This FAQ is dedicated to all of us who are wasting our youth playing and hacking the game Marathon, especially the people at Bungie!
This FAQ is intended to provide a general guideline for editing Marathon Map Files. It is intended to be used with any marathon map editing program. The only one currently available for creating maps from scratch is Pfhorte 1.0b7 (available on ftp.amug.org).
Since I've been asked SO many times:
1 - on AOL use Keyword: FTP
2 - click GO TO FTP
3 - Click OTHER SITE
4 - type FTP.AMUG.ORG into the text field, hit return or CONNECT.
5 - Go to the INCOMING directory, AND/OR
6 - Go to Pub/Marathon->[alias or something]/editors.
If you ask again, I won't respond, (sorry).
***** CONTENTS *****
***** Challenges *****
***** Notes for Pfhorte V1.0b8 *****
***** Things that will make Marathon CRASH *****
***** Frame Count Display *****
***** GENERAL MAP INFORMATION *****
*** Texture Sets ***
*** Notes ***
***** POLYGON EDITING *****
*** Scale and Units of Measure ***
** SOME statistics(default physics file*): **
*** Types of Polygons ***
*** Permutation and Polygon Numbers ***
*** Platforms ***
*** Platform example (PDragonInn- Chuck Seggelin) ***
*** Door example 1 (mine) ***
*** Door Example #2 (PDragonInn- Chuck Seggelin) ***
*** Drawing Modes ***
*** Lighting ***
*** Misc Fields ***
***** SIDE EDITING *****
*** Wall types ***
*** Shifting the Texture Reference Point, the x0 and y0 fields ***
*** Control Panels ***
*** Recharge panel example: ***
*** Terminals ***
***** OBJECT PLACEMENT *****
*** Faceing or orientation of Character and Objects ***
***** LEGAL JUNK *****
***** Challenges *****
These are the things that no one has figured out yet, if you do, e-mail me instructions, and perhaps an example.(please - the world is dying to know) If you need more clarification e-mail me.
-3 level platform challenge. Create a platform that pauses at the bottom and the top of its motion, as well as any 1 level in between (more would be ok). I don't mean stop, I mean pause. (both versions would of course be appriciated)
-Catwalk challenge. This may involve the infamous composite wall (please see the comments in the relavent section). What I'm looking for here is a walkway that goes through the middle of a room that a player can pass under. Not a tube or anything like that, we want to be able to look around the room as we walk across the catwalk.
-locked platform switches (not being able to reverse the platform in motion. I've got this at least partially figured out, look at No External Activate under the Platform flags.
***** Notes for Pfhorte V1.0b8 *****
Pfhorte is a wonderful program that can be found on America Online, as well as ftp.amug.org, and various and sundry ftp sites. The hard working author is Steve Israelson, Steve_Israelson@mindlink.bc.ca. I'll be including other e-mail addresses for Mia, and MME in a later faq.
-Can't make Map Identification names with spaces in them I.E. "This is My Level" won't work. This is the name you get when you hit the map button while playing Marathon.
-there is reportedly some kind of problem with Split levels(?).
-use degrees in the correct direciton(clockwise), use bungie's 512 degree circle, or do something graphical to set the faceing.
Pfhorte Suggestions from various authors:
-undo.
-ability to delete levels, or transfer levels between maps?
- A function where you click on a point in the screen and the view gets centered there or zooms in there.
- You should be able to insert a point into a polygon.
-When making a polygon if after clicking on one point a line followed the mouse pointer until the next point is clicked and so on, until the poly was completed, this would make for more easily creating straight lines and/or allowing right angels or 45 degree angles, by holding down the SHIFT keywhile draging cursor to next point.
-A good feature would be to creat polygons by texture increments. (is snap to grid sufficient?)
-Another nice idea would be for platforms to have set basics. Like a checkbox that appears when you change a poly to a platform, that says Simple door, or regular platform, etc. (Randall Shaw "FrigidMan" )
***** Things that will make Marathon CRASH *****
-Not putting a character starting point in the map
-mixing texture resources other than control panels (not possible with most current map editors)
Use Marathon V1.2 and press shift + '?'. At the bottom right hand corner of your picture the current fps (frames per second) speed of Marathon will appear in white figures after a few seconds. (You may need to change to fist to get this key-combo to work if you have assigned these keys as controls.) (Roger Hill) This will remain untill you restart the Program.
FYI my Centris 610 (20 MHz '40) was giving the following speed
in parts of Blaspheme Quarantine last night with 3 sound channels
and no background music. 100%, 8 or 16 bit low res 7-12 fps. (Roger Hill)
***** GENERAL MAP INFORMATION *****
From what I understand you are limited to a maximum of around 260 polygons, they have to be made in a clockwise fashion, and not include angles of less than 15 degrees and not greater than 180 degrees.
For transferring levels I would suggest looking at Exit type polygons, as well as the section on Terminals.
The initial screens "Arrival," "Counterattack," "Reprisal" etc. are in
the shapes file and are in PICT resourses. the IDs of those resourses
correspond to their level. The first screen, "Arrival" is ID something
like 10000, the next one is 10003... as you see, the last digits are the
level for the screen... Okay, that's minor, do change the screens you
would need to distribute a patch or something so i doubt people are
willing to do that...(Kirill Levchenko)
If the map you create has only one polygon, running into a wall will transport you back to the center of the polygon. This can be remedied by adding a second polygon.
*** Texture Sets ***
There are 6 marathon resources for textures, 1 is the Pfhor ship, 3 are the marathon, and 2 are the interfaces for the marathon and the alien ship(rechargers etc.). You must choose one of the first 4 sets as your pallet of textures to choose from. The interface textures are handled in the side dialog boxes as a special case.
*** Notes ***
In Bigger Guns Nearby and other maps by Bungie, you can see Notes or text comments when you look at the overhead maps. Pfhorte allows you to insert these Text notes labling things such as sickbay and Hanger 12, etc. These can help give a better feel for the flavor of a map or help the player figure out exactly what they're looking at, as opposed to just seeing a large empty room. Pfhorte has no ability to Move notes once you've placed them. So be careful.
***** POLYGON EDITING *****
All polygons Must have height (if you want them to work). there are field for floor elevation as well as Ceiling elevation. Actual polygon height can be found by subtracting the floor height from the ceiling height. EX: a floor at 1024 units of elevation and a ceiling of 1900 units would give you a polygon height of 876, which would be a very low ceilinged room.
Polygons can be solid, in the form of windows, you need to use MIA or MME, because Pfhorte will not let you do this currently.
Here is the best descripton of polygons that I have run across so far, courtesy of (PDragonInn- Chuck Seggelin)
> > You can't but you CAN wedge a door between
> > two non-moving polygons like this:
>
> So, if a door drops down, i should be able to
> look up and see a gap in the ceiling, right?
No, any more than you see a gap in the floor when the door goes up. A polygon is a space that a player can be in, not a slab of rock. When you see the door "dropping down" what you seeing is the result of a polygon starting at the "door's" ceiling and opening up. The wall isn't moving, in fact there IS no wall, nothing exists OUTSIDE of a polygon, (which is why you have to paint the INSIDE faces of polys with textures to create the illusion of walls.) What's moving is the floor of the opening... its dropping down until its level with the floor of A & C. When its fully open and you look UP you see whatever the ceiling pattern for the door-polygon is, when you look down you see the floor pattern, to the sides you see the texture pattern. A door is just a room that spends most of its life with a height of zero units. When a particular event happens (tab-key or whatever) the level of the ceiling or the floor of the door-poly (or both) begins to change.
> Now, from your example, lets say Poly C goes
> up to the ceiling of a larger room, like
> arena.
Okay, poly C's ceiling height is now the same as D's ceiling height. Now the OPENING which is poly C, that empty space in the marathon universe, extends all the way to the ceiling, like a big ridge or dent on the wall of the arena.
Assuming B is a "goes-up" door, we now see what looks like many doors vertically stacked up to the ceiling of C and D. Hitting tab makes them appear to slide up one door length to reveal the opening through which you can pass into A.
> There woudn't be any way of lowering the top
> of it and making it appear to be a ledge?
If you lower the top of C, the recess into the wall just wont go all the way to the top. End of story. There will be a visual representation of a wall to hide the undefined/emptiness above poly C. Polygons can't exist on top of each other (and be visible.) To make a ledge which appears vertically above the opening which is C, you need another polygon (polys are OPENINGs, remember) directly above C. Marathon can't do it.
When you draw two polys in an edittor, neither one exists for the other until you connect them together. The only place to connect polys together is at a vertex. In the real world, a cube has eight vertexes, but in Marathon, only FOUR. You see everthing like you're looking at a map (two dimensions). I can hook up one polygon to the side of my cube (or square if you prefer), but I can't say to myself "I'm connecting this poly to the top of the cube, later I'll connect something to the bottom." There aren't any top and bottom vertexes. End result? No two polys can exist one above the other, both be connected to another poly and both be visible.
Fire up Marathon and play with the "Five-D Space" net level... this is what you can do when overlapping polygons DON'T connect up... multiple rooms occupying the same space at the same time. Marathon can pull it off because nothing exists except the poly you are in, and the poly's you can see. So even if you made a "ledge" poly and placed it at the right height and location, you wouldn't see it.
Yesterday I made an infinite figure-8 tunnel where the floor height NEVER changed and the tunnel had no intersections. Pretty cool! :)
*** Polygon Example ***
Basic map, connected polygons, etc.
Stairs.
*** Scale and Units of Measure ***
Your character is around 819 units tall, making rooms shorter than this will keep your character from entering those rooms normally. 345 is around the highest you can step normally (for stairs, etc.). Below is an index of some of the known sizes. I say normally in all my size quotes because by playing with the physics editor you can change a number of these constants. 1024 is the average corridor height and width (Derek), probably because it's the exact size of the texture squares. I.E. 1 textue will fit in 1024 units with no repetition.
** SOME statistics(default physics file*): **
Highest step you can make: 345 (340-345)
Lowest ceiling height you can enter: 819
Texture Block WidthxHeight: 1024x1024
Unfortunately I have noticed some variance with the marathon game play. This may indicate that things within marathon are not as constant as we would have liked to believe.
* Note: in the current Physics Model Editor version 1.1 if you look at the walking/Running/etc. statistics for ANYTHING you will change them (remember Heisenberg?) and these statistics will be off. I.E. if you look at the MISC screen for any alien and then flip between them you will change their "step" constants. If you EVEN LOOK at your own physics for walking etc. they will change. This is an inherent deficiency in the physics editor. If we all e-mail him perhaps he will be persuaded to write a more precise version of his editor. The Author is Michael Hanson, hanson@cs.stanford.edu. No flame intended.
*** Types of Polygons ***
-Normal-this is your average hunk of floor/ceiling etc.
-Item Impassable- No randomly appearing objects will show up here (this is a GOOD idea for recessed switches, control panels etc.). (PDragonInn- Chuck Seggelin)
-Monster impassable- The same as Item Impassable, except Monsters won't randomly appear in these squares, and they generally won't move through these squares. they will follow you through them, however.
-Major Damage- will cause you Major damage while your here, and will make it difficult to see.
-Minor Damage- will cause you Minor damage while your here, and will make it difficult to see.
-Platform- a door, elevator, trash compactor, etc... See Below for details.
-Light on/off - will turn a light on or off probably using the Permutation field.
-Platform on/off - Will turn a platform on/off probably using the Permutation field.
-Teleporter- Will send you some where else IF you stop here. If you keep moving you don't transport. Permutation field is the destination polygon, which can be set using various methods depending on your editor. If all else fails you can type in a polygon number into the permutation field (see Permutation below).
-Glue Trigger and (Super) Glue- Useful for setting traps. Stepping on the Glue trigger polygon will activate aliens on the (super) Glue polygons.
-Must be explored- In conjunction with a Goal object, will allow you to complete a level, like on the Pfhor ship.
-Exit-remember staring out the window on the Pfhor ship and getting transported? Set the number in the permutation field to the level to be teleported to. 0 is the first map in the file, 1 is the second, etc... (PDragonInn- Chuck Seggelin)
*** Permutation and Polygon Numbers ***
Every polygon has a number, starting with Zero. If you delete Polygons your numbering will change, throwing off teleportation destinations. Permutation is how Marathon keeps track of Teleport destinations for Teleport and Exit polygons, As well as Terminal numbers. It may have a number of other uses, such as glue etc. but I haven't explored this thoroughly.
*** Platforms ***
When you change a polygons type to a Platform you will be able to access all the flags and values associated with that platform:
-Initially Active - platform starts out moving.
-Initially Extended - platform starts out extended. If ceiling flag is checked platform will be against floor(at min height). If Floor flag is checked platform will be against ceiling(at max height). If floor and ceiling are checked platform(s) will meet at center, like Pfhor Doors.
-stops at each level - Platform will raise or lower, etc. and then stop. Otherwise it would simply continue moving.
-stops at initial level - Platform will raise, lower, etc. and then return to it's original position before stopping.
-floods - Allows platform to sink below level of Floor. For example the platforms on Fire! that rise out of the lava. (From Bill Perchman)
-floor to ceiling - Platform extends from the floor to the ceiling of it's OWN polygon. See door example for a clearer explanation. (Bruce Hartzler)
-floor - platform extends up from the floor.
-ceiling - platform extends down from the ceiling.
-causes damage - the platform can crush you.
-no activate parent - not sure. Probably not activated using the activate adjacent flags.
-one shot - you only get to trigger the platform once
-activates light - You put the light type # into the permutation box and it will switch all polygons with that light type on (max) (Bruce Hartzler).
-deactivates light - same as above but switches that light type into it's "off" (min) state (Bruce Hartzler).
-player controllable - you can activate the platform(using your action key) or stepping on it. The player can activate the polygon either by stepping on it if it's flag is not 1 or 4, or by activating it from an adjacent polygon if it's flag is 1 or 4 (Bruce Hartzler).
-monster controllable - same as above but for monsters (Bob's are NOT monsters, regardless of what you may think)
-safety - you can reverse the door mid-action. This is great for keeping doors closed when monsters are trying to open it. This will also determine wether the platform will squash you or just cause some damage with Causes Damage checked. (Bruce Hartzler) this also MAY KEEP platforms from being switched off mid action. (I imagine you'd tell a platform from a door by the flags)
-no external activate - One of the effects of this switch is that you can't switch a platform off with it. The platform would have to turn itself off, etc. there may be other effects.
-uses native heights - not sure.
-delays before activate- you tell it to go, and then it waits some before it does
-contracts slow - like it says contracts slow, not tested though.
-activate adjacent flags- Basically, if you have a bunch of adjacent platforms, you can have a "ripple" effect" like the Wave in Cold Fusion. Another example is the set of stairs in Bigger Guns Nearby that you trigger with the switch. (Jeff - AFA Eaton)
-Speed field- how fast you want the platform to move. 45: good door speed
-Delay field: how long you want it to pause between movements: 120 a good door, 200 or so is a good platform
-Max Height field: maximum Height the platform goes up to, except -1 when floor to ceiling flag checked
-Min Height field: minimum Height the platform descends to, except -1 when floor to ceiling flag checked
-Flags- (Bruce Hartzler)
0) Regular Marathon "door" type (i.e. the doors in Mars), zip sound,=
activated by player in adjacent polygon
1) Silent Marathon door, activated by player stepping on it
2) Noisy Marathon platform, activated by player stepping on it
3) Alien door, alien door sound, activated by player in adjacent polygon
4) Silent Alien platform, activated by player stepping on it (difference with 1 (silent Marathon door)???)
5) Noisy Alien Platform, the "vvvrrrrrr" type :-) activated by player stepping on it
Unverified Door Height info(I.E. not that I don't believe it, I just haven't tried it)
(PDragonInn- Chuck Seggelin) You may have had trouble creating doors that sink into the floor and split in the middle, this is because there are apparently height limitations on these types of platform.
Sinking ("Floor") doors will work with a height of 1024 units, but not 2048 units. So the maximum falls somewhere in between. (i.e. if your floor height is 7100, a good ceiling height for a floor-door platform is 8124, difference of 1024 units.)
Split doors will work with a height of 2048 units, but not 3072 units. So the maximum falls somewhere in between. Therefore split doors are good for ceilings up to 2048 units high and perhaps a little bit higher. ALSO: a split door will apparently not work without a "Flags" setting of 3. (I've done this with a flag of 0).
There does not yet appear to be a height limit on ceiling doors (platforms which contract upward.)
*** Platform example (Bill Perchman) ***
Make the polygon type platform. Set the floor height to the lowest height you want the thing to go. Set the ceiling height to whatever as long as it is higher than the polygon you are going up to plus about 1000.
Check off the boxes for 1)Initially active 2)Initially Extended 3)Floor
Set speed to 100
Set Delay to 200 will make platform pause at top and bottom
Set max height to -1
Set min height to -1
Set flags to 1
That is all you need for a working elevator that goes from a lower level to a higher level. I would try to describe how to set the sides, but I would need a diagram to show you.
For this, as well as all the other examples, there are MANY variations. This is just to get you started.
*** Door example 1 (mine) ***
make 2 rooms 2048 units tall, with 1 or 3 thin polygons 1024 units tall between them.
Make the middle polygon a platform and check: Initially Extended, Stops at Initial level, floor or ceiling, player controllable, monster controllable and safety. Set the speed to 45 and the Delay to 120.
-1 thin polygon
Set the Max and min heights to 1024 and 0. Make the texture of the wall connecting the room and the door polygon something door like. This door like texture needs to be in the polygon ADJACENT to the door, not in the door itself. Do this for both rooms. Make the walls, ceiling and floor of the door polygon underside-of-door looking (like caution stripes, etc.). You're done at this point.
-3 thin polygons
same as one thin polygon except: Make sure you're using the middle of these 3 polygons, the side two serve as the rooms in the section above. Check the Floor to ceiling box, and set the Max and Min heights to -1. This will make the door use the adjacent polygon heights as the max and min. This kind of door set up tends to look better for tall rooms.
*** Door Example #2 (PDragonInn- Chuck Seggelin) ***
1. Create 3 adjacent polygons with the same floor and ceiling heights, a narrow one sandwiched between two larger ones. The narrow polygon will be the door.
2. Double-click the narrow poly to open it. Change its type to "platform" and click the platform settings button. A dialog with many checkboxes pops up.
3. Check off "Initially Extended", "Stops at Initial Level", "Floor to Ceiling", "Ceiling", "Player Controllable", and "Monster Controllable". "Initially Extended" means the door is SHUT when you first see it. If you don't set this, the door will be wide open and WON'T stay closed when you hit the action key. "Stops at Initial Level" means the door will stop at where you originally set it, Closed if you set the Initially extended flag. "Floor to Ceiling" indicates that the door goes all the way from the floor up to the ceiling. "Ceiling" refers to the direction the door opens in, in this case upward. "Player / Monster Controllable" refers to who can open the door. You can also click "Safety" to allow the player to reverse a moving door's direction. If you click "Damage" the door will hurt you if it closes on you.
4. Set the door speed to 45, and the delay to 120. You can play around with these for what suits you best. The delay refers to how long after fully opening the door waits before closing. The speed refers to how fast the door slides open.
5. As long as "floor to ceiling" is checked off (meaning door extends from the floor all the way to the ceiling) you can set the min and max fields to negative one (-1). I suspect that min height refers to how far open the door is when it is in the "closed" position(unless your door comes out of the floor), you could have a partially opened door(you can't do this with the floor to ceiling flag on however). (For example, floor height is 100, min height of door is 200, so when door is closed there's still an opening 100 high beneath it). Max height is the opposite of min height. Max and min refer to the dimensions of the OPEN DOOR as opposed to total polygon height, etc.
6. Now, make sure that the door poly's walls adjacent to the other two polys are DELETED. The only walls the door poly should have are those which are adjacent to nothing.
7. Now visit the larger polys. First make sure that the wall adjacent to the door poly exists. If it doesn't, create it by clicking NEW. Verify that the wall type is set to "High" instead of "Full". This is because, when the door opens upward, you want the wall to stay above the bottom of the door, leaving an opening underneath the door.
Now you have a functional door. Yay.
To make a door go down into the floor instead of up into the ceiling you have to do more than just check off "Floor" on the platform settings. You also have to change the walls you made "High" in the above example to "Low", so that the wall stays on the low side of the door, leaving an opening as it sinks into the floor.
To make a door that splits & opens both up & down. You have to check off both the "Floor" & "Ceiling" flags, & set the walls that you made "High" as "Split". you will also need secondary textures for the Split walls to give the bottom half of the door some texture.
*** Drawing Modes ***
These descriptions came with the Marathon Shape Editor 1.1, Keven Bell's (I think)
ones with ## in front of them don't work with Polygons, just sprites. I'm not SURE about the pulsating static, either. It might not work.
-Normal - Your average texture mapped polygon.
-Fade To Black - Fades to black
##-Invisible - same as major invisible compiler or 2 invisible powerups
##-Subtly Invisible - same as minor invisible compiler or 1 invisible powerup
-Pulsate - ( polygons only )
-Wobble ( polygons only )
-Fast Wobble ( polygons only )
-Static - Effect caused by the Invincible powerup. You can create a wall with an effect of static, by doing the following...set what wall you wish to make static and give it a texture of space or something, it doesn't matter I think. Then set the type of wall tranfer effect to static. Important! Do not set any numbers in any field in the wall edit dialog, also, this will NOT work on floors or ceilings.(Randall Shaw "FrigidMan")
##-Subtly Static - Kind of like 7, but is transparent in places. Used when a Compiler is hit.
-Landscape - (for "distant textures"--they are drawn like the stars in the windows. Using another texture in place of stars is disorienting, but helps you understand how the effect works.)
-Smear - Gives the same effect as not having a texture.
##-Fade Out Static - Fades from normal static to nothing. Used when a Compiler dies.
-Pulsate Static - Fades from static to sub static and back
##-Fold In - Effect used when someone transports in
##-Fold Out - Effect used when someone transports out
--All these are the "lava" modes.
-Horizontal Slide
-Fast Horizontal Slide
-Verticle Slide
-Fast Verticle Slide
-Wander
-Fast Wander
*** Lighting ***
The light indices for Pfhorte start at 1. If you want to make a switch (or platform) affect light number x, then you set its permutation field to x-1. (Stephen Glassman)
You set the light types up. Assign light types to polygons. And then use switches to move the light type from its min to max values (Bruce Hartzler).
From: AFA Eaton
Normal: Static brightness. No fade/in fade/out when turning on or off. Kinda like your average house light.
Rheostat: Static brightness. Fades in when turned on and out when turned off.
Flourescent: Static brightness. Flickers in and out when turned on/off.
Strobe: Flashes between max and min brightnesses. Switches on and off without any fading.
Flicker: Just what it sounds like. Totally randing inside the min/max values.
Pulsates: Fades in, out, in, out, etc... from min to max intensity for eternity. Makes good emergency lighting.
Annoying: Just what it sounds like. Flickers fast, constantly.
Energy Efficient: When this light is turned on, it fades on, stays on for half a minute, and if no one is in the room (or on the polygon) it fades off. Could be an interesting way of discovering if someone is hiding in a room.... "Trigger the light and see if it stays on."
No idea what the light modes mean.
MInimum intensity and max intensity are fairly straightforward. Normal lighting is about 32000.
Phase: The Pulsate light type uses this to determine how fast it pulsates. The lower this number the faster it goes.
Period: I believe this affects how long a light stays turned on. One could create lights that click on when you enter a room, then click off in a few seconds -- on long enough for everyone to notice that you entered. --Jeff
*** Misc Fields ***
ezi, lin cnt, pt cnt, exclusion, etc... no Idea
***** SIDE EDITING *****
*** Wall types ***
-Full - wall fills the whole side of the polygon.
-Low - Wall fills the lower portion of the side of the polygon
-High - Will fills upper portion of the Side.
-Split - Wall fills upper and lower portion, leaving out middle section(window), if no appropriate adjacent polygon then same as Full.
-Composite - Could someone please ask their contacts at bungie, either, Bungie1 at AOL or someone else. No one on AOL has been able to figure this out so far.
Solidness - There is also a SOLD attribute to a side, or a Poly, depending on the editor you use. Verion 1.0b8 of Pfhorte as well as Mia include this. I've never been able to get MME to run under sys 7.5 on my Centris 650 (yes under 7.1) so I'm not sure if it includes this feature. I assume it either does or will in the near future.
*** Shifting the Texture Reference Point, the x0 and y0 fields ***
The reference point you're shifting is the upper right hand corner. This is where the texture's x and y 0,0 point is, you remember geometery, etc. from your high school years don't you? Unfortunately, for those of us who remember, Bungie has rotated the graph 90' counterclockwise. So now the x axis is left and right, positive being left, negative to the right. The y axis is up and down, positive being up and negative being down. To summarize:
x0: shift the texture + left, - right
y0: shift the texture + up, - down
Primary texture is what your wall texture is usually,
Secondary texture is for when you split your wall, for having a window in the middle, Secondary would be the texture Below the window, while the Primary texture would be above the window. The second set of yx's is for your Secondary texture.
The unit of measure for these offsets is the same hight information for floors, ceilings etc. So if you raise part of your ceiling by 300, and offset your wall texture by y0:-300 your whole wall will have textures that line up (vertically that is). A texture block is 1024 units tall/wide, so if you put a texture on a wall 1024 units high you will get one texture up and down with no overlap.
*** Control Panels ***
Your average switch and recharge panel is 512 units wide and 512 tall. The Comm and Save panels are 512 units tall and 1024 wide. To get the textures for the various panels you need to offset the primary texture. The Alien Save Panel is a full size texture 1024x1024, and the Alien rechargers are 1024x512.
1x charger: no offset
2x charger: x:512
3x charger: y:512
Oxygen: x and y: 512
Comm Panel: Offset of y:512
Save Panel: No Offset
Alien 2x: No offset
Alien 3x: y:512
Alien Save Panel: No offset
*** Recharge panel example: ***
Inset a polygon so it's about 400 off the ground, and 912 ceiling hight. This will make it the correct wall size of 512 high. Adjust the width so it's about the same (512). Set the Control Panel flag in the side dialog, and select 1x charger in the popup menu. You should have a working shield recharge panel at this point.
*** Terminals ***(Kirill Levchenko)
As you know, Terminal screens are stored in the Marathon application's resourse fork as a 'term' resource. It's really helpful to have the TMPL for that which is in the resourse for of Marathon Physics Model editor v1.1.
The terminals consist of several parts. First is the logon screen with the Marathon logo. then is the text and then maybe a map.
Okay, here's some codes you use in the text to control the behavoir of the terminal.
Text stuff:
$B starts bold text $b ends bold text
$I starts italicized text $i ends italisized text
$U starts underlined text Su ends underlined text
; pauses and clears screen (which means the character ";" is off-limits)
Display stuff:
#logon Logon screen with marathon logo. any text following this is centered under the marathon logo.
#information Any text in the terminal itself such as the welcoming message in the first terminal (Arrival).
#checkpoint n (n being an integer zero and up) this shows a map with the appropriate checkpoint circled. The map appears on the left half of the screen and the text on the right. I am pretty sure the checkpoint number refers to a goal object placed on the map. Unfortunately none of the map editors show any type of variable that can be set for each goal so how exactly the checkpoint numbers are attached to goals is unknown (at least to me).
Okay, so now the cool part, which 'term' for which terminal? Well, the first line usually looks somethinmg like this:
;L000.WELCOME.TEXT
We know that the ; clears the screen. Now L### is what tells Marathon which terminal this 'term' belongs to. So L000 is from level 0 (Arrival) and terminal 0 (the first terminal). The first two numbers are the level indicator, the last number is the terminal number.
Terminal numbers are the indexes of the panel. The terminal's index is found (in Mia!) by clicking on the poly that contains the terminal and the clicking on the side. The "side" window should show that the bottom that this is a terminal and the index is 0.
The other part of the first line seems to be just idle info.
NOTE: I have not tested any of these by making my own terminals, however the above seems correct from observation.
Unfortunately in order to edit a terminal, you have to mess with the Marathon application itself, so adding your own terminal to a map you make will have to also include some kinda patch that will also add a 'term' to the marathon program. In my opinion, it would've been better if there was a separate file called "Terminals" and contained that stuff...
The Terminal that you transport from is ID#9 or permutation 9 (in the
sides dialog of you are using pfhorte). It is the last terminal. So first
of all, that means you are limited to 10 terminals per level. HOw is that
an advantage rather than a limit? Well, if you found all ten terminals
on a level, that means you won't find any more...in secret rooms and such...
The last terminal is special. The display commands (such as #information,
#logon, #checkpoint) are a bit different. There is #unfinished. Here's
the descriptions:
#unfinished
Text bellow that is displayed when you have not finished a level such as
in "Deffend THIS!" where you have to install the 3 chips. I assume the
status of the level's finishedness is detrmined via goals and stuff...
how, i don't yet know.
#briefing n
(where n is any level including 0)
okay, below is the text that you see when you DO finish a level. It's a
briefing on the next level you are transporting to.
Okay, now the n in #briefing n is the level you are transporting to. Yes,
THAT is how you go from level to level. So if you look at the level 0
terminal, it says #briefing 1.
So if someone is seriously considering making a new map file with
multiple levels, they would also have to write their own terminal screens... or use the existing ones, settling for the non-sequiter type content.
In summary, transporting intra-level is accomplished at terminal #9 where
the #briefing n determines your destination...
***** OBJECT PLACEMENT *****
Object placement works correctly in Pfhorte 1.0b8. You should be able to place objects by clicking with the object placement tool, and then selecting the kind of object you want. Be sure to make the object exist on the level by creating a Min and Max, etc. using the Object Editing menu option.
Note: for small levels with non random placement of monsters, or only 1 starting point for placement of monsters, you might want to make the range Min:0 Max:<whatever desired> If you make min:1 Marathon will keep putting an alien back in the same spot, even if your standing right there killing them as they appear. You might also consider a number of monster entry points.
*** Faceing or orientation of Character and Objects ***
Degrees in a marathon circle:0-512
as you look down on the map:
zero is east
128 is south
256 is West
384 is north
Pfhorte 1.0b8 uses a 360 based circle now, it is opposite the normal compass points (counter clockwise), 90 degrees being west, 270 being east, 180 south. It seems that this should be corrected, switching degrees to a clockwise progression or switching back to Bungie's 512 degree circle, or better yet, some graphical way to set object direction.
***** About the FAQ *****
As you can see the FAQ is still somewhat incomplete. I feel like I have been caught under an avalanche of infomation, as always; I am very open to corrections and further information. You may feel free to upload this faq to your favorite BBS or Ftp site, and put in any software collection, etc, etc, etc... Feel free to package it with your Marathon editing program, provided your the author of the editing program. Don't change the Faq and then distribute it! Send me your comments and I'll be happy to update it.
Credit where Credit is due: My appologies to anyone who got passed over in the credits. I've tried to put names with contributions, but I make mistakes too. Let me know if you feel you've been left out and I'll include you in the next version of the FAQ. Be aware however, that a LOT of people have sent me information, so if it has someone elses name it could actually be thier stuff. I will try to put everyones name who contributed however.
E-mail your responses, information, suggestions, flames, to Jonathan Allen at JonathanLA@aol.com.
Have fun Playing (with) Marathon!
***** LEGAL JUNK *****
Marathon is a trademark of Bungie Inc. Bungie is not responsible for the accuracy or content of this FAQ. Use the information in this FAQ at your own Risk. I make no claims as to the accuracy or validity of the content herein.
