Lesson 2

By: Deathbliss

Deathbliss

A hallway with windows:

Well part of building levels is exploring, and trying new ideas as you go along. In the spirit of this I will learn with you as we create a hallway with windows. Go ahead and open up the last save of the map you have been working on with me (from lesson 1). CLICK on FILE, and select OPEN LEVEL. From the list select EXP1.UNR (if you saved your level as something different then load that file - it's the level we began in Lesson 1). Wait for your level to load. RIGHT CLICK on the CUBE ICON on the left of the screen. Set everything the same as you see below:

CLICK on build, and align like this:
Well you may want to get the textures you will use ready for your hallway, from the first lesson you should have learned how to load texture packages (UTX files). I am using ANCIENT again, but wait, it's already here! That's right, the textures you use load right up with your map. Cool huh? However I need more textures so I am re-loading ANCIENT because I want a Tomb Raider like feel to my level. I used BASIKROC2 for the walls and ceiling, and AZ-FLOOR for the floor. Now you need to press the DE-SELECT ALL button, this button resides on the left of the screen in the toolbar and is a picture of a circle with a line through it. Right there under ALL (which is SELECT ALL by the way). Once you DE-SELECTED everything in your level click on the texture you wish to use for the walls of your hallway. Now SUBTRACT the RED BRUSH (head up to the top of the screen, CLICK on BRUSH, then SUBTRACT) and the RED BRUSH carves you a hallway. In the 3-D VIEW you should be able to see it. Go ahead and press F8 to REBUILD (or go to OPTIONS then REBUILD) and once it's done SAVE your level. Remember to SAVE often! UnrealED is BETA and unsupported, so if it crashes you could loose everything you've done.

Well as I said I am going for a certain feel, so I put a FLASHLIGHT in my level, I RIGHT CLICKED just above the floor just outside the entrance to the hallway and placed my FLASHLIGHT there. To put a FLASHLIGHT into your level click on that little arrow pointing down in the top right corner of your screen next to the word TEXTURES, and select CLASSES from the list. Click on the minus next to INVENTORY, then the minus next to PICKUP, finally select FLASHLIGHT. If you click the minus there you'll also find SEARCHLIGHT, but FLASHLIGHT will do for now. RIGHT CLICK in your 3-D VIEW anywhere you desire above the floor to add the FLASHLIGHT to the level. What was the point to all this you ask? Well you've just learned that there are a LOT of items in the CLASSES BROWSER and this process is the same you'll follow for weapons, ammo, health, power ups, etc. You can even find decorations to put into your level!

Ok, so now the windows. Well I've never done this - honest. However I am a little familiar with SHEETS and I think this will help us. There are two approaches to what we're about to do:

1. Make a box that you can design your geometry in. This box will be deleted after your level is complete.
2. Ride it out by the seat of your pants, and design your geometry wherever you find space!

I use the second option. Well our hallway is 128 Unreal Units high. So my windows will be the following size:

I moved the RED BRUSH (which is now shaped like the window I'm about to create) into the biggest room and will perform surgery there. Find a texture you like, DE-SELECT all then select this texture. SUBTRACT from the world. What's this? Not seeing anything? Find the UNDO button on the left side of the screen in the toolbar and CLICK it. You cannot SUBTRACT inside a SUBTRACTED area. Can't be done to my knowledge. You've cut out a hole in your block of wood, and you're trying to cut a hole into a hole. Nothing subtracted from nothing equals nothing. Go up to BRUSH, select and CLICK on ADD and you should see what will become the outer frame for your window. I am using a TRIM texture - TILEMOS 3. The reason why is that you'll have a design in the frame after you're finished. Currently what I got was too big, so I RIGHT CLICKED one of my window frames surfaces, went up the list to SELECT and then MATCHING TEXTURE. Now the whole window frame is highlighted with these annoying blue dots. I RIGHT CLICKED again and selected SURFACE PROPERTIES, then I CLICKED on the SCALE tab, and under simple scaling I selected 0.25. Here is what I have:
Okay, so we have an added brush in a subtracted brush. To hollow out the center of this added brush we need to do what? That's right - we SUBTRACT it. so build another cube precisely 16 Unreal Units smaller than the cube above. My measurements are:
My goal is to fit the interior of the window exactly to the cube design on the window frame. Select the same texture as you used for the window frame. Check to be sure that in all views the RED BRUSH is exactly in the center of the window frame, then SUBTRACT the RED BRUSH. We should have a hollow space inside a frame. This is my completed window frame:
Now you may desire to RIGHT CLICK on one of the surfaces inside the frame, and then set the size to the same size as the outer frame. Remember there is another box inside of the outer one, and it leaves a few surfaces the default size of 1.0. Okay, so all that's left is to place these in the levels. We want them along the outer walls of the hallway. You may want to go to the SIDE VIEW and select both boxes that make up your window (select by clicking on one of the boxes, and then PRESSING and HOLDING CTRL as you click on the other one), go to BRUSH PROPERTIES, then OBJECT, then CLICK in the box next to GROUP. Name them something (I've called mine HALL_WINDOW). Now when you press SELECT ALL later you'll just select the windows provided one of the windows was highlighted (selected) at the time. PRESS and HOLD CTRL to move the window where you want it, try to keep it above the floor and below the ceiling. Now RIGHT CLICK and select DUPLICATE from the list. Position the new window frame wherever you want. do this up to 6 times, I've done it only 4, until your hallway has windows inside along the walls, like this (it doesn't matter if they stick out):
REBUILD (F8) and save your level as EXP2. Now we need to build sheets that will serve as our windows. In the next tutorial we will cover skyboxes so you can see something out of them, but for now well just get them ready. Find this icon in the Toolbar and RIGHT CLICK on it:

This is the BUILD A SHEET ICON. set it to the same values seen above. Click on BUILD, and your RED BRUSH has become our window shape. Center this perfectly in one of your frames, and once you're sure it's aligned go up to BRUSHES, then ADD SPECIAL. Set as below:
When you've set it, DE-SELECT ALL and open up the ShaneDay texture package. Highlight DAYSKY 8 then CLICK on ADD SPECIAL. Once all your windows are set RIGHT CLICK on this blue texture in the 3-D VIEW, select SURFACE PROPERTIES from the list, and click in the boxes UNLIT and FAKE BACKDROP so that they have a check mark next to them. CLOSE the SURFACE PROPERTIES window and any other extra windows open, REBUILD (F8), save, and then try it out. Here's how mine turned out:
If you click on MODE just above the 3-D VIEW you'll get a list of various types of ways to see your level. Select TEXTURES from the list to get an idea of what your hallway looks like. You'll soon see something in those windows, as in the next tutorial we'll design a skybox and discuss ZONES. For now just get a feel for your level, where it's going, and think about how far you've come. SHEETS can be one of the hardest things to learn, and all this aligning can get tedious. But you should be starting to see what can be accomplished with a little sweat and hard work, and things are only going to get better from here on out. I for one am happy with the way this turned out. No unexpected flaws except when I tried one-sided sheets that didn't work on one side of my level. Hopefully we'll avoid nasty headaches. I like the feel of my level, and of course I'm curious about yours. You can e-mail me anytime you need help, and if things aren't working out for you send me your maps and we'll work on them. If you wish to share your work you can e-mail me your maps as well. Everything here in the tutorials is now downloadable for your convenience. Just follow the UnrealED Exordium Main link below. In the end just try to have fun creating, you can do whatever you want and here's a good place to start. See you in the next lesson!