Author Topic: [Tutorial] Making Maps.  (Read 11874 times)

Squarehead's Tutorial of Making Maps. Not Figuring out How to Install. Learning to USE it.

Table of Contents
1. Moving the Camera in F11
2. Brushes and Sizes
3. Landscaping
4. Terrain Painter and Texture adding
5. Water
6. Sun and Sky
7. Interiors and Foliage
8. Naming map In-Game
9. What to Avoid
10. What you WANT to do



1. Moving the Camera in F11

-This is simple enough, Move with WASD, but to turn you will want to Hold down your right mouse button and then turn
-You can also change the Camera speed under the Camera tab from Slowest to Fastest.
-The easiest way to use the Camera(F8) Is to get out of F11 and Then push F8, get in F11, start working, finish up F11, F7, F11, You get the idea..
-But you can go under Camera and select one of the three options for your Camera.

2. Brushes and Sizes

-First off go under the Window tab and select Terrain Editor, don't worry, we aren't moving onto making Terrain just yet.
-Now that you've done this, go under brushes, there are different sizes for your brushes and a Circle Brush and Square Brush
-You will also notice Hard and Soft, you wonder what this is? Soft brush paints softly on the edges of the brush, while Hard paints perfectly like your spray can.
-Get used to the brush sizes and move onto Number Three.

3. Landscaping

-By now you are used to the Camera and Brush sizes, now we move onto Landscaping, I recommend using Flatlands for this kind of stuff.
-Making Mountains / Holes: Go under Action and select Adjust Height, now pick a brush size and pick Soft. Click the Flat Ground and move the cursor up, you should have a Round Hill. Do the same some where else but move the cursor down and you should have a Round Hole. But avoid making Round Hills and Holes, use more than one brush stroke to sculpt the terrain, remember, BADSPOT SAYS SO!
-Making Smoother Terrain: This is something you will ALWAYS need to do after making mountains and holes, go under Action and select Smooth, run your brush over the land (Soft Brush) to smoothen the nasty spikes you make, no one like spikes. So once you smoothen the terrain on all your hills and holes, you probably want to flatten things for Plateus.
-Flattening Terrain: Go under Action and Select Flatten, run your brush over the top of a mountain and it'll begin to flatten out just like a plateu would be. You have flattened it now, you can do much more in the Action tab, but these listed are the main things to use
-Setting Height: Using this puts whatever you run the brush over with back to the default terrain you started with, be careful with it, use it on really bad mistakes rather than on a good mountain or hole.

4. Terrain Painter and Texture adding

-I bet by now you are wondering "Why am I using One Texture?" Well thats because none others are added, but thats where this content comes in. Go under Window and select "Terrain Texture Painter", you should have 6 slots on the right side with 1 texture and the others being empty.
-Adding textures: Click add and find a Texture in the menu. once you pick it grab your brush and click the ground, WOW The ground changed color! It looks greenish on the outside but normal on the in right? Thats because you used a Soft Brush, now use the Hard brush. WOW! The Whole area around the Brush is just the TEXTURE! Amazing.
-After you finish painting your terrain we can move onto water, make sure your painting is good and be sure to use at least 3 textures.

5. Water

-This task is a bit more complicated then all the other tasks we've done so far. Go under Window and select World Editor Inspector. Click the + sign for a dropdown of selections. Don't click anything just yet! Now click the Waterblock tab. Here you can do MANY things with the Water, make it Lava...Make it quicksand... But we're here to just make water
-If you are on Flatlands change the scale to be 2046 2046 100, your water should be flying in the air. To move it down into the holes Select the blue Line going UP, not the other Two, and move your cursor down, once you get it into the Holes, go into it and you won't sink to the bottom. Now if you WANTED to sink to the bottom without floating back up, change the scale to 2046 2046 1. Find your water and move it back where you had it, now you will sink down.
-You know the Basics about Water now. as you advance in using the Mission Editor you will know of even cooler functions to use.

6. Sun and Sky

-Well you are just about done other than that blasted sky and sun we've got here. No worries we'll soon fix that!
-The Skybox: This is located where the Waterbox is located. Open it, Go under "Fog" and you can change the Fog color and distance, the closer the fog, the more foggy the map is. your Fog can even go in the negative numbers. But don't go too far as it will look ugly. Change the Fog color to match what you envision...Sunset..Night..Daw n, you get the idea there.
-Changing the Sky: This is a bit more tricky as you have to open a folder outside of the game to find a sky. Go under C:\Program Files\Blockland\base\data\skies and you will find Skies in there. Right so you have a Default sky? Lets try a better sky. Open the Media tab in the Skybox. Change the "Sky_Blue2" only. Look in your folder for a sky. You will notice "Sky_Blue2" in there, Change the name to something else. Once you have done this hit Apply.(Hope you have been hitting Apply since Water) Good, you have a New Sky. Lets move onto Sun.
-The Sun: Located where the Waterbox and Skybox is, open it. Click "Misc" and you will have options for the Sun. Lets say you have a Night Sky right? You want the Minifigs and Builds to be darker aswell, change 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.

7. Interiors and Foliage

-I won't teach you to make Interiors but I will tell you how to add such things. Go under Window and select World Editor Creator, DON'T CLICK A THING YET! 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, Tada you made a Tree. You can move it around as explained in Water. You can Delete it by pushing "Delete" on your Keyboard as long as its Selected.
-For Interiors now..Go unde Interiors, then base, then data, then Interiors again and you'll have your interiors there, just like the trees, click on a BLUE name once and its added. Wow it sure is BLACK! Well lets change that, Push ALT+L, you will Lag a bit. After it finishes, the whole map is relit and your interiors are lighted! Tada.

8. Naming the Map In-Game

-This is a bit easy. Go under World Editor Inspector from the Window Dropdown menu, Select "MissionInfo - ScriptObject" Click Dynamic Fields, change "name" "desc0" and "desc1" and its done! But make sure Desc0 is Name: Mapnamehere and Desc1 is Author: Mynamehere and change name to Mapnamehere.

9. What to Avoid

-Spiky and Round Terrain, no one likes it
-Sudden height changes, not everyone likes it
-Bad placement of trees or interiors
-One or Two Textures, use at least 3 or more
-Don't be a punk with the Water, Make it Nice

10. What you WANT to do

-Make a lovely landscape
-Make lots of area to roam in
-Good placement of trees and interiors
-4 Textures or more is good
-Water that is a pure beauty.


THIS CONCLUDES MY TUTORIAL. IF ANYONE WISHES TO ADD TO IT PUT "##. Nameofsection" AND DESCRIPTIONS. Thank You for Reading my Tutorial, NO FLAMING OR I GO CRAZY ON YOU. (I Did sort of rush it but still, be nice, at least you won't have to say it over and over again if Badspot stickies)

Dude, Alt+Q = F8, and Alt+W = F7, in the mission editor.
No need for back-and-forth-ing it.

Dude, Alt+Q = F8, and Alt+W = F7, in the mission editor.
No need for back-and-forth-ing it.
True but new ppl may not know, I do mine without hotkeys

Dude, Alt+Q = F8, and Alt+W = F7, in the mission editor.
No need for back-and-forth-ing it.
True but new ppl may not know, I do mine without hotkeys
F8 & F7 are basically hotkeys too, stupid.

And, I thought the whole purpose of this thread was to TEACH people about these kind of things...?

Dude, Alt+Q = F8, and Alt+W = F7, in the mission editor.
No need for back-and-forth-ing it.
True but new ppl may not know, I do mine without hotkeys
F8 & F7 are basically hotkeys too, stupid.

And, I thought the whole purpose of this thread was to TEACH people about these kind of things...?
What I meant was in F11 STUPID, And yes it teaches.

Listen, how do you make water spread the whole map what scale should I type in? Is it possible if so tell me.


Thanks

Listen, how do you make water spread the whole map what scale should I type in? Is it possible if so tell me.


Thanks
Type in 2000 2000 and it should auto loop.

Dude thanks! Packer gets another cookie  :cookie:

Bump for new people who keep asking how to use the Mission Editor.

Another bump for people who need help (like me)

Is it possible to have the Sun and sky move?

You can make a cloud decal move in the sky and have a sunfx move but moving the Class SUN itself is impossible with out relighting every 1 move, as for the sky it would be pointless and engine changes.

You can make a cloud decal move in the sky and have a sunfx move but moving the Class SUN itself is impossible with out relighting every 1 move, as for the sky it would be pointless and engine changes.
I'd want it for a day and night effect, but I guess it's not worth it. :/

Yeah it'd be a nice feature but with out engine changes its impossible.

Very nice, square!

I thought it was an excellent guide.