can you tell me how to make interiors and/or trees loop over terrain?

I think you need to do that manually. Only the terrain loops by default.

I think you need to do that manually. Only the terrain loops by default.

Wait I found two tools that I noticed loopedtrees in one of heed's maps.  I cant differ between them.  They are called the Foliage Replicator and Shape Replicator.

What would you think?  I notice that trees are definately foliage, but I also notice that they are qualified as Static Shapes.

Foliage and shape replicators will only work over a certian area on your map.  You can make the area really big - but too big and your map will lag without even having any bricks on it.

Shape replicator is for trees and such ( .dts files)
Foliage replicator is for textures - usually an image.
Theres nothing that will "replicate" interiors ( .dif files)

You could just use Terragen ya know :panda:

Bump, and nice tutorial.

what if the waterblock tab isn't in the mission group?

It is, so how could it not be?

It is, so how could it not be?
this is all i see in the drop box:
Quote
MissionGroup - SimGroup
MissionInfo - ScriptObject
MissionArea - MissionArea
Sky - Sky
 - Sun
Terrain - TerrainBlock


It's on "SimGroup"
what do you mean? can you please tell me how i can get to it?

You click/open the SimGroup tab?

You click/open the SimGroup tab?
i did, it wasn't there. thats what i said before

EDIT: oh there it is
« Last Edit: June 12, 2010, 12:27:32 PM by blockybob »