Mapping For Dummies/Basics

From UFO:AI

Basic Definitions

You can find a short list of commands for GtkRadiant here, however, there are a few things you need to know first for that list to make sense.

A "Brush" is an object on screen. It is not what you draw the object with, it IS the object. You usually click and drag a box on the screen (left mouse button), and what you get is a brush. This object is the core of the entire map building process.
A "View" is the big grid in the middle when you open up Radiant. It primarily starts off in the XY view (top down).
An "Entity" is basically any object you can work with.
Vertex is the corner of an object.

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Basic Controls

To move around in a grid on the screen, hold down Right-Click on the mouse and drag yourself around. Not the most intuitive, but it works.

The easiest way to switch from top down to a side view to adjust height on an object is Ctrl TAB. It will cycle the main map view through an XY view, an XZ view, and a YZ view. If you want to see these three views at once, instead of the default method, you want to go to edit-preferences.

To Select a brush, hold down Shift while clicking on the object. It selects layered brushes by selecting the topmost one first. To unselect a brush (or any object), hit ESC.

To adjust the width of an object, click and hold down the left mouse button outside the shape. To move an object, click and hold down the left mouse button inside the shape.

Remember just clicking the left mouse and dragging makes a brush. Shift Left-Click + Drag will select multiplebrushes... including ones who's borders are off the screen. So, if you have a big land area underneath 5 brushes you're trying to select, and you drag across the 5 you want, you'll get the land mass underneath.

Easiest way to avoid this is to Shift Left-Click on each object independently to access them. More on this momentarily for when you build more complex maps and need new ways to work with specific objects. If you must drag across multiple brushes, the easiest way to deal with this is that Shift Left-Click is a toggle and will unselect as well, so, highlight your brushes in a drag, then Shift Left-Click any 'outside' objects you accidentally grab.

The letter L will get you to a list of all the objects (entities) on the map. Easy to select a specific item from this list when you're dealing with a very layered set of brushes. The letter S (a toggle) will bring up the 'Surface Inspector', which allows you to setup what 'cutaway levels' in the game (1-8) the object is visible on. The letter N (also a toggle) brings up the Entity Inspector, used to set specific variables on objects. At first, we will only use this to deal with lighting.

An alternate way of dealing with troublesome brushes in the way of selection is to hide them. You can hide any brush by selecting it and hitting H. Show all hidden brushes with Shift H.

The number keys over the keyboard will change the grid levels to a finer or coarser grain. You will end up using these a lot, along with the DEL and INS keys (or the middle mouse wheel) to zoom in and out of the map. Get used to them to help you with placement. Even though at longer zooms you may not see the visual grid change, the level of 'snap' to grid does change when you move an object around. There are finer levels of grid available then you will be able to access via the keyboard. These are usually only used when creating brush objects (like in the prefab files, discussed later).

To add texture to a brush to make it pretty, select the brush (or face of the brush), and then in the window with 'exterior, interior, + tex', expand the tex node, then double click a choice (exterior and interior also have their own choices), such as tex_nature. Then select an image in the resulting list, and it will cover your brush. Ctrl TAB if your window is acting oddly after applying a texture, especially with moving around the view, described below. You need to leave the 'texture application' window and return to a normal window.

To 'see' an example of what the map looks like, there's an icon in the view that looks like a blue diamond with two attennas. This is your 'camera view', the window in the upper right when using default setup. If you use the arrow keys, you can move this view around, and pageup/pagedown will raise/lower the view in small increments. Use D and C to jump levels (z32 per tap). You can wander around and go look at your newly textured block.

In the camera view window, you can also Shift Left-Click to select objects and work with them without having to try to dig your way through numerous levels of layered brushes.

Right-Click and then move your mouse around in the camera view window to change your orientation (say you wanted to see a floor, or a ceiling). Remember to Right-Click again in the window to return to normal usage once you've angled the view the way you want. End will re-center the camera view. The arrow keys will take the view forward/back and slide left/right. Note that if Caps Lock or Num Lock is on then the camera view will behave differently. You will usually want to use 3D view with them both turned off.

To be able to get your map to build into a .bsp file (what the UFO: AI game will actually use) correctly, you'll need at least 3 brushes on the map with their level settings correct. The map must also be a minimum of 20 64x64 visible squares (Figure 320 x 256). I haven't tested if this can be shrank when you go up with multiple levels, but a 'single level' map is hit with this constriction. However, you will NOT need to place any alien or human start points yet.

The map will also have a 22 meg memory usage hard limit in the game. This includes equipment models, actor models, etc. So, even if your compiled .bsp file is smaller then this restriction, you may run into it. If you are crashing to desktop with a .bsp file that's larger then around 14-15 megs, it's quite possible nothing is wrong but memory dumps. Be aware if your map is VERY complex.

Your .map file WILL save when you perform a .bsp build. This means that your temporary changes that you want to see without committing commit without your agreement. Switch your save file when you do experimental changes. Especially if you are working off a standard mission map to see how things look. While you're at it, turn off autosave in the Edit... Preferences if you're going to experiment with 'Real' maps.

Play around with the controls here to get used to what they're going to do, and then come back and we'll walk you through setting up a map without people, and then adding some folks to it.