darkcosmos on 6/3/2005 at 18:50
For my money, it's just a lot easier to look at map A and figure out what's going on with the brushes. Less screen clutter to my eye, and more intuitive since the brushes are set up more like a real-world environment.
mol on 6/3/2005 at 19:56
Exactly. I don't have a lot of experience (read: "almost none") with mapping, but to me 'Method A' seems more logical and easy to follow. And, as you said, it boils down to less screen clutter. I'm flabbergasted by what I see in the viewports looking at the original missions. :sweat: But I gather there are ways to select the parts that you're currently working on, and not always show everything that's been in fact built, yes?
bukary on 6/3/2005 at 20:12
Mol, use 'filtering': right click somewhere on the bar of viewport; the menu will appear; check or uncheck some options (static meshes are most responsible for screen clutter).
Well, 'method' A is natural, but in DromEd 'method B' was advised (the less solid brushes, the better). :) Fortunately, T3Ed has no problems with solid brushes... And one more thing: 'method B' has one advantage: there are more brush faces, and that means that texturing might be more varied...
BTW, I wonder if in T3Ed there is something like 'Me Only' in DromEd: an option to section some area of the map off, and work only on this area.
darkcosmos on 6/3/2005 at 20:44
If you look in the lower left-hand side menu, there are several buttons for hiding/unhiding selected actors. In addition, there is this thing called the "Debug Camera" - two buttons above the viewport, towards the right. When you click "Set debug CAmera" it seems to only show the objects seen by the view in the 3d viewport, and then "reset" brings it all back...
Another cool button is the little camera icon at the bottom of the left-hand bar. If you click on any object in any window, then click on this button "Align Camera to Actor", then click back in a window - it will snap the camera to (roughly) face the object you clicked on.
Twist on 6/3/2005 at 20:52
Quote Posted by bukary
BTW, I wonder if in T3Ed there is something like 'Me Only' in DromEd: an option to section some area of the map off, and work only on this area.
In the lower part of the leftside toolbox, you'll find tools for Show Selected Actors Only, Hide Selected Actors, Show All Actors, and Invert Selection. These easily help you focus on just a few brushes.
Additionally, you have a group browser indicated by a big G in the toolbar just below the menu bar. Using the group browser, you can create dozens of different groups so that at any time you can choose to show only the part of your map defined by a particular group (or groups -- you can choose to show more than one specific group at a time).
If you have Add Selected Actors activated with a group created and checked within the Group Browser, every actor you create will be added to that group while you work. This can be handy for copying and pasting redundant work, reducing tedium.
(You may need more direction than this for the Group Browser. But for now play around with it and see what you can figure out on your own.)
As for Diagrams A & B: The same thing I noted in my last post in this thread applies here. 'A' might be the "cleaner" version, but 'B' might provide greater flexibility.
And flexibility is a Good Thing. Good designers have the courage to later look at their earlier rooms and say, "that sucks -- it needs to be changed." Lesser designers build something once and then either stubbornly cling to their initial idea or just avoid rebuilding out of laziness. :cheeky:
