Basic Room
From RoboBlitz Editor Wiki
Tutorial on creating a Basic Map with a room and a light.
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 Room
First off, click the File->New or you can click the little paper sheet right under the File menu. A Dialog box pops up and asks you if you want to use additive or subtractive. We are going to use subtractive brushes here so select subtractive. This should give you a clean new world with nothing in it. We will create a builder brush in order to build some geometry in the world. Left click a cube shaped brush, then 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 in 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 inside the box 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 subtract the actual geometry from the world space. Click on CSG:Subtract button on the left hand toolbar or you can press Ctrl S:
Now we've made a room ... 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). "RBArenaBasicRoomMap.rbd" is a good name. [edit]
The Light
Right Click on the floor of the room below you 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. [edit]
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 on the floor again 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 floor (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. [edit]
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 in a room with the default texture applied, well lit by ambient light. You've just made your first RoboBlitz Room map! Congratulations!
By Nate Nesler a variation on the Basic Map Tutorial by the RoboBlitz Team.
