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1. Introduction

This tutorial demonstrates the creation of a Gothic level (a so-called ZEN). A little knowledge of 3d Studio MAX 3.1 is required, and 3D Studio's Unit setting should be set to cm. Required software:

*GOTHIC MOD Development Kit
*3D Studio MAX 3.1

2. Modelling a simple level mesh

Let's start with something simple - a small outdoor level for Gothic. Start 3D Studio, and we'll produce the level mesh as a 3DS file.

a) Let's start with a simple plane, with a surface area of 1000x1000 and a 3x3 grid spacing. Place it exactly at the coordinates' origin. It will become the level's floor.

b) Let's collapse the plane to an EditableMesh object and start the Material Editor. Create a standard material named BODEN (which is floor in German) in the first slot. Put a bitmap in the material's Diffuse slot. There's a dialogue box; select a texture from the GOTHIC MOD Development Kit\3DS MAX Stuff\Level-Texturen directory called OtFlTile01.tga.

Activate the checkbox "Show Map in Viewport" and assign the material to the plane. Add a UVW Map Modifier (planar, 200x200) to the Modifier Stack. The plane should look like this now:

This is enough for the first level test.

c) Now the file has to be exported via File\Export. Select 3DS as file format and GOTHIC\_WORK\DATA\MESHES\LEVEL\ as the save path. Name the file MyLevel.3ds.

The option 'Preserve MAX Texture Coordinates' has to be activated for the texture to be exported correctly.

You just created a simple level mesh which can be transformed into the more useful ZEN format now. In addition to this you ought to save the level as a MAX file.

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