Level Design

We will start building the first level of the first mission of Agent Yellow®. The DNx--101 mission. It consists of two cubes and one cylinder, and by time we end this level tutorial, you will know how to combine circle and square shapes, and see how our imagination can flow to create more in the future, with only simple shapes. So in here we´ll have a level that looks just like a pool, so we can dive in it with our submarine simulation interface and launch our torpedo model, and it´s very simple to accomplish really.

The Pool

1 Open the WED application and if it´s not with the black views already set up: 1.1 Click File/New, to open a new file so we can work with the four views. 1.2 Click File/Save As to save the file, save it with the name and in the path you like, or you can use this name AY_Level_01 for the file if you like. 1.3 We have to make a .wdl script, the one that will always contain most of our codes. 1.4 Click File/Map Properties and you will see something like the image below. But with no script assigned yet, so it is in blank. 1.5 Click the button Create New and choose _A6_template_project. 1.6 Click to close, the X button closes the window.

2 Now we are ready to make a Cube: 2.1 Click in the menu Object/Add Cube/Large and we will have a cube shape.

3 Click on the menu Object/Add Primitive/Cylinders/16 Sided, to create a cylinder with 16 sides. 3.1 Select and Scale in the size you want using the Top and Back Views. 3.2 Move them until it stays like these two images. 3.3 If you can´t get them overlaping each other closely, try using the Vertex snap feature, slide it to 1 to reduce the snaping, and Move a shape to see how it goes now.

4 Now, Select the cube shape and go to Edit/CSG Subtract. 4.1 We just simply cuted off half of the cylinder, so we have it like this now:

5 Select the cylinder, and Click Edit/Hollow Block, so they get the shape like this image below. 5.1 The Hollow shape is just a way to the engine see the shapes and detect them, we will see more of that later. 5.2 We need to Hollow the Cube too, select it and go to Edit/Hollow Block.

6 We still have a division between them and what we need is a hole shape, so the player can go from one room to the other. 6.1 Click Object/Add Primitive/Misc/Plate (Large). 6.2 Scale the plate, Rotate it and Move it, so it gets like this image: Make sure the borders of the plate overlap with the other inside borders of the shapes in the Top View and make the same to the height of the plate in the Back View.

7 Make sure the plate is Selected and go to Edit/CSG Subtract. 7.1 Move the plate away using also the Move View, on any View, just leave it away for a while.

8 Now we can go to the left, on the other side of the cube. 8.1 Click in Object/Add Cube/Large and Scale it so it gets like what the image shows, making sure it is about the same size in the back view as the others are, then Hollow it, Click Edit/Hollow Block.

9 Move the plate again using also the Move View in the same position as earlier, right where the two cubes intersects each other, and with the edges of the plate meeting the two cube shapes. 9.1 Click Edit/CSG Subtract. 9.2 Press the DEL button on your keyboard to delete the plate because we don´t need it anymore. 9.3 Zoom In and Out using both Top and Back Views, so you can see what we have done. And see if your shape matches the image below:

10 Now, we are almost done with the level. Later on, you can start using your imagination and create other shapes with different kinds of objects that comes with the engine, and there are some prefabs too, just Click on a few models and Scale to see what they are, and how they were build up. 10.1 If you try to Build and Run the project now, you will probably end up with an error message. That is, there is no textures assigned to the object yet, so if you continue on running it, you won´t see a thing, just a black screen. So, next step, assigning textures to the level.

11 Click Texture/Texture Manager and in the window that appears, click the Add WAD button, search in your folders for the ...//AY_Work_Files/Pool and then Click OK to bring this folder to the WAD Manager, then Click OK again in the WAD Manager window to close it.

12 Go to the Textures Tab and you will see this window: With some useful textures images for us to put on our level.

13 Go back to the Objects Tab. 13.1 Left Double-Click the first Group, it becomes bold when selected and red highlights the respective group of blocks in the Views. 13.2 Go to the Textures Tab an double-click the Tile_Walls.pcx. If you can´t see the names, just the images, move the mouse over the black space between them or over the images, Right-Click and in the Pop-Up Menu that appears choose Show Texture/Texture Name. Now you can see the names of each one. 13.3 All you have to do now is to Select the other Groups, repeating the steps 13 to 13.2 to assign the Tile_Walls.pcx, or using the Select button, to select a shape directly from the Views.

14 As you may notice, we just assigned one picture for all groups of blocks. But now, we have less work to do, with just assigning the textures for the floor and the water.

14.1 The way we can reach out a single block that makes part of the blocks group, so we can put the floor and water textures is: 14.2 Having one of the group selected, if it´s not already, just Left Double-Click one of the Groups and then Click the Scope Down button so we can work with just this group, and as you can see all the others are hided. The image below shows you how it should look like a Scope Down selection on a single block. 14.3 Now that you see all blocks of one particular group, just Left Double-Click each one of them until you find the one that represents the floor, the one that is in horizontal and in the bottom of the others. 14.4 Go to the Textures Tab and assign the Tile_Floor.pcx, just Left Double-Clicking the image with the specific block selected. 14.5 Now, go back to the Objects Tab again and select the top block also in horizontal, wich will be the water for our pool. 14.6 Having it selected, go to the Textures Tab and assign the Water.pcx, just Left Double-Click the image. 14.7 To make the same thing to the other groups, return to the Objects Tab, and click the Scope UP button, now it returns to the Root. 14.8 Repeat the steps 14.1 until 14.6, so we can have the entire Level filed up with water on the top block and the green tile on the bottom block.

15 Now that we are almost finished. To see how the water effect was made. 15.6 Go to Textures Tab, Right-Click over the Water.pcx image and in the Pop-Up Menu that appears select Settings. 15.7 Now you will see a Dialog box named Texture Settings, where you can set some important flags. The one that concerns for us now is the Turbulence flag. What this will be doing is to simply move the texture constantly like a wave simulating a turbulent movement in the texture block.

16 And now we can finaly see what it has become. 16.1 Click the Build Button, and in the dialog that appears like the image below, choose Build Level, if not already set and Click OK. 16.2 Then you will see the Map Compiler Dialog that is building the level for us, and showing some good information about: How much Portals are on our Level, how many Textures, Vertices, and a lot more. I advise you to search in the WED manuals, for the meanings of each one of them, as you will learn a lot. 16.3 After this process, that can take a while, depending on the size of your Level. 16.4 Click OK to Close the Map Properties Dialog. 16.5 Click the Run button to start the level. 16.6 To move the camera, just Press the 0 (Zero) Key and you will be able to move the camera with the Arrow Keys. Don´t worry about where the camera is. As it is a Default Camera made by the engine, for us Level Designers be able to test our levels without needing any camera control scripts, wich is great.

And that´s it! Simple but effective and a start to us proceed with other features included in GameStudio! If you experienced some problems along the process and didn´t finished this Level Design or just wants to have a finished one. You can get it in ...//AY_Work_Files/Pool_Level_01.wed.

Go To:
Introduction Level Design Low Poly Modeling UV Mapping Submarine Interface Submarine Simulation

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