Workshop - Step 4 - Wall mode

# Wall mode

Wall mode

### Wall mode

Please activate the wallmode (F1 key or menu item [Edit] [Walls]). The basic task in the wall mode is to enter points (vertices) of walls, stairways and boxes and to connect them with a line - or call it wall ...

Before you go ahead, please take a close look at the tutorial level we want to build . The tutorial shows you how to edit every sector - we start at sector one.

Step 1

### Step 1

To build up the first sector (number: 000), we have to proceed stepwise. The following picture shows a point of the first sector (marked up white). Please insert the point at coordinates (-64,64). As the snap mode is on, this task should be easy - please hold down the SHIFT key and press the left mouse button:

You can select this new point by clicking on the point with the left mouse button. The point appears with a little white rectangle around it. Press the right mouse button to activate the context menu for the point. Select [Create sector with selected points] [New sector] from the popup menu.

You have created a new sector - including the selected point. As we haven't defined a sector before, the new sector gets the number 0. Watch the title line of the window: the editor saved the sector to your hard drive. The directory is the one of the level file level.lvl. The sectors get numbers from 000 to 999.

Ok, let's create the other points of the sector (level000.sec):

Please enter the other 5 vertices. Hold the SHIFT key and press the left mouse button.

Hint I. It's possible to delete and move points later - select a point (works fine with several points at a time too) and use the context menu.

Step 2

### Step 2

The second task is to connect two points with a line. This line represents the wall. You have to select two points (hold down the left mouse button and move the cursor over the points). The editor assists you showing small numbers beside the selected points. These numbers show you the order of the selection - this is important as we will see.

Please select the point in the right upper and the right lower corner and call the context menu (right mouse button):

Choose [Create lines]... and a line appears:

Select our new line: hold the CONTROL key and click on the line with the left mouse button:

Now press the right mouse button to call the popup:

Choose [Edit attributes] - and the Settings-Dialog arrives ...:

This dialog enables you to setup all wall related settings. All ? Yes, and that is the reason for this monster dialog.

The first sector is an outer terrain sector - no ceiling. However, there is a sky. Hmm, before we setting up the sky here are the steps to define a wall:

- Selection of a texture
- Defining the start and end height
- Color of the floor and ceiling (maybe sky)
- Visibility

Definition of a wall - texture. In the right upper corner of the dialog you can choose a apropriate pre-defined texture. Well, let's choose the texture Wall with lines 64x80 - it should appear in the small window besides. Press the Apply button to apply the texture to the current wall - should appear in the big window now ... No ? Then simply click in the big window which causes a redraw. Better ?

Definiton of a wall - height. Each texture has a certain height (see Defining and using textures). And each wall starts at a certain height level - and ends some pixels above. You can modify the texture height if you want (using only half of the texture for example). The settings for the start and end height can be done in the left upper corner of the dialog (Heights). All walls of the first sector have the same start height level. There are no stairways or boxes.

Attention! Only values of 0 - 510 are allowed for the start height. However, they have to be even. You may think, 512 heights are a lot. Unfortunately this isn`t so. If you build rooms with heights of 128 or 256 you have to plan your level carefully.

The preset of the start height is 128. This is ok, leave this value untouched.

Definition of walls - Colors of floor and ceiling. Setup the colors in the middle of the dialog: Backside, Ceiling and Floor. The numbers are the indices of the colors you have already defined in the main window ([EDIT] [General level settings]) (see ).

The default color index 0 is ok for the Floor, as we want a grey floor. The color of the ceiling doesn't matter for the current sector - we plan to use a sky instead. Yep, colors are done.

To get a sky you have to toogle some flags:

Toogle onFloor, Ceiling, Sky.

Attention! To get a sky you always have to activate Sky AND Ceiling.

Definition of walls - visibility. Every wall has a frontside and a backside. The editor distinguishes between the those sides. After defining a new line (wall) the editor shows a small orthogonal line in the middle of the new wall. This small line is called a normal vector. It's always on the backside of the wall. To speed up rendering, the engine normally discards all walls which the spectator views from the backside. This might lead to missing walls if you don`t care about the normal vectors.

Hint I. There are exceptions from the rule. E.g. a fence. You can view at fence from both sides. Therefore you have to toogle on the flag Backside (group Visibility) in the lower left corner of the dialog. The engine shows the backside of the texture. The default is to show the backside in a certain color - edited under Texture:Backside. Hmm, but if you want to use a texture on the backside instead of the color ? No problem. Toogle on the flag Texture on both sides to have the same texture on both sides.

Hint II. The fence example leads us to another problem. You can look through fences. But our textures don't use transparency information up to now. To achieve this, toogle on the flag Masked. The engine doesn't paint pixels, which are black (RGB value: 000).

Hint III. Last tip for today: if you don't like the default behavior of darkening textures in the distance, toogle off the flag Lightshaded.

DONE. Please control your settings for the first wall ...:

Hint. As we might reuse the current settings for other walls, please press the button As standard! All current settings are saved to a buffer. As we will see this makes things easier ...

Ok. This was the first big point. Close the dialog (OK) and there should appear a red line in the sector window:

Schritt 3

### Step 3

Hey, now it is time to reuse our old wall settings for the other walls. Select the following points (left mouse button):

Hint I. To deselect an object, just press the left mouse button in an empty part of the sector window.

After that press the right button for the context menu and choose [Create Lines]:

Congratulation! You have defined two lines at once. Select those new lines (left mouse button and holding the CONTROL key) and call the settings dialog ([Edit Attributes]). As you will see, the settings are equal to the first wall. The buffered settings are used for every new line automatically.

Hint II. To overwrite the settings of several walls with buffered attributes, proceed like that: select the walls and choose [Allocate standard attributes to lines] in the context menu.

Repeat the procedure for the remainding points:

### Yipee ! You have completed the architecture of the first room!

It is time to save the sector. Choose the menu item [File][Save].

Well, if you have enough of this tutorial, take a break. Please save the entire level - choose [File] [Save] in the main application window. After that close the application.

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