I know many of you, including me, have a lot of trouble with a lot of the more basic things in the build editor. Unlike some people, who understand the Build editor with perfect clarity. Oh well, heres a page where you'll find a help file that covers a lot of the basic info on the build editor. I'm modifying it now, so that it's more suitable for the www. Authors of this ducoment, if you have a part in this, and do NOT WANT IT ON HERE. Then please
Many thanks to tomwhore For Compiling and emailing this to me.
We all all reading this for one very good reason.We all have this
burning need to make well crafted Duke levels so when the real money gets bet we can kick the asses off our opponents, smile, and say "Hail To The Build King Baby!!"
Begining the process is tough. The editor has only been available to
most of us for a few scant weeks. Folks are still trying to figure out
how to make it show the 3d view. Places to turn for info and tips are
none to plentifull; its not like Sybex was ready with a "Duke Editing
For Gurus..with CD. They should have been, given the impact of all the Doom
editor books, but go figure.
So of course we turn our eyes to the Net. Where else would Duke
editing fanatics start the process of spreading the tips? After a few
days of pleading, searching, and keeping my Blue Sqrl running about
I found enough to get me started. Now its begining to trickle faster still.
I get the feeling in the next months the flood is going to hit us.
In the mean time I though it would be good for me, and for everyone else,
if I gathered up all the bits I found on using Build. So here it is.
Its not aimed a being the well formated, well upkept FAQ we are all
awaiting. Its just the stuff I have found.
I have listed the folks who wrote these tips at the begining of each
section; their Email addresses are listed in the Resource section.
Use, abuse and run with this file. If you find more Build tips (and
you will) or hard to answer questions (and you will) post it
to one of the Resources listed at the end of the file. Hopefully
someone or ones will gather them up and work them into a coherent
FAQ.
Now get to work on your map and make it as balls out as you can.
This door is like the standard doors in DooM. The door is a sector between two other sectors that determine the height of the door.
A door is just a sector who's ceiling is the same height as its floor, when opened the ceiling raises to the height of a nearby sector.
Before the sector's ceiling is lowered to the floor it is important to add whatever sector effects are required for the door to work.
For a standard DooM type door, the sector needs to be given a Sector LoTag of 20. This is done by hitting the "T" key in 2d mode while the mouse pointer is within the sector that is to become a door.
You may add a Sector Effect Sprite (represented by Sprite #1, a large "S") to cause the door to auto close after a time delay. The Sector Effect Sprite must be given a LoTag of 10. This is done by hitting Alt-T in 2d mode while the mouse is pointing at the Sector Effect Sprite. The HiTag of the sprite will determine the delay of the closing operation. Set HiTag with Alt-H while the mouse is pointing at the Sector Effect Sprite. 32 units = 1 second.
You may also give sound to your door by adding a MusicandSFX Sprite (represented by Sprite #5, a large "M"). I suggest a LoTag of 166 for typical door sound.
Make sure the sector's ceiling is lowered to the floor level after the Sprites have been placed, then save the map and try out your door!
STEP 1: First make a sector. Then make a sector connected to the one you just made and this will be the sector with the window in it. Now make a sector connected to THAT sector to be the opposite room.
ex -
__________
| Room 2 |
|__________|
glass--> _|______|_
| Room 1 |
|__________|
STEP 2: The glass is actually on one line, it is not the whole sector.
So first, select the line in the middle sector there which you want to contain the glass. In 2d mode, press "B" to make it purple. which means it will block hings from walking through. now hit CONTROL-H on the line and itll make it omewhat fatter of a purple line, Which means it will now do something on a it.
STEP 3: Now go in 3d mode and point to the ceiling of that sector and hit "M" to MASK it and show the line you want to make the glass on. A big solid
wall will appear, which is really the line you want to put the glass texture
on. So point at it and hit "V" and select the glass texture with the streaks.
It will appear to have a hotpink background in the selector.. but that
indicates transparency. Now insert that texture, and now you have glass!
STEP 4 (optional): You can point to the glass and make it more transparent
by hitting "T" for transparency. This will tone it down, AND OTHER textures.
The streaked glass is about the only breakable glass texture though. You can make glass out of other textures like the glass window BEHIND the breakable one in the example. However it is not breakable..
A teleporter works exactly like an underwater/above water transition, except no underwater or above water sector tags are required
First place Sector Effect Sprites on both teleporter pads. Set the LoTag of the Sector Effect Sprite to 7 for each pad. Set the HiTag number of one teleporter to match the HiTag number of another teleporter. It is the HiTag of the sector that links one teleporter to another.
A rotating sector is accomplished with two Sector Effect Sprites. This first one (SE LoTag 0) indicates the sector to be rotated, and the second one (SE LoTag 1) indicates the "pivot" point for the rotation.
First, place a Sector Effect Sprite in the sector that you would like to rotate. Give that Sector Effect Sprite a LoTag of 0. Set the HiTag of the Sector Effect Sprite equal (arbitrary number) to the "pivot" point Sector Effect Sprite explained below.
Place a second Sector Effect Sprite at the "pivot" point of the rotation. If you would like the sector to simply spin, place this sprite in the exact midpoint of the sector. If you would like the sector to rotate around another object or sector, place the sprite at that point instead.
Give the second (pivot) Sector Effect Sprite a LoTag of 1 and a HiTag matching the Sector Effect Sprite HiTag of the Sector Effect Sprite you placed in the sector that will rotate.
Angle the Sector Effect Sprite (SE LoTag 0) up to rotate all points around the Sector Effect Sprite LoTagged 1. Or, angle the Sector Effect Sprite (SE LoTag 0) down to rotate just the sector around the Sector Effect Sprite LoTagged 1.
Angle the Sector Effect Sprite (SE LoTag 1) up to rotate the sector clockwise. Or angle the Sector Effect Sprite (SE LoTag 1) down to rotate the sector counter-clockwise.
If Relative alignment "R" key is set on the floor texture, all the sprites on that sector will rotate with the sector.
You may link several rotating sectors to a single pivot point by matching the HiTags of the pivot Sector Effect Sprite (SE LoTag 1).
Earthquakes require a few things to work. First, you'll build your map so that the *result* of the earth quake is showing. Also, you'll need some sort of trigger for the earthquake. Earthquake sounds are automatic, but earthquake jibs must be added by you.
First step is to create the result of the earthquake. Try building a sector within a sector, then split that sector with a jagged line (add vertexes to the split line and move the vertexes around to make it jagged).
Then, use the [ and ] keys to tile half of your new sector into the ground. You can use the Alt-F key in 2d mode to reset the "first wall" of the sector. Tilted floors pivot along the "first wall" of a sector.
The way your sector looks in 3d mode will be how your sector will look after the earthquake is triggered.
Build another sector in sector a short distance from your quake result sectors. This is going to be your "touch plate." Raise the floor a bit so you'll be able to see the "touch plate" sector when your play your map.
Now to add the correct Sector Effect Sprites, Master Switch Sprites, and Touch Plate Sprites. First, place a Sector Effect Sprite with LoTag 2 on the sector that will be affected by the earthquake. You may adjust the direction of the SE 2 Sprite to indicate the direction the sector will move during the quake.
Add a Master Switch Sprite (Sprite #8) near the SE 2 Sprite within the sector that will be moved.
You'll need to raise the height (Page Up in 3d mode) of both the Master Switch Sprite and the Sector Effect Sprite to be equal with the normal floor level.
Now, place a Touch Plate Sprite (Sprite #3) on the touch plate sector. Give the Touch Plate Sprite and the Master Switch Sprite matching LoTags. This is one instance where the two Sprites (Master Switch and Touch Plate) will be linked with "LoTag" and not "HiTag."
Finally, if you want little chunks of rock to fall or bounce around while the earth quake is taking place you may place some Spawn Earthquake Jib Sector Effect Sprites (SE 33) around the earthquake area.
If you leave the EQ JIB SE 33 on the ground, you'll just get little chucks bouncing around, if you raise the SE33 Sprites to the ceiling, rocks will rain from above....kinda cool.
All Locators must be in 1 sector. The SE6 must be in the sector you want
to have other sprites move on, ie, any goodies or decorations, gun
turrets, etc. The player, however, can ride on any part of it regardless
of R key use. GPSPEED has no effect on speed. If you have a stop
(Locator w/HiTag1), put it up the track a bit as the train coasts to a stop
after hitting this Locator. The path of Locators can cross itself (ie, a
figure-8). 47 Locators is not too many, but there has to be an upper limit
somewhere. Put more Locators coming out of a turn than going in to get the
car centered on the track down the straightaways. If car has more than 1
sector, the sector with the SE6 must have at least 1 wall adjacent to the
track sector on all 4 sides of the car. Jumping onto or shooting through
a subway is relative to the floor, even if the car is going around a curve,
so you can do skateboard tricks like jumping over a tripbomb laser across
the tracks and still land in the car--missiles will move sideways with the
car as they pass through its sector. If you put a sloped floor on the front
of the car, it will not squish the player unless there is at least 1 click of all showing below the bottom of the slope, regardless of how high up the slope is.
Sometimes, you want to cover an open area (like a window) with a texture on one or both sides. This can be done with the "M" key for both sides, or Shift-M for one side.
First aim the mouse at a texture above or below (on the same line as) the area you want to fill in with a texture in 3d mode.
Then hit either the "M" key or Shift-M and a texture will appear. This texture can be manipulated as normal by applying new textures, or stretching and panning as you wish.
Both the above water area and the underwater area must have a sector of exactly the same size and dimensions.
The above water area has a Sector Effect Sprite sitting on the water texture with a LoTag of 7. This is set by using the Alt-T key while the mouse is pointed at the sprite.
The below water area has a Sector Effect Sprite with a LoTag of 7.
Both the above water area and below water area must have the same Sector Effect Sprite HiTag number which may be chosen arbitrarily.
The above water area has a Sector LoTag of 1, while all of the underwater areas must have a Sector LoTag of 2. This is done with the "T" key while the mouse is inside the sector you wish to set a LoTag to.
A common mistake is to only set the transition sector underwater to LoTag 2. All the sectors around the transition sector would then behave as if they were above water.
You may also set the palette of the underwater area to 0 = Water or 8 = Green Slime.
Docs are correct for the Viewscreen (no LoTag, HiTag = Camera LoTag) and wrong for the camera (should say LoTag = Viewscreen HiTag). Set angle of camera sprite to face CENTER of arc to be panned. Set Camera HiTag = 1/2 the desired panning arc. That is, in DN3D, 90^ = 512 in sprite angle, so if you want to pan 90^, set the HiTag = 256. Camera normally hangs from ceiling and can be flipped to a pole mount only if it doesn't pan, as flipping the sprite with the F key only affects the 1st frame of the animation. The camera will still work but will look bad.
When you hit TAB on a sector or ALT+TAB on a sprite or wall, you will see its stats. One of these is called Flags (hex) X, where X is a number. This
number is in hexadecimal, ie, base 16. To make sense out of it, convert it
to binary by breaking each digit down into 4 base 2 digits. For example, a
mirror wall seems to have a Flag of 59. To convert it, the 5 becomes 0101
and the 9 becomes 1001, so the whole number in binary is 01011001 = 59 hex =
89 base 10 (5x16 + 9). Now look in the section of the docs called "Build Map Format" and turn to the section describing walls. Find the part where all the bits are listed (and the commands for setting them, BTW). In this
example, 01011001 is read from right to left, with the rightmost 1 being bit
0 and the leftmost 0 being bit 7. Then for every bit that is a 1, see what
function that does. Thus, the mirror wall has bits 0, 3, 4, and 6 set to 1.
This means it's a blocking wall (bit 0), it's x-flipped (bit 3), it's masking (bit 4), and it's also hitscan blocking (bit 6). Use the same method for sector and sprite flags.
