So, you're starting a new level? Make sure to do a good job, you don't want to stop partway through it because you don't like it anymore...Follow these simple steps to begin making a great level
-Choose your location, and make sure you can make it realistic!
-Start with making the tga file, look through all the tga's you have, and select any texture you find useful, once you have made this, you will be in the mood to:
-Make a wad set, start with a blank wad, add a good outfit, appropriate for the level, then add the essential objects. Next load up the winroomedit, and look through various wads and find the right objects for your wad, traps puzzles, statics, etc.
-Start making your level, be creative, artistic, and original.
-When starting a level, know what the starting rooms will look like, think of these in your spare time, while walking, while typing, etc. While working on some rooms, you will get ideas and inspiration for others, and your level will be great if you have good ideas!!
-Make your level fit it's enviroment, and make the puzzles and traps make sense, also, try to keep the puzzle to it's intended environment, and don't mix environments too much if you can help it. (ex. don't have an huge skyscraper in the middle of the hills of scotland, it just doesn't fit...)
-Remember to make totally different traps and puzzles, no one wants to know what's going to happen next, because it was already in TR_.
-Take advantage of a great new wad and texture set, and don't be afraid to try new things.
-Make sure you are happy with your level.
-If you realize you don't like what you are working on, it may not be your style of level, everyone has strengths and weaknesses.
-When you have a good tga set, it's easy to create great areas!
-Keep going, only quit your level if you can't stand it
-Try to avoid multitasking, work on you level OR your new wad OR your website at one time, I am VERY bad with this one, I have this site up and running, to take care of, with updates all the time, 3 levels started at once, and I still find time to talk on the forums!! :D Limit your expenses.
-Put great detail into the quality of your level, make each room say to the player "Hey! Look at me!" or the author say to the room "Wow, the author put a great deal of effort here"
-Show previous or later rooms in your level with toggle opacity, this creates a sense of connection in the levels, and makes it much better.
-Don't forget baddies, they add a sense of danger to a level and can be used in several different ways.
-post screenshots, ask questions, get suggestions, improve!
-lighting is very important in the quality of a level, without lighting, a room could be very boring looking, a gray room can turn many different colors...
-your textures should flow together, dont have mud next to steel with no contrast!
-criticism is GOOD, unless it is unreasonable...
-if your level has been hard, provide a treat for those who finished it! its always good to reward those who try :)
-your finish trigger should lead to the next level, dont be in the desert and then the next one loads, your in antartica! always provide some kind of transportation, helicopter etc. :)
Thanks for checking out the tips, good luck with all your levels, and I hope I can be of some help :)
-HOW TO RETEXTURE BLANK WADS-
You will need:
§Strpix2
§TR2WAD
§Jack!
First, you will make your wad with TR2WAD, when you have a blank wad from this, you need to export it's 16bit textures through Jack! then save them as a 24-bit bitmap, in whichever folder you choose. Load up strpix, and import your wad. Simply load the new bitmap file and you are home free! Just remember to save your wad! This may not work 100% of the time, I am working on a full solution. (I found this myself)
-THE CORRECT AUDIO FORMAT-
~Using Sound Recorder or any other .wav conversion program, if you have made a new recorded sound, you will need to change the format to: Microsoft ADPCM 44.100 khz 4bit, stereo, using the 'properties' button on the drop down menu. This will play the audio instead of getting blips of other music, but only this format works for trle :) (I found this myself)
-HOW TO DELETE TRIGGERS, AND DOORS ETC.-
~Though this is a simple function, it is only mentioned in a small area in the manual, and some people don't know this, to delete doors and triggers, left click and press delete on the 2D map plan view area (It's that simple)
Edit by THE MASK:Actually, it IS mentioned in the manual, page 21 :D
Lol, I missed that one :-D
-CURE FOR THE COMMON CRASHING LEVEL CONVERTOR-
~If the level convertor crashes when you have a highly detailed level, with a big wad, you need to reduce the size of the wad as much as you can, this will cure the crashing, save you from a heart attack, and reduce file space at the same time, simply use TRWest to delete all unecessary objects in the wad. (I found this myself)
- ERROR MESSAGES-
~Invalid Doors- This simply means one of your doors is incorrectly placed, and you need to find the room the message mentions, and delete all the doors in the room, then reconnect them, if this doesn't work, simply copy and paste the room in question, and switch the two, then try reconnecting the doors.
~Texture ranges- This can be very easy, or very nasty... When splitting levels, or just copy and pasting a room from one project to another, you may get this message. The textures in your copy and pasted room are not complete, some of those colored textures at the bottom have snuck in, and these are giving you an error message. You need to find them, and texture over them, and the message will go away.
~Argument too big- there is something wrong with your texture set, it may be corrupted, or the wrong tga type, etc.
Edit made by THE MASK: The most common reason for getting this error is by having a space in the TGA filename or WAD filename.
Edit made by Collin:You can also get this when your texture name is too long, or if it isn't supported by DOS.
TRFix will fix this error by changing the filename to the Windows "short" form. It will also fix the EVIl errors and door errors, but usually has to delete something to do it.~Incorrect TGA format. When adding in words or pictures to a tga set, you may invalidate it, so simply save it as a bitmap, then resave it as a tga file again.
Edit made by Data And also ensure that it has been saved in 24bit and NOT 16 or 32.
~Division by Zero- this evil error message shows up in many trle programs, and means you are trying to do something you can't possibly do, you will need to find another way...
~Error reading level- this error mesage usually happens in trle programs when you are trying to use a level file you aren't supposed to use, as in vict.tr2 or del.trc.
~EVIL error messages:
-EVIL messages are bad, those mean something has gone horribly wrong with your level, and you need to save what you can, and hope for the best.
-EVIL: Unknown object type detected. You probably pressed the move object button without selecting what object to move, don't worry about it, you are perfectly safe.
-LARA'S ANIMATIONS-
~When triggering a puzzle hole object like the poseidon statue or the lyre, you will need to use ocb's for lara's animations, and you can trigger the object, and have a different ocb, and lara will do a different animation for it, you can use whichever one ou want, just put a negative number in the ocb of a puzzle hole object.
-KEY HOLE 12-
~The key hole 12/key item 12 objects is used when you want to use that key more than once.
-COMBAT TRIGGERS-
~Core was lying, the combat trigger is used!!! When lara pulls out her guns, she activates the trigger!!
-THE FAMOUS ROLLINGBALL TRICK-
~This allows you to have several cam sequences, special audio triggers etc. Have a rollingball track set up in a remote room far from your other rooms, this will have several rollingballs here, however many you need. Trigger the rollingball at the start of a cam sequence, and it will trigger any heavy triggers in front of it. Have a heavy antitrigger in front of it so it stops itself and you wont here the noise. the cam sequence finishes, and you trigger the next rollingball from the camera, which activates the new sequence etc. use this to your advantage!!
-ANTITRIGGERS-
~When using an anittrigger for a door you pass by, as you pass by it, then having a switch to open it again, so you have to go back to it, to get sometihng, this is an ideal time for a heavy rollingball trap. :)
-TRICKS WITH SCRIPT-
~Script is very complicated, and can make or break your day... This tutorial explains about how to rename and use puzzle objects in the script. It's pretty simple, but one mistake and you'll be ready to jump off a bridge.
From the script of TRLR, a few examples, for Puzzle, Key, Pickup, Examine, and PuzzleCombo items.
[Level]
Puzzle= 4,Ba Cartouche, $0000,$0400,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0002
Puzzle= 5,Ra Cartouche, $0000,$0400,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0002
PuzzleCombo= 4,1,Cartouche Piece 1, $0000,$0400,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0002
PuzzleCombo= 4,2,Cartouche Piece 2, $0000,$0400,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0002
Examine= 2,The Rules of Senet, $0000,$0500,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0002
;FMV= 5,0
LoadCamera= 79993,-6715,57009,81452,-5264,58348,161
ResetHUB= 12
Name= Tomb Of Semerkhet
RemoveAmulet= ENABLED
Level= DATA\SEMER,107
The level 'Tomb of Semerkhet' Notice the Puzzle, PuzzleCombo, and Examine2 objects, these will be mentioned later. Also note the RemoveAmulet piece of script, used to remove the Amulet of Horus from Lara's inventory, because Von Croy had it during that level...
[Level]
Key= 1,Token, $0013,$0200,$4000,$0000,$0000,$0002
Key= 10,Gate Key, $0008,$0300,$8000,$e000,$0000,$0002
Puzzle= 1,Trident, $0014,$0400,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0002
Puzzle= 2,Music Scroll, $0006,$0400,$0000,$c000,$0000,$0002
Puzzle= 3,Golden Star, $0000,$0500,$0000,$0000,$0000,$000a
Puzzle= 4,Hook and Pole, $0002,$0700,$0000,$2000,$0000,$0002
Puzzle= 5,Portal Guardian, $0008,$0600,$8000,$f000,$0000,$0002
Puzzle= 6,Horseman's Gem, $0000,$0300,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0002
Puzzle= 10,Pharos Knot, $0011,$0400,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0002
Puzzle= 11,Pharos Pillar, $0013,$04b0,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0002
Puzzle= 12,Black Beetle, $0008,$03b0,$0000,$e000,$0000,$000a
PuzzleCombo= 4,1,Wall Hook, $000a,$0400,$3000,$c000,$0000,$000a
PuzzleCombo= 4,2,Broken Handle, $0004,$0400,$0000,$c000,$0000,$0002
PuzzleCombo= 5,1,Ornate Handle, $0002,$0500,$4000,$1000,$0000,$000a
PuzzleCombo= 5,2,Hathor Effigy, $0016,$0400,$8000,$0000,$0000,$0002
Pickup= 1,Broken Beetle, $0008,$03b0,$0000,$e000,$0000,$000a
Pickup= 2,Broken Glasses, $0008,$0150,$0000,$0000,$0000,$0002
Layer1= 128,128,128,-16 LensFlare= 249856,-32000,109824,128,96,0
AnimatingMIP= 2,10
AnimatingMIP= 4,10
AnimatingMIP= 5,10
AnimatingMIP= 6,10
AnimatingMIP= 7,10
AnimatingMIP= 8,10
AnimatingMIP= 9,10
ResidentCut= 1,17
ResidentCut= 2,18
ResidentCut= 3,19
ResidentCut= 4,20
LoadCamera= 45633,-7508,47067,46657,-7880,47863,73
Name= Alexandria
Horizon= ENABLED
ColAddHorizon= ENABLED
Level= DATA\ALEXHUB,110
From the level 'Alexandria' This is the biggest script in the game, mostly since the cutscenes and Animating_MIP objects are so high. there is also a lens flare object, many resident cuts, and a ColAddHorizon added to the script. Looking at the 'Token' object line of script, you can see this is a key object, but did you know it was Key_Item1? Look closely: Key= 1,Token, $0013,$0200,$4000,$0000,$0000,$0002 Notice the line Key= 1, Token. This means there is a key item 1 object in the alexhub wad that needs to be called token. You can rename this as whatever you want, but you must change the line 'token' in the English to whatever you changed this one to, or the script will look to the english for a non-existing name, and it will find nothing, and will instead name your object 'load' with a blank view of the object. the line: $0013,$0200,$4000,$0000,$0000,$0002 only has to do with the rotation and position of your object when it appears on the screen when you pick it up, and how it rotates in the inventory when you look at it. the same goes for all objects in the script. remember you cannot add a line of english, or subtract one, you must change one!! But be careful...
-Starting with Script-
To change script level names and legends (text at start of level) you can change them in the script, but that's not enough, you also have to change it in the english file, but do not add any new lines of english or the le will crash. Change any of the existing lines of legend in the english to what you want, and if you are going to have more than 2 legends in your game, than delete one line of english the le doesnt use (like the level name 'Valley of the Kings' do not delete something like 'pistols' or 'gate key' cuz that'll crash it too. do this, and you can add a new line of enlish, but never change the number, always subtract+add one line. Also, when renaming a level, use unused lines of english to place your level names.
-How to start a level-
To start, see my tips page for ideas, then read this:
When you have selected the location, time, etc. for your level, and have a wad and texture set selected and ready for it, (see my wads and textures page for much help in this area) Open the Editor, (winroomedit.exe) and click on 'Textures' drop down menu. Click 'Load TGA' TGA files are Truevision Targa files, the textures you will use to make your level. Now click 'Objects' drop down menu. Click 'Load Objects' you will search for a wad file, which will be the objects you use in your level. Look in the trle/graphics/wads for objects. Remember to save your project very often, test a lot, and release levels as demos for suggestions and comments, which are very useful in level creation.
-Making a Wad, (My suggestions)-
To start building a wad, load up TRWest or WADmerger, load up a blank wad (these will be available at the wads page) and load up another source wad, you can look in the editor for what objects you want, and feel free to use my wads as source files, just credit me in the release of your level. To use my wads, you'll need to replace the object meant to be called door (the names are mixed up) and replace it with a door. Add all the objects you want, and save your wad.
Here are some official tutorials and other webpages written by Forum Members:
Designer Tips|Object Archive|Outfit Archive|OCB List of Functions|TRLE Frequently asked Questions|Tricks for the LE|TRLE Manual in "English"|Fog Lighting Chart|Spike Orientation Test Room|Legend Limitations|Pushable Object Puzzle|The Official TRLE FAQ maintained by DriberHere's something posted by Wee Bald Man, he will soon have a huge list of tips and tutorials for the LE. I'm posting this because he had a very good thing to say, read carefully:
Hi Chronicles5,
That's a very yummy looking list you've got there. I always sigh with happiness
whenever anyone parts with info around here - there's often too much competing
and not enough sharing with the TR level editor.
So good on you for sharing this list.
I have been compiling a web site which contains all the wisdoms and TR discoveries
made by TRLE users over the past two years - it even includes tricks and tips
discovered by members who were around in the pre-historic Reb Shearin days
of lore (Nov 2000)!
The web site is called: WBM's Big Book Of Other Peoples' Sweat Blood and Tears.
I haven't completed it yet so it's not available but here is an example of
a really obscure nugget of knowledge which is worth knowing next time anyone
wants to write SuperCaliFragilisticExpialiDocious in the Legend..
http://www.weebaldman.com/Legend_Li...end_Limits.html
It's not much, but it may just save somebody somewhere in the future a little
bit of misery..
WBM
And here are some more tutorials that people shared, when I posted a thread with the above on the forums. These are some great tutorials!!
Script by Collin
1. Make the changes in the script textfile (as mentioned by Chronicles5),
and run the script.exe. Then make the changes in the english textfile. Then
change the english.bat (right click it) from:
script script.txt
del ..\*.dat
copy script.dat ..\
copy english.dat ..\
del strings.h
to:
script script.txt
move script.dat ..\
move english.dat ..\
move strings.h ..\
Run the english.bat file.
2. When you run the english.bat file and in the window you read: 'xxx object not found', check the spelling in the english and in the script textfile. They have to be identical.
How to make the "mirror" effect by TenChen.
I wrote this a while agoMESSAGE TO ALL WHO WANT COOL EFFECTS BUT ARE AFRAID TO TRY; FIRSTLY I AM STOOPID AND I GOT THIS TO WORK , YOUR NOT STOOPIDER THAN ME ......ARE YOU ............... NO YOUR NOT
N
W + E
S
Are how they appear in the 2D window
Create your room texture the way you want it, making sure that the mirror
is on the east or west wall I suggest that you use Coastal wad and textures
if you are testing for the first time and output it as Coastal.Tom just to
avoid any script problems later Click on Top Menu Room > Mirror This then
Flips the room ( To be honest im not sure if this is essential to making a
mirror room ive not done enough testing to find out ) Create the second room
exactly opposite to the other one and create a portal (must be east west)
then select the portal/door and click Toggle Opacity and put The texture (with
transparency on) on both sides of the portal Now put lara in the east room
(again im not sure if it has to be this room, just put it in the room that
you clicked Room > Mirror) OK (SORRY its so scetchy Ive only just learned
how to do it, I will post a proper tutorial when Im exactly sure of what im
doing but hopefully this will help for now) Click in the upper left (blue)
square of the east room/the one lara's in. and look at the room Co-ordinates
and get the X co-ordinate and remeber the number of this room eg, 46 add 1
47 and multiply by 1024 = 48128 on the windows calculator in Accessorys then
click on View on the Calculator and click scientific and input 48128 Then
click on Hex it will turn that number into BC00 ( letters dont matter Hex
is made of letters and numbers, either way it should be a 4 digit number save
room and output wad Now got to the Script Txt in your script folder and open
it up in coastal section there is a line of txt Mirror= 69,$7400 now replace
69 with the room number you got your X co-ordinate from and replace 7400 with
your hex value Mirror= 0,$BC00 (must have $ sign) Once this is replaced save
the Script !! (you can copy this mirror command "Mirror=" for other levels
you want mirrors in) K now run The "Script.exe" Very nearly done You need
to run the English.bat too (one with the cog on) but it wont work you need
to change it slightly. You have to right click on the icon goto > edit delete
that txt and paste this;
@echo off
script script.txt
del ..\*.dat
copy script.dat ..
copy english.dat ..
del strings.h Now Run The "Englsh.bat" then run The "Level Converter" and
Hopefully you will have a working Reflection of lara Phew (took me 1/2 hour
to write out I hope it helps and I hope more people try this effect in there
levels as it looks great! DONT BE SCARED OF THE "SCRIPT" I WAS, BUT NOW I
UNDERSTAND IT AND YOU CAN TOO After all there only letters and numbers PS
There is also a way of creathing a floor mirror (but it wont reflect lara)
its done easily by creating an upside down room below your normal room and
placing toggle opacity on the floor and a transparent floor.
Flipmaps by EmmaP, Posted by TenChen
Originally written by Emma P
1 Ok, here's what you do. Make sure your room is fully textured before you
start so there are no noticeable differences in the textures when the room
is flipped (unless that's part of the story line)
2 Firstly go to the room you want to flip and press alt and F, the previously
white background will now be black.
3 You can't add animated objects into a flipped room such as baddies and some
larger statues, so build your room around this.
4 Make the changes in the flipped room that you want to appear when the flip
map is triggered and then press alt and F again to return to your original
room.
5 Now, you need to trigger the flip map. So select the square that you want
and set the trigger type to Flip map,
6 in the box next to Flip map type the number of the flip map, if this is
your first flip map just put 1 (but make sure that if your building your level
along side the tutorial level then they have not also used flip map number
1, get it?)
7 Then type the number 1 next to the F button and make sure that it also says
the same in the flipped room.
8 Then when you play the game and Lara steps on to the desired square it will
trigger the flip map.
I know it sounds complicated but it's dead easy once you get the knack of
it.
Seth Blades by Phabius Phodes
Boot the Level Editor and load in the objects for this project. On the menu bar click “Objects” and select “Load Objects.” In the “Load Object Wad” window, navigate to the “trle\graphics\wads” folder and double-click the “settomb.WAS” file. Click “Okay” to close the small window. Next load in the textures for this project. On the menu bar click “Texture” and select “Load TGA.” Navigate to “trle\maps\settomb” and double-click on the “settext.TGA” file. Using the Plan View, create a room that’s 3 tiles wide and 8 high. Using the Ceiling (minus) button, lower the ceiling to a height of 9. If you want, go ahead and section the walls for texturing. Click on the “Select Room” button and pick an empty room. In the Plan View, click and drag to create a room 1 block wide and 4 blocks high. Lower this room’s ceiling until it’s 9 high. Again, if you want, set up the walls for texturing. Now, in the Plan View, right-click and drag to select all 4 floor tiles. Click the “Copy Room” button. Turn on the “2D Map” button and move the rooms around so that the two smaller rooms are on each side of the larger room, but one square down from the top edge of the large room.
With the “2D Map” still on, select the small room on the left. In the Plan View, right-click and drag to select the 4 gray squares along the right side of the room. Click the black “Door” button to create a door. Select the small room on the far right. Right-click and drag to select the 4 gray squares along the left side of the room. Click the black “Door” button to create a door. You should have the larger room selected. Turn off the “2D Map” button. In the Plan View click on the left door until the door is selected. We need to keep Lara from being able to enter these side rooms so click the “Toggle Opacity” button. Select the other door and again click the “Toggle Opacity” button. Be sure the button you click is “Toggle Opacity” and not “Toggle Opacity 2". Since “Toggle Opacity” allows texturing a portal, we need to make the portals (doors) transparent. When you make portals transparent, use the gray transparent color from the pallette. It’s the gray chip just to the right of the top left black square. Be sure that gray is selected. Turn on “Face Edit” and then click on each of the 4 portal sections of each doorway. They’ll turn gray in color. At this point I’ll let you go ahead and texture the rest of the floors, walls, and ceilings in all three rooms. It’s time to put the blades in place. Be sure you’re in the large room with “2D Map” off and “Face Edit” off. Click on the object text bar that’s just below the “Place Object” bar. Scroll down and select “SETH_BLADE.” Click the “Place Object” bar and then click on one of the center squares opposite one of the doors to place the blade. (If the blade’s texture looks weird, reload in the objects.) Note that you place a blade on the second block from the wall.
That means that you’ll be placing the right and the left blades on the same square. Select this blade and then right-click it to rotate it until it’s in position for the opposite wall. Again click the “Place Object” bar and then click the same floor tile. This will put a blade where the previous one was before you rotated it. Now repeat this procedure in placing blades on the 3 other floor squares in front of the doors. Now let’s set up some triggers. I’m going to set the blades up for Lara to trigger them, however, in the game it’s the Guide who must trigger the blades to keep Lara from getting killed. I’ll explain a little later about how it’s done in the game. For now, select one of the blades. Next select the floor square that’s in the middle and just before you reach the doors. Now click the pink trigger button to set a trigger for this blade. Continue selecting blades and setting triggers to the same floor square. You may want to change the texture of this floor square so that you can see it when you’re playing the level. Now let’s create a delays for each set of blades so that they don’t all trigger at the same time. Starting with the two closest blades, select each one and press “O” on your keyboard to bring up the Object Code Bits window. Set the number at the bottom to -10. (That’s a negative 10.) Don’t forget to press Enter after keying in the number to make the number stay. Select the next 2 blades past them and set their numbers to -20. Set the next 2 blades numbers to -30 and the final 2 blades to -40. According to the manual each 10 units will pause the blades for one second, however, you’ll probably find that they trigger a bit faster. The last thing to do is to place Lara in the room. Save your project as a new project. Output the wad to “settomb.TOM” and then exit the program. Use the Level Convertor to build your level. Give it a try. When Lara steps on the center tile just before the blades, all of the blades will trigger up and down in order from front to back. In the supplied level the triggers are set up a little differently, but it’s still fairly simple. On one of the first floor tiles in the room they set a trigger for each of the blades. One of these triggers is changed to a “Heavy” trigger. This way only the Guide can trigger the blades from this floor square. They again select each blade and then set triggers on all the squares in front of the doors. This way if Lara proceeds without waiting for the Guide, she’ll trigger the blades and get killed. That’s about it.
Burning Floor by Phabius Phodes (this one is a LONG one, much thanks to Fabio for his time :)
The Burning Floor
(sorry there are no pictures but I guess the text is just enough...)
In this tutorial I'll help you create the "burning floor" that's in the "Lost Library" level that was included with the Level Editor software. If you aren't familiar with the burning floor, go ahead and play the "Lost Library" level until you come to the place where you toss the lit torch onto the floor that catches fire. This tutorial is more complicated than any of the tutorials thus far and it will be extremely important to follow the instructions carefully. Go ahead and boot up your Level Editor program. First click on the "Objects" drop down menu and select "Load Objects." In the "trle\graphics\wads" folder load the "library.WAS" file. Next, click on the "Textures" drop down menu and select "Load TGA." In the "trle\maps\library" folder load in the "libtext.TGA" file. Now press [ALT]-S to initiate a save and save this project in the "trle\maps\library" folder as "My_library.PRJ." Create a room that's 9 by 9 squares. With all of the floor selected, click the Floor + (plus) button once and then click the Ceiling - (minus) button 11 times. The text in the Room Info box should show Floor 1 and Ceiling 9. Now, just below the Plan View change the name of this room to "Upper." Remember to hit [Enter]after entering your text. To create the next room, click the "Select Room" button and select the "Empty" room just below the "Upper" room. Once again create a 9 by 9 room. Select its entire floor and click the Room - (minus) button 9 times. Then click the Ceiling - (minus) button 12 times. The text in the Room Info box should show Floor -9 and Ceiling -1. In the text box just below the Plan View change the room name to "Lower." This next section of instructions needs to be checked off one step at a time to make sure that you don't make a mistake. Because the shape of the "burning floor" has several diagonal sides, setting up the hole for it to fit into is going to get complicated. Just take your time and you'll be okay. If the room in your Editor Window is not the "Upper" room, click the "Select Room" button and select the "Upper" room. In order for me to accurately describe which floor square that I'm talking about, it's necessary to create a coordinate system. Going across the top of the room from left to right, place the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I above the 9 columns to name each column. Going down the left side of the room number each row from 1 to 9. In this way the coordinates for the square that's over 4 squares and down 5 squares would be D5. The top left square would be A1 and so on. Before I start, let's do a little review. Clicking on a floor square repeatedly cycles that square from a blank red square to squares with white arrows pointing first left, then up, right, and finally down and back to a red blank square. If you hold down the [CTRL] key as you click the square, the arrows point first to the upper left corner and then to each corner clockwise around the square. In the instructions coming up, I will list the coordinates of the floor square first, followed by the letters NA for "No Arrow" or a description of the arrow showing how the arrow should be pointing, and then whether to click the Floor (plus) or (minus) button once. For example... F4 NA (plus) would indicate that you would click floor square F4 to select it so that there is No Arrow in it and then click the Floor (plus) button once.
Arrows are indicated as ex. right up, left down, etc.
C3 right up (minus) would indicate that you would click floor square C3 to select it and while holding down [CTRL], click the floor square until the arrow in it points to the upper right corner as the arrow does in the line above. With each set of data below, click on the corresponding floor square until the arrow is as shown for that particular data. Then click the Floor (plus) or Floor (minus) button one time as indicated...
D5 NA (minus) D6 NA (minus) E4 NA (mnus) E5 NA (minus)
E6 NA (minus) F4 NA (minus) F5 NA (minus) D6 left down (plus)
E6 right down (plus) D5 left up (plus) D4 right (minus) D3 right down (minus)
E3 down (minus) F4 right up (plus) F3 left down (minus) F5 right down (plus)
F6 left up (minus) C6 right up (minus) C5 right down (minus) D7 right up (minus)
E7 left up (minus) G4 left down (minus) G5 left up (minus)
When you complete this, be sure to save your project so that you don't lose it. Now that the Upper room is shaped for the burning floor, the next thing is to get the ceiling of the Lower room shaped as well. Click on the "Select Room" button and select the "Lower" room. In the Editor Window click on the lower right floor square. That's square I9. With this square red, use the down arrow to rotate the room until it's upside down. The red square will be in the upper right corner now.
Once again I will refer to the columns across the top from A to I and the rows top to bottom as 1 to 9. Since it's the ceiling that we are working on now, you will be clicking on the Ceiling (plus) and Ceiling (minus) buttons instead of the Floor buttons. Remember that since the room is upside down, clicking on the Ceiling (plus) button will still raise the ceiling, however, in the window it will move in a downwards direction. If you disregard which way the ceiling squares move and simply follow the instructions you should have no problem. With each set of data below, click on the corresponding ceiling square until the arrow is as shown for that particular data. Then click the Ceiling (plus) or Ceiling (minus) button one time as indicated.
D4 NA (plus) E4 NA (plus) D5 NA (plus) E5 NA (plus)
F5 NA (plus) E6 NA (plus) F6 NA (plus) D4 left up (minus)
D5 left down (minus) E4 right up (minus) F5 right up (minus) F6 right down
(minus)
E7 up (plus) D6 right (plus) D7 right up (plus) F7 left up (plus)
G6 left up (plus) G5 left down (plus) F4 left down (plus) E3 left down (plus)
D3 right down (plus) C4 right down (plus) C5 right up (plus)
You now have both rooms set up so that they can be connected by a portal which is where the burning floor will go. Click the "2D Map" button to turn on the map view in the Editor Window. Left-click one of the rooms to select it and then right-click and drag it to the middle of the window. Left-click the other room and then right-click and drag it so that it's directly on top of the other room. Click off the "2D Map" button and then once again save your project.
In the Room Edit buttons, click the "Select Room" button and then select the "Upper" room. Make sure that the "2D Map" button is off (white). You should be looking at the upper room with the indentation in the middle of it. Once again I'm going to refer to some of the floor squares by their coordinates as I did in Part 1. Click square E4 so that it's solid red (no arrow present) and then click the black button to the right of the word "Door" in the Room Edit buttons. This creates a door there into the Lower room and moves you to the Lower room. In the Plan View, (upper left) left-click on the black square that represents the door we just created until it has a green border around it. Then right-click it to move back to the Upper room. Repeat the exact steps that you did in the previous paragraph for floor squares F4, D5, E5, F5, D6, and E6. Don't be concerned when the squares with diagonal lines in them don't turn white. Now, squares E4 and E5 are fully functional doors. That is, Lara could hop down from the Upper room into the Lower room through this portal. However, since we don't want Lara to fall through the portal, well have to make these two squares a bit different. Hopefully you are back in the Upper room. If not, left-click a black square in the Plan View until it has a green border and then right-click it. Now, in the upper left Plan View, click on the upper black square until it has a green border. When it does, click the "Toggle Opacity" button. Next, click the other black square until it has a green border and then again click on the "Toggle Opacity" button. NOTE: The "Toggle Opacity" button only works on portals (doors) and it makes it so that Lara can not pass through the opening and it makes it so that you can texture the opening partially transparent or totally transparent. Making it totally transparent makes it so that Lara seems to be walking across a clear glass floor. Since we want to see through our floor joists of our burning floor to the room below, we need to make our portal transparent. Click the "Face Edit" button to turn it on.
This changes our mode from clicking and selecting a floor square to clicking and texturing a floor square. Click the "Transparent" button to turn it on and make sure that the very upper left small black square in the palette is selected. It will have a red border around it when it's selected. Now carefully click square E4 and E5. They should now be white. Click the lower left half of square F4. Click the upper left half of square F5. Click the upper left half of square E6. Click the upper right half of square D6, and finally, click the lower right half of square D5. You should now have created a transparent portal to the room below. To see that this is true, click on the "Draw Doors" button. The room below appears and you can now see through the opening into the Lower room. Click the "Draw Doors" button again to turn it off. We need to fix some of the squares in the portal of the Lower room. Click the "Select Room" button and then select the "Lower" room. Be careful not to click any of the square now because you'll make them transparent. Use the down arrow to rotate the room until you're looking down at the ceiling with the indentation in it. Notice that the 2 squares of the actual working door are white. Carefully click the lower right half of square D4. Click the lower left half of square E4. Click the upper right half of square D5. Click the lower left half of square F5. Finally, click the upper left half of square F6. Click the "Transparent" button to turn it off. To see through the opening you can again click the "Draw Doors" button, but turn it back off when you're done. Once again save your game if everything has gone as expected. With only the "Face Edit" button selected, (black) go ahead and texture both the Upper room and the Lower room. Be careful not to apply a texture to any portion of our portal, both from the lower room while doing the ceiling and from the upper room while doing the floor. I highly recommend that you texture the squares and triangles that border on the portal a lighter texture than the rest of the floor or ceiling. This will add to the graphic effect of the sloped sides around the opening. Once you finish texturing both rooms, move to the Upper room and then click the "Draw Doors" button so that you can view both rooms with the hole in the middle. Now turn off the "Draw Doors" button and the "Face Edit" button. Be sure you are in the Upper room. We're ready to place some objects in the room. Click the text window that's just below the long "Place Object" button. In the "Select Object" pop-up window scroll down and select "BURNING_TORCH_ITEM" and click Okay. Now click the "Place ! Object" button and then click floor square E8 to place the torch there. Using the same steps as when you selected and placed the torch, select the "ROCK6" object and place it on square I7. Next, select the "FLAME_EMITTER" object and place it on square I7 also. Click the object to select it, (it will turn red) and then click the Floor (plus) button 4 times to raise the "FLAME_EMITTER" up. With the "FLAME_EMITTER" selected, (red) click the floor square in the Edit Window just to the left of the square where the "FLAME_EMITTER" is at. That's square H7. Now click the violet button that's just to the right of the text square that reads "TRIGGER (0:0) for FLAME_E." This sets a trigger on that square so that when Lara steps on that square the flame will ignite and Lara can light her torch. (If she gets too close to this flame she'll catch on fire.) Now for the part that we've all been waiting for... the burning floor section. Go to the same window where you've been selecting objects ! and select "BURNING_FLOOR" and click Okay. Then click the "Place Object" button and place the object on square E5. Click on the "BURNING_FLOOR" object to turn it red and then click on the very bottom right floor square. That's square I9. Now click the violet button next to the window that should be reading "TRIGGER (0:0) for BURNING_." This sets a trigger that will allow the flaming torch to ignite the floor. (This trigger was more or less hidden in the Library level because it was placed at the end of the long hallway before you even get to the room with the burning floor.) The last thing that you need to do here in Part 2 is to place Lara in the room. Select her and place her on floor square B8.
We're now ready to add a "secret" room using a "flipmap." Be sure you are in the Upper room. NOTE: A "flipmap" is an exact copy of the room that you're currently in. Once the "flipmap" room is created, you can change things in it to make it different from the original room. You can set a trigger that causes the room to change only once, or to change back and forth. If Lara is in the room when the change occurs, changes in appearance, etc. will happen instantaneously. At the very top of the Room Edit buttons and just to the right of the text window that displays the current room's name is a square with an "F" in it. This button creates the "flipmap" room. Click this button once. When you do, the white background in the Edit Window will turn black to show you that you have the "flipmap" turned on. The room that's in your window is an exact copy of the room that you were in just prior to clicking the "F" button, however, only static objects are copied. In our case only the "ROCK6" gets copied. Notice that some of the triangular pieces floor sections that are in our portal are now back to blue. These triangles will be transparent, however, they won't let Lara pass through them. Click the [No Collision] button to turn it on. In the palette at the bottom select the transparent gray square that's just to the right of the black square in the upper left. There should be a red border around it now. Click the lower left half of square F4.
It should turn burgundy colored. Now click the upper left half of square F5. Click the lower right half of square D5. Click the upper right half of square D6. Finally, click the upper left half of square E6. Click the "Select Room" button and select the "Lower" room. Click Okay to move to it. Use the down arrow to rotate the room to where you can view the portal. Once again notice that the triangular pieces in our portal are blue. With the "No Collision" button still selected and the gray transparent color selected as before, click the lower right half of square D4. Click the lower left half of square E4. Click the upper right half of square D5. Click the lower left half of F5. Finally, click the upper left half of square F6. Our complete portal will now let Lara through once this "flipmap" room is active. Click the "No Collision" button to turn it off. Click the "Select Room" button and go back to the "Upper" room. Don't panic at what you see. The room is still okay. It's just upside down. Use the down arrow key to rotate the room to its proper orientation. We need to place a couple of objects in our "flipmap" room. Selecting objects as you did before, find the "ROCK8" object. Select it and then place it in square F5. It needs to be in E5, but you can't select the black portal. Click the "ROCK8" object (it will turn red) and then, holding down the left Control key, press the left arrow key once. Now you can see that our object represents the remainder of our floor that didn't burn up. Go select the "ROCK9" object and place it in square F5. Click the "ROCK9" object to select it and then, holding down the left Control key, press the left arrow key once. Our portal is finished. Press [Alt]-F on your keyboard to toggle the "flipmap" view off. DO NOT click the square with the "F" in it unless you want to delete the "flipmap" room. Always use [Alt]-F to move back and forth between the "flipmap" room and its source.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
One additional thing that I discovered while creating this burning floor tutorial. Normally you have to set a trigger for the "flipmap" to use to activate the "flipmap" room. In this case the explosion of the floor when it finishes burning automatically triggers the "flipmap" room even when no trigger has ever been placed. Save your project and then output a wad by pressing [Alt]-W and selecting the "library.TOM" file. Then press [Alt]-Q to exit the Level Editor. Build your level using the Level Converter program and the "library.TOM" file. You're now ready to try out your new burning floor. Have fun!
A Basic Understanding of Sinks by Phabius Phodes
A Basic Understanding and Use of Sinks.
Sinks are used to create underwater currents. Remember those times when you were swimming underwater and you ran into a strong current that either kept you from reaching some place, or it swept you along so fast that you couldn’t escape the current? These currents are created by the use of "sinks." In this tutorial I’m going to talk about how they work and then we’ll create one. A sink is the combination an object and it’s trigger. You’ll learn how they both work together to create current. Although a sink is an object, you won’t find it with the rest of the objects in the Object Panel. Instead you’ll find "Sink" listed in the "Effects" drop-down list on the menu bar. At first, sinks are quite confusing. The manual talks about sinks in but a short paragraph on page 68, and then even less on pages 101 and 114. It hardly tells you enough about them to use them properly. First, before we get into using them, it’s important to have a good understanding of how they work. The first time I used a sink, I placed one on a square underwater and then I set its trigger to the same square where I had placed the sink. I was to learn later that this isn’t how you set them up. Read this carefully and remember: Water flows from the trigger to the sink. Always place the trigger for the sink away from where the sink is at. The farther apart you place them, the less strength there is in the current. The idea is to place the sink and its trigger a ways apart, but not too far apart. For more control over how strong the current is that’s created by the sink, click on the sink object to select it and press "O" on the keyboard. In the pop-up menu select the strength using the numbers. If you press more than one number, you will be applying a current with a strength equal to the sum of the numbers. When you click a floor square and then set a trigger for any object on that square, the trigger actually goes all the way from the floor up to the ceiling. It’s as if you created a trigger in the shape of a column. That’s why Lara will still set off a trigger even if she jumps over the square without touching it. With this in mind, picture the trigger that we set for our sink object as going all the way from the floor of the pool to the surface. Water flows from all points in this "column" in the direction of where the sink is placed. To see this in action, take a piece of paper and draw a pool of water as seen from off to the side. Place a large dot on the floor of the pool to represent a sink object. Next, move a ways off to one side of it and shade in an area that represents a one square column going from the bottom of the pool to the surface. With this drawn, start placing lots of short arrows going from this column in a straight line until they reach the sink. Make some going from the top of the column all the way to the sink object, and some from the bottom all the way to the sink object. Do the same from other places in the column. Notice how almost all of the arrows are pointing downwards. Each of these arrows acts like a bit of moving water. This means that if Lara were to try swimming from the sink to the trigger, once she reached the trigger area the current would be coming at her and downwards at the same ! time. The current will push Lara towards the bottom of the pool. If you move the sink object up towards the surface, then the opposite happens. The current will push Lara upwards. Once she gets past the trigger square, the current goes away. If the pool has any width to it, or if it is rather deep, a single trigger won’t slow Lara down or keep her from going somewhere because she can just swim around the area where the current is. To prevent her from doing this, picture setting up a whole line of squares as triggers for you sink object. Since the triggers go from the bottom of the pool to the surface, a line of triggers is just like making a dam across your pool. Water will flow from all points in the "dam" towards the sink object. The area that Lara will have to swim against the current will only be from where she first enters the trigger square to where she leaves it. To create a longer area for her to have to swim against current, add another sink object and another "dam" on the backside of the first "dam." You can change the strength of the current so that Lara will feel more current the farther she swims. Finally, set the final "dam" to a strength where Lara can’t get past it, or make it weaker so the she eases out of the current into calmer water. If you want to have Lara swept along by the current, then place the sink object on the far side of where she’ll swim over the trigger. Again, set a series of these "dams," one next to the other, so that Lara will be swept along for a longer distance.
Let’s boot the Level Editor and see if we can create a current for Lara to swim into from both directions. Since we all have the Tutorial Level, let’s load it and make our way to the lowest room of stacked rooms that has the pool of water. Get so that you’re looking down a bit at the pool. Do not have the "2D Map" or "Face Edit" buttons activated. With the pool oriented with the underwater door on the right side, go up to the menu bar and click on "Effects" and then click on "Sinks" in the drop-down menu. Go to the fourth square to the left of the underwater door and click that square to put a sink object there. With the sink object selected, click on the Ceiling "+" in the Room Edit buttons ten times to raise the sink object. Make sure that the sink object is selected. It will turn partly red. Past the sink object is a section of the pool that’s narrower because the two side come in. This area is four squares wide. We’re going to select the closest line of four squares that will create a "dam" across the pool. Right-click on the left most square where the pool first narrows and then drag across the floor to your right until all four squares on the bottom turn red. Now click the violet button in the Room Edit buttons that’s on the right side of the white text area that should be reading "TRIGGER (0:0) for sink (0)." If it doesn’t say this, then you didn’t have the sink object selected just prior to selecting the floor squares. If this is the case, go back and start again where you make sure that the sink object is selected. Clicking the violet button makes each selected square a trigger for our sink object. Once again click on the sink object to select it. Press "O" on your keyboard. In the pop-up window, click on the number 8 to set the strength of the current across this "dam" area. Now let’s add another "dam" across the bottom in the other four squares that make up the narrow section of the pool. On the menu bar, click "Effects" and then click "Sinks." Click on the floor square just beyond the one with the first sink object. This will put a sink object between the first sink object and the first "dam" section. With this sink object selected, click on the Ceiling "+" ten times to raise this sink up as we did the other one. Make sure you have the new sink object selected and then right-click and drag across the floor to select the four squares directly behind the first "dam." Click the violet button to make these squares into triggers for the second sink object. Select the new sink object again and press "O" on the keyboard. Click both the 8 and the 2 so that the combined strength will be 10. To save time in getting Lara to the pool, you might want to go to the room where Lara currently is at and delete her there. Then come back and put her on a ledge or somewhere near the pool. Save the level and output the wad. Exit from the Level Editor and use the Level Convertor to build the new level with sinks in the pool. Boot the Level Editor game and try it out. You’ll find that as Lara swims one direction across the "dam," she’ll have to work against the current. When she turns around and swims across from the opposite direction, the current will pull her along. This should get you started with sinks. Have fun.
A few Additions by Piega:
Nice tutorials ;)
I have some things to add. The burning floor. When you look at the original project you'll see that the burning floor object is rotated 2 clicks. This is done to fit the hardcoded flames when you drop the torch on it. When you place the burning floor object as it is the flames wont fit the object.
The mirror room. When you are going to try this make sure that you dont have empty roomslots before your mirror room. Let's say that the mirror room is roomslot 69 like in the coastal level. You just started to make your level so to try it you take room 69 to leave the script untouched. So everything is setup right but if you have empty roomslots before this mirror room Lara will not be there!
UVrotate. Nasty thing to create. When it does not work properly it has something to do with transparency in your texture set. You must prevent pink transparency in your first texture or only transparent textures will rotate and opacity will not.
All small things but it can drive you crazy :p
Blowing Stuff Up by Stormchaser
BLOWING THINGS UP
If you are making a war zone, you can add realism by blowing things up.
Example - Blow up a jeep
Add the jeep from tut and the mine from city.
Stick a couple of flame emiters by the jeep. One underneath and one on the
top.
Place the mine just by the jeep (the mine will be invisible)
Use an SAS shooting grenades and a heavy trigger to triger the the mine and
flame emiters. Jeep catches fire and then blows up and then sits there burning
away. If you set it up right you can blow Lara up as well. 3 tiles round the
mine get wiped out.
More exoctic - set up as above but use the jet fighters from TR3. One flies
over and the jeep blows up as if hit by a missile.
Example - Blow up a building
Build a room that Lara can go in and stick the mine item in it. get a SAS
to fire grenades whilst Lara is in there and then bang. Scatter some flame
emitters around the room and stick some outside on the windows so that flames
come out of the windows like a real house fire.
Again you could use the jet fighter for more exotic and complex scenes.
Pushable Objects by Data
In order to open a door using five pushable objects which all have to be
on their correct respective square, follow this tutorial.
Add pushable objects to your wad using TRwest or WADmerger, making five in
total
pushable object 1
pushable object 2
pushable object 3
pushable object 4
pushable object 5
They can all be differently shaped objects or all look the same; it does not
matter, however it may be useful to texture each one slightly differently
(using STRpix)
To set up five triggers to open a door; Click on the door to select it and
then select the square(s) where you wish to trigger the door from. Because
there are five triggers they have to be set up using the bit codes in the
following way:
Set the first trigger as a 'heavyswitch' and set the bit code to 1 (all other
bit codes 2-5 should be on the off position) select the door again,
Set the second trigger as a 'heavyswitch' and set the bit code to 2 (again
all other bit codes off) select the door again,
Set the third trigger as a 'heavyswitch' and set the bit code to 3 (again
all other bit codes off) select the door again,
Set the fourth trigger as a 'heavyswitch' and set the bit code to 4 (again
all other bit codes off) select the door again,
Set the fifth trigger as a 'heavyswitch' and set the bit code to 5 ( again
all other bit codes off)
Now set up the OCB in the following way
In the OCB for the first object, press button 1 and enter 1 in the value and
press return
In the OCB for the second object, press button 2 and enter 2 in the value
and press return
In the OCB for the third object, press button 3 and enter 3 in the value and
press return
In the OCB for the fourth object, press button 4 and enter 4 in the value
and press return
In the OCB for the fifth object, press button 5 and enter 5 in the value and
press return
The outcome of this setup should result in a pushable object puzzle where
the player has to ensure that each object ends up on its correct square.
If you wish to use the planetary object as well (from the Library wad) then
set up the bits opposite in the OCB to that of the pushable objects like so
(please note: you only need one planetary object in your wad):
In the OCB for the planetary object, press buttons 2,3,4,5 and enter 1 in
the value and press return
In the OCB for the planetary object, press buttons 1,3,4,5 and enter 2 in
the value and press return
In the OCB for the planetary object, press buttons 1,2,4,5 and enter 3 in
the value and press return
In the OCB for the planetary object, press buttons 1,2,3,5 and enter 4 in
the value and press return
In the OCB for the planetary object, press buttons 1,2,3,4 and enter 5 in
the value and press return
I hope this helps.
Thank you
Data.
Shatter objects by Phabius Phodes
Curiosity about Shatter Objects:
If you place shatter objects in a room, behind a wall, and shoot at the other
side of the wall, pointing to where the object is, you can shatter the object
through the wall!