Author Topic: [Tutorial] Getting started with the Editor - Part 1 : Basic Tools  (Read 5470 times)

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Offline WNG

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↜ Getting started with the Editor! by WNG ↝
Part 1 : Basic Tools



Introduction

Hello! This guide will show you how to create your first basic map with the Editor, the tool to create custom maps for Titan Quest. Part 1 will show all the basic tools to shape your world and how to make it playable in-game.

I may assume you have some basic knowledge and overlook some manipulations. Feel free to tell me if anything is unclear.

I. Getting started

I. Setup your mod:
If this hasn't already been done yet, open the Art Manager and create your mod. To do so, select Mod > New... and give your mod a name. When this has been completed, you can close it for now.

II. Open the editor:
When you have a mod to work with, open the Editor tool. After some loading, you will be prompted to select the world file you want to work on. You probably don't have a map in your mod yet, so select the "Maps" folder, then give a name to your map file. When you are satisfied, press OK.

Spoiler for Hiden:

You will be welcomed with a black screen. This is your map which will contain all your regions. To add a new region, go to Region > Add New Terrain... Create one inside your "Maps" folder, name it, and choose the map size. Proceed by pressing OK.

Your map will be created in space. To see it from closer, select the map and press on the button. Your map will be empty and textured with sand alone.

To move the camera around, drag your mouse with the right-click. Click with the mouse wheel to change camera rotation.

II. Sculpting Tools

Raise Tool
Lifts a surface. On the left side, you can adjust the radius, strength and speed of the brush effect.
Spoiler for Hiden:

Roughen Tool
Roughen the terrain. On the left side, you can adjust the radius, strength and speed of the brush effect.
Spoiler for Hiden:

Smooth Tool
Smooth the terrain. On the left side, you can adjust the radius, strength and speed of the brush effect.
Spoiler for Hiden:

Plateau Tool
Flattens the terrain at the set height. On the left side, you can adjust the radius, strength and speed of the brush effect. You can also modify the height of the plateau effect, either by input a value in meters on the left or adjusting it with Ctrl+Mouse wheel.
Spoiler for Hiden:

Relative Plateau Tool
Raise or dig the terrain by the set amount of meters. On the left side, you can adjust the radius, strength and speed of the brush effect. You can also modify the height of the plateau effect, either by input a value in meters on the left or adjusting it with Ctrl+Mouse wheel.
Spoiler for Hiden:

Copy Terrain Tool
Press Ctrl+C to get a mold of a terrain, and paste it around with Ctrl+V or a left click.
Spoiler for Hiden:

Ramp Tool
Create a ramp. Drag your mouse to choose the length of the ramp. Adjust the width, in meters, on the left part of the screen.
Spoiler for Hiden:

III. Painting Tools

Painting Tool
Used to paint textures. You can add textures to your region in the Texture Layers array.

Add Layer: Add a texture to your map, that you can use to paint.
Remove Layer: Remove the texture from the map.
Move Up: Move the selected texture up, making the texture appearing behind the ones below.
Move Down: Move the selected texture down, making the texture appearing over the ones above.
Load Layers: Load a set of textures.
Save Layers: Save a set of textures to be loaded later on another region.
Set Top Layer: Set the selected texture above all the others.
Toggle Layer: Toggle the visibility of the layer.

Use the brush properties to adjust the strength and the opacity to create different texture effects.

Strength:
Spoiler for Hiden:
Comparison between 10% - 100%
Opacity:
Spoiler for Hiden:
Comparison between 100% - 50% - 20%

Combine multiple textures at once, play with different opacities and you can come up with a quite basic terrain like this.
Spoiler for Hiden:

Impassable Area Tool
Used to paint impassable terrain. Players can not walk over this terrain. Paint with Shift pressed to remove the impassable area.

IV. Water Tools

Water Brush Tool
Select a water type and paint it on the world with the set Radius and Height, on the left. Select "None" to remove painted water.

Add: Add a new water type.
Edit: Edit the selected water type. See the spoiler below for the editable parameters.
Spoiler for Hiden:
Name: Name of the water type, in the editor.
Sky: Sky effect.
Noise: Noise emitted of the water type.
Speed: Speed of the water.
Smoothness: Smooth factor of the water.
Specular: ???
Reflectivity: Ability of the water to reflect objets and light.
Direction: Change the direction of the flow of the water.
Scale X: Scale of the water texture on the X axis.
Scale Y: Scale of the water texture on the Y axis.
Min-Max Depth: Displayed depth of the water.
Min-Max Opacity: Opacity of the water.
Color: Color of the water using Red, Green and Blue values.
Remove: Remove the selected water type from the world.
Copy: Duplicate the selected water type.
Import: Import a previously exported water type.
Export: Export a water type.
Spoiler for Hiden:

River Tool
Select a water type and draw a river using Bezier curves. Press Shift to place points, Backspace to remove one. Adjust them with their own curves, and press ENTER to confirm your river.
Spoiler for Hiden:

V. Placing Objects

Place Entity
Press on this icon to have access to all the entities of the game (and the custom ones you have created, if you have made any.) It contains items, monsters, NPCs and environnement objects. Those are the ones we will be interested in. Not all (but most) scenery objects are located in these folders:

Code: [Select]
records\scenerybabylon\...
records\sceneryegypt\...
records\scenerygreece\...
records\sceneryolympus\...
records\sceneryorient\...
records\xpack\sceneryhades\...
records\xpack\scenerymedit\...
records\xpack\sceneryunderground\...
records\xpack2\scenery\...
records\xpack2\sceneryasgard\...
records\xpack2\scenerycelticheartlands\...
records\xpack2\scenerydarklands\...
records\xpack2\scenerygreece\...
records\xpack2\sceneryjotunheim\...
records\xpack2\scenerymuspelheim\...
records\xpack2\sceneryscandia\...
records\xpack2\scenerywildlands\...

These folders are generally composed of two other folders: "nature" (for natural landscapes) and "structure" (for towns, cities, etc.) When placing an object, you can select it to move it around and turn it around the X axis alone.

With what we have seen so far, we are already able to make in a few minutes a very simple forest scenery. Only by adding trees and water, we can give an entirely new feeling to our map.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Looking better, yes? Now let's add rocks and bushes and let's see what it looks like.

Spoiler for Hiden:

Decent enough. When you are satisfied with your map, let's make it playable.

VI. Make the map playable

I. Place the spawn point:
To make your map playable, you need to define where your character will spawn at the beginning of its journey. To do so, place the player spawner found here :

Code: [Select]
records\controls\spawnplayer.dbr
II. Compile your map:
On the bottom of the Editor, switch to the Layout view, back where we were previously. We will compile the map to build later in the Art Manager.

Go to Build > Rebuild All Pathing. This will update the items on the map and the pathing obviously.
Afterwards, go to Build > Rebuild All Maps. This will generate the map texture for your map(s).

Those options exists with a "Selected Maps" alternative, instead of "All Maps". It's particularly useful to select specific maps to build when your maps become full of regions.

Spoiler for Hiden:

When the texture has been generated, it could look like something similar to this picture below.

Spoiler for Hiden:

When you have built your maps, do not forget to save all!

III. Build your map's assets:

Launch Art Manager. Browse to your Maps folder; you should see new things inside. From all the files you will see, you only need to build the .wrl and the .tga file(s). When building the .tga texture, you can select "Texture" and ignore the other parameters without worries.

Spoiler for Hiden:

When this has been proprely done, go to the Assets tab and build the assets by right-clicking on them.

Spoiler for Hiden:

You are now ready to build your mod, using F7, and can playtest your map. In Part 2, we will explore more things to do with the Editor.

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