Mapping for Dummies?

[Mattn]

you just went to the upper right corner - the end of the mapeditor grid? did i get you right?

if yes - hit i (select all - or better invert selection) and move your map to the x=0 and y=0 position

[Wanderer]

Well, not all the way to the end, just a ways... I guess a picture's worth a thousand words:

XY View



XZ View



So, I guess I want to understand if you mean to center the map on the 0,0, or leave the corner where it is?

[Edit: Centering the map (give or take) on the 0,0 on the xy did not change the results]

[Mattn]

make sure, that you align the starting positions - they should exactly fit one square if you set the gridsize to 32 (shortcut 6)

dimensions and alignment is very important in ufo:ai - due to the pathfinding

[Wanderer]

make sure, that you align the starting positions - they should exactly fit one square if you set the gridsize to 32 (shortcut 6)

dimensions and alignment is very important in ufo:ai - due to the pathfinding

I was unaware of this previously, so this is good information...

... however, still getting the error.

I tried adjusting the 1st block to only 4 grids high instead of 64 and relocated all the start points to match the new start height, still no luck there.  

Added in some light sources (as I saw some maps, like africa, didn't use worldspawn settings and instead had multiple light sources all over the place).  Still dark.

If I didn't want to try to help with maps as badly as I do for the game (and that it looks like some fun once I learn), I'd be about ready to toss this thing into the hamper.   Be damned if I can figure out what I'm doing wrong.  It looks like it 'should' be simple.

[EDIT]: Appears I'm not the only one hitting this error:

http://ufoai.ninex.info/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=5481&sid=1658e262e61f885c47b335b7b9415108

[/EDIT]

[Mattn]

maybe you should try to open one map - e.g. test testwaypoints.map - and just start to replace the existing brushes with your brushes. and then compile the map

[Wanderer]

maybe you should try to open one map - e.g. test testwaypoints.map - and just start to replace the existing brushes with your brushes. and then compile the map

Tried a version of this, then realized that even the base version of the tutorial .map's that are shipped won't work when compiled, either.

Matt, I'm working on getting a copy of the map file to a location I can share it with you so maybe you can look at it.  I'm sure I'm just missing one simple, but important thing, so I'll let this lie until I can get it online somewhere.

[EDIT]: Find map here: http://www.filefactory.com/file/69f579/

[Mattn]

you need at least 3 brushes in your maps - please add some more brushes and try again please

[Wanderer]

you need at least 3 brushes in your maps - please add some more brushes and try again please

D'oh!!!  Oversimplified the test case!

That worked like a charm!  Thank ye kindly, Matt.  Now, to play with it some and figure out what the heck I'm doing now that I can get it to work.

(I'm gonna at least have to write something up for the wiki with all the 'easy' stuff you're helping me with for the next poor soul)

[Mattn]

that would be very cool ;-)

[Wanderer]

In prefab_dropship, the Dropship landing model's already built.  Always nice, however, there's a few objects here I'm unsure of.

The actorclip flags I understand, keeps things from wandering into places you don't want them.  It looks like they can also be used as 'invisible floors'.  Is this correct?

The brushes on this map I don't understand are the yellow colored 'nodraw' brushes.  What are the point to these, and am I missing an attribute?  

When I select them and review the entity, I merely get the worldspawn attributes, and nothing stands out in the surface inspector.

[Mattn]

the nodraw brushes are throughing shadows - currently misc_models don't produce shadows by itself. this is something we have to improve in future development - but for now we need the nodraw brushes.

it's a little convention to make clipping brushes orange, nodraw brushes yellow and stepon brushes blue

[Wanderer]

the nodraw brushes are throughing shadows - currently misc_models don't produce shadows by itself. this is something we have to improve in future development - but for now we need the nodraw brushes.

it's a little convention to make clipping brushes orange, nodraw brushes yellow and stepon brushes blue

Ah hah!  So, if I drop a giant, no draw object on the map, I can look like there's something overhead... like a landing airplane's shadow?  Do I need to adjust any other settings besides blocking out the brush and then choosing 'nodraw' to cause the shadow?

Also with an actorclip flag, can they walk on it?  Reason I'm asking is let's say I have a floor at z4, and a river at z1.  In theory they could step down to it, however, if I trace an 'actorclip' brush over the top (who's highest point is at level z4), would this become 'walkable' terrain?

The reason for any of this confusion is the actorclip brush that's across the 'floor' of the inside of the dropship.  I want to make sure that I don't run into a similar problem... or is this because an actor can walk *through* a model, and therefore you had to create the false floor?

[Mattn]

nothing more is needed as the nodraw flag

the actorclip: yes, actor can walk on such brushes - the reason why this is in the dropship is, that the soldiers feets doesn't melt with the dropship bottom

[Wanderer]

Thanks for the assistance on the nodraws and clipping... now, for something different...

Random Map assemblies!  Woot

http://ufoai.ninex.info/wiki/index.php/Mapping:Random_map_assembly

After about, oh, 7 reads I finally understand MOST of this file.  However, one thing still gets me that I think just needs confirmation.  We'll speak in context of the 'tile types' of a/b/c.

Is this a mapped entry that could relate to anything, or is there something in the .map/bsp file that makes it a/b/c?  For example, lets say I wanted to include 'road ends here' as an option.

Is (a) always overridden to mean any tile, or must it be another tile with (+a) mapped in that location, so the single tile curve pieces, mapped as (+bc), could *never* exist there?  Or would you need to make it (abc) to TRULY include 'any' tile in this position (similar to the coutryd.ump file)?

Does b in any tiling map always mean b in any other other tiling map?  So I'd have to simply 'know' in the script file (by means of comments or whatever) that (b) means 'horizontal road'?

Are the characters case sensitive?  Is a-z the only characters available (not that I could see needing more, but hey...)?

Is the wiki needed map list up to date, especially on random maps?  A large portion of these seem close to ready, if not completely.

[Edit] Whoops, forgot a piece.  In the readying of a .ump, must you have single tile maps available to the builder, or can it use tiles from portions of maps, and just not include the overhang?

What I mean in a different way: You scale a map to be 5x5 in the builder, and you've only built 2x2 tile maps to be included.  Can it use say, the bottom two tiles from a map and attach them for the final build?

[XaverXN]

After about, oh, 7 reads I finally understand MOST of this file.

:-D  So thats why I didn't understand it really - read it only ~3 times! *g

When you get the plan of it, could you do a 'for dummies' version of this as well?