Exterior Level Manual

In Depth Exterior Level Technical Tutorial

Rough Draft of tutorial that explores in depth the various parts of creating/editing exterior levels. Possibly will break into seperate pages describing the various parts in even more painful detail ;)

Introduction

Overview of the tutorial. This will cover in detail on creating an exterior level and cover every tool. It will not cover level design theory, or how to make a good looking module. Just the tools available and what they do and how to use them.

Assumptions

What do I assume you can do? What are pages that describe the assumed knowledge?

• Create a Module
• Set the active Module
• Have the correct python version
• Understand the difference between Level, Area, and Map

Creating a Level

What do the options mean and what do they do

What do the Basic options mean

Chunk size is fixed, mainly sets the number of chunks

What do the Advanced options mean

Fine control over starting mesh detail and texture quality

Saving the .lvl file

Talk about save locations and stress that the level only exists on the hard drive.

Camera Controls

A page to exaustive control list Cover 3dsMax controls and WASD controls, plus zooming

The Basic Steps All Levels Need

• Add Export Area
• Add Start Point
• Add Ambient Light
• Render Lightmaps
• Post All Local

The Basic Steps Explained

So, take take all of the basic steps in detail:

Export Area

Detailed documentation can be found here. Need to explore setting multiple export areas, this is unknown at this time. The important parts are the Layout Name, Name, and Define Area. Skydome can be changed which is how you get the Fade.

Not sure on mini-map. Anyone get this working yet?

Start Point

Only thing this is used for is pathfinding. Add it after the area(s), and only one per area is needed. No other use for this that I know of.

Ambient Lighting

Sunlight is broken, so you must add an ambient light. Steps for doing so.

Render Lightmaps

Basic trouble shooting, describe what to toggle on/off to see true lighting. Mention that it is probably a good idea to work with fully lit on and lightmaps off while building. Personal preference though.

Post All Local

Not sure what exactly this does. I believe it generates and places the .ARL file into a path in My Documents. This path is read by the toolset when selecting area layouts.

Terrain Mesh Editing

What this covers

Icons

• Deform
• Plateau
• Smooth
• Tessellate

Deform Tool

What it does and how options affect it

Plateau Tool

What it does and how options affect it

Smooth Tool

What it does and how options affect it

Tessellate Tool

What it does and how options affect it

Texture Editing

General idea behind textures. You can only have 8. No more than three textures blended together.

Adding a Texture to the Pallete

Explain how to add a texture to the pallete. Explain the differences between diffuse, normal, and specular

Texture Paint Tool

What it does and how options affect it

Texture Smooth Tool

What it does and how options affect it

Relax Map Tool

What it does and how options affect it

Water

Skip for now