Window Size
Do not change the shape of the window to unorthodox sizes, because you might get some nasty
artifacts. As opposed to the game client, the map editor was made that way so you can resize
the window, but don't abuse it.
Saving Maps:
The maps should be in a top directory inside the directory you have the game.
That is, if your game directory is c:\el then the maps should be in c:\el\maps or
c:\el\my_maps and NOT in c:\whatever or c:\el\my_maps\maps_backup .
Do _NOT_ modify the system maps. The system maps are stored in the \maps directory. If you modify those maps, Bad Things ™ will happen! If you want to play with them, make a copy first, and play only with that copy. Preferably, put those copies in a new directory.
Known Issues:
There is an annoying bug, which I tried to fix, but, apparently, it is a SDL problem(?).
That bug appears when you try to open a file, or save the map. Basically, whenever the windows
file save/open menu appears, after you do your stuff there, the next left button click will
be ignored, so you have to press it twice. After that, things will go back to normal, except
for the fact that you can't close/minimize/maximize/resize the window. If you want to
close/minimize/maximize the window, you have to get again the file open/save menu, and click
Cancel. Yes, I know, it's UGLY, and if you know HOW can I solve that problem please tell me.
Distances:
The coordinates used in EL are in meters. If you don't know the metric system, learn it. It is
the international standard, after all!
The smallest coordinate (for walkability) is 50 CM.
Toolbar:
As you can see in the menu, there are a few modes:
1st- ground tile mode.
2nd- 2D objects mode.
3rd- 3D objects mode.
4th- lights mode.
5th- height map mode.
6th- settings button.
7th-"Select" object/tile/light/height under mouse.
8th- clone object.
9th- New object.
10th- Kill button.
11th- Save Map.
12th- Load Map.
13th- New map.
Command Description: Basically, by clicking on a mode (1-5) that mode becomes the current mode, so all the things you do (like add, clone, new, kill, an object) will only affect the objects in that mode. That is, if your current mode is Tile mode, you can't add 3D objects, only tiles. Right click on a mode icon, will make the layer corresponding to that mode dissapear, unless it is the current mode, in which case it is still visible. For instance, if you're in 3D mode, and you need to see the height map, just right click on the height map icon, and it will enable the height map. Right click on that mode again, and you will disable it. You can also disable/enable the 3D/2D objects by the same means.
Ground Tile mode:
-To add a new ground tile: Click on the ground tile icon, then click the new object icon. A window will all the tiles available will appear.
-Each tile is 3meters(use this guide if you want to make 2D/3D objects)
-First tile is the lake tile. Using it you will generate water. Keep in mind that water is lower
than the ground (25 cm).
The rest of the tiles are whatever they look like.
-When you select the KILL action, and you KILL tiles, that sets them to the NULL tile.
The NULL tile won't be displayed in the game, so it should be used in places where the ground is obscured
by big objects, such as houses, mountains, etc. It is important to use that null tile whenever
possible, because it will make the game faster.
-If you want to put down a lot of tiles quickly, then first select a tile you want to use, then go into the MiniMap mode(M), hold down the right mouse button, and then you can "draw" the tiles wherever you want them. It puts down 4 tiles with one click.
2D/3D mode:
-To Add a new 2d OR 3d object: Click on the respective icon(2D or 3D), then click on the New Object icon. This will open up the file directory where you can choose which object you want to put in the map. You can ONLY open 2D objects when you're in 2D obj. mode. Same with 3D.
-CTRL + arrow keys rotate the object.
-Holding down the shift key will give you greater accuracy.
-Insert/Delete rises, respectively lowers the object. For more accuracy, hold down shift.
The 3D objects can have some additional settings:
-Pressing the 'B' key, while having a selected object, will make that object BLENDED with the
background. It uses an additive blending, so it looks kind of ugly, I might change it to some
other type of blending, in the future. My advice is NOT to use this option, at least not until
I say it is OK to.
-Pressing L will make the object be Self Lit. This is usually usefull for things such as light
sources. However, note that the Self Lit objects will NOT become self lit in the daytime, only
in the evening-night-morning.
With the number keys 1, 2, and 3 you can change (increase) the R, G and respectively B intensity of that self lit
object. Notice that, by default, rgb=0, so the object is very dark. By holding down ALT
while pressing 1,2 and 3, you DECREASE the intensity of that color.
Notice that no changes will be visible at day time, so make it night first. Night means around
minute 0 or so.
Light Mode:
-The Lights can be only rised/lowered, with Ins/Del (keep shift pressed for accuracy).
-Lights are represented as colored cubes. The lights are visible only at night, they are turned
off at daytime (except if the map is set as a Dungeon).
-You can increase the lights intensity by pressing 1,2, and 3, and decrease it with Alt+1, 2 or 3.
-The intensity range is from 0 to 5.
-The range of each lights is 30 meters (a height tile is half a meter, a normal tile is 3
meters). It is IMPORTANT that at any place in the game there won't be more than 7 visible lights
at a time. Otherwise, there will be some nasty artifacts.
Also, try to avoid as much as possible setting a light intensity over 3. That is, try NOT to
have any of the R G B components above 3.
Height Map:
Basically, the height map has 2 purposes:
1. To not let players go through certain areas (like, say, going through a tree, house, rock,
water, etc.).
2. Provide an elevation map.
The elevation map is usefull when you want someone who walks on an object to be a little
displaced from the ground. For example, when you walk over a bridge, if the elevation map is
left unchanged (the default is the ground value), then your feet will go inside the bridge.
-The heights are in the range of -2.20 M to 4 M. -2.20 M is reserved for 'unwalkable'
All the rest can be used to specify how much you want the player to be displaced from the
ground, while he/she/it is on that tile. The default height is 0 M. The heights increase
with 20 CM each step.
-With Ins/Del you can navigate through all the heights.
-Tab switches the 2d/3d display mode of the heights. By default, all the height tiles are
displayed on the ground, the only indication of how tall they are is given by their color.
If you press TAB, you can display them in the 3D mode, so the height tiles will be displayed
at their real heights. This is usually usefull for bridges, rocks, etc.
-You can put more than one tile down at a time, by holding down the alt(49 tiles), or ctrl(9 tiles) key. This is useful for big objects.
**Very important note- in this game, you can walk on diagonal tiles. As shown in the picture. So if you're making a fence, that you don't want someone to walk through, and the fence is set on tiles diagonally, you must make it so there are no "walkable height tile corners" touching each other!
Some necessary info on placing objects:
General: ALL objects MUST be placed at least 1 full ground tile away from the very edges of the map! This is because you cannot fully view those objects(they get cut off at the edge). Important objects should be placed even further inside the map.
Trees: rotate them to get as much a variety as possbile. And don't get too carried away with placing LOTS of trees with leaves, or plants near water, or in general. Why is this? Because the leaves have a transparency on them, and it makes the game slower, we don't want it to be too slow. So watch your FPS. Of course if you have a fast machine, then it will be no problem for you, but keep in mind the people that don't.
Also...when placing the trees USE THE GRID!!!(G on the keyboard). You need this so that you can accurately place objects for the height map. For instance, with "tree1", this tree only takes up one tile on the grid. So you place it in the center of that tile. Otherwise if you just place them randomly, you'll have a lot of work later on when placing the height map, because you'll have to center the trees, etc. (I know it is, it happened to me, that's why using the grid is NECESSARY, unless you like to make more work for youself)
Houses & Buildings: They must be placed on the height map with some added space(as shown in the pictures) or the characters will be able to partially walk into the houses/buildings.
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2D Edges, Spots of grass/dirt/etc
(and some 3D objects): -You MUST alternate the height when you overlap the 2D/3D objects!!: grass edges, dirt, leaves, etc... or flickering will happen. They are by default at .00 Do not place them higher than .03, as it's really not needed (Do this by holding down the shift key+Ins or Del to move the objects up and down with one cm increments)
Wateredges:when you put the water edges in place, they must be .23 below ground level. Except for "wateredge1.e3d" which you should put at .24 (just use the delete key to make them go to .20, then shift+delete to get that accurate .23cm level).
Also, at times a few edges might not line up properly. You can just place a rock, or some
tall grass over the area to conceal it. But try to make them line up as good as possible.
We don't want to see 3 million rocks all over the edges.
Roads: must be placed .01 or .02 above ground. Alternate when you overlap them, or
flickering will happen.
Hedgemaze:if you want to make a maze, you MUST place the hedge .01 above
ground(just one step), or there will be some nasty flickering when you turn the camera slowly.
**To see "flickering" between objects on the map, just rotate the camera slowly by holding the shift key as you rotate. Or, when you have an object selected(for instance a road), you can move it with your mouse over other roads, and if you see weird flickering, that means it's at the same height as the other road(and you have to make it 1cm lower, or higher to not have the flickering).
Light keys:
ins/delete-(same as functions as mentioned above)
1, 2, 3 -increase RGB values
alt+ 1/2/3 -decrease RGB values
Height Map keys:
Tab-shows the Height in "3d" mode
ctrl- puts down 9 squares instead of one.(while you have a square selected)
alt- puts down 49 squares
Tile mode keys:
*you CANNOT rotate, or adjust the height of a tile
Putting many tiles down at once: first, select a tile you want to put down. Then, without deselecting that tile, go into the minimap mode. Then hold down the right mouse button, and you can "draw" the tiles. It puts down 4 tiles at a time.
House Insides
- To place these, you'll need to start a new map that will be used ONLY for the insides. The size of the map depends on how many houses you'll have, and which houses(as they vary in sizes). BEFORE you start a new map, calculate the size that you will need, so you don't use a HUGE map for like only 4 houses.
A small house(such as insidehouse1.e3d) takes up 2x2 GT(ground tiles). Every house needs at least 4 ground tiles inbetween each other on all sides(so that you will not overhear others speaking in another house). This also includes the edge of the map! Make sure you have 2 GT space BEFORE the edge of the map! So, add 4 tiles(2 tiles on each side) onto each house size to create a buffer zone. That small house area that was 2x2 GT is now 6x6 GT.
*Don't Null the Ground Tiles unlil you have finished placing the houses, as the GT's are how you will measure the areas and place your houses. Except for the tiles Underneath the houses(as the floor of the house will flicker and that can get annoying)
Here are the TOTAL areas(the house itself plus the "buffer zone") that the house insides take up on the map:
Houses 1-5,10,11,14,15,16,18,house9_small, room1, and Treehouses*......6x6 GT
Houses 9,17, and the Temple.......7x7
Houses 12,13......7x6
Building1, house9_big .....8x8
hallway1.....5x7
*With the treehouses, the "roots" will go outside the 2x2 area. However you can't walk in those roots anyway, so you're not missing anything.
NEXT... part 2 of making "house insides"
Basically, you will be writing your own .def files for all the maps you make. This will explain to you how get a start on it.
You need a way to enter the inside of the house that you made. There is some information that you need to take down WHILE you are placing your houses & their insides. You can do it afterwards, but in my opinion, it's much easier if you take notes while you are making your map.
1.Object ID -every object has it's own unique ID number, that you can see in the editor.
2.The coordinates of where a character will stand to enter your house(one or two tiles away from the door).
*You need these for BOTH insides AND outsides of your houses!
Example:these are the "notes" I took for doing the startmap:
Startmap
1.Tavern-72
x=65-67 y=132
i Tavern-107(door5.e3d)
x=20-21 y=12-13
2.house5-97
x=89 y=104-107
i house5-109(door3.e3d)
x=53-54 y=48-49
3.house4-73
x=163 y=96-99
i house4-110(door2.e3d)
x=57-58 y=13-14
4.house2-192
x=121 y=128-131
i house2-108(door1.e3d)
x=17-19 y=54-55
Ok.. I start with the Outside of the house. First I label which house I'm doing(so I can keep track). Then right after it I put it's object ID number(72 for Tavern, 97 for house5, etc). Underneath that are the coordinates. Use the height map tiles squares to get the minimum & maximum X and Y values for the area you want to stand in to be able to enter the house(just think of the coordinates in the two corners for a square or rectangle). Next line I wrote "i" for "inside of house", then the name of the house object so I can keep track and won't get confused as to what is what later on(as you might need to go back and edit things). Then, instead of using the ID for the "insidehouse" object, you have to place a door(a seperate object) over the door that's already on the houseinside. It's VERY important that you make sure that the seperate door be in FRONT of the other one. If you don't put it properly, then you won't be able to get outside. A way to double check this is to use the clone tool on the object. If you clone the door you just put there, then it's good. If you clone the house, then it's placed wrong.
If you want to make an Inn, it's a little more tricky. Basically, if you want to go to another room inside of a building, you have to use a seperate object for the door(which I already explained above). Below is an example of a tavern/inn I did with 4 rooms. You start it out the same(outside/inside of tavern & coordinates). Then..you have another door(door1.e3d, or staircase1.e3d) that leads to another room(in this case the hallway upstairs). Then, when you get into the hallway there are 5 doors. Four lead to rooms, the fifth back to the staircase in the main tavern room.
Tavern-546
x= 83-84 y=686-688
i tavern-0
x=22-24 y=13
staircase-4
x=13 y=34
Hallway(door)-74
x=13 y=62-63
door1-75
x=19-20 y=64
Room1-79
x=16-18 y=91
door2-76
x=25-26 y=64
Room2-84
x=17-19 y=28
door3-77
x=25-26 y=61
Room3-92
x=16-18 y=171
door4-78
x=19-20 y=61
Room4-97
x=17-19 y=207
There is a lot more to the .def files than just what I've shown you here. But this will give you a start. Just write the information in a .txt file. Later, I'll give you more things to look out for.
If you need example or are confused with how to do this, look at the maps I've done BEFORE you ask any questions. You should be able to figure it all out from that. But if you really need help, then just post it on the forums.
***I think I covered everything here, but if you have any problems, post it on the forums.