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Level Design How do I .....? The Thread for all questions more than general.

Divinehammer

Grizzled Veteran
Mar 9, 2006
1,397
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Sunny, Obamalot
I just wanted to create a new thread that will hopefully find a sticky. I dont think that these questions really fit into the FAQ. But if everyone was to subscribe to this thread then we can put all of the "HOW DO I ...." questions here for all to see and answer instead of making new threads all the time. Below are some of the questions that I have right now but they wont be the last. I am glad that the community here is really helpful, I am working on my first map since Duke Nukem so alot of things have changed and I am going to need some help.

I am trying to do a couple fo things in my map and just cannot figure out how they are done right. Hopefully someone can help
1. I am trying to install some of the trench Static meshes but I can never move the terrain just right so that the mesh looks good there is always an edge somewhere that is higher than the terrain. Is there a way to make the terrain triangles smaller in some areas? I have tried edge turning and that works a little bit but doesnt get me there. Do I need to make my own mesh out of a texture and apply that to the edges that are above the terrain? If so how do I do that. Some general trenching tips would be good.

2. Lighting seems to be the bane of my existence. How do you get the lights so that they are not to much and showing on the faces of your brushes? I have made two groups of Sunlight actors 3 each all pointin in different directions. I then put the two groups in NE SW corners of the map but not on the edge but the light is just not hitting it correctly. Or the lights are to bright. As the level is mostly snow when you run through it the snow is really really bright. Am I doing something wrong or am I on the right track.

3. WHere do I get just a regular non destroyed Snow halfTrack that I can use as a static model. Either I am not finding the right package or I am using the wrong model. I found some Snow destroyed ones but that is not what I want also in this package I think it was axis_vehicles there was a "Snow halftrack coll" or something similar, what is this for, it looks like the model with no skin how do you use this. Do I need to take a factory and make a tweak to it? I saw where it has a "movable" param but I did not know.
 
1. check out some of the RO maps you'll see how it should be done.

2. Sunlight actors are not like spot lights, they create a level wide light of rays that strike your map wherever the subtraction cube exists.

3.Im not too sure about this one, im not sure if there is a snow skin for the halftrack. I could be wrong as I don't have the editor open right now but you might have to create one.
 
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for #1:
the thing I've always done was make sure my terrain holes closely match the Trench static.. worst case you can scale the trench static alittle bit to get it to more closely fit.
As for getting the terrain to line up on the heightmap.. what I've done was just alot of Power-10 Terrain Vertex editing.. one vertex at a time until it's right.


For #3:
Put down the regular HT static, open up the texture viewer.. find the snow skin texture version (probably located similarly to the regular gray version..) and change the Display->Skins of your static to be what you want it be.
 
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Okay for
1. I found that cutting holes (not visible) made the trenches work great Thanks.
2. Still having problems with the lights I have tried 3 low power and 1 med power and there is a fine line between kind of dark and Glaring off the snow texture I still dont think that it looks right. I put the Sunlight actor in the skybox is there anything else I can do to better light my mostly snow level without getting white out.
3. I will try this with the halftrack thanks. Drax did you mean I need to get the HT static with the COLL ending or just any regular HTSTatic.

Thanks for the help.

Does anyone know of which package might have a snowy Tree Facade I looked for a couple hours last night and did not find one.
 
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Divinehammer said:
2. Still having problems with the lights I have tried 3 low power and 1 med power and there is a fine line between kind of dark and Glaring off the snow texture I still dont think that it looks right. I put the Sunlight actor in the skybox is there anything else I can do to better light my mostly snow level without getting white out.
Just keep lowering the brightness. Generally 2 of the sunlights are low values, with 1 being brighter. It doesn't matter where the sunlights are, as they emit light at an infinite distance in 1 direction. Just put them in your skybox or next to your ZoneInfo for easy-access. The best thing is just to copy+paste from a current snow map.

Make sure the levels AmbientBrightness isn't too high in the ZoneInfo.

If the snow is extremely bright in-game, sometimes it's because of Bloom. You can't see the bloom in the editor.
 
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For trenches, you may find you have to have two terrains in your map. The first is for the normal ground level, the second for the trench floor.

- Cut a hole in the ground level terrain to fit your trench then make sure it joins smoothly with the bsp or mesh you're using for the walls.
- Then sculpt the floor to taste.
 
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StardogChampion said:
Just keep lowering the brightness. Generally 2 of the sunlights are low values, with 1 being brighter. It doesn't matter where the sunlights are, as they emit light at an infinite distance in 1 direction. Just put them in your skybox or next to your ZoneInfo for easy-access. The best thing is just to copy+paste from a current snow map.

Make sure the levels AmbientBrightness isn't too high in the ZoneInfo.

If the snow is extremely bright in-game, sometimes it's because of Bloom. You can't see the bloom in the editor.

thanks this is what I have done with the sunlight I copied from Rakowice but the sunlights are in a pack of three which gives everything 3 shadows which doesnt look all that realistic but now I have one in my skybox above the clouds mesh so it is looking pretty good. I set the light to like 30 any more than that Bloom takes over and blinds me , but 30 is not enough to illuminate my bunker walls and such like I would like for them to be they all look very Dark.

My next task though is getting the mapedges done Which I want to use a fog ring or something, though I think that there is another thread on map edging.

Also I still need to know if there is a way to make a trigger volume activate a spawn area. Anyone have any ideas on this. Thanks for the help guys.
 
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Divinehammer said:
Also I still need to know if there is a way to make a trigger volume activate a spawn area. Anyone have any ideas on this. Thanks for the help guys.

Check out the Advanced Spawn Areas tutorial. In there I explain how to configure a "one time" spawn which essentially uses triggers to control spawn areas. You should be able to pick it up from that.

If not, give me another shout.
 
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Divinehammer said:
How do I use a cube map?

How do I use a projector?

These are two large subjects in themselves..

I'll start with CubeMaps:

Cubemaps are used to general fake 'reflections'. Most often these are used with Enviromental Maps on FluidSurfaceInfos to produce a water reflection.
This UDN article talks about both and thier relation and is a pretty good tutorial/how to: http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/MaterialsEnvironmentMaps


Projectors:

Think of these as those old style overhead-projectors they would use in school.. or if you want, a movie-projector.

In a nutshell, you project a material (texture) onto some surface (could be BSP, Smesh, players.. etc..)

the UDN tutorial on projectors is a good starting point.. check it out here:
http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/ProjectorsTutorial#Projectors_Tutorial

A good example of the nifty things you can do with projectors:

Hi-Def Shadows: http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/ExampleMapsAdvLighting/single_tree_shadow.jpg
^^--> gives alot better looking shadows to trees

Sunbeams: http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/ExampleMapsAdvLighting/sunbeam.jpg

Graffitti: http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/MainProjectorProperties/levelstatic1.jpg
^^--> this is similar to how the Mud-Tracks on levels like Arad, Bondarevo, and Barashka are done btw

Some advanced stuff you can do with projectors and lighting is here:
http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/ExampleMapsAdvLighting#Projectors_Shaders
 
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Commissar{SK} said:
I've got a random question. Is it possible to scale an emitter? I'd like to put fire in a fireplace but even the smallest fire emitter for RO is way too big.

Certainly.
You scale the particles that the emitter emits.
http://udn.epicgames.com/Two/EmittersReference#Size

So if you have one emitter that emits Fire and Smoke particles, you scale the fire and scale the smoke.
 
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thanks for looking neither could I, I ended up using some tracked trucks for my snow level they look cool but they have no snow on them. Is there a way to make your own skins or textures and upload them. I could get what I want with photoshop anyone have a link to a tut? I ended up using those trees as well with a whitish fog ring. Is there a way to make a SMesh facade out of the snowy pine trees?
 
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