[Tiggy] In NerfEd press F6 to bring up the Level Properties. You should see "Author" and "Title" when you expand the LevelInfo tab. Both things will show up at the top of the screen for a second or two when the map is played.
[Ace] First off, the DefaultGameType is, well, the default game type of the level! It sets the gametype for anyone who joins the level. If you're just doing regular PointBlast, put in NerfI.DeathMatchGame. You can put in anything you want, but it wouldn't be any use to put in NerfI.ScavengerHuntGame if your map doesn't have ball deposits and ball generators, for example. It's also not very wise to put in None, too, because if you opened up the map by the "open" command, the PointBlast game wouldn't start up, and you wouldn't have bots. It would also happen if you play-tested the map directly from NerfEd.
[Tiggy] Right click on the "Build Cube" button and choose "Cube properties". From there you can set the dimensions for your room.
If you have an existing room that you later decide you want to enlarge, you can change the scale in the brush properties (right-click the brush). Sometimes it's just easier to delete the brush, rebuild, and replace it with an enlarged one.
When you make a long hallway with a single texture, but you want an occasional different one on that wall, how do you do it? For example, in the Amateur Arena texture pack, there's a wall with red on the top and yellow on the bottom. Now I could make a long hallway with that, but let's say I want to insert the texture that has the red part dip down into the yellow, halfway down the hall. Should I:
A. Subtract part of the hall using the straight texture, subtract a small chunk of it using the alternate texture, then subtract the rest with the straight one? (Consumes 3 brushes which, I imagine, is not ideal.)
B. Subtract the whole hallway, then come back and add a one-sided surface directly in the place where I want the new wall tile and texture it with the alternate one.
[Ace] I would actually do A, make seperate subtracted brushes. Although your map will have lots of different parts in it, it's much easier than doing a one-sided sheet brush. You COULD use sheets, but they are tougher to deal with. But, if you did want to put, say, a Nerf logo on a wall that already has a texture you want on it, then yes, use a masked sheet brush.
[SLAM] There are three types of brushes, solid, semisolid, and nonsolid. The kind Ace was describing are really nonsolid, and those are also good for making lights with (in some cases, read on). Semisolid are brushes that have some of the BSP properties of nonsolids, but still like normal solids.
Now, when to use them as lights...this is the trick. If you have a nonsolid brush, and add it at exactly the same level as a solid brush (i.e., a subtracted room's ceiling) then it may or may not be visible. If it is visible, you're likely to get texture clipping lines, which is a nasty effect. Generally, this can be acheived by lowering them from the ceiling...but then nothing will collide with them. Thus, semisolids bring into play the best of both worlds. You can place them flat against the surface if you want, and they'll show up fine, or you can lower them, and still have projectiles, etc collide with them.
Be warned, also, that a solid brush, or nonsolid brush set to zone portal will maintain zone integrity. Semisolids will NOT under ANY circumstances maintain zone integrity. If you've got zones leaking into each other at some point, and you're using a lot of semisolids, look to make sure one isn't opening up a hole to another zone.
[Storm] Q: What is the difference between a solid and semisolid brush?
A: A solid brush causes bsp cuts and a semisolid doesn't. You can subtract from a solid, but not a semisolid. A solid will hold zone properties, but a semisolid won't. Use semisolids for details that aren't zone barriers and also for any small insignificant adds that you can. Don't use them for large brushes because that can cause large HOM (Hall of Mirrors) spots and FPS (Framerates Per Second) slowdowns.
[Ace] For making torches, in NAB you must use intersecting transparent sheets. I wish there were a torch-like "actor" which you could just put anywhere to make flames be generated.
[Craig] C
[Craig] Make your ladder like an actual ladder, then put a stair brush just in front of it. Make sure the stair brush has a small step length, like 2 or 4, and make sure it is a little higher than the ladder, but not touching the floor, walls or ladder. choose a texture for the stair brush that is one solid color, apply it to all sides and flag the sides TRANSPARENT. If you do this, it will make an invisible brush with no BSP holes.
[CurtSquirt] A class is a object or element of the map. Some of these elements are needed to create maps. After you click on the playerstart in classes, go into the map, preferably 3D view, right click on where you want it and select "add playerstart here".
When I try to add either a megaspeed or a megajump to my map, nothing happens. I can add megapower, guns, ammo, and even point lozenges, but when I add either of those I get nothing. Am I missing something?
[Tiggy] Some items don't have a mesh that shows up in the editor. However, they ARE being added to the map (just look in game--the items are there!). If you want to see the items in the editor, go to Actors -> Icon View. Now they'll show up as little 2D treasure boxes.
If you want the actual mesh to show up, follow the above steps so that you can right click the item. Under Display -> Mesh you can click the "...", select the mesh in the mesh browser, and then click "Use" in the properties window.
This problem also affects the SHBallGun, which explains why you'll find 2 or 3 of them in some custom PM maps. The mapper added them in and couldn't get rid of them!
[Darth Animal] That's true about the megajump and megaspeed sneakers - some of my remixes have got them in less than perfect positions, because you can't see exactly where you are putting them, and you can't get rid of them afterwards! So, it's a good idea to save a "beta" version of the map before you add such things, so you can always go back to that stage if things go wrong...
[Rajada] I tried to use a triggered ambient sound to set off an alarm after you shoot it's trigger, but it doesn't play anything. I set the initial state to trigger toggle and initially on is set to false, but it doesn't work still.
…
Alright this time I placed a special event, set it to play ambient sound, which works, but since you have to set the sound in the ambient sound field, the instant the level loads, it plays.
…
AHA!! I used an tutorial trigger, set its initial state to play ambient sound, set the sound and ambient sound to the sound I wanted, and put the ambient sound volume to 0. Problem solved.
[CPU Wizard] You make your own texture with paint and save them as a .pcx.
[Tiggy] Make sure that the .pcx is in 256 colors. For making .utx's, you don't need to import into an existing file. If you have new textures, import them into a new .utx file and save that file in \Textures. Just make sure you name it with a different name than your map. Also, if you're only planning on using a couple of new textures you can save/import them into MyLevel.utx and they will be saved within the same file as your map.
[Ace] Texture packages in Unreal engine games have the UTX extension, and they can hold multiple BMP/PCX files into one file. Sound effect files are similar. They have the UAX extension and can hold multiple WAV files into one file. You can create these files by choosing the Import option in the editor, getting all your files, then choosing the Save option.
[Tiggy] Your best bet is to build a sheet and choose "Invisible Collision Hull" when you "Add Special". You can also just check "Invisible" in the Surface Properties when you right click on a surface in 3D view.
[Sk8er] Go to add special and do masked decoration, then apply a fire texture, and align the texture so it looks good, put a invisible box around the fire and inside the box add a pain zone.
Does any one know a texture which will give a surface a kind of shiny metallic look, without using the resources of the "mirror" surface property? That means I'd like a "silvery" surface texture or so.
[Ace] You can slightly emulate that by texturing a surface with a gray color, then set it to be Mirrored + Translucent. Try it out and see if you like...that's pretty much the closest thing you can get in this version of the Unreal engine.
[SLAM] That's pretty much the start there, mirror + translucent. Play with your texture a bit though, don't just go for a solid color. If you're looking for silvery, try maybe some brushed metal, or a gradient. If you want ice, go for more patchy areas, maybe even a few defined lines.
Rule of thumb when dealing with any translucency in the editor is that the blacker/darker the color is, the closer it'll be to transparent. If the color is lighter, it's a little more opaque.
[G-MO] The first step is to add a "startgun" to your map. Go to "classes", "triggers", then "StartGun". Once you have added it to the map (it will look like a clock) you are ready to set it up. Go to your StartGun's properties and go to the "StartGun" section. You will want to set your announcement. Load "PublicAddress" in the sounds section. All you have to do then is select your sound and click "Use" (in the StartGun properties).
Hopefully that covers everything... If you have any questions look at any of the game default maps.
[Custer] Before you "import" the t3d-format map, open an appropriate texture file and highlight one texture that you are pretty sure you want to use a lot of. That makes it the "default" texture (except on movers), instead of that bubbly grey concrete!
[G-MO] If you have just a couple textures that you want to add to your map you can just import them into the package "MyLevel". Once you have done that the texture will be a part of your level. I have done that with a lot of map (PM-OchreRemix and PM-1on1-AugustMoonRemix). The main advantage to doing that is that they wont have to have a custom pack, thus making it more simple for players to use your map. However if you are going to use the textures in multiple maps it is probably better to create a texture pack.
[Ace] Check out this little program called UTPT:
http://www.acordero.org/prog_proj_UTPT.html
Should be able to extract anything you want.
[SLAM] Environment.utx - All skies, stars, and clouds.
Barracuda.utx - Water and waterfall textures.
Asteroid_effects.utx - Lava, energy effects.
Luna.utx - Energy effects.
Lights.utx - Light fixtures.
Details.utx - Decals, logos, and texture animations (bouncepads, arrows, etc.)
[G-MO] FeeFlares.utx - For
coronas (flares). For a game default pack I use Coronas.utx.
PM-D.utx/PlutonicUrban.utx - For most of my city themed texturing.
PM_Seuioa2.utx - Fire
PM-E.utx - Sky box sheets and a planet (some UT maps have masked sheets in
there sky box).
PM-F-T.utx - Used for vines and a nice moon.
[G-MO] AmbOutside.uax/nature.uax - Some nice outdoor sounds (lots of different wins sound fx). When using nature.uax I normally use wtrfall (not sure if that is how you spell it) sound effect for wind (no birds that way).
GenSounds.uax - Almost all my movers are done with sounds from here, plus all my hums are taken from this pack....
I ought to mention Logos.utx for most of my Nerf logo work... It has a better selection of team logos and Amateur arena looking shooting guys than Details...
[Tiggy] When you've done your terrain, export it as a .t3d file. That file can be imported into NerfEd (Brush -> Import) and then added, most likely within a subtracted cube.
[Storm] Q: How do I make water?
A: First you must "zone off" an area to become your water. To do this, place a "sheet" the exact size of the opening you wish to be covered by water. This sheet will be the water's surface. Once you have the sheet where you want it (there can be NO gaps) click "Add Special". In the drop down menu select "Water" and click OK. Press F8 to rebuild. Now go into the actor menu and go to Info>ZoneInfo>WaterZone place the water zone under the sheet where the water will be. Rebuild again and test. If you did this correctly you should now have a funtioning pool. Lava and other such things are made the same way. Just use a different zone actor.
[Tiggy] Are you adding a WaterZone actor? Are you adding the sheet using "Add Special"? Are you using the predefined "Water" from the "Add Special" menu? Is your water zone clearly defined (a separate color than the rest of your map) in "Zone/Portal View" (under "Mode" in 3D viewport)?
[Justin Time] Is your sheet a “zone portal”?
[SLAM] Personally, I don't use that Add Special junk. I find it easier and more understandable to what's going on by manually creating the sheet, and adding the WaterZone actor underneath it
[Storm] Q: How do I make fog?
A: Fog is simply a lighting effect. Add a light and right click it. Select Default Properties and then lighting effects. In the new expanded options you will see the options Light Radius, Volume Fog, Fog Radius, and Light Brightness. Edit these to your liking. Next place a ZoneInfo actor in the area you want the fog. Open the ZoneInfo's Default Properties and expand the ZoneOptions menu (second from the bottom) find where it sais bfogzone and set it to TRUE. Press F8 to rebuild and you should see your fog.
[Sk8ter] You need to set the fogzone variable to "true" and then when you add lights to your zone set the volume brightness and volume______(whatever) to something higher then zero, (setting it to 16 looks pretty good).
[SLAM] Fog is relatively easy. Add a ZoneInfo actor into the zone where you want the fog, and in its properties, set bFogZone to True. Then select a light, go into its properties, and set the Fog Volume and Radius (one other option as well, I can't remember what). Rebuild. You must rebuild for the fog to be updated properly.
[Tiggy] That's easy in UnrealEd 2.0, where it's selectable as an option. I'm not exactly sure how it's done in NerfEd, except that it certainly can be done (The bouncepad to the Sidewinder in PM-Amateur is an AutoLoopMover.) I'll let you know if I find out anything.
I want to create a triggered loop mover which should act as a trap. When triggered, a big stone ball should roll from A to B crushing a Player in its way. GMO got me started with a good rotating mover, but I still can't figure out how to keep the mover continually rotating while "rolling" from "A" to "B" (and back over more keyframes "C" and "D" ouside the visible area -> that's why it must be a loop mover I think.)
[Storm] Technically, if you want to make the mover less complicated, you could use panning textures on the mover brush to create the illusion of the ball rolling. The best thing I can recommend is to try using an elevator mover. Those are made to follow certain frames over and over again I believe.
[Jay] Create your brush like you normally would and texture it.
Select the sides where you want the texture "pan".
Right click on them and go to the "Surface Properties" window.
There you can check "V-Pan" and "U-Pan". Experiment with both.
Also of note... you will not see a difference if your editor is not set in "play" mode. You can turn that on by pressing the little gray "joystick" button in the top left of the 3D viewer window.
You can change the rotation direction and speed by adjusting the texture rotation and scale.
It is possible to create a rotating "stone". I believe under the mover properties there is a rotation speed settings for each axis. X, Y, and Z. You can enter a number in one of those to make the mover actually rotate. But I think that will make it rotate 24/7... so you'll want to keep it hidden when it's not triggered.
[Ace] What most people don't know about movers is that they will rotate through keyframes as you rotate them in the editor. Sounds confusing, but basically, say you set your first keyframe. Then you change to keyframe 1 and move the mover brush over to the right a bit AND you rotate it 3 times in the editor. The mover will actually rotate through the 3 spins and move to your new position, as opposed to just moving straight there.
When creating a brush that will be used as a mover, Wolf has you create the brush with the textures, then expand the building (red) brush, then intersect the mover-to-be brush. Now, what I wind up with is exactly the same sized brush as when I created it and textured it. For example, I create a simple rectangular door, texture it, then, following his directions, I bump up the size of the red brush in all 3 dimensions, and when I intersect, it just goes back to the same size (the door's). Why bother with that if, after I've textured the door, the red brush is already the right size? My guess to the answer to this question is that the intersecting actually holds on to what textures were used so when I add the mover it's a textured one and not the "bubbly concrete" default seen in newbie maps. I got the bubbles in one of my tutorial maps and I think it's when I skipped the intersecting step, hence my guess. Just want to confirm that.
[Ace] The editor's intersection option can take the current "red" brush and shape it around another brush, making an exact copy of it (and keeping its texture settings) but without actually adding another one someplace else. Say you have a stair already textured and everything, and you want to duplicate it. One way is to intersect it and then add the brush wherever you want. I believe Wolf told you to make the "red" brush bigger just to demonstrate what's happening when you intersect. It "wraps" around the existing brush. If you've already got a "red" brush the same size as your door or whatever, you don't even have to resize it as long as the door brush is entirely contained within the "red" brush. And intersecting makes the "red" brush keep the textures of the original brush, so you don't get the bubbly default texture for every mover or whatever.
[Ace] Ah, but you CAN make those special movers in NerfEd. All you have to do is find the one you want to use, select it in the Classes browser, THEN click Add Mover. Voila, your mover will be a RotatingMover, AttachMover, or whatever. I know it's not a very obvious way of doing it. They should have made that easier. But hey, it works.
[G-MO] In Nerf ArenaBlast (NAB is a common acronym) bots (computer controlled players) need to be told where they can go, what they can pick up, and how to get to the specified places. The ease of bots getting to a certain point is dependent on Bot pathing. Bot pathing is all about joining the objects that allow paths between them (ammo, shield, weapons, triggers, and Path Nodes). The way it works is by creating a “grid” of sorts, so that the bots know where they can go, and what they can pick up. Good pathing means that the bots can go anywhere in the grid that they want without any difficulty.
An important factor in bot pathing is the map itself. If the hallways are to narrow, doorways too short, or there are lots of hazardous pitfalls, it will cause some serious problems to arise while pathing the map. If you have a lot of movers, items that need to be triggered, or complex geometry (shapes) in your map, it will make good pathing difficult. Thus, if you want good pathing, you need to have doorways that are more than large enough for bots to get through, in both height and width; movers, and the opening through which they move, should be big enough to easily accommodate the largest bots, etc.
The main tools in bot pathing are the Path Node (a simple point that tries to contact any other object that allows pathing, such as triggers, Player Starts, weapons, etc.), Player Starts, and weapons. Although you occasionally use Jump exit points (showing your bots where to land after jumping), Jump center points (they show the bots where and how high to jump), Mover exit points (as the name implies, it helps the bots get off movers), and Mover center points (where they should stand on the movers).
Pathing a level normally starts with weapons and Player Starts. Once you have found where you want to place them, you need to make sure they connect. The way you connect them (if they are too far from each other to connect after re-defining your paths) is by using Path Nodes. Path nodes will connect to anything that uses paths (which are used in anything that a player picks up, uses, or modifies).
In order to see how well your bot pathing is coming you need to do a Paths Define. All you have to do is press F8, go to the Lighting tab, then just press Paths Define and it will figure out which paths connect. But if you do not set your 3d view to allow you to see them, you will never do any good pathing. All you have to do for that is go to the little bar menu above your 3d view, then click on the View sub menu. Once you have clicked View, drop down to Show Paths, which will allow you to see any paths that are in your map. Remember, red paths are bad, blue paths are good, and if you don't see any paths, do a Paths Define.
Now that you have your basic paths done, it is time to make sure they work well. The First step is to try to fix any of the “red” paths. Those paths show that the two points do not successfully connect with each other. The best way to fix those is to follow this simple process. The First thing to do is figure out if those items need to be connected. If they do, then you go to the second portion. Move the two objects to where they have an unobstructed view of each other. If that doesn't work, you can always try another Path Node between them as a sort of “bridge” to link them. If they do not need to be connected, and it is not worth the effort of trying to connect them, then you want to try to break the link. You do that by separating them. Try to place walls or corners between them, etc.
An important thing to keep in mind while pathing a map is that if you make it too simple, the bots can get stuck. So, while you do not want a solid block of paths, you do, however, want plenty of options for your bots to choose.
Bot pathing is a very important part of Nerf ArenaBlast maps. It helps your map to be challenging, even if there are no other humans playing. A level with good bot pathing, and with your bot's intelligence level set to Mega Nerf, is often more challenging than the same number of normal human players. I hope this has taught you the basics of how to path a map.
[Ace] You're placing PathNodes, right? Just make sure you rebuild, then click Paths Define (in the last tab of the rebuild window).
[G-MO] …
[Rajada]
[Ace] You can't change a weapon's firing speed in its properties. The only possible way I know of would be to change its animation, but I'm not totally sure how to do that.
The reason DrawScale wasn't working is because DrawScale only affects the weapon in the editor. For its size in-game, you need to change its PickupViewScale to change it.
[SLAM] Yes, many properties of those weapons are written in the script, and aren't really reflected in the properties. If you want custom weapons then, in short, you have to code them yourself.
[Ace] What you need to do is make a subclass of whatever projectile you want to modify. There are different ways to do this, but since you probably know your way around the editor a little bit, we'll use it.
Say you want to make a bigger version of the triplestrike Rocket class. Find it in the editor (Actor>>Projectile>>Rocket), click on it once, then click the New button. For this we'll call it something like, BigRocket. For the package name, just leave it as MyLevel, since it'll save it within the map if we decide to save it.
At this point, you'll have a new class under Rocket, called BigRocket. A subclass means it has all the exact same properties and methods of the class above it. Essentially, the BigRocket is exactly the same as the Rocket right now, but we're going to change it. Right-click on BigRocket in the list and click Default Big-Rocket properties. This will bring up a new window with all the editable properties. Since you want to change the size, open the Display section and change DrawScale to 10. Since the default is always 1, it'll make it ten times as big! Close the properties window.
Now we're done with our projectile, but we need a gun to shoot it. Since shooting rockets at rapid fire is fun, I'll pick the WildFire. At this point we'll do just what we did to the Rocket class and make a subclass, but of the WildFire this time (so we can make it shoot something else). Navagate to the WildFire class (Actor>Inventory>Weapon>NerfWeapon>Turbofir), make a new subclass of Turbofir and name it something like, SuperWildFire. Leave the package class as MyLevel, just like before.
Once our new subclass pops up, open its default properties. We want to change what it shoots, so under the Weapon section, look for ProjectileClass, enter in BigRocket and hit enter. It'll fill in the full class name for us, which is nice. And, since it's fun, we'll change AltProjectileClass to BigRocket as well!
Now, in your level somewhere, add your newly created SuperWildFire. Save the map, hit the Play level button, and have fun! Hope it works out nicely. You can change any properties of the rocket you want, too, including things like damage, skin (how it looks), and how far it will blow people away.
[Storm] When you make a new class the script window will pop up, if you place nothing in it, it often deletes the class declaration. Hence, unworking projectile... I recommend adding a comment to keep it from deleting the class declaration *nods* just type
// Comment
that should do it......
[Storm] Q: How do I move the red box?
A: First of all that's the "Active Brush". In order to move it simply hold down Ctrl and drag with the left mouse button. You can also hold Shift to drag on the X, Y, or Z plane. To rotate the brush hold Ctrl and use the right mouse button to move the brush on it's axis.
[Ace] You can rotate a brush by holding the right mouse button and CTRL. Then move the mouse left/right. You have three 2D views which means you have all 3 axes to rotate.
[Rajada]
[Custer] Save the map occasionally - using "save as" and calling it "PM-MapName4.nrf" or whatever, preferably, so if anything goes wrong, you don't lose much. NerfEd has been known to crash, apparently, if you adjust the size of the windows.
Saving before you add sounds, or open a new texture file, or put in megajumps or megaspeeds, is a good idea, as they aren't easily deleted in the way that badly-placed weapons or ammo can be... so if things don't work out, you only need to take one step back. And of course you can delete these "work in progress" versions later!
[Ace] Yes, it does open a dialog box, except it's behind the 2D Shape Editor window.
[Ace] BSP stands for Binary Space Partition. Each "BSP cut" divides the world into two subregions, the null space, and the space where the gameplay actually takes place, hence the term "binary."
I noticed an extremely large amount of bsp errors, see through walls galore. Would any of you happen to know how to solve this issue?
[Jay] Go to the "Rebuilder" dialog box. (Press F8)
And click on the "BSP" tab. Then choose "Optimal" under the Optimization section. And press "Rebuild BSP"
That should solve it.
But it might take a while.
[Ace] Yep, and if that doesn't quite do it, adjust the slider to different positions and rebuild a few times.
[G-MO] If that doesn't work you can set your BSP to optimal and rebuild your entire geometry as you would normally do. I have used that method in many remixes (some having crazy BSP amounts) and it has worked well...
[Storm]
[Ace] Well, pretty simply put, you export the map from UnrealEd, import it into NerfEd, then rebuild and retexture
[Feediko] If you use unreal-textures, load them before you start to rebuild. then the walls AND movers (which you can't texture if they are already in the map, you have to build them again then...) will have textures on, but if the names of the textures change it won't work (some textures in unreal tournament have longer names than the nerfED can handle, so some textures won't be on the walls then, so you have to put them on manually)
[Tiggy] I think what SLAM did there was to add a flag (in the Classes browser, under Decoration). He changed the mesh of the flag by right-clicking the flag and changing the Mesh (under Display) to something like LodMesh'NerfKids.F_Gymnast'. You can view all of the mesh choices by clicking the "...". Find one in the dropdown menu of the Mesh Browser and click "Use".
Wolf’s Tutorials (for UnrealEd) - http://unreal.gamedesign.net/tutorials/ued.shtml
UnrealWiki, Mapping section - http://wiki.beyondunreal.com/wiki/Topics_On_Mapping
Unreal source code - http://www.fileplanet.com/118280/110000/fileinfo/Unreal-Source-Code