Welcome to Tutorial One

In this tutorial, I will be taking you through the steps needed for you to get WorldCraft up and running ready for use. After you have completed this tutorial... move on to Tutorial 2 which will show you the basics in WorldCraft.

Contents:

• Setting it all up?
• General Options Tab
   • Use Independent Window Configurations
   • Load Default Windows Positions With Maps
   • Undo Levels
   • Allow Grouping/Ungrouping While 'Igrore Groups' Is Checked
   • Stretch Arches To Fit Original Bounding Rectangle
• 2D Options Tab
   • Crosshair Cursor
   • Default To 15-Degree Rotations
   • Display Scrollbars
   • Draw Vertices
   • White on Black Colour Scheme
   • Keep Grouping When Clone Dragging
   • Centre On Camera After Movement In 3D
   • Use Visgroup Colours For Object Lines
   • Arrow Keys Nudge Selected Object/Vertex
   • Reorient Primitives On Creation In The Active 2D View
   • Automatic Infinite Selection In 2D Windows
   • Selection Box Selects By Handles Only
   • Grid: Size
   • Grid: Intensity
   • Grid: Highlight Every 64 Units
   • Grid: Highlight Every [xxx] Grid Lines
   • Grid: Hide Grid Smaller Than 4 Pixels
   • Dotted Grid
• 3D Options Tab
   • Hardware Acceleration
   • Use Mouselook Navigation
   • Reverse Mouse Y-Axis
   • Back Clipping Plane
• Textures Options Tab
   • Add WAD
   • Remove
   • Texture Brightness
• Game Configuration Options Tab
   • Configuration
   • Game Data Files
   • Texture Format and Map Type
   • Default PointEntity Class
   • Default SolidEntity Class
   • Game Directory
   • RMF Directory
   • Palette File
• Build Programs Options Tab
   • Zoners Build exe's Are

Note: All images are linked to open in one window.

I will take for granted that you have installed WorldCraft to your system and have launched it. [Zoners Half-Life tools have good documentation. Just pop the files into a subfolder in your WorldCraft directory]. Normally the first time you launch WorldCraft, you will see this…

It really is all logical stuff. You will soon pick it up if you intend to become a hardcore mapper!

I find that when teaching people, if you give a person an explanation as to how it works and not just what it does then you get a lot further.

The General Options Tab - [Back to Contents]

The way you see the following pictures is exactly how I would like you to setup your WorldCraft options unless I state otherwise.

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The area outlined with the red ellipse is what we call a TAB. This tab as you can see it is the General TAB.

The 2D Options Tab - [Back to Contents]

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Crosshair Cursor:
When this is enabled, the pointer will turn into a crosshair when it is over a brush.

Default To 15-Degree Rotations:
When rotating a brush, the rotations will automatically be in 15-degree increments. Untick this for free rotation.

Display Scrollbars:
Display scrollbars works as a toggle, letting you turn scrollbars on and off in the 2D views. When scrollbars are turned off, with the mouse cursor over a 2D window hold down Space and drag with the mouse to scroll around the 2D view.

Draw Vertices:
If this is enabled, brush vertices will be shown in the 3D views.

White On Black Colour Scheme:
Brushes will appear as white lines drawn on a black background. When this is not enabled, the reverse is in effect.

Keep Grouping When Clone Dragging:
Select this feature when clone dragging [selecting an object, holding down shift, and dragging the object], if you want the newly cloned object to retain grouping properties of the original object.

Centre On Camera After Movement In 3D:
Use this option if while using the mouse to move around the 3D view while in camera mode, you want the 2D views to automatically centre on the new camera position.

Use Visgroup Colours For Object Lines:
When this is enabled, the object lines for any non-entity brush will be the colour specified in its Visgroup when viewed in the 2D views. Objects not associated with a Visgroup will still appear white.

Arrow Keys Nudge Selected Object/Vertex:
When this is enabled, you can move a selected object or vertex by using the arrow keys. Note that the mouse cursor's position in the 2D views will dictate which direction the object will move.

Reorient Primitives On Creation In The Active 2D View:
When this is enabled, primitives will be oriented with their "top" shown in whichever 2D view it was created. This is most easily shown when creating a cylinder. With this option disabled, the cylinder will be oriented so that the round part shows up in the xy 2D view, regardless of which view you created it in. This is mostly just a time saving feature.

Automatic Infinite Selection In 2D Windows:
When this is enabled, dragging a selection box over an object or objects will immediately cause them to be selected [normally you would need to press Enter].

Selection Box Selects By Handles Only:
When using a selection box to select a number of objects, it defaults to selecting any object the box touches. With this option enabled, it will only select those objects whose "handles" [the small "x" at the centre of each object] are within the selection box.

Grid: Size:
Grid: Size shows the initial grid size when you start a new map. The options are 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, and 256 units. You can change the grid size while editing by pressing [ and ].

Grid: Intensity:
This is a slide bar from 0 to 100. It sets the intensity (brightness) of the grid lines.

Grid: Highlight Every 64 Units:
Grid: Highlight highlights the grid every 64 units.

Grid: Highlight Every [xxx] Grid Lines:
This will highlight a grid line once every [user specified] lines.

Grid: Hide Grid Smaller Than 4 Pixels:
If the grid size is smaller than 4 pixels, it will generally appear as a grey background instead of a grid, unless zoomed in extremely close. When enabled, this option turns off the grid when it gets that small.

Dotted Grid:
Enabling this option causes the grid to be displayed as a series of dots, rather than lines. This may help if you find that the grid lines blend into your map lines.

The 3D Options Tab - [Back to Contents]

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Hardware Acceleration:
This will enable WorldCraft to use hardware acceleration. WorldCraft uses Direct3D acceleration.
Note that WorldCraft will not make use of 3DFX voodoo-based video cards for hardware acceleration purposes, as they do not support acceleration in multiple windows. A lot of the time Voodoo based cards just crash WorldCraft when this is enabled.

Use Mouselook Navigation:
If this is enabled [it is, by default] the 3D View mouselook/noclip style of navigation introduced in version 2.1 will be available. It can be activated by pressing [lowercase] z.

Reverse Mouse Y-Axis:
This option only affects movement within the 3D window. When it is enabled, the Y-axis is reversed, resulting in the aircraft style movement [forward to look down, backward to look up].

Back Clipping Plane:
This enables you to drastically improve your performance in the 3D view. The default is set at 5000, which, usually includes everything in your level. Setting this to a lower number will clip off the back portion, which, since levels are made up of solid walls, is usually not visible to the player anyway. This should noticeably speed up the 3D view. The lowest value for this is 500, which is fine if you're doing a walk through of an area of the level.

The Texture Options Tab - [Back to Contents]

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This is where you add the .wad files to WorldCraft. It will tell WorldCraft where to get its textures. So you can implement them in your map. It also allows you to add .wads that you have created or any wad you want.

Add WAD:
This will bring up a dialog box from which you can select a texture WAD file. The wad files for Half-Life will be in your x:\sierra\half-life\valve directory, where x is the drive letter.
You can see that I have the 4 standard .wads for 'Half-Life' mapping in my texture list.
If you wish to add support for 'Opposing Force' textures then add the .wad file to the list. It will be located in x:\sierra\half-life\gearbox directory. The same goes for 'TCF' [Team Fortress Classic or any other .wad you wish to use in your map]. Please note that if you want to use Opposing Force textures in a Half-Life map then your OpFo .wad needs to be in your x:\sierra\half-life\valve directory. The same goes for other .wads in different games.

Remove:
Remove will cause the selected texture WAD to be removed from the list. This may be needed if you are running low on memory or using compile utilities that do not support multiple texture Wads.

Texture Brightness:
This affects the gamma of the textures. If they appear light or dark in WorldCraft, you can adjust that here.

The Game Configurations Options Tab - [Back to Contents]

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In the picture above you can see a Blank Configuration ready for Half-Life.

The Game Configuration tab is where you setup your, believe it or not… 'Game Configuration'. It tells WorldCraft where to look for key files and locations and also has some timesaving preferences.

Configuration:
Configuration allows you to setup new configurations profiles for Half-Life. You can click on the edit button to add, remove, and copy the game profiles.

Game Data Files:
You can specify here which data file WorldCraft will use for entity support for this game profile. You have the options of adding, removing, or editing the game file.
WorldCraft uses FGD files for to store its entity information, including the entity names, the flags and keyvalues [variables] for each entity, and the default values of the flags and keyvalues.

Texture Format and Map Type:
Don't worry about it not working. For WorldCraft 2.x these options are locked onto Half-Life.

Default PointEntity Class:
This allows you to specify the default point-style entity when you begin a new map.

Default SolidEntity Class:
This allows you to specify the default solid-style entity.

Game Directory:
Specify the game directory here. This is the x:\sierra\half-life directory where x is your drive letter.

RMF Directory:
WorldCraft used .rmf files to save your maps unless you choose otherwise. Specify the default map directory here.

Palette File:
You must specify the location of the palette file here. The default wc.pal file [located in the WorldCraft directory] can be used.

You can see a typical setup for Half-Life and Opposing Force in the above screenshots. Make sure your configuration is setup the same but obviously to your specific machine. You can't just type in f:\sierra\half-life\valve and hope it works. The locations have to 'correspond' to the files our your machine 'not mine'.

The Build Programs Options Tab - [Back to Contents]

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The Build Programs Option dialog lets you specify all the executables [the bits that do the number crunching when you compile your map] for your game configurations. Just choose a game configuration, then browse to the game and build executables. It is important that these settings are correct. Look at my example setups at the end of this section.

Zoners Build exe's Are:

hlbsp
hlcsg
hlrad
hlvis

They should be in your WorldCraft directory or in a subfolder there. If you don't have them go get 'em. The standard set of build programs that come with WorldCraft are OK but Zoners are a lot better. You will see why later.

You can see a typical setup for Half-Life and Opposing Force in the above screenshots. Make sure your configuration is setup the same but obviously to your specific machine. You can't just type in f:\sierra\half-life\valve and hope it works. The locations have to 'correspond' to the files our your machine not mine.

That's it. You are now ready to get to know WorldCraft. I will be explaining in detail what the functions of the Build Programs are soon but for now… be happy with a nearly ready to use mapping proggie!

Killa-Kyle