Basic Map
From RoboBlitz Editor Wiki
Tutorial on creating a Basic Map with a piece of ground and a light. This is using the Additive method which creates blocks in space. When creating this way you are adding the floor for actors to stand on or walls for them to bounce off. Basic Room deals with this using the Subtractive method. This involves creating space for the entities to be in. Basic Level Part 1 assumes you are using Subtractive methods.
Open the Robo Blitz Editor. If the Browser Window is in your way, just close it, we won't be using it in this tutorial. The default layout of the editor looks like this:
Contents |
The Ground
First off, we will create a builder brush in order to build some geometry in the world. To select a cube shaped brush, right click on the Cube icon that looks like this:
This will bring up a dialog box where we can change the size of the brush. We'll make this brush a lot wider so Blitz can stand on it easily.
Click on "Build" to create this brush, then click "Close". Now we need to change our view in order to see the brush. First, zoom out by left clicking and dragging in the perspective view (bottom left viewport). You can also zoom by rolling your mouse wheel. You can also right-click drag to rotate the view, or left-click right-click drag to translate the view. Once you can see the red outline of the builder brush, left-click on it to select it. Your viewports will look something like this:
Now we need to add the actual geometry to the world. Shortcut Ctrl A on your keyboard or click on CSG:Add button on the left hand toolbar:
Now we've made some geometry to stand on... but it's too dark! You can't see it!
Nows a good time to save your map. Make sure the filename begins with RBArena (it won't run otherwise). "RBArenaBasicMap.rbd" is a good name.
The Light
Right Click on the top surface of your geometry in the perspective viewport and choose AddActor->Add Light (SkyLight).
Your level is now lit! The Skylight is the simplest type of light for lighting a basic map, but feel free to adjust it's properties or add other kinds of lights. If you want to move a light, select it and then click on one of the translation widgets (red, blue, or green arrows) and drag to move the light. Location doesn't affect SkyLights, but it makes a big difference with other types of lights.
The Player Start
The game needs to know where to start the player when the map begins. RoboBlitz uses a special kind of player start in the real game, but for now we can place a normal PlayerStart. Right click above the top surface of the ground in the same way you added a light. This time select AddActor->Add PlayerStart. Use the translation widget to move the player start a little bit above the ground (you don't want Blitz's ball getting stuck in the floor do you?).
Before you can play a map it has to be "built". If a map has been built before and you make a few changes, sometimes you can play it again without building, depending on what you changed. However, if you ever change a PlayerStart, you need to rebuild. Click the "Build All" button on the top toolbar. The icon looks like this:
Your map will probably have a warning that the brush has a NULL material reference. Don't worry about it for now, just close the report window. Save your map again once it's finished building.
Try it Out
Lets try it out by clicking the joystick icon in the upper right hand corner of the toolbar. This is the "Play In Editor" or "PIE" button:
It starts the game in the editor with whichever map is open. You can also right click in the level and select Play From Here to start PIE with a temporary start location (that way you can gain access to parts of the level that players can't access at the begining of the level.)
You should see Blitz standing on a piece of untextured ground, well lit by ambient light. You've just made your first RoboBlitz map! Congratulations!
