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JadeDragon
Village Dweller
Joined: 21 Apr 2002
Posts: 19
Location: Netherlands |
| Siege Editor Database: User Tips and Technical Info |
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It is said that the more you learn the more questions will present itself, and this is very true when working with a newly released editor. There's already a lot of information about the Siege Editor to be found, but it's spread throughout a number of forums and therefor somewhat difficult to find.
I'd like to suggest that we use this thread to compile useful links, tips and data on how to use the editor, so anyone who needs the info. but doesn't want to spend hours digging through internet sites can find it right here.
Please don't use this thread for discussions or subjects that don't directly relate to SE aspects, for it will only make the thread unnecessary long. It will also make finding the needed info more difficult. If you disagree with something someone said here, please post in in a new topic.
That said, I hope anyone with useful tips will come forward and post them here, let's help eachother out!
To start off with, here are a couple of useful links:
- The official Siege University Tutorials (lacks in finesse but is great to get to grips with the general aspects of the editor):
www.dungeonsiege.com/siegeu.shtml
- A useful and well written tutorial about stitching can be found at:
http://mech.phpwebhosting.com/~dsforge/tutorials/tutorial_stitch1.php
- If you really can't find the info you need here, there's a useful forum at:
www.planetdungeonsiege.com
- A number of useful modding tools (a random map generator being one of them) can be found at:
www.game-editing.net |
Tue May 21, 2002 8:59 am |
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JadeDragon
Village Dweller
Joined: 21 Apr 2002
Posts: 19
Location: Netherlands |
Here's a small tip on how to start a map (I won't go into any details since the tutorials already cover this  ):
If you're thinking of making a large map (something the size of The Kingdom of Ehb or The Utraean Penninsula) you should start with making a general storyline, since this will effect the content of your map (what type of terrain, the layout of villages and dungeons and the distance between them).
Once you have a storyline you should think about what elements you want in your world (forests, villages, mountains etc). It's easy to build key regions first and connect them with any type of terrain later on.
When working on a certain region, decide what its main feature is going to be ( a village, a lake, a dungeon entrance, a ruin etc). Working around a main feature is much easier than trying to incorporate it when you've well underway: you'll often find yourself rearranging a region's terrain to allow placement of your "main feature". For instance, I wanted a village near a large lake, but I made the adjacent mountain first and then the river and lake. When I finished I realised I had to rearrange the mountain because there wasn't enough room for the village layout I'd planned.
Also, remember that a region should not exeed 2000 nodes. Gas Powered Games said that this could decrease performance dramatically. The general rule is: the smaller and the less objects, the faster the game's going to be.
Last edited by JadeDragon on Tue May 21, 2002 9:24 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Tue May 21, 2002 9:21 am |
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Danicek
The Old One
Joined: 15 Dec 2001
Posts: 5922
Location: Czech Republic |
Nice tips.
Everybody can add more...
And I will make it sticky - at least for some time. |
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Tue May 21, 2002 9:24 am |
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JadeDragon
Village Dweller
Joined: 21 Apr 2002
Posts: 19
Location: Netherlands |
Dynamic World:
When creating a region you'll eventually implement lighting, ambient creatues, trees, foliage, monsters, people etc, elemtens that will create the dynamic in-game world. The Siege Editors default view however doesn't show any of this. everything just stands there, rivers don't flow and creatures don't respond to anything.
To actually see what you're doing (concerning creature behavior, the flowing of water, lighting etc) you'll need to go to the "View" menu locatated at the main toolbar, click it and scroll down to "View Preferences". Click this and you'll be taken into a menu in which you can alter what is being shown and what isn't. Click "Update World" and any other items you want to see activated, and your region will come alive...
This is particulary hanfy when creating rivers, I've made one using the default view and found it to flow TOWARDS the waterfall! Weird... Using the dynamic view mistakes like this can easily be prevented.
Also, note that you can move actors bounding box in the Dynamic View, but the actors themselves won't actually be replaced. You'll need to return to the Default View by deselecting the "Update Wordl" option to correctly replace them wherever you want.
Giving names:
To rename actors and signs you'll need to go to Objects -> Properties -> Template Properties, and scroll down until you come across a sentence that says "Screen name". Click the override button and alter the name in the box to its right, then click apply.
There is no way to change the writing on a existing "painted"sign, like "Glitterdelve" or "Hiroth", to alter these signs you'll need an animationtool like GMax, or the upcoming SiegeMax, to actually paint the name you want. You can of course go ahead and change its screen name, but it'll be of little use since the image will remain the same.
Stitching:
When stitching regions together, try to create smooth borders for the region your working on. Having "jagged" borders makes stitching a lot more difficult than it needs to be. |
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Tue May 21, 2002 10:34 am |
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JadeDragon
Village Dweller
Joined: 21 Apr 2002
Posts: 19
Location: Netherlands |
Tank Files:
A Tank File is a file that contains otherfiles in a compact manner, much like WinZip does.
To be able to view and extract a dsmap like the Multiplayer map or the kingdom of ehb map, you'll need Tankviewer from the game_edting website mentioned above.
Go to your Dungeon Siege folder, and then go to Maps. Inside you'll see the .dsmap tankfiles. To be able to alter these maps in the Siege Editor you're going to have to extract them. Click on the desired .dsmap and tankviewer will execute. In the upper left corner something like "name.dsmap" can be seen, click it and look for the main map folder located under world/maps.
Click it and go to the Actions menu, click Extract. You'll have to search for the location of the Maps folder within your main DS folder again, so that you're able to extract the World file into it.
When finished, move the extracted folder into your Dungeon Siege/Bits/World/Maps folder. Now you can alter the maps at your leisure.
Template tips:
To access, edit and replace templates you need to follow these basic steps:
- Locate a map within Dungeon Siege/Resources (find the desired map with TankViewer)
- Backup (Before you do anything else, make a backup of the folder/file you're going to extract.)
- Extract (Extract the map so you can edit templates or add shins, models etc)
- Edit (Edit your templates)
- ReTank (Rebind the files you extracted with TankCreator)
- Replace (Replace the old Tank folder with your new one)
Also, I haven't actually looked at these yet, nor have I begun "templating" myself, but according to people at the www.game_editing.net forum there are a couple of prime examples located at:
http://www.game_editing.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=49&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15 |
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Thu May 23, 2002 8:47 am |
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