User:BryanDerksen/Sandbox

The Dragon Age Toolset puts the power of the game developer in the palm of your hands. The Dragon Age Toolset will allow you to produce your own content including dungeons crawls, full-length campaigns, add-ons and cut-scenes you can share with friends and the BioWare community. Registered game owners of the PC version of Dragon Age: Origins can download the toolset here.

For assistance with installing or running the game, or for issues regarding BioWare-published content, see the Dragon Age help site.

Getting Started Creating an account Installing the toolset Installation troubleshooting Overview of the toolset The toolset can be very daunting to dive into at first. This section covers topics useful to new users - how to get the toolset set up, how to navigate its interfaces, and where to look to get started on common tasks.	Tutorials This section contains a list of step-by-step tutorials for a wide variety of editors and tasks you might need to do. Note that these tutorials will also be linked to from the sections that cover their respective subject matter; this is just to collect them all into one place for ease of reference.
Game design Once you have the pieces you need for an adventure - level layouts, creatures, abilities, and so forth - there's still the step of putting it all together into a playable game. This involves placing resources into areas, hooking up plots, and all sorts of other miscellaneous tasks.	Custom art This section covers such things as how to import new models into the game, how to design level layouts, and how to create unique head morphs for NPCs.
Cinematography Dragon Age is a heavily cinematics-oriented game. Every line in every conversation has the potential to be written as a full-blown cutscene, though in most cases a simpler treatment is perfectly adequate. Cutscenes can also be created independent of any conversation, to be triggered by script at appropriate moments.	Sound and music Sounds are used in Dragon Age in a variety of ways. Voice over, background music, the sounds of combat and spells, ambient noises placed throughout areas or triggered by scripts and player actions, are all covered in this section.
Script Scripting is used whenever the designers need control over the game's behaviour. The syntax for DA scripts is very similar to the C programming language. Scripting is commonly used to: Trigger plot events Create or modify abilities - skills, talents, and spells Handle creature and party member AI	3rd party extensions The toolset released by BioWare doesn't cover every possible task that might be needed by the end user. This section covers third-party tools that don't easily fall under other subject areas covered by the toolset.

Also see technical information for a list of documents about the more in-depth technical workings of the toolset and of Dragon Age: Origins.

The documentation for the toolset is still being worked on so some of the material here may be incomplete or somewhat out-of-date. If you wish to contribute (either by adding your own material or by highlighting holes) you are most welcome to jump right in and edit. If you see something that needs improvement but you're not sure how (or you just don't have the time) you can mark it by adding "{{undocumented}}" at the trouble spot.

• The Wiki User's Guide has information on how to edit this wiki.
• GeSHI highlighting is installed, including "nwscript" and "dascript" tags!

---

Discussion: http://social.bioware.com/group/239/discussion/687/

Departments supported by social:

• 2d Art
• 3d Art
• Animation
• Area Design
• Audio/Sound Effect
• Character Design
• Cinematic
• Music/Composing
• Project Management
• QA/Testing
• Scenario Design
• Scripting
• Story Writing
• Tools Programming
• Visual Effect
• Voice Acting
• Writing/Dialog

Getting Started

• DA Overview
• Installation Guide
• Toolset Interface/User's Guide
• Overview: What comprises a game world? What can be customized?
• Overview: What are art assets? What assests are available? What can be customized?
• Overview: Sound, VO, Music, what are they, where are they used? What can be customized?
• Overview: What is a character? What can be customized?
• Overview: Cinematics. What is a cutscene? What is a stage? What can be customized?
• Overview: What is module management? Why is it necessary? What does it do?
• Overview: What does the game provide to help with story writing? What can be done with these tools?
• Overview: Scripting. What is a script? Why are scripts used? What can they do?
• Overview: 3rd Party Extensions. What they are, why they are needed, etc.? Do I need them?

Builders: Building the Game World

• Area Design Overview
• Design Resources
  • Area
  • Area List
  • Character
  • Creature
  • Item
  • String
  • Trigger
• Building related tutorials (probably needs further initial subdivision)
  • How to use the Level Editor
  • How to use the Area Editor
  • How to add a creature
  • How to add an item
  • How to add a trigger
  • others

Artists: Managing Custom Art Assets

• Art Assets Overview
• 2d Art
• 3d Art
• Animation
• Visual Effect
• Art Resources
  • Animation
  • Level
  • Material
  • Morph
  • VFX
• Art related tutorials (probably needs further initial subdivision)
  • How to use the Animation Editor
  • How to use the Level Editor
  • How to use the Material Editor
  • How to use the Morph Editor
  • How to use the VFX Editor
  • others

Sound Technicians: Controlling Sound and Music

=

• Audio Overview
• Audio/Sound Effect
• Music/Composing
• Voice Acting
• Design Resources
  • Conversation
• Sound/Music related tutorials (may need further initial subdivision)
  • How to record sounds
  • How to compose and record music
  • How to record voiceovers
  • How to format sound files
  • How to import and integrate sounds
  • How to import and integrate music
  • How to import and integrate voiceovers
  • others

Players: Creating and Managing Characters

• Character Overview
• Character Design
• Design Resources
  • Character
• Character Management related tutorials (may need further initial subdivision)
  • How to design a character
  • How to create a character
  • others

Cinematographers: Adding Cutscenes and In-Game Movies

• Cinematic Overview
• Cutscenes
• Movies
• Design Resources
  • Client Script
  • Conversation
  • Cutscene
  • Stage
• Cinematics related tutorials (may need further initial subdivision)
  • How to design a cutscene
  • How to make a cutscene
  • How to create and add a stage
  • How to use a client script with a cutscene
  • How to use cutscene capture to make a movie
  • others

Project Managers: Managing Your Module

• Project Management Overview
• Project Management Tasks
• QA/Testing
• Design Resources
  • Client Script
• Module Management tutorials (may need further initial subdivision)
  • How to create a module
  • How to manage a project
  • How to test a module
  • How to use client scripts to speed testing
  • others

Story Tellers: Creating A Story

• Story Overview
• Scenario Design
• Story Writing
• Writing/Dialog
• Design Resources
  • Conversation
  • Cutscene
  • Plot
• Story Creation related tutorials (probably needs further initial subdivision)
  • How to design a scenario
  • How to write a story
  • How to write a dialog
  • How to use plots
  • How to best incorporate cutscenes
  • others

Scripters: Changing and Extending Default Behaviors

• Scripting Overview
• Game Engine Mechanics
• DAScript Language
  • Definitions
    • Datatypes
    • Operators
    • Statements
    • Functions
    • etc.
  • Functions Reference/Index
  • Constants Reference/Index
  • Topics Reference/Index
• Design Resources
  • Client Script
  • Script
• Scripting related tutorials (no doubt needs further initial subdivision)
  • How to create a script
  • How to control *choose your favorite behavior*
  • many many others

Tool Experts: 3rd Party Extensions

• Extensions Overview
• Bioware Suggestions for 3rd Party Tools
• Tools Programming
• Art Resources
  • Animation
  • Level
  • Material
  • Morph
  • VFX
• Design Resources
  • Area
  • Area List
  • Character
  • Client Script
  • Conversation
  • Creature
  • Cutscene
  • Item
  • Plot
  • Script
  • Stage
  • String
  • Trigger
• Technical Details and Tools (probably won't need further initial subdivision)
  • File Formats
    • 2DA
    • ERF
    • GFF
    • RIM
    • others
  • Data Editors
    • 2DA
    • ERF
    • GFF
    • RIM
• 3rd Party Extension tutorials (no doubt needs further initial subdivision)
  • How to modify 2DA files
  • How to modify ERF files
  • How to modify GFF files
  • How to modify RIM files
  • How to use joe's item maker
  • How to use pete's loot system
  • How to use barbara's crafting
  • How to use daisy's script generator
  • others