Editor Tool Buttons
Tomasz
Millennium Jachimczak
(tomasz@planetunreal.com)
Basic Building Brushes:
Add brush to world.
This button is used to "add" a
brush to the world. Any brush can be
added to the world, but make sure that
you don't try to add someting to a peice
of the world that is allready solid, as
this can turn out quite nasty when
playing the game or rebuilding...
Subtract brush from world.
This button will "carve" out
the brush from your level. Do not try to
subtract a brush from an area that has
allready been subtracted - as this won't
work and can have adverse (bad) effects
on your level.
Brush intersection.
This is the "intersect" button.
It is used to change your brush. Say you
have a "cube" brush, but only
want to cut out half a cube from a solid
wall. You could go through the cube
properties and change the shape of your
brush, or you could simply move the cube
to where you want it to go and then press
this button. This will make a new brush
for you - but it will only be where the
solid wall was before. It is also good
for making complex objects into a single
brush. Say you want to make a fireplace,
and you want to use it in a few places -
create it (bit by bit) and then place a
cube brush over the top (so the cube {or
whatever} encompases the fireplace
totally) and when you press this button,
your new brush will be EXACTLY the same
as what you created using many little
bits.
Brush deintersection.
This does the opposite of what the
intersect button does. It will select the
parts of the brush that are in an area
that is not solid - and create them into
a new brush for you.
Add Special Brush.
This allows you to create
"special" brushes to your map.
These can be a wide range of things, such
as windows, water levels, portals and the
like. It is normally used in combination
with the "sheet" brush.
Add movible brush.
This button will create a mover for you.
It will use whatever brush you have
currently selected. When using this brush
however, make sure tht the brush you have
selected has NOT been streched in any
way, as it won't work properly...
Build a cube. This
will create a cube brush for you. If you
right click on it, it will give you an
option to go to cube properties. This
will allow you to change the height,
depth ect of the cube brush you will
create.
Build a Sphere. This
is the same as the cube, but it will
create a round ball shaped (well a sphere
really) brush. Once again right click on
it to alter the properties of the brush.
Build a cylinder. This
will create a cylinder for you, that you
can use like any other brush.
Build a cone. This
will create a cone (rounded pyramid) that
you can use like any other brush.
Build a stair. This
will create a straight flight of stairs.
These stairs will not turn or curve as
they go up.
Build a spiral stair.
This will create a rounded set of stairs
that can be set to form a very tight
spiral staircase.
Build a curved stair.
This will simply create a rounded set of
stairs that are similar to the first set,
but they curve around to a side when they
have been built.
Build a sheet. This
creates a 2 dimensional sheet. It can be
used for a VERY LARGE number of
applications. One of the most common is
to create a water plane. This tool does
however require more pratice then the
other brushes, as it is not a 3D brush
and can easily "wreck" a level.
It should NOT (I can't stress this
enough) be used to create walls and other
solid shapes. (Well at least until you
are quite familiar with the editor).
Advanced Building Brushes:
Move Camera. This is
the normal view button. It is normally
toggled to "on". It lets you
move in the veiws. My advise is to leave
it set to what it is...
Zoom camera. I can
honestly say I have no idea what this
button is supposed to do. I have tried it
a few times, but normally end up miles
away from where I am building, so I
always leave it set to the button
described above.
Rotate brush. This
button is used to rotate the brush that
you have currently got selected. It is
used by holding CTRL and with a
combination of mouse buttons (Left
rotates X axis, right rotates Y axis and
both rotate Z axis) allows the brush to
be rotated to any angle.
Sheer brush. This
brush allows you to "skew" the
brush. That is, it allows you to 'lean'
the brush to a side.
Scale brush. This
button will allow you to change the size
of your brush. That's right, once again
CTRL and the mouse will activate it when
it's selected.
Stretch brush. This
will alter the size of your brush, but it
will do it one axis at a time. Which
basically means it's great for adjusting
something that is almost perfect.
SnapScale Brush. This
button will allow you to stretch a brush
along all three axis' , but at the same
time it will "snap" to the
grid. This is VERY handy to enlarge or
shrink brushes, as they are easy to match
up later.
Select all polys. This
brush will select ALL the things in your
map. I don't know what the point is, but
the option is there...
Select all actors.
Once again, I am not sure. But look on
the bright side, I haven't used it - and
still made great maps, so it probably
(feel free to prove me wrong) isn't all
that integral to the editor.
Select actors inside
brush. This is another of the buttons
I haven't used very much - or at all. I
can't really tell you what it is used
for...
Select none. This will
make sure that "none" of the
brushes or textures are selected. In a
way, it 'unselects' everything...
Invert actor selection
state. This button will replace the
selection that you currently have. Sorry
I can't say more, but yet again, it's a
brush that I have little use for.
Replace selected brushes.
This button will replace the brush with
what you currently have selected.
Replace selected non-brush
actors. This button will replace the
actors selected with what you currently
have selected.
Undo last operation. I
don't think that anyone there needs a
detailed explanation of what an
"undo" button does, But on that
note - just remember that you can't undo
past a rebuild. I mean that if you
rebuild your level and don't make any
changes - then you won't be able to undo
something that was changed before you
last rebuilt.
Redo operation. If you
accidentally pressed "undo"
once too many, then this button will redo
the last action that you undid.
Pan textures. This
will move the texture that is selected.
It is used mainly for aligning the
texture to match up with other textures.
If you have more then one brush with a
texture, and you want them to line up -
then this is the tool for you.
Rotate textures. This
button will allow you to rotate a texture
so that it matches the direction of other
textures - or simply faces the direction
that you want it to face.
Drawing Region: Selected
Actors. This button will
"hide" all the brushes that are
in your level. It's great for adding in
detail and things like that when you
don't want to see all the other brushes.
Hide Seleced Actors.
This button is similar to the one above,
but it will only hide the brushes that
are selected. You can select more then
one brush at a time to hide by pressing
CTRL and select as many as you like.
Drawing Regions: Off.
This will "bring back" any
brushes that were hidden using the
buttons above.
Drawing Regions: Brush Z
(Depth). This will hide the Z axis
apparently. I can put this into the pile
of buttons that I never use.
Toggle vertex snap.
This will toggle the grid snap function
of placing brushes. It is generally used
for adding the details when the grid is
in the way...
Get Help. Well, now
here is a useless button - as you are
probably using the BETA UnrealED, this
button has absolutely NO function
whatsoever, so don't bother trying to
find the help file...
Camera speed. This
will change the speed with which your
moves moves brushes and other objects in
the views.
Toggle grid mode. This
button will snap objects to the grid when
they are moved around in the editor.
Toggle rotation grid.
This will toggle whether you want
rotational grid snapping. This button
makes it rather difficult to rotate a
brush when it is large and also makes it
difficult to align things to angles made
by sides of cylinders for example, but
makes it a LOT easier to align general
angles in the editor.