1 - Beginner Introduction to Level Editor

[moonsense715]

Author: moonsense715

Skill level: 1

 

 

1. What is Level Edit?

 

Level Edit, also known as Commando Level Editor is an extremely important modding tool for the W3D engine.

With it, you can manage all the assets imported from GMax-RenX/3ds max, give weapons to units, set up buildings, animations, scripts and so on.

 

Secondly, what most people use it for is to set up maps/levels with it, hence the name Level Editor. That includes adjusting day and night, music, ambient sounds, snow or rain, placing base defenses, creating harvesting/mining zones just to name a few.

 

 

2. Choose Mod Package

 

When you launch Level Editor, it will always ask which Mod Package you want to work on. It basically asks which unique workspace you wish to start editing, something that is present for every level and mod. These are folders on your hard drive in which you can place files specific to that mod/level.

For example in TS: Reborn, there is a package called TS_Drought. If you start that and open the level file within, the terrain is loaded, building logic is activated on the (otherwise bare) building meshes, shadows are generated, etc.

 

 

How to name your mod package

If you are making a standalone, full conversion mod, it is necessary to have a project folder called Always where you put all the models and textures into, and define not map specific data, such as the Health/Armor and the weapon of a rifle soldier, the strength of its weapon, etc. This data will be shared between all maps that belong to this full conversion mod but that information goes beyond the purpose of this specific tutorial.

 

When you just make a simple level, first check the name prefix each map has in the game you make it for. For example if you make a TS: Reborn map, the prefix is 'TS_' without the quotes. So for example, this is a valid map name: TS_Mymap.mix.

If you don't use the prefix tag but still save it as a .mix map, it will not appear on the maps list you can choose from when you try to test it on LAN.

 

If you create a special mod package but not a standalone, full conversion game, you can name it anything but export from Level Edit as mod package with the extension pkg.

 

Here's an example package list from TS: Reborn:

 

 

3. The interface

 

Let's go through some of the basic elements of the Editor's interface.

 

The upper bar

 

File

Under File, you can clear the stage by New, load a previously saved level with Open, Save as/Save your current level, Save presets (used by an Always project and Mod packages) and Export to Mix/Mod Package, which will ask you to export your level/mod to a game's Data folder. This is very important, everything exported by the Editor has to go to the Data folder of any game!

 

Typical usage: When you are done editing your level, save it and then export as mix to make it playable ingame.

 

 

Edit

Usual commands such as Copy/Paste/Undo can be found here. (Copy-pasting is used for objects you select in the scene.)

The most interesting part here though, is Background Settings

The Sky and weather tabs speak for themselves. Play around with them to see how they change your level's atmosphere.

The Music tab is used for Single Player/Skirmish maps, do not use it for Multiplayer.

 

At Level Settings, the most important and used thing is the Allow Flying Vehicles checkbox. If you have Helipads or other flying Aircraft that can be purchased by the players, this must be ticked!
Note: this tickbox does not do anything from scripts 5.0 onwards and can be ignored.

 

 

Lighting

The most used settings here are Edit Sunlight and Compute Vertex Solve.

You can move the sun around with Rotation/Elevation or change the sun's intensity and projection color.

 

Compute Vertex Solve will generate basic shadows on the entire map, based on the sun's and other lights' placement on the level. Make sure you always tick Check Occlusion.

 

 

Strings

The Edit Table option is what you will always use.

Here you can give names to every object, unit, weapon, etc. and change the text displayed in the menus and loadscreens too.

As an example, for any Infantry or Vehicle, under their Settings tab (after you Mod them), you should see "TranslatedNameID". Clicking that will bring you to the list of strings here and you can pick any to change the name that appears for players when they target them ingame.

 

If you want to localize the game, you can do that here as well by changing/translating every single string resource.

Strings get saved into ALWAYS > TranslationDB > strings.tdb.

 

 

There are several other buttons on the upper bar but I will not talk about all of them in this tutorial.

 

 

 

The sidebar

 

Presets

On the Presets tab you can find objects that you can place by hitting Make (after selecting said objects in the preset tree). You can also add new objects to the preset tree by hitting Temp if you are making a single level and Add if you are making a full conversion or a mod package. Go ahead and expand some of the Nodes and check what is inside them. See what settings invidual presets have by selecting them and clicking Info.

Note: not everything is suitable for Make. For example, Terrain and Tiles are usually placable but as a counter-example Munitions and Global Settings should never be placed.

 

When you are making a single level, it is usual that you click on Terrain, hit Temp and add your exported W3D format terrain to the preset tree under Terrain as a temp preset (this means it only belongs to this level and can be exported as mix correctly).

 

 

Instances

Instances are objects you already placed onto the level. On this tab you can browse the placed objects and go to them by double clicking them (alternative: click Goto) or delete them.

 

The other tabs on the sidebar are used rarely so I will not go into them but I'll mention that you can create a Heightfield map on the Heightfield tab (this is not recommended when making a Multiplayer map as Heightfield maps are not optimised and Undo does not work while editing it).

 

 

That's it for the basics of the UI.

 

 

4. Camera navigation

 

You might ask: "This is all very nice but my camera is still floating high up in the air! Help!"

So let's talk about 3 ways to move around a level.

 

 

Default camera mode

You first need to enter this mode by hitting that button or F5.

How to use it:

• Left-click and drag to rotate your camera.
• Left AND right-click drag to Pan around.
• Right-click and drag to zoom in/out.

That's all there is to it.

 

 

Selection orbit mode

If you have something selected (in object manipulation mode, F6), you can switch to this mode by clicking the button or hitting F7. Now you can rotate your camera around the selected object with your mouse.

 

 

Walk-thru mode

Hit F8 or click that button to walk around the level as an infantry unit. If clicking the button does not do anything, hit ESC and click it again. Repeat until it works

 

Note: looking up/down is reversed in Level Edit compared to ingame.

Note2: if there is no Walk-Thru character preset set up under Object -> Soldier and you enter walk-thru mode, the editor will crash. This is because the editor is using this specific preset to enter this mode.

 

 

Numpad-navigation

The best navigation mode in my opinion is this. You need a numpad for it of course and make sure Num Lock is ON. If none of the number keys do anything still, click on the scene first.

What each number does:

• 1 - move downward
• 2 - move backwards
• 3 - turn downward
• 4 - turn left
• 5 - reset camera to look forward
• 6 - turn right
• 7 - move upward
• 8 - move forward
• 9 - turn upward

This will all actualy make sense once you start using them.

Important: keep pressing CTRL to triple the speed of moving/turning with the numpad! It is very useful!

 

 

5. Moving objects

 

You can move objects around in the Editor that you placed previously using Object Manipulation Mode (F6).

Navigate to the object, select it then drag around to move it to the position you prefer.

 

By clicking X, Y or Z, you can move it in that specific direction only.

The red pyramid button, when enabled will position your object at your cursor by placing in on the ground under your cursor. This will only work if there is mesh under your mouse which has physical collision.

 

To rotate an object, make sure Z is on and right-click drag. If Z isn't on, your model will rotate in stupid ways but you can undo that mistake under Edit.

 

Alternatively, you can double click an object, switch to the Position tab and set the position/rotation to a specific number there.

 

Note: terrain objects are not movable unless you tick Terrain selectable under Edit.

 

 

 

And that is all for this Level Edit introduction. I hope you learned something useful from it.

I recommend reading some other tutorials to create a new level and play it ingame ASAP!