Area tutorial - Revision history

Sunjammer: Fixing images

2011-07-14T12:22:17Z

Fixing images

Sunjammer: /* Creating the area */

2011-07-14T12:16:39Z

‎Creating the area

Sunjammer: /* Creating the area */ fixing image

2011-07-14T12:16:25Z

‎Creating the area: fixing image

Sunjammer: /* Creating the area */ fixing images and link

2011-07-14T12:15:55Z

‎Creating the area: fixing images and link

BloodsongVengeance: bloodsong adds lots of links to the area layouts list (because i can never find it!)

2010-12-28T20:29:09Z

bloodsong adds lots of links to the area layouts list (because i can never find it!)

Sunjammer: Applied Languages template

2010-10-26T12:29:21Z

Applied Languages template

Equilibrium Keeper at 16:40, 12 October 2010

2010-10-12T16:40:29Z

DerGreif: /* Area transitions via doors */

2010-07-08T00:18:39Z

‎Area transitions via doors

DerGreif: /* Area transitions via doors */ added information how to createan invisible area transition door and how to name the area transition.

2010-07-08T00:17:10Z

‎Area transitions via doors: added information how to createan invisible area transition door and how to name the area transition.

BryanDerksen: {{Infobox area}}

2010-02-03T18:07:46Z

@@ Line 55: / Line 55: @@
 The waypoint will be automatically selected, indicated by a yellow wireframe box surrounding it. You'll also see the waypoint listed in the area's object list, to the left of the display window. If you lose track of the waypoint later a good way to find it again is to right-click on the waypoint in the list and select "Zoom to Object" in the resulting menu or double click on its tag to center the object in the display window. The waypoint's properties will be shown in the object inspector. We want to change the waypoint's name to something more informative, in this case to "start". More importantly for the game itself, though, we'll also want to change the waypoint's tag to "start" (it defaults to blank). An object's tag is how scripts and other resources will refer to the waypoint. Since this particular waypoint is never going to be visible to the player it's likely that the waypoint's name will never be seen at all.
-The player will also start out facing in the same direction that the waypoint is facing (indicated by the arrow-shaped base of the waypoint object). If we don't want the player to start out facing in the default direction, we'll want to rotate the waypoint to point in a new direction. To rotate an object, use the toolbar to switch from standard selection mode ([[Image:Standard selection mode.png]]) to 3-axis rotation mode ([[Image:3 axis rotation mode.png]]).
+The player will also start out facing in the same direction that the waypoint is facing (indicated by the arrow-shaped base of the waypoint object). If we don't want the player to start out facing in the default direction, we'll want to rotate the waypoint to point in a new direction. To rotate an object, use the toolbar to switch from standard selection mode ([[Image:Standard selection mode.png|link=]]) to 3-axis rotation mode ([[Image:3 axis rotation mode.png|link=]]).
 When you select the waypoint in this mode you'll see a set of circles around the waypoint's base with various orientations; clicking and holding the mouse button on one of them will allow you to rotate the waypoint around its center.
-[[Image:Waypoint rotation.png|center]]
+[[Image:Waypoint rotation.png|border|200px]]
-Now that we have an area and a waypoint to start at, we can now tell the module that this is where the player is to appear. Reopen the "Manage Modules" window (available via a command under the File menu), select your module, and click the "Properties" button. This opens the module's properties. For the "Starting Area" property, click on the ellipsis button ([[Image:ellipsis.png]]) and select the starting area from the areas available in the module; since we've only put one area in so far "hut_exterior" will be the only available option. Once the area has been selected we can then select the starting waypoint from the waypoints currently placed in the area. Note that the list will show waypoint tags rather than names. Again, we've only put in one so this will be easy. You can also set the player to appear at the origin of the map (coordinates 0,0,0), but this is generally a poor choice and available only as a default in case there are no waypoints defined yet.
+Now that we have an area and a waypoint to start at, we can now tell the module that this is where the player is to appear. Reopen the "Manage Modules" window (available via a command under the File menu), select your module, and click the "Properties" button. This opens the module's properties. For the "Starting Area" property, click on the ellipsis button ([[Image:ellipsis.png|link=]]) and select the starting area from the areas available in the module; since we've only put one area in so far "hut_exterior" will be the only available option. Once the area has been selected we can then select the starting waypoint from the waypoints currently placed in the area. Note that the list will show waypoint tags rather than names. Again, we've only put in one so this will be easy. You can also set the player to appear at the origin of the map (coordinates 0,0,0), but this is generally a poor choice and available only as a default in case there are no waypoints defined yet.
 == Area transitions via doors ==
@@ Line 78: / Line 78: @@
 You may notice that when the door you placed in the area is selected a small blue sphere will appear at one edge in addition to the yellow wireframe bounding box. This is the door's "hook". Area layouts come with hidden "hooks" pre-installed to place doors on, and doors have matching hooks of their own. If you click on the blue sphere it will turn red, and all of the compatible door hooks built into the area's layout will appear. The following image illustrates this:
-[[Image:Door with door hook selected.png|400px|center|thumb|Drag the red sphere near to the blue sphere to automatically position the door]]
+[[Image:Door with door hook selected.png|border|200px|Drag the red sphere near to the blue sphere to automatically position the door]]
-To hook a door up with its frame, simply click and drag the door's hook to a location very close to the matching frame hook. You don't need to get the positioning exact; if the two hooks are close enough together when you release the mouse button they'll automatically snap together. The door will be positioned and reoriented to fit correctly into the frame. Make sure you're still in the 'Standard Selection' mode ([[Image:IconStandardSelection.png]]) for the snap to occur, if you're in the more advanced 3 Axis Movement tool, the snap will not happen.
+To hook a door up with its frame, simply click and drag the door's hook to a location very close to the matching frame hook. You don't need to get the positioning exact; if the two hooks are close enough together when you release the mouse button they'll automatically snap together. The door will be positioned and reoriented to fit correctly into the frame. Make sure you're still in the 'Standard Selection' mode ([[Image:IconStandardSelection.png|link=]]) for the snap to occur, if you're in the more advanced 3 Axis Movement tool, the snap will not happen.
 Note that door hooks are only there to make it easy to get exact matches on frames and walls that need a snug fit, to ensure that Artists and Designers don't have to spend a lot of time putting it in place. Doors will function just as well off of hooks as on them.
@@ Line 88: / Line 88: @@
 }}
-Next, we'll tell the game engine that the door is an area transition door and that when the player clicks on it he will be transported to another area of the game. This is done by setting two of the door's [[variable]]s. Select the door (either in the area's object palette or directly in the main display window) and right-click on it, selecting "properties" from the resulting menu. This will open the door's properties in the Object Inspector window. Select the "Variables" property and click on the ellipsis ([[Image:ellipsis.png]]) button. This will open up the variable browser for that particular instance of the door object.
+Next, we'll tell the game engine that the door is an area transition door and that when the player clicks on it he will be transported to another area of the game. This is done by setting two of the door's [[variable]]s. Select the door (either in the area's object palette or directly in the main display window) and right-click on it, selecting "properties" from the resulting menu. This will open the door's properties in the Object Inspector window. Select the "Variables" property and click on the ellipsis ([[Image:ellipsis.png|link=]]) button. This will open up the variable browser for that particular instance of the door object.
 There are two key variables in this list that we'll need to set:
@@ Line 101: / Line 101: @@
 Here is how the exterior door's variables should look:
-[[Image:Area tutorial door variables.png|frame|center|Area transition door's variables]]
+[[Image:Area tutorial door variables.png|border|200px|Area transition door's variables]]
 And here is the interior door, with the destination waypoint:
-[[Image:Area tutorial interior door.png|frame|center|Interior door with destination waypoint]]
+[[Image:Area tutorial interior door.png|border|200px|Interior door with destination waypoint]]
 The interior door is set up in the same manner, with a destination area of "hut_exterior" and a matching destination waypoint of "hut_door_exterior".
@@ Line 115: / Line 115: @@
 If you want to create an area transition that doesn't look like a door, or is otherwise already represented by the level art, you can use an invisible 'door' instead. Therefore you have to create an invisible Placeable first. For details how to create a Placeable see the [[Placeable tutorial]]. The first defining point of a Placeable is the "Appearance". Appearances for these invisible placeables are named "Area Transition, Invisible". Chose one of them to your liking. If you want your area transition to show a meaningful name, you have this to add during the creation of the placeable under "Name". After you have created the placeable you can place it as you wish. Here is the yellow show box around the placeables important, because you will not see it otherwise. Now set its variables the same way as was done for the visible door.
-[[Image:Area Transition, Invisible.png|frame|center|Invisible area transition]]
+[[Image:Area Transition, Invisible.png|border|200px|Invisible area transition]]
 The player won't see this 'door' in the game, but when he moves the mouse pointer over it it will change to signify that an area transition lies there and it can be right-clicked to be activated just like a visible door.
@@ Line 125: / Line 125: @@
 }}
-Finally, you can also create an area transition that triggers automatically when the player walks into a predefined area. This is done using [[trigger]]s. ([[Image:IconTrigger.png]]) You'll first have to create a trigger resource, much like how you had to create a placeable door earlier, but trigger resources are much simpler and for area transitions you won't need to change any of the defaults. Create a default trigger with "New -> Trigger" (either by right-clicking the resource palette or from the File menu) and give it an informative name such as "trigger_area_transition".
+Finally, you can also create an area transition that triggers automatically when the player walks into a predefined area. This is done using [[trigger]]s. ([[Image:IconTrigger.png|link=]]) You'll first have to create a trigger resource, much like how you had to create a placeable door earlier, but trigger resources are much simpler and for area transitions you won't need to change any of the defaults. Create a default trigger with "New -> Trigger" (either by right-clicking the resource palette or from the File menu) and give it an informative name such as "trigger_area_transition".
 Go back to your area map, select the trigger from the resource palette, and then click on the map to define the corner points of the area the trigger will occupy. Double-click the last vertex to complete the polygon. A trigger can have any number of vertices, and vertices can be moved, added, or deleted after the trigger is created so don't worry if you don't get it exactly right. Note that the blue plane the trigger uses to show the enclosed area will pass through the ground and may not be entirely visible in the toolset, but it extends infinitely upward so the trigger will still take effect if the player enters its boundaries.
@@ Line 138: / Line 138: @@
 Below is an example where we've placed both a trigger and an invisible door across a pathway. Note that this is redundant, only one or the other is really needed. For most purposes a placeable area transition is probably best. (''It is worth noting that placeable area transitions prompt a popup asking the player if they want to transition when bumped, but not when clicked upon - effectively acting as either a door or a trigger.'') The waypoint shown is the arrival spot for the player when coming in from the other side; note how it's placed outside the trigger area, allowing the player to immediately back up and retreat through the area transition if he chooses.
-[[Image:Area Transition, invisible with trigger.png|center]]
+[[Image:Area Transition, invisible with trigger.png|border|200px]]
 == Grouping Placeables ==
@@ Line 155: / Line 155: @@
 Now when you drag the firepit placeable around the area, the sound emitter will automatically follow. Use the "Managed Links" menu item if you want to remove an association. Note that associations are uni-directional; you can still move the sound emitter without moving the firepit. Examples of other useful associations: a table and all of the items on top of the table, a table surrounded by chairs, etc.
 == Sound ==

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 [[File:New resource.png|border|200px|New resource menu]]
-Areas are represented with the [[Image:IconArea.pngA|link=]] icon. When you select it you'll be presented with a "Create New Resource" window:
+Areas are represented with the [[Image:IconArea.png|link=]] icon. When you select it you'll be presented with a "Create New Resource" window:
 [[File:Create new resource.png|border|200px|New resource dialog]]

@@ Line 6: / Line 6: @@
 [[File:New resource.png|border|200px|New resource menu]]
-Areas are represented with the [[Image:IconArea.png]] icon. When you select it you'll be presented with a "Create New Resource" window:
+Areas are represented with the [[Image:IconArea.pngA|link=]] icon. When you select it you'll be presented with a "Create New Resource" window:
 [[File:Create new resource.png|border|200px|New resource dialog]]

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{Infobox area}}
 == Creating the area ==
 Once you have created a new module (see [[creating a module]]), the first thing you will likely want to do is create one or more areas where your adventure is going to be set. There are several ways to reach the "new area" command; you can right-click on the resource palette window, or select "new" from the file menu.
-[[Image:New resource.png|thumb|center|New resource menu]]
+[[File:New resource.png|border|200px|New resource menu]]
-−
-<br clear="all" />
 Areas are represented with the [[Image:IconArea.png]] icon. When you select it you'll be presented with a "Create New Resource" window:
+[[File:Create new resource.png|border|200px|New resource dialog]]
-[[Image:Create new resource.png|center|]]
 {{sidebox|
@@ Line 23: / Line 19: @@
 Most of the fields are already filled in with good defaults for the module you're working with. You'll need to supply a "ResRef Name", which is the name by which the resource will be known internally to the toolset. (This is the "Name" field on the "Create New Resource" dialog box.) You'll probably want to use a name that will remind you, the module designer, of the purpose or important features of the area. Changing a resource's name is difficult to do later. We're going to call the first area of the tutorial "hut_exterior".
-After creating the area you'll be presented with a completely blank area editor. There will be no environment or objects of any kind. To specify what environment you'll be placing objects into, open the object inspector and select the "Area Layout" property. There will be an ellipsis button ([[Image:ellipsis.png]]) in the property's data field that will bring up a resource selection window where you can select an environment to use for this area.  (See [[Area layouts used in the single player module]] for a listing of what each one is.) The environment we wish to select is in the area layout file "ost101d.arl". Once we select it, the area layout appears in the main area window.
+After creating the area you'll be presented with a completely blank area editor. There will be no environment or objects of any kind. To specify what environment you'll be placing objects into, open the object inspector and select the "[[Area layout|Area Layout]]" property. Click on the ellipsis button ([[Image:ellipsis.png|link=]]) in the property's data field to bring up a resource selection window where you can select an area layout to use for this area. If you want a better idea of what each area layout looks like you will find an image of each in the [[Area layout visual index]].
-The resource's internal resource name is hut_exterior but the player will not see this when he's playing the game. To give the area a name meaningful to the player we'll set the "Name" field to "Deep in the Swamp". All of the other defaults are fine for now, we will leave them as is.
+The resource's internal name is "hut_exterior" but we do not want the player to see this when he's playing the game. To give the area a name meaningful to the player set the "Name" field to "Deep in the Swamp". All of the other defaults are fine for now so you can leave them as they are.
-[[Image:Area tutorial 1.png|thumb|600px|center]]
+[[File:Area tutorial 1.png|border|200px|An area]]
 == Area Basics ==

@@ Line 23: / Line 23: @@
 Most of the fields are already filled in with good defaults for the module you're working with. You'll need to supply a "ResRef Name", which is the name by which the resource will be known internally to the toolset. (This is the "Name" field on the "Create New Resource" dialog box.) You'll probably want to use a name that will remind you, the module designer, of the purpose or important features of the area. Changing a resource's name is difficult to do later. We're going to call the first area of the tutorial "hut_exterior".
-After creating the area you'll be presented with a completely blank area editor. There will be no environment or objects of any kind. To specify what environment you'll be placing objects into, open the object inspector and select the "Area Layout" property. There will be an ellipsis button ([[Image:ellipsis.png]]) in the property's data field that will bring up a resource selection window where you can select an environment to use for this area. The environment we wish to select is in the area layout file "ost101d.arl". Once we select it, the area layout appears in the main area window.
+After creating the area you'll be presented with a completely blank area editor. There will be no environment or objects of any kind. To specify what environment you'll be placing objects into, open the object inspector and select the "Area Layout" property. There will be an ellipsis button ([[Image:ellipsis.png]]) in the property's data field that will bring up a resource selection window where you can select an environment to use for this area.  (See [[Area layouts used in the single player module]] for a listing of what each one is.) The environment we wish to select is in the area layout file "ost101d.arl". Once we select it, the area layout appears in the main area window.
 The resource's internal resource name is hut_exterior but the player will not see this when he's playing the game. To give the area a name meaningful to the player we'll set the "Name" field to "Deep in the Swamp". All of the other defaults are fine for now, we will leave them as is.

@@ Line 162: / Line 162: @@
 Sounds are placed using the Area Editor. For more details see [[Sound]].
 [[Category:Areas]]
 [[Category:Tutorials]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 18:07, 3 February 2010
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		+	{{Infobox area}}
	== Creating the area ==		== Creating the area ==