I have just recently been trying to use the toolset. It seemed all to be going so well, until today that is, when I realised that what I had been doing was perhaps not what I wanted.
I have been trying to create a place, interior and exterior for my project. Upon watching tutorials, I made them both in Level, and now I find that it seems that levels are not able to be walked in, but just for visuals? If this is wrong, please correct me, it has been a long night and it seems very many hours are now wasted.
Basically I have both an interior and exterior files, both in .lvl, and both meant to be used by players. It seems, from another tutorial I found that area is what I should have done. Is there any way to save all the work I have done? I tried creating an area then copying the bits across but that didn't seem to work (when is it ever that simple lol). If anyone has any ideas, or a master plan that might help, I am all too eager to listen.
Perhaps I have totally got things wrong, I don't know. It's coming up for 4am here and I am dispairing. I spent so long making everything just 'right' only to find it may all be for nothing.
Level to Area
Débuté par
fangedwolf
, mars 07 2010 03:49
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#2
Posté 07 mars 2010 - 06:16
Proleric
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You've done the right thing.
Areas are the means of displaying your level in game. A level is just static scenery - an area allows you to add interactive objects, such as creatures, if you want. At minimum, an area consists of your level plus a waypoint that tells the game where the player will start.
When you make an area, the first field in the Object Inspector is the Area Layout. That's where you select the level that you've already saved to local.
The wiki tutorials explain how to make the waypoint, put it in the module properties and export your module for testing.
Areas are the means of displaying your level in game. A level is just static scenery - an area allows you to add interactive objects, such as creatures, if you want. At minimum, an area consists of your level plus a waypoint that tells the game where the player will start.
When you make an area, the first field in the Object Inspector is the Area Layout. That's where you select the level that you've already saved to local.
The wiki tutorials explain how to make the waypoint, put it in the module properties and export your module for testing.
#3
Posté 07 mars 2010 - 06:19
CID-78
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a level is the background and the thing the player won't interact with but he can certainly walk on it. making a area is a two step process first you do the level and then exort it and select it in the area editor where you add doors, creatatures, NPC, interactive objects.
if you can't walk in the level you must make sure your export area is setup correctly and that you generate a walkmesh for it.
if you can't walk in the level you must make sure your export area is setup correctly and that you generate a walkmesh for it.
#4
Posté 07 mars 2010 - 09:20
fangedwolf
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Thank you so much guys! You have no idea how relieved I am to hear that!! Things may well go along a lot quicker now that I have been pointed in the right direction 
I will have to find out why the pathfinder isn't showing on the level, but that is a job for when I have had some sleep. Relief is a wonderful feeling lol
I will have to find out why the pathfinder isn't showing on the level, but that is a job for when I have had some sleep. Relief is a wonderful feeling lol
#5
Posté 08 mars 2010 - 01:30
JasonNH
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I will have to find out why the pathfinder isn't showing on the level, but that is a job for when I have had some sleep. Relief is a wonderful feeling lol
For exterior levels, make sure you have created an exportable area and defined it so that the "green" playable area covers everything you want to walk. Also, make sure you define a starting point for that exportable area or the pathfinding will fail when you try to generate it.
#6
Posté 08 mars 2010 - 04:33
Miexelplix2009
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I am new to using the toolset and I think the original poster was asking a simlar question, but I am not sure the responses answered my question, so here it goes:
I am confused about the interior and exterior of a level and their placement inside of an area. From what I am seeing it almost looks like you need an exterior of your building to place on one area which links to an interior of the building on a seperate area.
For example, if I have a city level, do I build all of the buildingss exteriors in the "city level" and then place all of the interiors of the buildings on sepearte areas which the main area links to?
Thanks In advance for your response.
I am confused about the interior and exterior of a level and their placement inside of an area. From what I am seeing it almost looks like you need an exterior of your building to place on one area which links to an interior of the building on a seperate area.
For example, if I have a city level, do I build all of the buildingss exteriors in the "city level" and then place all of the interiors of the buildings on sepearte areas which the main area links to?
Thanks In advance for your response.
#7
Posté 08 mars 2010 - 09:36
fangedwolf
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Thanks for the additional comments there JasonNH, I managed to figure that out 
Just struggling with lighting the exterior at the moment because the lighting doesn't seem to work right outside.
To Miexelplix2009, I will try to explain, in the way I see it (thanks to the above insightful people). In short, yes, you make the interiors seperately and then link them up.
The module
The module has all your level and area files etc. Make sure you have one set up.
File > Manage Modules
The Level
Any area, whether inside or outside will be really quite item-intensive. Having all of these items as selectable would take up vast, vast amounts of resources to load and check with each movement. All games I have known, even going back to Ultima Online work this out by making a map that is static, and does not move, change etc. This means the computer does not have to work a fraction as hard when loading and working. The Level is this static map. It holds all the non-movable static items, the land layout and the lighting.
File > New > Level
The Area
The area is the layer that has things that the player can interact with, such as doors, items that will be targetable (such as elfroot on the ground, books with codex etc). It is alsothe place where you put monsters and interactable people etc.
Interior and Exterior
Both interior and exterior will use both an area and a level, one for static things, one for things that can be interacted with.
Exterior
The exterior bits, also known as Terrain is the place outside. This is the main area where people will walk. The forest, the city streets etc. You can manipulate the ground into being different heights and such, put the exterior of buildings, rivers, lakes etc. You do not (in my experience) put the interior of buildings on the Exterior map. The exterior will start with a large area of grass.
Interior
The interior is the inside of buildings, made seperately to the exterior. These are also known as Rooms. With these you start with an empty grid where you can add walls, floors etc to. You then link the door to the one on the Exterior map of where the door leads to, and likewise from the exterior of the building to here.
Linking up your Level and Area files
You need to make up your level first, because it is the base where you will put your interactable things. Once you make the level, you need to post it to your local, because when you make your area, it needs to be in the format it can read.. it does not do this automatically. Your level will be saved as a .lvl and it needs to be .arl apparently.
To do this, you will have needed to render the lightmaps, put in a starting point (so the computer knows where people are meant to come into the place) and then click the post to local. If everything goes fine then the new save should hopefully be on a list when you make your area.. more on this in a moment.
Once this has been done successfully, make your new area and look at the Object Inspector. It is usually on the bottom right hand side of the Toolkit. If not, you can go to
View > Other Windows > Object Inspector
I called my level avale01. You click on the space beside the Area Layout bit in the Object Inspector, and this will bring up the place where they are all kept.
When this has loaded up, you should see the level there on the screen. You can then work on your Area by adding in doors, interactable things and monsters etc.
As a sidenote, to load up a saved Area, it will be in your palatte window when you start the toolset, probably not showing in the same place where you saved your levels.
More info
I found these video tutorials quite helpful, you can find more on the toolset wiki
Toolset wiki - http://social.biowar.../wiki/datoolset
SilentCid's tutorials - http://social.bioware.com/project/527/
St4rdog Youtube - http://www.youtube.c...u/4/TwQNRBFLhrE
dragonage22's Youtube tutorials - http://www.youtube.c...ser/dragonage22
Just struggling with lighting the exterior at the moment because the lighting doesn't seem to work right outside.To Miexelplix2009, I will try to explain, in the way I see it (thanks to the above insightful people). In short, yes, you make the interiors seperately and then link them up.
The module
The module has all your level and area files etc. Make sure you have one set up.
File > Manage Modules
The Level
Any area, whether inside or outside will be really quite item-intensive. Having all of these items as selectable would take up vast, vast amounts of resources to load and check with each movement. All games I have known, even going back to Ultima Online work this out by making a map that is static, and does not move, change etc. This means the computer does not have to work a fraction as hard when loading and working. The Level is this static map. It holds all the non-movable static items, the land layout and the lighting.
File > New > Level
The Area
The area is the layer that has things that the player can interact with, such as doors, items that will be targetable (such as elfroot on the ground, books with codex etc). It is alsothe place where you put monsters and interactable people etc.
Interior and Exterior
Both interior and exterior will use both an area and a level, one for static things, one for things that can be interacted with.
Exterior
The exterior bits, also known as Terrain is the place outside. This is the main area where people will walk. The forest, the city streets etc. You can manipulate the ground into being different heights and such, put the exterior of buildings, rivers, lakes etc. You do not (in my experience) put the interior of buildings on the Exterior map. The exterior will start with a large area of grass.
Interior
The interior is the inside of buildings, made seperately to the exterior. These are also known as Rooms. With these you start with an empty grid where you can add walls, floors etc to. You then link the door to the one on the Exterior map of where the door leads to, and likewise from the exterior of the building to here.
Linking up your Level and Area files
You need to make up your level first, because it is the base where you will put your interactable things. Once you make the level, you need to post it to your local, because when you make your area, it needs to be in the format it can read.. it does not do this automatically. Your level will be saved as a .lvl and it needs to be .arl apparently.
To do this, you will have needed to render the lightmaps, put in a starting point (so the computer knows where people are meant to come into the place) and then click the post to local. If everything goes fine then the new save should hopefully be on a list when you make your area.. more on this in a moment.
Once this has been done successfully, make your new area and look at the Object Inspector. It is usually on the bottom right hand side of the Toolkit. If not, you can go to
View > Other Windows > Object Inspector
I called my level avale01. You click on the space beside the Area Layout bit in the Object Inspector, and this will bring up the place where they are all kept.
When this has loaded up, you should see the level there on the screen. You can then work on your Area by adding in doors, interactable things and monsters etc.
As a sidenote, to load up a saved Area, it will be in your palatte window when you start the toolset, probably not showing in the same place where you saved your levels.
More info
I found these video tutorials quite helpful, you can find more on the toolset wiki
Toolset wiki - http://social.biowar.../wiki/datoolset
SilentCid's tutorials - http://social.bioware.com/project/527/
St4rdog Youtube - http://www.youtube.c...u/4/TwQNRBFLhrE
dragonage22's Youtube tutorials - http://www.youtube.c...ser/dragonage22
Modifié par fangedwolf, 08 mars 2010 - 09:41 .
#8
Posté 09 mars 2010 - 08:21
Proleric
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Interior areas and levels are normally made separately from the exterior - much easier to get the lighting etc right. Also, each floor tends to be made as a separate level (or a different section of a level), because there are issues with having one pathfinding zone on top of another.
