se1:A Neophyte's Guide To The Serious Editor Interface

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Contents 1 Requirements: 2 Purpose: 3 Getting Started 4 The Menu Bar 5 The Toolbars 6 Viewport Configuration

Requirements:

Serious Sam version 1.04 or later, available at Croteam.com

Purpose:

This document means to cover quickly a basic description of every tool bar, panel, and menu in serious editor. It does not tell you how to do everything, just goes over what everything is and names it. There are links to the appropriate tutorials that go into depth on a particular topic. Use this document as a reference to find out what a button does, how to configure the editor, or to find the name or description of something that I am talking about in one of my tutorials. Not light bedtime reading, this is NOT a tutorial on how to do anything, but it may be useful to you in some way as a reference to what everthing is. Dont think you have to read all of it right now, you can check back here if you have questions. To hop right into the fray, try the Navigation Tutorial and the other Mapping Tutorials.

Getting Started

Ok, you're doing it, you're learning Serious Editor. First things first. The editor. Fire that bad boy up. It can be found on your start menu, in Programs=>Serious Sam=>Extras=>Serious Editor. If you don't see the Extras, that means you didnt do the full install of the game, and unwittingly (or perhaps wittingly) excluded the Extras. Go back and do that. Alternately to using the start menu, you can find the WebHome.exe file in your Serious Sam/Bin folder and run it.

Now, you'll see a standard multi-document windows style application open. Some of the important item types I'll refer to are (bear with me, i'm not being insulting, just thorough):

• Toolbars and Buttons Image:Maintoolbar.gif
• Pulldowns Image:Currentbrush.gif
• Checkboxes Image:Checkboxes.gif
• Type-Ins Image:Typeins.gif
• Radio Buttons Image:Radiobuttons.gif

Serious editor is heavily reliant on hotkeys, however there are some functions that can only be found on various menus and toolbars. Whenever I first refer to an operation in one of my tutorials, I will list the ways it can be accessed (menu, button, hotkey, rightclick menu). You'll be happy to note that menu items and buttons (via tooltips) display their hotkey, and its function is also briefly displayed at lower left of the screen.

The Menu Bar

First I'll go over the menubar. We have File, Game, Edit, View, Window, and Help. In File you find your usual New, Open, Close, Save, Save As. You also find Import 3D Object and Export 3D Object for importing or exporting meshes to and from 3d packages, such as Lightwave, 3D Studio Max, or Maya. Insert 3D Object is similar, but instead of Importing it into a new file, it imports it into the file you are currently editing. Save Thumbnail only works after you've saved your map at least once. It takes a small thumbnail image you can see when you browse for your level in the File=>Open dialog as well as when you pick your level in the game. Take Screen Shot takes a screenshot of the currently selected window in the editor. Click in a window, and then select this option, or press ALT-C to take a screenshot. Screenshots must be saved in the Serious Sam folder, or one of its subfolders, as must be any other files you open or save. Create Texture makes a new texture from a 24 or 32 bit TGA file and saves it as a serious sam TEX file. Please view a Texturing tutorial for more information on that. Preferences, well, click it and see.

Image:Preferences.gif

Don't mess with CSG precision, nobody is too clear on the precise effects of this, but they generally arent good. Undo levels is deceptive. Serious Editor doesnt have true Undo capability. Only some actions are undoable, basically CSG actions, which are epxlained later. Parameter changes, movement of objects, or alignment of textures is NOT undoable, so if you are messing with something in these categories, PLEASE save your file first, or hit CTRL-W to save a snapshot (manual undo) of your file before doing these things. Among the other options, the ones of primary interest are:

• Binary Grid by default: Leave this on, do not use the 10 based grid, please use the binary grid.. trust me!
• Save undo for delete: Turn this on, it saves an undo for deletion actions!

The next menu is Game. Current Player and Controls lets you pick from your players you have defined in Serious Sam. Players and Controls lets you edit these. Click on a control "dummy" or whatever it may be called, and you can edit it and save it. The next two menu items Audio Settings and Video Settings, I suggest you leave alone. The Editor will use your game settings from your last session of Serious Sam in fullscreen testing mode, so there's no need to mess with these. Next we have Test Game, which tests the game in the current 3d window of the editor. Note that whatever you see in the 3D window will be shown in game, this includes if you are in a mode that shows the light icons, and player starts, etc. Switch to a different window configuration (more on that later) to avoid viewing these things. You can also test in fullscreen mode. In either test mode, pressing escape will return control to the editor. Console, the last item, takes you to the console. Console commands will be covered in another tutorial. You can also pull down the console in test mode, by pressing the ~ key, right below escape.

The Edit menu has your usual Undo, Redo, Cut, Copy, Paste, with their usual hotkeys, but also has Snapshot, which saves a manual undo, for those times when you're dinking around and you want to be able to undo something besides a CSG action. View menu toggles all the various toolbars and stuff on and off. If you can't see something I'm talking about, or don't know the name of some toolbar, the view menu can help. Window menu contains options for arranging the windows of your documents. It also lets you switch between open documents and windows. Help contains the handy tip of the day, and the original Serious Sam help file, which contains useful information, especially HOT KEYS, which you should print out and put where you can look at it, till you learn them all. It also contains a Basic Room tutorial for those of you who want to dive right in.

The Toolbars

The following is a breakdown of all the toolbars and such in order they appear in the View menu, and what all the MANY MANY buttons do:

• Main (aka File Tools) Image:Maintoolbar.gif
  • New - Makes a new blank file. (CTRL-N)
  • Open - Opens a file. (CTRL-O)
  • Save - Saves the current file. (CTRL-S)
  • Cut - Cut selected item to clipboard. (CTRL-X)
  • Copy - Copy selected item to clipboard. (CTRL-C)
  • Paste - Paste contents of clipboard to current level. (CTRL-V)
  • About - Yay!
  • Help - Not too useful... You get it to do something...

• Status Bar Image:Statusbar.gif (at the bottom of the screen) Displays helpful info at left, followed by a color symbolizing your current selection mode (Red=CSG Mode, Black=Vertex Mode, Yellow=Polygon Mode, Green=Sector Mode, Blue=Entity Mode), followed by info on how many faces/objects/sectors you have selected, followed by the current grid resolution in meters, followed by the XYZ coordinate of the mouse cursor.

• CSG Tools Image:Csgtools.gif - Find a good deal more on these in a CSG Tutorial.
  • Current Brush pulldown - Specifies which brush is being operated on.
  • Select Current Brush Entity - Selects the Current Brush, if it's deselected.
  • Create Conus Primitive - Creates an n-sided prism. Has taper and shear controls too.
  • Create Torus Primitive - Creates a donut, or a Helix-like shape.
  • Create Stairs Primitive - Yes, it makes stairs. Normal, or spiral.
  • Create Sphere Primitive - Makes a sphere.
  • Create Terrain Primitive - Creates a "Terrain". More on this in a Terrain tutorial.
  • Cancel CSG - This gets you out of CSG mode (red at the bottom of the screen). If you can't select anything, and you see red in the colored box in the status bar, hit this button.
  • Repeat CSG - Very useful, if you do a CSG operation, move it, then do another, it will allow you to then repeat it again and again.
  • Triangularize Primitive's Polygons Pulldown - This is rarely used. If you create an odd shaped CSG, you will need to triangularize it, and this is where you select what point to triangularize it from. For a Torus Primitive, this is mandatory, and should be set to Center. For all others, unless you get an error, it should be set to none.
  • Add - Adds the CSG shape to the current brush.
  • Subtract - Subtracts the CSG shape from the current brush.
  • Join Layers - Unfortunately named, all this really does is put the CSG into it's own brush, instead of operating on the current brush.
  • Split Sectors - Uses the CSG to split currently selected sector in the current brush.
  • Join Sectors - This tool is only useable in Sector Mode. Select two sectors, and then hit this button to merge them into one sector.
  • Split Polygons - Splits the currently selected polygons on the current brush (must be on the same brush, too) with the CSG shape.
  • Join Polygons - This tool is only usable in Polygon Mode. It will attempt to join to polygons into one. It may fail if they are not planar, or the brush needs to be reoptimized.
  • Join all Possible Polygons - This tool is only usable in Polygon Mode. Attempts to join any planar polygons that are selected on the current brush. May fail if they are non-planar, or the brush needs to be Reoptimized.
  • Cut Mode - Select some polygons, or select a sector, and then use this tool to draw a line in a 2D viewport. Hit enter, and it will slice the polygons/sector on that plane.

• Projections Image:Projectionsbar.gif
  • Reset Viewer - Resets view to origin of the world.
  • Top - Sets currently selected viewport to a Top view.
  • Bottom - Sets currently selected viewport to a Bottom view.
  • Right - Sets currently selected viewport to a Right view.
  • Left - Sets currently selected viewport to a Left view.
  • Front - Sets currently selected viewport to a Front view.
  • Back - Sets currently selected viewport to a Back view.
  • Perspective - Sets currently selected viewport to a Perspective view.
  • Cirlce Editing modes - Cycles between Entity, Sector, Polygon, and Vertex modes.
  • Toggle Orientation Icons - Toggles the icons that show what projection each viewport is using.
  • Toggle Frame Rate - Toggles the frame rate and other useful info in the 3D window.
  • Toggle Measuring Tape - Draws a measuring tape in the currently selected viewport.
  • Screen Shoot - Takes a screenshot of the currently selected Viewport, and saves it in TGA format.
  • Test Game - Tests the game in the 3d Viewport, using whatever settings the viewport is currently set to.Press ESC to get back to the editor.
  • Test Game Fullscreen - Tests the game in fullscreen mode. Use ESC to get back to the editor.

• Work Tools Image:Worktools.gif
  • Recalculate Shadows - If you have done a CSG operation, you will need to recalculate shadows to see cast shadows again.
  • Colorize Selection - Pops up a color swatches menu, for colorizing the selected polygons. Only works in polygon mode. If you double click a surface, it will select all polys of the same color that touch each other and are on the same brush. This is useful for saving selections.
  • Drop Marker - Can only be used when a moving brush or mirror marker is selected. Drops a marker at the object's current location.
  • Test Connections - Moves the moving brush or mirror marker to its next marker.
  • Test Connections Back - Moves the moving brush or mirror marker to its previous marker.
  • Center Selected Entity - Centers all four views on the selected entity.
  • Center Backgound Viewer - Centers all four views on the background viewer.
  • Save Pictures for Environment - Saves panoramic tiles for a background in TGA format.

• Shadows And Textures Image:Shadowsandtextures.gif
  • Toggle Texture 1 Visibility - Toggles the first texture layer on and off.
  • Toggle Texture 2 Visibility - Toggles the second texture layer on and off.
  • Toggle Texture 3 Visibility - Toggles the third texture layer on and off.
  • Toggle Shadows On/Off - Toggles fullbright mode, and Shadow mode. If you have no lights, everything will be pitch black. Turn this off to see.
  • Calculate Shadows On/Off - Having calculate shadows on recalculates shadows as you place and move lights, giving you immediate feedback on cast shadows. To get a speed increase, turn this off, but be sure to turn it back on and recalculate shadows before realeasing your map.

• Select Entity Image:Selectentity.gif
  • Browse by volume - Turning this on lets you draw a green box around stuff, and then perform selection operations on that stuff.
  • Align Volume - Aligns and scales the volume to all the viewports.
  • Previous Entity - Selects the previous entity inside the volume.
  • Next Entity - Selects the next entity inside the volume.
  • Select all in volume - Selects everything inside the volume.
  • Select by description - Brings up a window that lets you browse all objects in the volume (or, if volume is turned off, all objects in the level) and organize them alphabetically by various properties such as class, name, and number. Note: If you have multiple entities selected, it will list only those entities when you enter this window. Deselect the entities to view all the entities in the level.

• Settings and Utility Image:Settingsandutility.gif
  • World Settings - The properties of your world file. A Brief description of them: Image:Worldsettings.gif
    • Background color - The color of the background in the 3D viewport.
    • Ignore the various Backdrop settings.
    • Level Name - Type the name and author of your level here, it shows up in the game on the selection screen.
    • SpawnFlags - The S is single Player, the C is Co-Operative, and the D is Deathmatch. The others dont seem to have an effect. Check them all to be on the safe side :)
    • Edit Mission Description - This is a text field for you to type in. It can only be accessed here in the Editor.
  • Light Animation Editor - Lets you create Light animations. See a Lighting Tutorial.
  • Create Texture - Create a new Texture. See a Texturing Tutorial.

• View Tools Image:Viewtools.gif
  • Toggle Grid Type - Leave this off. Turning it on enables 10 based Grid, which is BAD!
  • Toggle Auto Snap - Snaps the brush to the grid. Usually work with this on. But if you're having trouble lining things up, or making slight movement adjustments, then turn it off. If you work with this off all the time, you'll notice slight imprecisions and errors through your level.
  • Toggle View Pictures - If you have set viewport background images via the viewport properties panel, this toggles them on and off. See the section on viewport configuration.

• View Tools 2 Image:Viewtools2.gif
  • Toggle Selection Rendering - When on, draws a colored overlay on selected Polygons, Sectors, Entities.
  • View Sector Visibility Tweaking - When turned on, this button disables Sector visibility tweaks. Useful if you do some VIS tweaks, and then you can't see some of your objects unless you're in fly mode. But turn this off again when testing your visibility. For more on VIS tweaks, see a VIS Tweaking tutorial on the subject. Leave this alone if you dont know what I'm talking about.
  • Enable Visibility Tweaking Influence - Similar to previous. Please hit the VIS tutorial for info on this, as it requires more explaining. Normally leave it off.
  • Enable Movement of Anchored Entities - Lets you move anchored entities around for a short time, and then locks their position again. To unanchor them permanently, uncheck anchored in the property combo.
  • Show Targets - Draws lines between entities that target each other. This includes Targets, Parents, etc. Color Coded according to target type.
  • Display Target Tree - Shows a heirarchical representation of the current entity, and what it targets. You can then double click to select one of these, or hit ESC to back out. The chechboxes at the bottom of the Target tree are as follows: C toggles the display of the object class, P toggles display of the property the object is targeted thru (Ex. Target01, Target02, Enter Event, etc.), N toggles the display of the names of the objects, And W appears to search in the opposite direction for entities that target the currently selected entity.
  • Toggle Entity Names - Prints the name of each entity above it. Doesnt work for Worldbases.
  • View from Selected Entity - Locks the camera to the viewpoint of the selected entity in the 3D view. You can still move things around in the other views while in this mode, and when you turn it off, the camera will update to match the other viewports.
  • Toggle Measure Mode - Use this tool to measure distances. It displays horizontal and vertical distance, and in the Status bar it displays diagonal distance as well. Click and drag, it's easy!
  • Update Links - Updates links.... go figure. I found a button that I don't know what it does!
  • Remain Selected - Hides all non-anchored objects except the selected one.
  • Hid Selected - Hides selected object, both in the views and in the Select by Name window.
  • Show All - Unhides all objects.

• Mip Tools Image:Miptools.gif These are for mipping brushes. See a VIS Tweaking tutorial. Most of these require you be in Entity mode, and they operate upon the Active Brush, as listed in the CSG toolbar.
  • Auto Mip Brushing - Leave this off normally. This ignores whatever mipping settings you have set, and draws all brushes at the same mip level. If you want to edit something from a distance without it mipping out, this is the tool to use.
  • Edit Mip Switch Distance type-in - Type in the number of meters away the current mip will be drawn before it switches out to the next roughest mip.
  • Previous Mip Brush - Go to the previous, more precise mip brush.
  • Next Mip Brush - Go to the next, rougher mip brush.
  • Clone Mip Brush to more precise mip level - Make a more precise mip (one that has more detail, for close up) based upon the current brush.
  • Create Empty Brush at More Precise Mip Level - Make an empty slot for a more precise mip brush, which you can then add geometry to.
  • Clone Current Mip Brush to Rougher Mip Level - Make a less precise mip (one that has less detail, for farther away) based upon the current brush.
  • Create Empty Mip Brush at Rougher Mip Level - Make an empty mip slot for a less precise mip, which you can then add geometry to.
  • Delete Mip Brush - Deletes current Mip. Be careful!

The Browser contains shortcuts to your art and code assets that you can use to make your level. It looks like this:

Image:Browser.gif

The top section contains the Virtual Tree. Click once in this section, and it will expand, if it isnt already so. The way this thing works is kind of annoying. When you double click on a subfolder it shrinks the top part, and expands the lower part, showing the folder's contents. When you click on the upper part again, it closes the folder, and expands the upper part. When you scroll the mouse-wheel it only scrolls the upper section, not the folder you are browsing. There is nothing that I know of that you can do about any of these things, sorry...

The Virtual Tree and it's contents are completely customizable. It contains shortcuts to actual files, so editing, adding, and deleting Virtual Tree entries does not affect the files on your hard drive, move them, or delete them. It exists solely for your organizational "convenience".

The default contents of the Virtual Tree are as follows:

• Root - The base folder for the tree. Contains everything.
• Tutorials - Shortcuts to tutorials that shipped with the game.
• Models - Not actual models, but several world files that contain models. You can open one of these, select the model you want, copy it, and then paste it into your world. This saves having to set it up via a modelholder, see a Models Tutorial for more info on that.
• Levels - Shortcuts to all the original Croteam Levels. Check 'em out! You can learn from them.
• Basic Entities - Contains Basic entities, such as lights and player starts, which you can drag and drop into your level. A detailed description of these can be found in a Entities Tutorial.
• Additional Entities - Contains a few extra entities. Not sure the reason for the segregation. Note: Not all entities are listed in these two sections. Extract the Classes folder from your GRO file and insert any others you may need. See a GRO tutorial.
• Backgrounds - Contains all the backgrounds used in the game. Drag one of them into your level. For more info, see a Sky Tutorial.
• Textures - The subfolders contain most of the textures for the game, organized by level name.
• Enemies - Here are your enemies. For descriptions of their parameters, view a Entities Tutorial. For info on how to use them, refer to a Enemies Tutorial.

You may customize the Virtual Tree to your liking. Right click in the upper pane, on one of the folders, to get the following options:

• Create Directory - Creates a folder inside the currently selected folder. Type a name for the folder, and then pick an icon, and hit OK.
• Delete Directory - Delete the currently selected folder, and all of its contents. This does not delete the actual files, just the Virtual Tree shortcuts to them.
• Rename Directory - Change the name of the selected folder.
• Directory Tree ShortCuts - Brings up the Directory Tree shortcuts dialog, where you may click a button for a particular folder, or hit the hotkeys (the Directory Tree Shortcuts doesnt need to be open to do this). 1,2,3,4,5,7,and 8 apear to be useful. 6 takes you to the texture folder, which contains subfolders, and thus doesnt save much time. You can change these numbers to whatever folders you want. Just open a folder, and hit Control + a number key (not the numeric keypad, the ones above your keys). Now when you hit that number, it will take you to the folder.
• Import Virtual Tree - Loads a Virtual tree. Same as Load Virtual Tree.
• Export Virtual Tree - Exports a virtual tree. Same as Save As Virtual Tree.
• Load Virtual Tree - Loads a Virtual Tree. You should keep these in the Virtual Tree directory, though you can put them anywhere in the Serious Sam directory. It will prompt you to save the existing Virtual Tree if it has changed.
• Save virtual Tree - Saves the current Virtual Tree.
• Save As Virtual Tree - Saves the current Virtual Tree under a new name.
• Dump Virtual Tree - End your relationship with the virtual tree... er, I mean... heheh. This dumps a list of all the files in the virtual tree. It lists the name of each virtual folder in the Virtual Tree, followed by its contents, and the real world path (on your hard drive) of the file it points to. Type a name for the text file in the Dump dialog, and hit Open. Open? Yeah, it should read Save, but it reads Open. Go figure.

To alter the contents of a folder in the virual tree: create a new folder, or double click an existing folder. You can right click on an item in the folder, or on the blank black background. You get these options:

• Insert Items - Inserts a Texture(TEX), World(WLD), or Entity(ECL) into the folder.
• Delete Items - Removes the selected item(s) from the folder. Must Save Virtual Tree for this to be permanent.
• Create and Add Texture - Opens the Create texture dialog, allowing you to create a texture from a TGA file, and then when you hit the Create button, inserts a shortcut into the current folder as well.
• Recreate Texture - Allows you to reset the parameters or update a TEX file. When you have changed what you like, hit Create, and it will update the texture in the Virtual Tree and in the level. Very useful is you're painting on a texture and testing repeatedly (like terrains).This feature only works if your TGA is in the same folder as your TEX.
• Set as Current Texture - Sets the selected texture for use on the CSG building brush.
• Export Texture - Exports the TEX to a TGA.
• Select by texture(s) in Sector - Selects all polys with the texture(s) on them in the current sector.
• Select by texture(s) in world - Selects all polys with the texture(s) on them in the entire map.
• Select Except texture(s) in world - Selects all polys in the world except those with the currently selected texture(s) on them.
• Add Textures from world - Takes every texture used in the map, and makes a shortcut to them in the virtual tree.
• Select Drop Marker - Sets the class of the marker to be dropped when you press D to drop a marker.
• Convert to Class - Converts the selected entity in the map to the class of the one you have selected in the virtual tree.
• Show Using - Gives you several options for how you want to view the icons in the Virtual Tree.
• Directory Tree Shortcuts - pulls up a list of the hotkeys for the different folders in the Virtual Tree.
• Help - Please help.

The Property Combo is what you use to edit parameters of entities, such as their name, their targets, and their spawnflags. The pulldown menu lists all the properties for the current object, and when you select one, it displays the edit for that property below. This may come in the form of a checkbox, a type-in, another pulldown, several fields, radio buttons, and bits. Info on the properties for each entity is available in a Entity Tutorial.

Image:Propertycombo.gif

The Info Window displays other parameters for you to edit, which change depending on what mode you are in (CSG, Polygon, Entity, Sector, Vertex) and what you have selected. When nothing is selected, it shows the Global tab, which displays Selected Polygons, Selected Sectors, Selected Entities, and a thumbnail and path to the current texture. Whatever texture shows here will be applied as the default texture when building new brushes.

Image:Infowindow.gif

In entity mode, when you select an entity, you immediately get a new tab next to Global. This is the Position Tab, which lets you type in X, Y, and Z world coordinates for the selected entity, and edit the way the entity is facing via Heading, Pitch and Banking. To give you an idea, from the camera perspective of an object placed at 0, 0, 0 - X is left and right, Y is up and down, Z is forward and back. Heading is left and right rotation, Pitch is looking up and down, and Banking is rolling over on your side.

Image:Infowindow entitymode.gif

In Sector mode, we lose the Position tab, and get a Sector tab instead. How appropriate. This tab is packed with goodies, which I will list and describe briefly below.

Image:Infowindow sectormode.gif

• Name - You can type a name for your sector. Not necessary, or useful for anthing other than your own personal reference.
• Content - Sets what the space of the sector is filled with. You can choose from:
  • Air - Normal contents.
  • Water - You can swim, you can drown.
  • Lava - You stick, and burn to death.
  • Cold Water - Like water, but if you stay in long, the cold begins to damage you incrementally.
  • Spikes - You will die upon touching this sector, and stick.
  • Desert Heat - If you stay in this sector, you will begin to take incremental heat damage.
• Force - Gravity Settings. The default is Normal D. These are defined in further detail in a Gravity Tutorial.
• Fog - You can pick a fog Marker from the list to apply to this sector. More info in a Fog and Haze Tutorial.
• Haze - Same as above, but with haze.
• Env - Sets audio environment, which is applied to all sounds while you are in the sector. The names of the environments are pretty self explanatory, so I wont list them here, except to say that Underwater is useful for underwater sectors.
• Include / Exclude - these determine wether the sector is set to exlcude brushes with matching visibility tags, or include them. For a further explanation, see the VIS Tweaking tutorial.
• 0 - These are the Visibility bits, see the VIS Tweaking for their use.
• 2 - These are the Classification bits, see previous.
• Ambient - This color selection interface adds light to the sector in addition to any lights it contains. This should be set to black by default, but if things are too dark, etc. you can add a little light here without adding extra lights.

In Polygon mode, select a polygon to get THREE new tabs to replace the other one. The first one is the Polygon Tab. This tab contains the polygon surface types, and surface flags. The types may be applied several at a time, and some require others be checked as well to work properly. They are covered here briefly, see the Texturing tutorial for more in depth info.

Image:Infowindow polygonmode1.gif

• Translucent - Semi transparent, like glass or water. You can adjust how opaque it is on teh Texture tab. Must check the Portal flag too, or it wont work right.
• Transparent - One bit alpha, like a grate or chain fence. Again you can adjust opacity here but the effect is different, and again you must also check portal.
• Portal - Makes it see through. This is used to connect sectors. This is also used for mirrors and see through teleportals. This is also used for skies. Just check Portal on any face that looks out into the void outside your level, and the sky will show up.
• Passable - lets you walk through the polygon
• Invisible - You can't see the polygon. You can't even see it when it's selected. Similar to Portal, but it can still block visibility.
• Detail - Default for terrains. Removes the polygon from the visibility calculations. Whenever a sector is in view, all detail polys in it will be drawn. For info on how and why to use this, try the <a href="vistweaking.htmlVIS tweaking tutorial</a>.
• Link - Unsure as to what this does, however, it appears to be used on portals between sectors, so I suggest you check it for these.
• Occluder - Blocks whatever is behind it from visibility calcs. Looks somewhat like a portal in effect. It's confusing. See the VIS Tweaking tutorial for more.
• Stairs - Defines the surface as stairs. Use this on stairs to make them not do the jerky climbing thing that sam does. Its actually only necessary on the vertical parts of the stairs, but putting it all over the steps doesnt hurt.
• Shoot trough - They mean through, they just misspelled it. Dont worry, your horse trough is safe! But Seriously! this allows bullets and projectiles through a surface, regardless of whether it is passable or not. Good for skies and such.
• Surface - This pulldown contains more surface types that can be put on top of the ones you have checked, but these ones can only be applied one at a time.
  • Standard - Regular polygon. If its not too steep, you can walk on it.
  • Ice - You slip n slide about
  • Standard Nostep - You cannot walk onto this surface. If you jump and land on it, you will be pushed off it, sometimes in unpredictable directions. Great for low ledges or rails that you want to keep the player from accidentally walking up onto due to his huge step height.
  • Standard High stairs - Another stairs setting. Not sure the difference.
  • Ice Climbable Slope - Slippery ice, easier to climb?.
  • Ice Sliding Slope - More ice, but you slide if standing on a slant.
  • Ice Less Sliding - Like the name says.
  • Roller Coaster - Appears to be somewhat like Ice.
  • Lava - Surface of a lava pool. It hurts you.
  • Sand - Different footstep sounds, and sand kicks up when you shoot it.
  • Climbable Slope - Makes a steep slope easier to climb.
  • Standard No Impact - You wont take damage from slamming against this surface, no matter how fast you're moving.
  • Water - Water sounds when you walk, and water effects when you shoot the surface.
  • Red Sand - Like sand, but red.

• Mirror - You can pick a standard mirror here to make a surface reflective, or pick a mirror marker you have specified, for those cool teleportal effects. More on this in a Mirrors and Portals Tutorial.
• Pretender Distance - Enter a value in meters at which a pretender polygon will appear. for more info, see a VIS Tweaking tutorial.

Image:Infowindow polygonmode2.gif

The shadow Tab controls the light the polygon recieves, shadows it recieves and casts,its detail level, and the shadow transfer mode. More advice and info is available in a Lighting Tutorial.

• Dont Cast - This polygon wont leave shadows on other polygons.
• Dont Recieve - This polygon wont recieve cast shadows from other polygons.
• Accurate - Doesnt appear to do anything.
• Dark Corners - Affects whether light goes into corners of polygon or not. Leave off unless you get strange effects with light in the corners when it shouldnt be.
• Full Bright - This Polygon recieves no light or shadow, and is drawn fully bright.
• Dynamic Only - This Polygon will only recieve light from lights marked Dynamic.
• No Dynamic - Prevents the polygon from receiving light from Dynamic Lights.
• Directional - Recieves light from direction Light sources, usually used for the Sun in outdoor levels.
• Dir Ambient - Companion to the last one, this allows the polygon to recieve ambient fill light from the directional light source as well.
• No Diffusion - Simplifies the recieved light, appears much like a dynamic light. Runs faster, looks less realistic.
• Gradient - This pulldown lets you select a gradient to light the polygon, if you have specified one for this brush. See <a href="lighting.htmllighting tute</a> for this and the following ones.
• Illumination - Special lighting setups, to mask a light. For details, see the lighting tute, as above.
• Blending - Method for blending the shadows. This should almost always be set to shade for shadows. The other types may produce odd results. For descriptions of how these blending modes work, see the Texture tab in the next section, or read the Lighting Tutorial.
• Cluster Size - This determines shadow detail. Larger number= less detail, smaller file size. Smaller number = more detail, larger file size. Default is 2. For mor detail, read a Texturing Tutorial.
• Color - Tweak the color or alpha of the shadows after the fact. Recommend you leave at white.

Image:Infowindow polygonmode3.gif

The Texture tab is where you can apply, layer, and align textures on your polygons. For a detailed lesson in this, see a Texturing Tutorial. Here is a short description of all the things on this panel.

• ... - Lets you browse your hard drive for a TEX file to apply to the polygon.
• None - sets the texture on the current layer to None.
• Texture 1, 2, 3 - Use these radio buttons to switch between layers 1, 2, and 3.
• Offset - The dual type-ins shift the texture in U and V coordinates respectively.
• Stretch - Stretches the texture in U and V directions. 1 is normal size, .5 is half, 2 is double size, etc.
• Rotation - rotates the texture.
• Color Chooser - Colorizes the texture, and sets the amount of alpha.
• Scroll - Moves the texture across the face in a variety of ways.
  • R (Extremely Slow, Very slow, Slow, etc.) - Scrolls the texture right at the specified speed.
  • Dummy 1, 2, 3 - Dummy!
  • Water Movement (exremely slow, slow, fast, etc.) - Shifts the surface back and forth, somewhat like water. Does not distort the water, for that you need a procedural texture.
  • Stormy Sky Appearing - For use in storms with clouds in them. See the a Storm Tutorial.
  • Rotation Left (1-10) - spins the texture left.
  • Rotation Right (1-10) - Spins the texture right.
  • D (Extremely slow, slow, fast, etc.) - Moves the texture down at the specified speed.
• Blend - Specifies the type of blending that the texture layer will use.
  • Opaque - Covers up textures on lower layers.
  • Shade - Like Multiply in photoshop, will darken or brighten whatever is below it.
  • Blend - alpha channel textures use this mode, or you can use it to make a texture layer semi transparent, by changing the amount of alpha in the color selection controls.
  • Add - Texture is additive to whatever is below it, brightening it.
  • Shade Pulsating - Texture flashes from 100% black, to full shade mode, and back repeatedly.
  • Blend Pulsating - Pulsates texture between 100% opacity, and 0% opacity.
  • Add Pulsating - Pulsates texture between invisible and 100% additive.
  • Blend Pulsating Half- As above, but only half as pronounced.
  • Stormy sky Blend - For use in storms. See a Storm Tutorial.
  • Stormy Sky Shade - For use in storms. See a Storm Tutorial.
  • Pyramid Plate appearing - Animated Effect used specifically in last level of Serious Sam.
  • Activated Plate (1-4) - Animated Effect.
  • Activate Pyramid Morph Room - Animated Morphing effect used in the last level of Serious Sam.
• Clamp U/V - takes last U or V row of pixels and smears them instead of tiling the texture. Good for eliminating seams in the skyboxes.
• Reflective - Makes this layer a fake pseudo reflective environment map.
• After Shadow - Draws this layer fullbright, on top of the shadows and any shaded layers.

When you Go into CSG mode, the Info Window changes yet again, providing you with the Position tab, as in Entity mode, but also giving you the Primitives Tab. Depending what kind of primitive you make, the CSG panel looks different. The types of primitives are Conus, Torus, Stairs, Sphere, and terrain. More detailed info is available in a CSG Tutorial.

Image:Infowindow CSGconus.gif

The Conus primitive creates shapes like cubes, cylinders, cones, pyramids, trapezoids, and other prism type shapes.

• W - Width in meters of the new primitive.
• L - Length in meters of the new primitive.
• H - Height in meters of the new primitive.
• History - This pulldown contains all your past CSG actions, so you can go back to a CSG you previously made and reuse it. If only it let you import/export these.....
• Shear X - Shears top of the primitive along x axis.
• Shear Y - Shears top of the primitive along y axis.
• Base Vertex - The number of sides the primitve/prism has.
• Outer - when checked, it determines the radius of the primitive from the center to a side. When turned off, it determines the radius from the center to a vertex. Try entering a higher number like 8 in Base VTX, and then turn Outer on and off to see an illustration of this.
• Stretch X - Controls the tapering of the top of the primitive in the x axis. 1 is normal. Lower than 1 tapers the prism, higher than 1 flares it.
• Stretch Y - Controls tapering of the top of the primitive in the y axis. If both X and Y are set to 0, you get a cone primitive.
• Room - Makes the primitive hollow instead of solid.
• Polygon Color and Sector Color - Set the color of the polygons that will be created.

Image:Infowindow CSGtorus.gif

The torus primitive is a sort of helix shape, a giant spring shape that coils over itself. It contains some of the same settings, with the addition/substitution of these items.

• Slices in 360 - If you made a full circle (donut shape) how many segments it would be comprised of.
• No of slices - actual number, out of the full circle, that you want to create.
• Radius - radius of the coil shape. Note that the Width specifies the width of a section of the torus, whereas the radius is the entire torus, from center, to outer edge.

Image:Infowindow CSGstairs.gif

The stairs primitive makes regualar or spiral staircases. It shares the Width, Length, and Height attributes of the other CSG types, with the difference that these measurements apply to a single step of the staircase.

• No of Stairs - number of stairs in the case.
• Top - This pulldown controls the upper surface of the staircase. Contains these options.
  • Stairs - Normal stairs. The default.
  • Slope - Smooths the tops of the steps into a slope.
  • Ceiling - Extends the top of each step up to the celing height (determined by the top step). Useful for making subtractive stair cases from a solid, though this is NOT the recommended method for making stairs, for several reasons explained in CSG Tutorial and VIS Tweaking tutorials.
• Bottom - This pulldown controls the bottom surface of the staircase. Contains the same options as the Top pulldown above, but they operate downwards instead of upwards, and Ceiling is called Floor. Same thing.
• Spiral - This checkbox adds a number of options. It also greys out the Length field, since the length of a spiral stair is determined by Slices in 360.
  • Slices in 360 - number of stairs in a complete circuit of the staircase.
  • Radius - radius of the spiral staircase in meters. This is from the center, to the Outside of the staircase.
  • Outer - This only appears in spiral mode for staircases. It works like the Outer on Conus primitives. Basically, if it's on, the staircase will measure its radius from a side to the center, whereas when its off the radius is measured from a vertex to the center. More on this in the CSG Tutorial.

The Sphere creation options contain the obligatory W, L, H, and Room entries, but also a few others.

Image:Infowindow CSGsphere.gif

• Meridians - Like meridians on a globe. Vertical divisions in the sphere.
• Parallels - Think equator. Lattitudinal lines. Horizontal divisions in the sphere.
• Strech X - Default is 100. Can't change it for some reason. Can't get it to do anything. Sorta like some coworkers whose names I wont mention.
• Stretch Y - This is always 1. What is it? If you know, please call 1-800-IMAGEEK, or even email LSD@worldspawn.org .
• Equal paralels - Similar to above, this is misspelled. Also similar to above, this does nothing that I can see.As usual, smartasses can apply here LSD@worldspawn.org .

Terrain is a big nasty all its own. This will just go over the interface. Don't think that after reading this little section you can make terrain with impunity. You need to read a Terrain tutorial, or suffer dire consequences later on. W, L, and H entries are as in other CSGs, except that H is the distance added below the heightmap, and can be set to 0 if you so desire.

Image:Infowindow CSGterrain.gif

• Slices per W - how many divisions the terrain has, in width.
• Slices per H - how many divisions the terrain has, in H. (South to north, not up do down).
• Amplitude - The height of the terrain, from lowest point to highest point. Use this to adjust sharpness of terrain features without editing your displacement map.
• Mip start -Don't Use this.
• Mip Step - Leave this alone, too.
• Displace - Click the ... button to pick a displace map, which generates your terrain for you. Click None to go back to a flat grid.
• Create mip brushes - Check this to create mip brushes. Don't use this, mipping the whole terrain is generally pointless. See a Terrain tutorial, and a Advanced Terrain tutorial for more info.

Viewport Configuration

The default view in the editor is a classic 4 views layout, with a textured and lit 3D view, and all entities visible. The views are customisable. In addition you can save any configurations you come up with, to recall later with a hotkey.

There are hotkeys for all the default window configurations. You can cycle through them by using the ten numbers on the numeric keypad. NUMLOCK must be on for this to work. The defaults are as follows.

• 0 - default 4 views. Starting upper left, going left to right, top to bottom, the views are: Top wireframe, 3D textured and lit, Front wireframe, and Right wireframe.
• 1 - Exactly the same as 0, except all editor models are turned off, and the 3d window looks as it will in the game: only game models showing, skies, portals, etc. are visible.
• 2 - Another 4 views, editor models turned off as in the last one, but this time the 3D view is Polygon colors instead of textures.
• 3 - Again, the 4 views, but all of them are fully textured, even the orthgonal views. All models and objects are also drawn.
• 4 - A single 3D view, everything is drawn flat grey. All editor specific objects/models are hidden.
• 5 - Another 3D view, this time in wireframe, with polygon colors indicated by the lines colors. All editor specific models are hidden. In game models, like trees and weapons, still show up.
• 6 - In this 3D view, we see the closest to actualy gameplay you can see without testing. Everything is fully textured, portals and skies show. All editor models and icons are hidden, only game models show up.
• 7 - A 3D view in grayscale, like 4, but this time the mesh edges are drawn. Good for testing visibility, since it draws the mesh right through the walls.
• 8 - Similar to 6, except the mesh edges are drawn on top of the texture, and portals/skies are not turned on.
• 9 - A 3D view much like the smaller 3D view in mode 0. Has textures, all editor models, and doesnt show portals skies, etc.

You can save your own viewport configurations over these defaults if you so desire, and you can also reload the defaults. To save your own viewport configuration, get the viewports set up how you want them, and then hold Control and hit one of the numeric keypad number keys. Now, whenever you hit that numeric keypad number it will pull up your custom configuration. To customize the viewports, right click in a viewport, and select View Properties. The window that comes up looks like this.

Image:Viewproperties.gif

• World Rendering - Controls for how level geometry is rendered, etc.
  • Paper color - Changes the background color of just this viewport.
  • Grid Color - The color of the grid in this viewport.
  • Bcg Picture - A TEX file can be displayed in the background of each viewport. It is stretched to fit the viewport.
  • Vertices Ink - The color of vertices, if you have them turned on.
  • Edges Ink - Color of polygon edges in the views that have them, and are set to show Edges Ink instead of polygon color.
  • Polygons Ink - Color of polygons to use instead of their natural polygon color.
  • Selection Color - Not sure what this affects.
  • Vertex fill type - This pulldown picks how vertices are drawn. You can set it to No vertices, or use the Vertices Ink color, the Polygon Color, or the Sector Color.
  • Edges fill type - This pulldown picks how edges are colored. It can be set to No Edges, or use the edges ink, polygon color, or sector color for edges.
  • Polygon fill type - This tells how the viewport will draw polygons. If set to No Polygons, you get wireframe mode. Other options are to use the specified polygons ink, use the actual polygon color, the sector color, or display the texture.
  • Auto Rendering Range - let the editor decide when to stop rendering sectors, when moving about outside the level.
  • Rendering Range - If you uncheck the Auto Rendering range, you can specify your own.
  • Flare FX - Controls the lens flares.
    • None - off
    • Single Flare - Just show the flare part. (the glowing part)
    • Reflections - Also put in those cheezy reflections (the circles that extend into your view, like when you point a camera near the sun.
    • Reflections and glare - Also make things bright from glare when you look at the lens flare.
  • Render Background - Show the skybox.
  • Render Fields - Show fields (think touchfield, that green shit)
  • Render Mirrors - Like it says.
  • Render Fog - Yes.
  • Render Haze - Yep.
• Model Rendering - Controls drawing of models, such as those used in ModelHolders.
  • Bounding Box - Draw a bounding box around models.
  • Wire Frame - Draw the model's edges.
  • Shadows - Draw the shadows.
  • Hidden Lines - Draw the edges on the other side of the model as well.
  • Render Editor Models - If unchecked, it will hide all the models of things like lights and player starts, and show you just what will be visible in the game.
  • Texture type - Sets how surfaces of the model are drawn.
    • No Fill - See through polygons.
    • White Color - White polygons.
    • Surface Colors - The colors of the actual polygons, as set in the modeler.
    • On Colors - Appears to be white again, least to me.
    • Off Colors - Looks black. That's what I see. Figger what these two do, you get a cookie.
    • Texture - Normal textured model.
• Load - Use in conjunction with save. After you have hit save, when you hit Load it will load whatever group of settings you hit Save on. Useful if you want to copy the settings of one viewport to another.
• Save - Save the current settings of the viewport. You can then open a different viewport, and hit Load and it will load up the saved parameters.

To get an idea of how to get about efficiently in the editor, I suggest that you read the Basic Navigation tutorial next, followed by the Get Me in the Game NOW! basic room tutorial.

Leo "LSD" De Bruyn lsd@worldspawn.org

(originally published on www.worldspawn.org, published here with permission of author)