Please ask your basic (newbie) questions in here. - by scumble
Bumbleson on 12/3/2005 at 01:54
Are there any keyboard shortcuts for brush rotation, movement and alignment? Same goes for textures.
I recently had difficulties aligning two 16-sided cylinders which are perpendicular to each other. They should form the arched ceiling of a hallway, but I find it very difficult to make a convincing intersection and to align them properly. My brushes sometimes don't snap to the grid. I know you can right-click a vertex to snap it to the grid, but they still don't align the way I want.
doctormidnight on 12/3/2005 at 03:54
Quote Posted by nomad of the pacific
'Nuther Newbie question:
I've got a stream composed of five 512x512 water meshes. Is there a way to make the texture scroll to simulate flow? :confused:
Unfortunately, my attempts to make a curvy stream failed, (the Builder didn't like my strangely shaped and wierd angled BSPs) so the stream is laser straight, which should make flow easier to simulate.
nomad, could you give a short primer on making water? I haven't seen anything in the Wiki, and I'd like to get something thrown in by tonight/tomorrow morning. Thanks.
Zillameth on 12/3/2005 at 09:31
doctormidnight, you can find some basic info on water in (
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94524) this short thread.
Bumbleson, there is an automatic align tool. Select surfaces you wish to align, then right click one of them and choose "align selected". Each suboption gives a little different effect, but there are just a few of them. Don't panic, if cylinders' bases suddenly become a blurry mess - just unalign them. Your brushes should not intersect, otherwise there might be some display errors. Static meshes, on the other hand, seem a lot more forgiving. There are some arches and vault ceilings in the SM library, in COLUMN_ARCH_VAULT_DOME directory. Besides, you can always try to use smaller static meshes to cover up places where textures are unaligned. This will not only make your level look better, but will also give it a bit of additional detail.
nomad of the pacific on 12/3/2005 at 12:52
Doctormidnight, I'm not much of a writer, but here it goes! :p If this makes it into the Wiki in any form, please give credit to Zillameth for pointing out the thread and for how to simulate flow. :cheeky:
Also, if anyone knows how to add a water stim to the mesh so torches thrown in the water will extinguish, please let me know. I haven't been able to get it to work and all those torches burning under water look pretty silly. :joke:
Edit: Never mind. It worked when I tried again. Property: Stimulus: ContactXfrInfo: Amount 15: Stimulus StimulusType_Water: TotalTime 1.0
Tutorial for Adding Shallow Water to you level
1. First, create your dry pool, canal or whatever in your map. Don't make it too deep or it will look very bad when Garrett crouches or picks up anything in the water.
2. In the Static Mesh Browser under Nature, select one of the water textures. They all begin with "WAT". Right click over your pool and select 'ADD SM: WAT.... HERE'. Align it over your pool and slightly below ground level. (Note: If you get the 'unpublished meshes' error when you try to save the level, go back to the browser and select a skin for the mesh other than the Default and try to save again.)
3. Set your builder brush directly over your water surface to a hieght high enough to cover Garrett's head. (Note: I never tried it lower than that so I'm not sure how well it would work.) Select your Volume brush and choose ShallowWaterVolume.
4. BuildAll and you're set!
Tip: If you want to make your water 'flow', go to your static meshes properties and add the property 'Render: TexturePan'. Adjust the TexturePanX and TexturePanY to match your flow direction. I use .1 or .2 to simulate a slow flow.
scumble on 12/3/2005 at 13:45
nomad, the whole point of the wiki is that you can add it yourself!. I'll clean it up if anything goes amiss. Register and make the page. NOW!
[NAUC]Chief on 12/3/2005 at 13:50
Note: It was I who said the 7mb limit, as mentioned it was unr, and it was whenever a map size went over 7mb that t3 crashed (but cut it down to just under 7mb and game ran it fine)- hence 7mb limit.
Dont know if this is really a newbie Q. but I'll ask it here anyway.
Everytime I add an AI to any part of my map, their feet sink into the floor and they cant move on play (but Garrett can move perfectly round the map). I tried adding an additive brush underneath their feet in case it was the old ued bug, but they still just are sunk on start (which makes ko-ing them easy:D) I cant figure out why the AI's should sink, I must be doing something wrong as other test maps I made to get used to T3Ed had no AI problem :erg:
scumble on 12/3/2005 at 14:04
In the production maps you usually see the AI placed a little distance from the floor. I assume the reason is to avoid such problems.
Thiefs_Shadow on 12/3/2005 at 14:13
a few questions from someone who hasnt done anything edit related since dromed was fresh, can i get some clarification on this whole static mesh thing? im not looking for a tutorial cause im not far enough yet and i havent even done any looking so i wont bother u. but u say the basics are done in a simple outline thing with what my mind calls the air brushes, and that u detail it with static meshes. so far my experiance with static meshes is using the ones they've already made, I presume there is a way to make ur own. but say for example im building a city scene... should entire buildings be made from these static meshes, or should they be added blocks hollowed out with subtraced ones and with all the details within done with the static meshes.
also im having 2 problems. when i was trying to test the basic level i had made a few days ago, every time i went in game thief 3 would open to a loading screen before rudely kicking me out. is this a common problem? i figure i should try reinstall both thief and the editor, and try installing 2 versions of thief as per instructions but i wanted to make sure first.
ta
Speesh on 12/3/2005 at 14:34
You can make your own static meshes, but I think you need 3ds max, which is way out of my price range.
[NAUC]Chief on 12/3/2005 at 14:38
Yeah, they do start off mid-air like in the om's but as soon as map starts they obviously fall through the floor :(