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A - Z Beginner Full Guide Page 2

2013-02-01T15:34:13Z

Zbyl: /* Functioning Entities */

{{A-Z Beginner Guide TOC}}

== Backups ==

Many of us have had that sickening feeling when you've worked on a document for a long time (hours, weeks, months) and it gets accidentally deleted. Make regular extra backups say every half an hour. The time varies depending on the type of work you are doing and how hard it would be to do it all again. Dark Radiant has a great feature to save a copy in a different name. This means you can keep your main working copy with the same name throughout. This helps a lot in many ways as you will find out. To save a copy use menu > file > Save Copy as. I suggest you make a new subfolder in your folder named eg, backups and save in there. Number your backup and EVERY time you save a backup copy give it a new number so you have a sequence of backups just in case. You can delete old ones to save space but always keep several backups.

== Adding Objects, AI ==

Later we are going to extend our room to one or two more but first let's add a few objects to our room. There are static objects like tables and beds under RMB menu 'Create Model' and functioning objects like moveable crates and AI under RMB menu 'Create Entity'. That is important to remember : if it is static then use the model list; if it functions, then use the entity list. For instance, do ''not'' select an AI from the static models list or you'll get an error. And even dead AI, eg, ragdolls, have a function (they can be dragged about) so use the entity list. For more info about objects in general, read [[Objects, General Info for Mission Designers]].

===Static Models===

* Press Esc to DEselect everything
* {{RMB}} menu > Create Model > darkmod > furniture > tables > wtable1
* Put it where you like in the room and remember {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|TAB}} to get a side view to place it on the ground in the room. Moving brushes or objects always snaps to the current grid so if you can't quite get an object in line with the floor or whatever then decrease the grid size temporarily in the grid menu or you can use the + and - keys. But remember to restore later back to 8 just for consistency with this tutorial.
* Add a few more items of furniture of your choice. Not too many. Later we can shuffle them around when we add a doorway to another room then add more objects. I see this as a rough peasant's house not a grand mansion but choose what you like; put a picture on the wall if you like or a pot on the table. This learning process does not need to make design sense.
* To turn any object you can experiment with the rotate tool button but for simplicity I will only cover the Resize and Rotate dialog (called the Transform Dialog.) This can be opened via the modify menu > Rotate and Scale. I recommend you assign a shortcut key in the help menu if you use it a lot or keep it open. It is fairly self-explanatory. You will mostly rotate around the vertical Z axis as you will more often be turning furniture around rather than turning it over. Use it to turn your furniture if you wish.

===Functioning Entities===
Functioning Entities are not all visible objects so don't worry too much about all the strange items in this list. We'll just pick out a few...

First, it is very '''important''' when placing moveable entities like crates that their collision model '''does not clip into the surface they stand on''' else they will sink down when first nudged (see [[Objects, General Info for Mission Designers#Moveable Objects|Moveable Objects]].)

Now let's look at an AI character...

* Press Esc to DEselect everything
* RMB menu > Create Entity > darkmod > AI > Commoners Unarmed > atdm:ai_townsfolk_commoner
* Put it where you like in the room and remember {{key|CTRL}} + {{key|TAB}} to get a side view to place it on the ground.
* Turn him around to face whichever way you like.
* Likewise, under darkmod > moveables > Containers add an atdm_moveable_crate01.
** Under darkmod > moveables > Kitchen > Utensils add an atdm:moveable_small_spoon_ornamental
** Under darkmod > moveables > Furniture add an atdm:moveable_chair_dining_2_red.

Let's make the man friendly so he doesn't hamper our testing...

* Select the AI by pointing at it and {{key|SHIFT}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{LMB}}. This is an exclusive select and automatically deselects everything else.
* In the Entity Inspector on the panel check the 'Show inherited properties' at the top.
* Scroll down to see the word 'team' and select it to highlight it.
* In the box at the bottom change the team from 3 to 0 which is the player's 'team' and click the check button at its right.
* Alternatively you can add/change properties by just typing the name and value in directly - just clear the box and type in team and the value below and click the check button. Yet another way is to right click the classname at the top and select Add property.

That's a beginning of furnishing our room with objects. In a real mission you would take a lot more time and give it a lot more thought.

{{key|CTRL}}+{{key|S}} to save and feel free to play it in game to see how it's looking. No need to dmap after adding objects - just use the map command as described before. (pathfinding might fail sometimes if you don't dmap so don't worry if the AI characters turn in circles or don't move while testing. This may also be the source of the problem if you get the message "Warning AAS32 is out of date!" at the top of the screen after starting the map.)

== Adjusting the Light ==
if you entered the game again with the map command through Dark Mod then you may have noticed the light was a bit too bright - too harsh. This is how to adjust it...

* Esc to DEselect everything
* Select the light
* You can just use L to call up the Light Inspector or...
* In Entity Inspector select '_color' (if the _color property is not there you can just type it in at the bottom and 123 in the box below and click the tick(check) button.)
* At the bottom of Entity Inspector is a coloured panel - off-white in this case showing the brightness and colour of the light currently. Click it and the light inspector will appear.
* Reduce the 'Value' (brightness) to about 40 and click OK. Note that this is shown as 0.40 0.40 0.40 in the properties of the light in the entity inspector. The three values are the red, green, and blue components of white and are to adjust the colour. You can tweak that. For example, gaslight might be slightly blue and torch light slightly orange but it's easier to do it in the light inspector in the colour selector.
* With these temporary lights you can also extend the radius beyond the walls to brighten them up (but more on this later when we place wall torches as it can give problems.)
* At the end of the day, just use your judgement to adjust the lights how ''you'' want them to help you navigate and test your game.

{{key|CTRL}}+{{key|S}} to save and just use 'map' again in DM(Dark Mod) to enter the game - no need to dmap for light changes as they are dynamic in-game. So you can quickly tweak a light value in DR, Ctrl+S to save, then map in DM to immediately see the result.

We'll adjust this room a little later when we have added some more rooms but for now it is done. Save the mission yet again with a NEW name (unless you have snapshot set in the Preferences.) When saving with a new name always first save it in the old name again then the new so both are uptodate. This is a bit over the top for this simple mission but later you will judge when to save - simply estimate how much work you are willing to lose: the last ten minutes? the last hour?

== New Rooms: Extending the Mission ==

Regard the room we've done as a 'back room'. We'll now make a larger front room.

* Esc to DEselect everything
* Ensure the grid size is 8. It shows in the grid menu or in the status bar.
* {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|TAB}} to the top grid view
* Drag out a rectangle starting on the big grid square to the north (upwards on screen) of the first room 448 x 320. The big grids vary with zoom so here's an image. Don't worry if yours mission varies from this as so long as you follow the principles it should work...

<center>[[Image:AZroom2.jpg]]</center>

* {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|TAB}} to a side view and ''outside'' drag the floor down to the same internal floor level as the first room and drag the ceiling up one big grid size above the first so it should be 192 high and look something like this....

<center>[[Image:AZroom2B.jpg]]</center>

* Esc to DEselect everything
* First go back to your small room and point at ONE surface of a wall ''in the camera view'' then select that surface with {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|SHIFT}}+{{LMB}}
* In the Edit menu are two forms of copy and paste - the normal Windows one and a Dark Radiant exclusive called Copy Shader. Use this to copy the texture and this will include its scale and other adjustments.
* Set Texture Lock OFF ({{key|SHIFT}}+{{key|T}} or on S>Surface Inspector or [[image:DRtexLock.jpg]] on the top button bar.) This will let the texture align correctly in the new place. (more on this a little later under [[#Texture adjustment|Texture Adjustment]])
* Esc to DEselect the surface
* As before, the ''new'' brush is a solid block. Select it again with {{key|SHIFT}}+{{Key|ALT}}+{{LMB}}
* With the new block selected, paste in the texture we just copied. An alternative is to just select it from the Texture Browser but remember to set its scale to 0.3.
* By applying this to the whole block it's quicker than doing the walls one by one after it is hollowed out.
* Use the Room button on the left button bar as before to hollow it out then texture the floor and ceiling. Look back to [[A - Z Beginner Full Guide Start Here!#Making Your First Room|Making Your First Room]] if in doubt what to do.
* Put in a temporary light as before.
* Put a little furniture in as a living room and/or kitchen combo whatever just for quickness and we'll review it later. You can clone (duplicate) any selection, brush or object or combination by selecting it, and hitting the SPACE bar then drag it away. When you clone ALWAYS immediately move the new selection. If you get distracted for a moment and forget it then it is not obvious it is there and you may forget and leave a table inside a table or a brush inside a brush.
* {{RMB}} inside the new room and select 'Move Player Start here' (check height in a side view.)
* {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|S}} to save and take a look at it in-game. You will need to dmap first to compile the new terrain and then map. You should be in the new room.

How'd it go? You probably found it too dim. Increase the brightness of the light probably to the full 100 100 100. Then SPACE to clone the light and drag the light to one side somewhere in the room. Make three if you like - one high and one low. We are going to completely review and redo the lights later so just make it reasonable for now.

Well now we have two rooms separated by the void so the next step is a doorway between them...

== Doorways ==

There are many approaches to this. This is just one way.

First we need to know the size of our door (an alternate way is guesstimate the doorframe etc. then adjust after if needed.)

* DEselect everything
* RMB in grid view and select Create Model
* Select darkmod/architecture/doors/oversized/old_door_01.lwo
* By default, the door will be aligned with the south wall which is what we want.
* Place it in the small room touching the north wall centred in the second big grid from the right. Drag it down to just touch the ground in a side view, decreasing grid size if needed as shown below...

<center>[[Image:AZdoor01.jpg]]</center> 

<center>[[Image:AZdoor02.jpg]]</center>

This door is static, non-functioning so the next step is to get it to open and close....

== Making the Door Open ==

In most cases in the future you will just create a working door from the create entity menu where there is a wide selection of most common doors already working (or even select a prefab with working handles) but in this case I'm describing how to make this particular model into a working door so you understand the principle.

To make it possible for the player to open the door, this is what you need to do...

* Esc to DEselect everything else
* Select the door
* In the Entity Inspector select the top line 'classname' so it highlights
* At the bottom of Entity Inspector a button will appear marked 'Choose entity class'. Click it and select darkmod/movers/atdm:mover_door then click the check button.
* The door can now be opened and closed.
* The door will rotate by default anti-clockwise (viewed from above) by 90 degrees. Because this door is near a corner one might normally change it to rotate the other way into the corner by changing the rotate property from 0 90 0 to 0 -90 0 but in this case I want to put an elevator in that corner later so instead, make the door rotate more widely then people can get in the room more easily. Add/set the property rotate (not rotation) with a value of 0 150 0.
* This old door has its own pull handle so no need for anything else
* This door will not block sound yet - we'll deal with that later.
* For full details about doors see [[Doors]]

=== Doorframe ===

In a rough hovel, wooden hut, cave, or cellar you might just hang an old door without a frame but mostly in even modest houses it looks better with a frame and definitely in a grander place. This house just about qualifies for a frame and anyway, you need to know how!

* Ctrl + TAB for front view and RMB drag scroll zoom to get the front view of the door clearly in the grid view
* DEselect the door
* Make the grid size to 2 (grid menu or +- keys)
* Drag out a brush units = 64 wide x 12 deep x 8 high and place it over the door as the top of the doorframe aligned to the grid as shown in the image below. Drag out two other vertical brushes each 6 wide x 12 deep x 104 high and place them at the side of the door as shown to form the doorframe sides. They penetrate the wall for now but later we shall open out a corridor. Give all three of those entire brushes the texture darkmod/wood/boards/scratched temporarily (we'll adjust later.)

<center>[[Image:AZdoor03.jpg]]</center>

*Depth-wise it should be exactly over the centre of the door exactly against the face of the wall...

<center>[[Image:AZdoor04.jpg]]</center>

Because the outer edges of the doorframe align to the big grid it aligns reasonably well with the stonework around see below. Note it just fits under the course of bricks above which is good. (You might have a different wall texture.) Try to avoid cutting half way into bricks like that or worse, leaving a thin sliver of bricks or stone. Think structurally.

<center>[[Image:AZdoor05.jpg]]</center>

But you can see the wood texture alignment is pretty bad and we'll fix that next.

==Texture adjustment==

The horizontal top of the doorframe in the picture above is aligned wrongly; the grain of wood should be aligned to the length of a beam. Also, this texture is boards (planking) so will show the gaps between which must be aligned out of sight. Wood never really comes in an endless sheet anyway - it comes from trees! With experience we could have made one vertical of the doorframe (whose texture is aligned vertically) aligned it better, cloned it for the other side, cloned it again, rotated it, and resized it for the horizontal piece.

===Texture Lock===

Texture lock is most important. It is a mode toggle (Shift+T or on S>Surface Inspector or [[image:DRtexLock.jpg]] on the top button bar.)

* When ENABLED it keeps a texture aligned to its surface even when moved or rotated. This means a wooden beam will look just like it would in the real world if you moved or turned it - it would not change relative to the beam.
* When NOT ENABLED then the texture aligns to the world. This means different surfaces will align together when placed together. So if you cloned a wall and moved the duplicate to one side and a little higher, its stonework would align perfectly with the first wall.

I mostly keep Texture Lock enabled but you need to keep it in mind whenever moving textured brushes: do you wish the brush's surface textures to align with the world or the brush?

=== Texture Alignment with Surface Inspector ===

This assumes you used the same texture and constructed the doorframe as I described above. If your alignment is different then use your own judgement where to apply the following.....

'''Rotation...'''
* Esc to DEselect everything
* Move the camera so you can see the front and top of the doorway in the camera view
* In the camera view use Ctrl+Shift+LMB to select the front surface of the top horizontal of the doorframe. Make sure you do not select the whole brush with Shift LMB or Shift+Alt LMB.
* Press S to get Surface Inspector to show/hide or View menu. Tip: Hot keys might not work if you are focused in an input field. Just click somewhere else.
* In the ''step'' input to the right of ''rotation'' type in 90 if it is not already there.
* Click the righthand little arrow button to rotate the texture 90 degrees else you can just type 90 right in the rotation input.

'''Shifting (scrolling)...'''
* Set the step input for Horiz and Vert Shift to about 4.
* Use the arrows for Horiz and Vert to scroll the texture about.
* Note that Vert moves the texture horizontally now because we rotated it.
* Note that the dark lines of the edges of the boards texture scroll in and out.
* Scroll the texture so the dark lines are not showing and the beam looks OK.
* Note for the future: When cloning many beams in a row don't have them all identically aligned but shift for variety.

OK, now in the same way you have to inspect ALL of the visible surfaces of that brush one by one and see how they look. Yes, even on top where the player might never look! (''someone'' will!) Rotate/Shift where needed (small end pieces might be vertical or horizontal grain or even 45 degrees - use your judgement.) The far side of the brushes will also be visible eventually so do that too (see next paragraph.)

Tip: When inspecting, if any model or brush gets in the way of the view just select it with Shift+Alt+LMB and press H to hide it. So you can rise above the ceiling then 'Hide' it below you to look down into the room. Hide the wall so you can get at the back of the doorframe. You can keep hiding more stuff as you go along and use Shift H to reveal them again. Don't forget them! Another way might be Filter menu > Hide all entities to hide all the furniture in one go.

Likewise do the side brushes of the doorframe.

Finally, Shift H to unHide and give the whole doorframe and door one last inspection. Looking good?

== Corridors, Recesses ==

This will be a small recess rather than a corridor but the principle is the same : you just make a corridor like a small room except you won't need the ends which will be open to the rooms either end. You could make a solid and hollow it out and then delete the ends or make walls, floor, ceiling as separate brushes yourself. In this case the recess will be the same textures as the big room so another option is to clone the sides from it and reduce them so let's do that...

* Esc to DEselect everything
* Check grid size is 8
* Set Texture Lock OFF. This will ensure the texture will align to the world not the original brush. In this case it probably would be alright and the worst that can happen is you have to re-align the texture (but you wouldn't want to do that with an entire house.)
* Shift+Alt+LMB to select the left wall of the big room. You may find it easier to make these selections in the camera view. Repeated Shift+Alt+LMB will cycle down through different items if they overlap in the grid view.
* SPACE to clone it. Don't wait... drag it away immediately so you never forget it's there. As you drag it away, check that it really did clone and you are not just dragging the original. If so, use Ctrl+Z to undo the drag and try clone again.
* Drag it in the space between the two rooms near the door.
* Resize it to 48 x 8 and position it so it fits exactly as shown below between the two walls. It should be just to the left of the doorframe and touching it. The height is OK as it is.

<center>[[Image:AZdoor06.jpg]]</center>

* Repeat the above with the other wall and put it to the other side of the door
* Similarly do the same with floor and ceiling. These should become 64 x 56 and fit ''between'' the recess side walls ''touching'' the south wall, but ''intruding'' into the north wall (this will make more sense later.) I have 'deliberately' made a mistake with the floor which we'll correct later so you can see it's no biggy if you get things wrong - you just adjust later. See the red outline of the floor and ceiling in the image below....

<center>[[Image:AZdoor07.jpg]]</center>

Ctrl+S to resave the mission.

== 'Cutting' through walls, Joining Rooms ==

First, a tip: when you are resizing a narrow brush like a wall it sometimes happens that you accidentally move sideways and reduce its narrow width to zero - nothing at all. DON'T LET GO! If you release the mouse at that point it will be deleted! Instead move your mouse to that side so it re-appears. If you are in doubt as to its dimension you might need to Ctrl+Z undo. Get into the habit when resizing to keep your mouse button held down and only release when you know you can see the brush. I personally wish a brush could not be reduced below one grid unit. Later I will describe methods of moving and resizing which stop accidental side movements.

Now, you cannot actually cut holes in brushes - you can only surround a space with smaller brushes so it looks like one big brush with a hole in it. The following is easy but it might sound complicated so just try it and the worst that can happen is you have some undoing or reload your last save. So to cut out our doorway do the following...

* In the small south room face north in camera view looking at your door (this can be done in grid view but it's easier to be sure what you're doing.)
* Shift + H if you have hidden the wall to UNhide it so you can see both door and wall.
* Esc to DEselect everything (wish someone had nagged me with this when I started and maybe I would not have lost so much.)
* Select the door and H to hide it.
* Select the wall.
* In the grid view, press SPACE to clone the wall
* Immediately LMB drag towards the right from ''outside'' the left edge of the wall to reduce its length to just past the right doorframe and touching it.
* I'll clarify that - you are cloning the wall then moving its left side along past the doorframe like opening a curtain from the left.
* In camera view you should now see the ''original'' wall to the left of the doorframe and also inside the doorway. To the right of the doorway are ''both'' walls occupying the same space with just the new clone still highlighted
* Shift+Alt+LMB select the original wall to the left of the door.
* You are going to reduce this starting from the ''opposite''' end on the right...
* LMB drag towards the left from ''outside'' the ''right' edge of this wall to reduce it past the ''left'' edge of the doorway. Again, like opening the other curtain.
* You should now have two walls; one each side of the doorframe and exactly up to it with a gap over the doorframe.

Now we need to repeat the above for the south wall of the big room. I'll just summarise: you need to clone the south wall and reduce it to one side of the gap between the short connecting walls of the recess and the same for the original wall. Remember - like dragging curtains aside.

<center>[[Image:AZdoor08.jpg]]</center>

If you look south in the camera view from the big north room you will see that all that remains is the gap over the door frame...

* Clone one of the north walls of the little south room
* reduce its width to 64 and height to 80 and move it up to fit over the door exactly. It's top corner should just meet the corner edge of the little piece of ceiling we put in the recess. Here is a side view...

<center>[[Image:AZdoor09.jpg]]</center>

* Esc to DEselect the section we just put over the doorway.
* From the north you should see it is the wrong texture for that recess and that big room.
* Shift+Ctrl+LMB to select its north ''face'' in the recess and re-texture it to the same as the other walls in the recess (same as the big room.) You can copy and paste the texture or get it from the Texture Browser by just clicking it there.
* You will also need to re-align/rotate the texture on the doorframe if you didn't do that side before

If you examine what has been done by moving about in the camera view you will see the 'deliberate' mistake in the little piece of floor in the recess. Hide the door and you can see there is a gap. Here is a side view.

<center>[[Image:AZdoor10.jpg]]</center>

Just select that side view in the grid view and resize it to close the gap. The doorway should be complete. Zoom around in camera view and check it out.

I suggest you clone a light in that big room and drag it near the recess for now.

{{key|CTRL}}+{{key|S}} to save and then Save As with a new name.

You can now dmap (the new name.) If you get a leak error then use File Menu > Pointfile in Dark Radiant to see a red line pointing the track of the leak. Did you leave a gap? (For details on fixing leaks & pointfile see [[Leaking maps]] and [[Performance: Essential Must-Knows#Build Airtight. Seal out the Void. Avoid Leaks]])

Map to play through and check it looks OK.

== Ambient Light: Gloom not Doom ==

Notice how harsh and black the shadows are in this mission? You need shadows for atmosphere and to hide in a stealth game but seeing nothing at all but blackness is not popular among players so we are going to add ambient light.

Ambient light is a steady background low light casting no shadows. The light has a radius but it does not fade from its centre; it's brightness is constant throughout its radius. Except for special cases the ambient light should be present throughout a mission as the minimum light when no other light is present. The ambient can also add a little colour so different ambient lights might illuminate a crystal grotto as pale blue; a lava cave with a ruddy glow, and so on. But unless you have special needs like that then one ambient is sufficient for the whole mission.

* Press Esc to DEselect everything (from now on I'll not mention this. Take care!)
* From the grid view RMB menu, create a light in the centre of the mission. This might be just below the bottom right corner of the big room by the time we are finished but we cannot put an entity or a light in the void; it will cause a leak error. One might create a tiny room there in isolation just for the light but it does not need to be exactly centred so stick it in the bottom right corner of the big room.
* Increase its radius to cover both rooms completely either by dragging or adjusting its radius in the Entity Inspector. Keep its centre roughly in the bottom right corner of that room. It only needs to roughly cover the rooms and can stick out on all sides.
* Check the side view for height.

===ambient_world helps performance===

If the main ambient light is named ''ambient_world'' then Dark Mod provides an option for a virtual ambient light to help performance so it is essential that you do this. It makes a significant difference to low-end system frame rates.

* In the Entity Inspector select the 'name' line
* In the input at the bottom change it to ambient_world. Click the check button
* Esc to DEselect it
* Press J to list entities.
* Click the map in the list and the whole list will open up
* You should see ambient_world in there.
* Click it and your light is selected and its radius reveals it clearly

In this way you can name anything you want for your own convenience both so you can identify and find them easily. The list is in ASCII order so capitals first then lower case,thereafter in alphabetical order.

* with the light selected, press L for the Light Inspector
* Click the white rectangle Colour button and reduce the brightness (Value) to 8 or 10 and click OK.
* Also in the Light Inspector you will see a list headed 'Light Texture' with 'fog' and 'lights' in the list; click the + sign against 'lights' to open up its list
* In the 'lights' list select 'lights/ambientLightnfo'; this immediately goes in the properties of the light.
* L to close the Light Inspector

The actual brightness is a matter of taste. Players should be able to dimly see texture even in the darkest corners. But don't make the ambient too bright or you get flat, washed out, missions with poor atmosphere and it will be hard for the player to judge where to hide if there are no good shadows. Judge your mission over a few days sometimes on a bright day; sometimes at night before you decide on the best compromise that you like. The player's in-game brightness setting and personal preferences will also affect how the game appears so it is not an easy thing to judge. Review the guidelines at [[Virtual Darkness]]

Generally speaking, an ambient light of below 3 is going to be too dark; 10 or above rather too light. Thief's Den was released with an ambient of 4. Also consider does your mission have lots of dark textures? You might raise the ambient a little if so. Your choice. I shall use 4 for this mission because our main stone walls are quite light. Whatever you choose, reconsider when finished and all the other lights have been placed. I use a brighter ambient in these earlier stages while testing but remember to turn it down when you do the final lighting later.

Tip: Try to avoid large areas of ''only'' ambient light with here and there a 'real' light such as a torch. Instead, think of lighting most of your FM plus some shadows to hide in. Yes, it's not realistic. In real life at night a large house might be completely dark but it's not good stealth gameplay fun and large areas of ambient lighting look flat. There are exceptions of course but generally lots of light with shadows for the player to hide in looks much more atmospheric and lifts the visual quality (of course avoid too many lights especially if they overlap because they reduce performance.)

Check out your mission now in-game. That ambient lifts it tremendously right? You might even want to remove or reduce some of the other lights. Remember, they are all temporary still and we shall do proper lighting later on.

{{A-Z Beginner Guide TOC}}

A - Z Beginner Full Guide Start Here!

2013-02-01T14:24:33Z

Zbyl: Clarifications in Resizing a Light

{{A-Z Beginner Guide TOC}}
'''''PLEASE NOTE: THIS GUIDE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE "THIEF'S DEN" DEMO MISSION RELEASED JAN 18TH, 2008.'''''

== Introduction ==

Since writing this I've created a [[Startpack Mappers' Guide]] which is a ready made FM template with a set of ready made components to make it even easier to make a Dark Mod FM because it already includes things like objectives, briefing, readables, etc. etc and you just modify them and concentrate on building. However, I recommend you first follow this guide so you have some understanding of the basics and then the startpack will make more sense.

This is an easy guide for complete beginners to Dark Mod. It will lead you from start to finish, 'push that button, click that menu' and at the end you will have a fully working (but tiny) Dark Mod mission with all the main essential features including objectives all zipped up. You will be able to include variations of your own as you progress if you wish. Links to more detailed info is included but ignore those first time if you wish. Creating this mission is a learning process: although others will be able to play it, it will be too simple for that purpose - though it might be fun to see how varied the results might be from different players following the same instructions! When finished you can modify it and customise it to learn more or just shelve it for reference while you start your ''real'' mission!

This tutorial does not describe how to make your mission architecturally beautiful - just the opposite; the build may be as crude, quick, and ugly as you like. Nor does it advise how to design for good gameplay, etc. For that you should go to [[Mission Design Tips]] after you have mastered the basics. This is a ''method'' tutorial, not a ''design'' tutorial. Nor can it answer every question. It will merely present the most basic information for making a complete mission.

Feel free to experiment, add to, or even skip parts you already know or seem obvious, especially if you have a background producing Doom or Quake maps.

This guide was inspired by Komag's famous tutorial which helped a great many Dromeders (including myself) to get started producing Thief 2 FMs. If you are or were a Dromeder then you might first like to browse quickly through [[Dromed - Dark Mod Differences]] before proceeding - though it is not essential for this tutorial as I am trying to make few assumptions of prior knowledge. It will refer to default keys/mouse settings in Dard Radiant (editor - see later) so if you have changed any hot keys in Dark Radiant's help menu then keep that in mind. Also note that any screenshots might be in a different colour to your settings of course.

== Installation ==

This tutorial assumes that you have Dark Mod already installed. If not, please refer to [http://www.thedarkmod.com The Dark Mod] website for information.

Alternatively you can use the limited Dark Mod resources provided by the pre-release demo mission [[Thief's Den]]

== The Dark Mod Editor ==

To edit Dark Mod missions you will need a game editor. '''This tutorial is based on the [[Dark Radiant]] editor''' (hereinafter may be called DR) but you can possibly follow most of it in other editors like DoomEd. Variations might be shown where possible but it will mainly assume Dark Radiant. If you haven't got Dark Radiant yet, consult the [[Dark Radiant]] sections, install it and set it up how you like it. If you want to use DoomEd then you need to look elsewhere first. DoomEd of course is supplied with Doom.

You might wish to open the [[Dark Radiant Controls, Keys & Mouse|DR Controls]] page in a new window in your web browser for quick reference while following this tutorial. I'll try to make it so you don't need to!

Make sure you can run Dark Mod and your editor before proceeding. In particular remember you can undo your last step(s) (edit menu or {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|Z}})

== Your First Mission ==

Let's get started.

* Open Dark Radiant (hereinafter DR) and also open Dark Mod for quick testing.
* If you have a mission already open in DR then select File menu > New Map to clear it.
* Save it now as any suitable name. You might prefer to save later but I always do it immediately. All missions must go (with exceptions I will describe later in [[A - Z Beginner Full Guide Page 5#Managing your Mission Files|Managing your Mission Files]]) in the darkmod\maps folder or a folder within that. I urge you to create a new folder for each project within that maps folder. In this case:
# Open File Menu > Save As
# Make sure you are in the 'maps' folder.
# Select 'Create Folder' and type in say 'tutorial'. You might prefer 'Tut' or even 'T' because you have to keep typing it over and over in the Dark Mod console when testing!
# Select that folder
# Enter the name of your mission at the top.
* The game will be saved as a 'map' file with a .map suffix and is commonly called a 'map' in Doom circles. But I will use the term 'mission' or 'FM' (Fan Mission) or maybe 'game' for the map file to try to avoid confusion with actual 'city' or 'treasure' maps within the mission.

First, let's consider our rough storyline so we have some idea what to build...

== Story, Briefing ==

Formal mission objectives will be described much later in this tutorial. But before you begin your mission you will obviously need to have at least some idea of storyline and plot else you will have no idea what to build. You might have a detailed story or just some simple ideas which you can develop later.

Ultimately, you will need to brief the player with information about the story, characters, and the main purpose of the mission. It probably makes sense to write that fully when you are nearly finished the mission because new ideas or even technical difficulties might make you change your story. However, in this tutorial I'll describe it early so as you build the mission the layout and objects make sense.

Your briefing text should eventually be entered as described at [[Briefing]] but temporarily you might just write it in a plain text document for reference.

This mini tutorial mission is called 'Thief's Den' so here is an example briefing ('''not''' in correct format for the gui or .xd file):

"I had a nice haul the other night including a grand scepter from Lord Frothley. But a low-life named Creep who had given me the info, then stole it from ME! Never trust a thief I say. But I know where he lives...

I also still have his message in his own hand, giving the low-down. If I can dispose of Creep and drop the message nearby then he should take the heat for the heist diverting all suspicion from me.

Creep is a nasty piece of work who is handy with a blade. He can be dangerous and may be expecting me - may even have recruited a thug or two as back up - but he has badly underestimated my stealth skills..."

== Preparing to Build ==

When you open Dark Radiant it will default to a grid size (in the XYZ orthoview) of 8 units by 8 (changeable from version 0.9.5 onwards.) These [[Conversion of Game Units|units]] are 1.1 inches. Check your preference (default key P) in DR as it will be easier during this tutorial if you have the following checked (ticked) in Preferences > Orthoview...

* Show Grid
* Show Size Info
* Show Coordinates

'''Important:''' It is recommend you generally build with the grid set reasonably to a large size such as the default 8 or 16 for all walls, floors, etc. This makes alignment easier. You can reduce this in the grid menu for fine placement but don't leave it like that generally or you will have complexity problems. Snap to grid ([[Image:DRsnapGrid.jpg]], {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|G}}) will re-align a selection to the current grid size.

We'll mostly be working in the XYZ grid orthoview but if you have room for the camera view at the side so much the better. The camera view does a rough render in 3D (F3 toggles a better rendering with lighting etc but keep that off if it slows things down which it is likely to and just use it now and again.)

* Note the origin icon of the 'world' at 0,0,0 in the grid view
* Zoom in and out with the mouse wheel
* Right mouse drag the grid view to scroll around (zoom out further to scroll around faster)
* Use ''Change views'' tool ([[Image:DRnextViewBut.jpg]], {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|Tab}}) to toggle between top (XY), front (XZ), and side (YZ) views (you can open aditional windows using menu <tt>View > New XY view</tt>).

The blank windows in the grid and camera views can be regarded as empty void - the space in which we shall build. We have to build in bubbles sealed off from that void like an airtight spaceship or a submarine. Any gaps will cause leaks and crash your game so it's obviously the first major rule to learn: always build inner spaces sealed off from the outer void

Apart from special materials like water and weather, all the raw material you will use is 'solid' to form different shapes. So we can make panels and place them together to form lots of floating airtight boxes and these can be linked together. The entire game then takes place inside those boxes. One box can hold a tiny cupboard or an entire cathedral and a lot of boxes can hold a city. Inside those boxes you cannot see the void.

A shortcut to putting panels together is to make one solid block and hollow it out to form a box and this is what we are going to do now to form our first room.

== Making Your First Room ==

First we make a rough solid block...

* Select the top view (XY) in the grid view (toggle with [[Image:DRnextViewBut.jpg]]).
* Left mouse drag out a rectangle any few grid units across in the middle somewhere.
* This rectangle is called a 'brush' and used to define raw shapes for walls, floors etc.
* Left drag ''within'' that brush to drag the brush around
* Select the ''Resize'' tool ([[Image:DRdragResize.jpg]], {{key|Q}}).
* Now left drag ''outside'' that brush to resize it.

Now we adjust its top view area...

* Left drag outside that brush to resize it to 256 across left to right (X direction) by 192 up and down (Y direction in top view.) You should see those dimensions at the sides of the rectangle if you have 'Show Size Info' set in Edit > Preferences > Orthoview. The position of the top left corner is in brackets at top left.
* Left drag within the brush to move it so its sides fit on the bigger grid. If all sides don't fit then check your dimensions and that you are still in grid size 8 (see grid menu.)
* I prefer to build up in the top right corner from the world 0,0,0 so none of the values are negatives but you decide for yourself. Move it where you want but ideally so the sides are on the big grid.

Now we adjust its height to get our finished block (brush)...

* Use [[Image:DRnextViewBut.jpg]] ({{key|CTRL}}+{{key|Tab}}) to switch to side (YZ) or front (XZ) view and left drag outside the brush to change its height to 128
* Left drag inside the brush to move it up and down so its sides are on a big grid same as you did in the top view.
* You should now have brush 256 x 192 x 128 (see [[Conversion of Game Units#Tips|Unit Tips]])

<center>[[Image:AZblock.jpg]]</center>

== Selecting and DEselecting ==

We only have one item in our view but eventually many. Operations only work on what is currently selected. When you have just created something as we just have it is automatically the current selection and should be highlighted in your views (see DR Preferences for colour.)

* To DEselect it, point your mouse at it in either the grid or camera view and use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{LMB}} (or just press the {{key|Esc}} key.)
*To select it again, point your mouse at it and use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{LMB}} again.

Selecting is something you'll do a lot of so get familiar with that {{key|SHIFT}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{LMB}}. It's an exclusive select to get just one item. There are other selects I'll describe later. The {{key|Esc}} key always deselects and it is vitally important to get into the habit of DEselecting before you select or create something new or in some cases you will have multiple selections without knowing it and can delete or change something you didn't want to. This is why the {{key|SHIFT}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{LMB}} is the safest select as it is exclusive and will automatically DEselect anything else that was left selected. But it won't protect an item when creating. Yes, it is possible to have say a brush selected, forget it is selected, then create say, a new light. Oh! what happened to the brush? It's gone - replaced by the light. Develop a nervous habit of keep hitting {{key|Esc}} to deselect when you go to create!

From now on I'll use LMB, MMB, and RMB to refer to the mouse buttons.

== Camera View ==

You should be able to see this block in the camera view. If the camera view is just black remember {{key|F3}} toggles true light rendering and we don't yet have a light so hit {{key|F3}} to get a constant bright test light throughout. I won't go into details of all the camera controls suffice to say use the arrow keys and {{key|D}} and {{key|C}} to move vertically. But scroll down to 'camera' in [[Dark Radiant Controls, Keys & Mouse]] and you will see a fantastic amount of control you have in DR's camera view - especially with the mouse. It will take time to get used to them all so for now perhaps just learn enough to move around to see what you've done so far.

If you can see your block(brush) in the camera view then it is likely not to have any particular texture unless you were doing something before this tutorial. Close up you may see it is covered in a checkered blue 'shader not found' message. Don't worry if it's covered in something else like stone or wood though. Since it will eventually be hollowed out to form a room, let's paint it now with some material more suitable to the Dark Mod universe...

== Materials, Textures, Painting the Block ==

This is the tiny home of a cheap thief so we'll use some old stonework.

I've mentioned 'textures', 'shaders', and 'materials'; what do these terms mean? A 'material' or 'shader' is the properties of a surface, including (but not necessarily) texture, sound, and others. To 'paint' our block we...

* Select the Media Browser. This is one of the tabs on a panel. Pressing N or T hides/shows the whole panel but I guess most people leave the panel showing all the time and just select the tab they want.
* Allow a few seconds for DR to read in the media first time and then you should see 'textures' listed
* Click 'textures' and it opens up to show all available textures. Many of the ones you see are Doom textures. Scroll down and select 'darkmod' which reveals the ones most suitable for our use. Scroll down to stone, open it, then cobblestones and select blocks_mixed_multicolour. Right click it and select 'Apply to selection'. This covers all surfaces of the block because we have still got selected the whole block not just one surface. You should see this in the camera view. Use this throughout the house (and eventually on its outside surface for consistency.)
* Select the Texture Browser. This is one of the tabs on the same panel as Media Browser. The Texture Browser only shows recently used textures. You should see only the one texture you selected so it's handy for future use. Odds are you will want to re-use the same textures. It will also show other textures if you clicked on them in the media browser plus any others if you were using DR before this tutorial. You can also copy and paste textures onto single or multiple surfaces (see later.)
* Hover the mouse over the four little buttons at the top of the Texture Browser and read the text so you have some idea of what features are there for the future. For now, click on the one that says 'Flush and Reload Shaders' and it should clear all of them except the one we put on our brush. As we add others they will appear in the texture browser so you can get to them more quickly.
* Now, press S for Surface Inspector (or View menu)
* If you have only one face selected (more about this later) you can set Horiz and Vert scale. Value like 0.3 makes it harder for the player to see any pattern repetition (in this situation and in my opinion - use your own judgement with other textures and wall sizes.) In the mean time you can use arrow buttons to adjust the scale for the whole selected brush. Whatever scale you use, generally you should be consistent with it for the same texture wherever used in a mission. If you use copy and paste then it will transfer the scale as well which is far easier.
* There will be more on texture adjustment later in this tutorial.

== Hollowing out a Room from the Block ==

Building to a large grid size helps performance. The outside of our block will never be seen in the game. Once we hollow it out then the player will only see the inside so that is the surface that is rendered and that we need to align to the large grid. There are two tools to hollow out a block, both activated by a button on the left button bar: one called 'hollow' and the other 'room'. Don't use 'hollow' as it reduces the internal sides so they don't fit the big grid AND it overlaps the corners which can cause rendering errors like so....

<center>BAD!</center> 
<center>[[Image:AZhollow.jpg]]</center> 

Instead use the 'room' button which does the job right (note the increased size so the ''internal'' dimensions will be the same as our original block and align to the big grid... 

<center>GOOD!</center> 
<center>[[Image:AZroom.jpg]]</center> 

All brushes in Doom must be convex. They cannot have any inward angles (like an L shape which would have to be two brushes together) and cannot actually be hollow. The above tools really create new side panel brushes to replace the original brush. In the case of our six-sided block that is six new brushes positioned as walls, floor, and ceiling. ''The walls they create are one small grid line wide so their width will vary depending on your grid size setting.''

Examine the block in the camera view and zoom right inside so you can see it internally which is where it will be seen in game. Note the texture aligns nicely because we stuck to a big grid size. The stone is appropriate for all four walls (which is why I textured the whole block in one go rather than one surface at a time) but now we need different textures for floor and ceiling...

== Selecting and Texturing Individual Surfaces ==

'''You cannot select a surface in the grid view''' so move inside the room in the camera view.

'''To texture the floor...'''

* Press Esc to make sure everything is DEselected
* Point at the floor and use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{LMB}}. Repeat a few times and you will see it selects/DEselects the surface. Keep it selected.
* Select the Media Browser again (on the tabbed panel)
* In the darkmod section select say stone/cobblestones or maybe you would like some wood/boards/worn_01 ? You choose but something like carpet might need special alignment so stick with stones or boards maybe for now? Remember - RIGHT click the texture name and select 'Apply to Selection'
* Alternatively you can click on several possibles then select them with one LMB in the Texture Browser on the other tab. In the Texture Browser you can enlarge the textures if preferred to see them better.
* Esc to DEselect so you can see it better in camera view.

'''To texture the ceiling...'''

* Press Esc to make sure everything is DEselected
* Point at the ceiling and use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{LMB}} again to select its surface.
* Select the Media Browser again (on the tabbed panel)
* In the darkmod section select say plaster/plaster01 and apply it.

'''If you change your mind about the walls you can change them to something else...'''

* Press Esc to make sure everything is DEselected
* Point at one wall and use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{LMB}} again to select its surface.
* Point at another wall use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{LMB}} again so now both surfaces are selected
* 'Accidentally' select the ceiling. No problem. Just use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{LMB}} on it again to DEselect it but the walls are still selected. In this way you can select which surfaces you want to select.
* Select the Media Browser again and just apply another type of stone, perhaps brick, to the walls if you want or just leave it as it is.

Now press {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|S}} to resave the mission or use the File menu. Get into the habit of doing this often unless you have autosave set. Now and again you can also save with a new name so you can go back to an earlier one if you totally mess up. Note: There is also a backup file made automatically by DR.

== Adding the Player's Start Point ==

One more thing is ''essential'' to play this in Dark Mod and that is the Player's starting position.

* Press Esc to DEselect everything.
* In the TOP grid view, point the mouse in the middle of the room and RMB to get a pop up menu. This menu is important so glance at some of the other items on it while you're here. 'Entities' are special function items and the player start is amongst them but there is a shortcut on the menu so instead...
* Select "Create Player Start here" on the menu. This will create the playerstart entity (red box) and put it where you clicked. Drag the entity around to the point where you want the player to start.
* You should see an arrow on the red box indicating the way the player will face at the start. If you cannot see the arrow then menu <tt>View > Show > Show Angles</tt> will reveal it. You can rotate the player by selecting ''Rotate'' tool ([[Image:DRrotate.jpg]], {{key|R}}) and dragging with the mouse.
* Use {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|Tab}} to switch to the side view (YZ) and use LMB to drag the ''inside'' of the player start box so its base is on the floor of the room (you can also use ''Translate'' tool, [[Image:DRtranslate.jpg]], {{key|W}}). Make sure you do not go below or the floor or the player might be stuck with his feet in concrete! Tip: In Thief games it was common to start just dropping over a wall with this player start a few feet above the ground. You might note that entities do not directly resize like brushes so LMB dragging on the ''outside'' of the box does nothing (unless you have selected the ''Translate'' tool).
* RMB in the grid view again and you will see there is now a ''Move player start here'' option so you can quickly move its position while testing different areas of your mission. But always remember to check both the side and top view when moving things around, to make sure the vertical position is also valid. (Also note that ''Move player start here'' does not ''select'' the player start - you will need to select it if you need to adjust its position by dragging.)
* With the player start still selected you can select the Entity Inspector (on the panel, or {{key|N}} to hide/show it) and see the properties of your first entity.

The game could now be played but it will be totally dark so we need to create at least one light.....

== Creating a Light ==

* Press Esc to DEselect everything.
* In the TOP grid view, point the mouse in the ''middle'' of the room and RMB to get the pop up menu.
* Select "Create Light" on the menu.
* A large red box appears with diagonals representing the light's centre and its rough 'radius'. The default light is more like six pyramids pointing out to their peaks in the centre of each side of the box. This gives a rough impression of a sphere of light and helps performance.
* {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|TAB}} to get a side view and LMB drag ''right in the centre of the light'' to move it up/down to centre it in the room if it is not already. Just dragging inside the radius box won't move it - you have to point at the centre.

== Resizing a Light ==

Resizing a light is awkward because dragging any side moves the centre (this might be changed in a later Dark Radiant.) Two ways of dealing with this. Just roughly drag it about and keep moving the light back to where you want it. But if you have very precisely positioned a light then you don't want to have to keep doing that so this is what I do...

* Select the Entity Inspector on the panel
* You should see it has a light radius property with three values for XYZ for the three dimensions. They are north and south for Y, east and west for X, and up and down for Z. (those are the compass directions in game by the way.)
* Click on the light radius property to highlight it.
* Note that its values appear in a choice of inputs at the bottom - You can type new values in a line with a space in between then click the check(tick) button or enter them as separate values or even use the little scrolly buttons at the side and then click the Apply button.
* The room interior is 192 x 256 x 128 (in XYZ order) so give the light radius the values 200 260 133 so it protrudes outside the walls (we're setting radius - so the light diameter will be twice that size). We may well change this again later if we want the light to spill out through a doorway or something.
* You can now toggle light rendering in the preview using {{Key|F3}} (or an icon in the preview toolbar) to see how the light affects the walls.

The light radius is not just a cut-off point. It can be regarded as a 'fade to zero point'. What this means is that the light is at maximum brightness at its centre and fades to zero at the limit of the radius. So in a big open area, if you extend the radius you will 'stretch the brightness' further. Imagine the scale from max to min compacted in a small radius or expanded in a large one. More on this later when we place wall torches.

== Changing a Light's Brightness ==

The light may be a little bright. To change it...

* Press L (or View menu)* to call up the Light Inspector
* Click on the white rectangle button just below where it says 'Colour'
* The brightness value is called erm... 'Value' and should default to 100. Reduce it to 90. It might not matter. I'm just showing you where the control is for now.
* Fool around with the colours if you want - there are extensive features I won't cover here.

Hey! We should have your first working mission! Do a {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|S}} to save it and then follow the next sections in Dark Mod itself not in Dark Radiant.....

== Sound ==

There is no need to do anything special about ''hearing'' sounds such as footsteps, collision sounds, etc. at this stage as it will work automatically. Adding custom sounds will be dealt with later.

== Pathfinding ==

Pathfinding data to tell the AI characters where they can move is created by dmap by default when compiling in the next section...

== Dmap: Compiling the Mission ==

* Your mission file cannot be played itself; it is simply the directions to create a game file. To do this...
* From any Dark Mod menu go to the console. By default, the console is {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{key|~}} (US Keyboards) or {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{key|'}} (UK Keyboards). This key is the top left below Esc and to the left of "1" on all keyboards I believe. But most people set up a shortcut to just use the ~ (` in UK) on its own so:

For single key click to get the console:
In your desktop shortcut to Doom3.exe add this argument to its properties (right click shortcut): '''''+set com_allowConsole 1''''' so the target line would be something like:

'''''C:\Doom3\doom3.exe +set com_allowConsole 1'''''

(plus any other arguments you might want)
* In the console type and Enter dmap Tut/T001 where you should substitute your subfolder name for Tut and your mission filename for T001. So, if you created your mission file directly in the maps folder then you do not need a folder name and can put dmap T001. If you made a subfolder in maps called MyMaps and named your mission MissionImpossible999.map then enter dmap MyMaps/MissionImpossible999. I recommend you do not use upper case in filenames in Doom as I think it can cause problems on other platforms.
* Wait while dmap compiles the mission. This should only be a few seconds with this tiny mission but will be much longer for big missions.
* If you get a 'leaked' error or some other serious red warning then recheck your work; look for gaps in the wall or a wrong texture like nodraw or have you got an entity outside in the void? See [[Performance: Essential Must-Knows#How to detect and fix leaks|HERE]] for more about fixing leaks but at this stage of this tutorial it might be easier just to redo. What I have laboured over is basically make a block, texture it, hollow it, stick in a player start and a light. As you get more proficient you can do it in less than a minute.
* Assuming there were no dmap red "ERROR"s then you should be returned to the Dark Mod menus and are now able to play the mission.
* Return to the console.
* Type and Enter map Tut/T001. Tip: Press the up arrow key toggles back through the history of what you have typed before so your dmap should re-appear. Just press the Home key and delete the 'd'. An alternative is to use 'testmap' instead of dmap which does both dmap and map but I prefer to see dmap's results.
* You should now be able to walk around in the room. If you have a player shadow set then you might notice that walking through that light looks odd so keep that in mind for light placement. But most lights you will place close to a visible source like a gaslight or wall torch.

That's the first part done!

{{A-Z Beginner Guide TOC}}

{{tutorial-editing}}

A - Z Beginner Full Guide Start Here!

2013-02-01T14:09:47Z

Zbyl: Clarifications in Adding the Player's Start Point

{{A-Z Beginner Guide TOC}}
'''''PLEASE NOTE: THIS GUIDE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE "THIEF'S DEN" DEMO MISSION RELEASED JAN 18TH, 2008.'''''

== Introduction ==

Since writing this I've created a [[Startpack Mappers' Guide]] which is a ready made FM template with a set of ready made components to make it even easier to make a Dark Mod FM because it already includes things like objectives, briefing, readables, etc. etc and you just modify them and concentrate on building. However, I recommend you first follow this guide so you have some understanding of the basics and then the startpack will make more sense.

This is an easy guide for complete beginners to Dark Mod. It will lead you from start to finish, 'push that button, click that menu' and at the end you will have a fully working (but tiny) Dark Mod mission with all the main essential features including objectives all zipped up. You will be able to include variations of your own as you progress if you wish. Links to more detailed info is included but ignore those first time if you wish. Creating this mission is a learning process: although others will be able to play it, it will be too simple for that purpose - though it might be fun to see how varied the results might be from different players following the same instructions! When finished you can modify it and customise it to learn more or just shelve it for reference while you start your ''real'' mission!

This tutorial does not describe how to make your mission architecturally beautiful - just the opposite; the build may be as crude, quick, and ugly as you like. Nor does it advise how to design for good gameplay, etc. For that you should go to [[Mission Design Tips]] after you have mastered the basics. This is a ''method'' tutorial, not a ''design'' tutorial. Nor can it answer every question. It will merely present the most basic information for making a complete mission.

Feel free to experiment, add to, or even skip parts you already know or seem obvious, especially if you have a background producing Doom or Quake maps.

This guide was inspired by Komag's famous tutorial which helped a great many Dromeders (including myself) to get started producing Thief 2 FMs. If you are or were a Dromeder then you might first like to browse quickly through [[Dromed - Dark Mod Differences]] before proceeding - though it is not essential for this tutorial as I am trying to make few assumptions of prior knowledge. It will refer to default keys/mouse settings in Dard Radiant (editor - see later) so if you have changed any hot keys in Dark Radiant's help menu then keep that in mind. Also note that any screenshots might be in a different colour to your settings of course.

== Installation ==

This tutorial assumes that you have Dark Mod already installed. If not, please refer to [http://www.thedarkmod.com The Dark Mod] website for information.

Alternatively you can use the limited Dark Mod resources provided by the pre-release demo mission [[Thief's Den]]

== The Dark Mod Editor ==

To edit Dark Mod missions you will need a game editor. '''This tutorial is based on the [[Dark Radiant]] editor''' (hereinafter may be called DR) but you can possibly follow most of it in other editors like DoomEd. Variations might be shown where possible but it will mainly assume Dark Radiant. If you haven't got Dark Radiant yet, consult the [[Dark Radiant]] sections, install it and set it up how you like it. If you want to use DoomEd then you need to look elsewhere first. DoomEd of course is supplied with Doom.

You might wish to open the [[Dark Radiant Controls, Keys & Mouse|DR Controls]] page in a new window in your web browser for quick reference while following this tutorial. I'll try to make it so you don't need to!

Make sure you can run Dark Mod and your editor before proceeding. In particular remember you can undo your last step(s) (edit menu or {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|Z}})

== Your First Mission ==

Let's get started.

* Open Dark Radiant (hereinafter DR) and also open Dark Mod for quick testing.
* If you have a mission already open in DR then select File menu > New Map to clear it.
* Save it now as any suitable name. You might prefer to save later but I always do it immediately. All missions must go (with exceptions I will describe later in [[A - Z Beginner Full Guide Page 5#Managing your Mission Files|Managing your Mission Files]]) in the darkmod\maps folder or a folder within that. I urge you to create a new folder for each project within that maps folder. In this case:
# Open File Menu > Save As
# Make sure you are in the 'maps' folder.
# Select 'Create Folder' and type in say 'tutorial'. You might prefer 'Tut' or even 'T' because you have to keep typing it over and over in the Dark Mod console when testing!
# Select that folder
# Enter the name of your mission at the top.
* The game will be saved as a 'map' file with a .map suffix and is commonly called a 'map' in Doom circles. But I will use the term 'mission' or 'FM' (Fan Mission) or maybe 'game' for the map file to try to avoid confusion with actual 'city' or 'treasure' maps within the mission.

First, let's consider our rough storyline so we have some idea what to build...

== Story, Briefing ==

Formal mission objectives will be described much later in this tutorial. But before you begin your mission you will obviously need to have at least some idea of storyline and plot else you will have no idea what to build. You might have a detailed story or just some simple ideas which you can develop later.

Ultimately, you will need to brief the player with information about the story, characters, and the main purpose of the mission. It probably makes sense to write that fully when you are nearly finished the mission because new ideas or even technical difficulties might make you change your story. However, in this tutorial I'll describe it early so as you build the mission the layout and objects make sense.

Your briefing text should eventually be entered as described at [[Briefing]] but temporarily you might just write it in a plain text document for reference.

This mini tutorial mission is called 'Thief's Den' so here is an example briefing ('''not''' in correct format for the gui or .xd file):

"I had a nice haul the other night including a grand scepter from Lord Frothley. But a low-life named Creep who had given me the info, then stole it from ME! Never trust a thief I say. But I know where he lives...

I also still have his message in his own hand, giving the low-down. If I can dispose of Creep and drop the message nearby then he should take the heat for the heist diverting all suspicion from me.

Creep is a nasty piece of work who is handy with a blade. He can be dangerous and may be expecting me - may even have recruited a thug or two as back up - but he has badly underestimated my stealth skills..."

== Preparing to Build ==

When you open Dark Radiant it will default to a grid size (in the XYZ orthoview) of 8 units by 8 (changeable from version 0.9.5 onwards.) These [[Conversion of Game Units|units]] are 1.1 inches. Check your preference (default key P) in DR as it will be easier during this tutorial if you have the following checked (ticked) in Preferences > Orthoview...

* Show Grid
* Show Size Info
* Show Coordinates

'''Important:''' It is recommend you generally build with the grid set reasonably to a large size such as the default 8 or 16 for all walls, floors, etc. This makes alignment easier. You can reduce this in the grid menu for fine placement but don't leave it like that generally or you will have complexity problems. Snap to grid ([[Image:DRsnapGrid.jpg]], {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|G}}) will re-align a selection to the current grid size.

We'll mostly be working in the XYZ grid orthoview but if you have room for the camera view at the side so much the better. The camera view does a rough render in 3D (F3 toggles a better rendering with lighting etc but keep that off if it slows things down which it is likely to and just use it now and again.)

* Note the origin icon of the 'world' at 0,0,0 in the grid view
* Zoom in and out with the mouse wheel
* Right mouse drag the grid view to scroll around (zoom out further to scroll around faster)
* Use ''Change views'' tool ([[Image:DRnextViewBut.jpg]], {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|Tab}}) to toggle between top (XY), front (XZ), and side (YZ) views (you can open aditional windows using menu <tt>View > New XY view</tt>).

The blank windows in the grid and camera views can be regarded as empty void - the space in which we shall build. We have to build in bubbles sealed off from that void like an airtight spaceship or a submarine. Any gaps will cause leaks and crash your game so it's obviously the first major rule to learn: always build inner spaces sealed off from the outer void

Apart from special materials like water and weather, all the raw material you will use is 'solid' to form different shapes. So we can make panels and place them together to form lots of floating airtight boxes and these can be linked together. The entire game then takes place inside those boxes. One box can hold a tiny cupboard or an entire cathedral and a lot of boxes can hold a city. Inside those boxes you cannot see the void.

A shortcut to putting panels together is to make one solid block and hollow it out to form a box and this is what we are going to do now to form our first room.

== Making Your First Room ==

First we make a rough solid block...

* Select the top view (XY) in the grid view (toggle with [[Image:DRnextViewBut.jpg]]).
* Left mouse drag out a rectangle any few grid units across in the middle somewhere.
* This rectangle is called a 'brush' and used to define raw shapes for walls, floors etc.
* Left drag ''within'' that brush to drag the brush around
* Select the ''Resize'' tool ([[Image:DRdragResize.jpg]], {{key|Q}}).
* Now left drag ''outside'' that brush to resize it.

Now we adjust its top view area...

* Left drag outside that brush to resize it to 256 across left to right (X direction) by 192 up and down (Y direction in top view.) You should see those dimensions at the sides of the rectangle if you have 'Show Size Info' set in Edit > Preferences > Orthoview. The position of the top left corner is in brackets at top left.
* Left drag within the brush to move it so its sides fit on the bigger grid. If all sides don't fit then check your dimensions and that you are still in grid size 8 (see grid menu.)
* I prefer to build up in the top right corner from the world 0,0,0 so none of the values are negatives but you decide for yourself. Move it where you want but ideally so the sides are on the big grid.

Now we adjust its height to get our finished block (brush)...

* Use [[Image:DRnextViewBut.jpg]] ({{key|CTRL}}+{{key|Tab}}) to switch to side (YZ) or front (XZ) view and left drag outside the brush to change its height to 128
* Left drag inside the brush to move it up and down so its sides are on a big grid same as you did in the top view.
* You should now have brush 256 x 192 x 128 (see [[Conversion of Game Units#Tips|Unit Tips]])

<center>[[Image:AZblock.jpg]]</center>

== Selecting and DEselecting ==

We only have one item in our view but eventually many. Operations only work on what is currently selected. When you have just created something as we just have it is automatically the current selection and should be highlighted in your views (see DR Preferences for colour.)

* To DEselect it, point your mouse at it in either the grid or camera view and use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{LMB}} (or just press the {{key|Esc}} key.)
*To select it again, point your mouse at it and use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{LMB}} again.

Selecting is something you'll do a lot of so get familiar with that {{key|SHIFT}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{LMB}}. It's an exclusive select to get just one item. There are other selects I'll describe later. The {{key|Esc}} key always deselects and it is vitally important to get into the habit of DEselecting before you select or create something new or in some cases you will have multiple selections without knowing it and can delete or change something you didn't want to. This is why the {{key|SHIFT}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{LMB}} is the safest select as it is exclusive and will automatically DEselect anything else that was left selected. But it won't protect an item when creating. Yes, it is possible to have say a brush selected, forget it is selected, then create say, a new light. Oh! what happened to the brush? It's gone - replaced by the light. Develop a nervous habit of keep hitting {{key|Esc}} to deselect when you go to create!

From now on I'll use LMB, MMB, and RMB to refer to the mouse buttons.

== Camera View ==

You should be able to see this block in the camera view. If the camera view is just black remember {{key|F3}} toggles true light rendering and we don't yet have a light so hit {{key|F3}} to get a constant bright test light throughout. I won't go into details of all the camera controls suffice to say use the arrow keys and {{key|D}} and {{key|C}} to move vertically. But scroll down to 'camera' in [[Dark Radiant Controls, Keys & Mouse]] and you will see a fantastic amount of control you have in DR's camera view - especially with the mouse. It will take time to get used to them all so for now perhaps just learn enough to move around to see what you've done so far.

If you can see your block(brush) in the camera view then it is likely not to have any particular texture unless you were doing something before this tutorial. Close up you may see it is covered in a checkered blue 'shader not found' message. Don't worry if it's covered in something else like stone or wood though. Since it will eventually be hollowed out to form a room, let's paint it now with some material more suitable to the Dark Mod universe...

== Materials, Textures, Painting the Block ==

This is the tiny home of a cheap thief so we'll use some old stonework.

I've mentioned 'textures', 'shaders', and 'materials'; what do these terms mean? A 'material' or 'shader' is the properties of a surface, including (but not necessarily) texture, sound, and others. To 'paint' our block we...

* Select the Media Browser. This is one of the tabs on a panel. Pressing N or T hides/shows the whole panel but I guess most people leave the panel showing all the time and just select the tab they want.
* Allow a few seconds for DR to read in the media first time and then you should see 'textures' listed
* Click 'textures' and it opens up to show all available textures. Many of the ones you see are Doom textures. Scroll down and select 'darkmod' which reveals the ones most suitable for our use. Scroll down to stone, open it, then cobblestones and select blocks_mixed_multicolour. Right click it and select 'Apply to selection'. This covers all surfaces of the block because we have still got selected the whole block not just one surface. You should see this in the camera view. Use this throughout the house (and eventually on its outside surface for consistency.)
* Select the Texture Browser. This is one of the tabs on the same panel as Media Browser. The Texture Browser only shows recently used textures. You should see only the one texture you selected so it's handy for future use. Odds are you will want to re-use the same textures. It will also show other textures if you clicked on them in the media browser plus any others if you were using DR before this tutorial. You can also copy and paste textures onto single or multiple surfaces (see later.)
* Hover the mouse over the four little buttons at the top of the Texture Browser and read the text so you have some idea of what features are there for the future. For now, click on the one that says 'Flush and Reload Shaders' and it should clear all of them except the one we put on our brush. As we add others they will appear in the texture browser so you can get to them more quickly.
* Now, press S for Surface Inspector (or View menu)
* If you have only one face selected (more about this later) you can set Horiz and Vert scale. Value like 0.3 makes it harder for the player to see any pattern repetition (in this situation and in my opinion - use your own judgement with other textures and wall sizes.) In the mean time you can use arrow buttons to adjust the scale for the whole selected brush. Whatever scale you use, generally you should be consistent with it for the same texture wherever used in a mission. If you use copy and paste then it will transfer the scale as well which is far easier.
* There will be more on texture adjustment later in this tutorial.

== Hollowing out a Room from the Block ==

Building to a large grid size helps performance. The outside of our block will never be seen in the game. Once we hollow it out then the player will only see the inside so that is the surface that is rendered and that we need to align to the large grid. There are two tools to hollow out a block, both activated by a button on the left button bar: one called 'hollow' and the other 'room'. Don't use 'hollow' as it reduces the internal sides so they don't fit the big grid AND it overlaps the corners which can cause rendering errors like so....

<center>BAD!</center> 
<center>[[Image:AZhollow.jpg]]</center> 

Instead use the 'room' button which does the job right (note the increased size so the ''internal'' dimensions will be the same as our original block and align to the big grid... 

<center>GOOD!</center> 
<center>[[Image:AZroom.jpg]]</center> 

All brushes in Doom must be convex. They cannot have any inward angles (like an L shape which would have to be two brushes together) and cannot actually be hollow. The above tools really create new side panel brushes to replace the original brush. In the case of our six-sided block that is six new brushes positioned as walls, floor, and ceiling. ''The walls they create are one small grid line wide so their width will vary depending on your grid size setting.''

Examine the block in the camera view and zoom right inside so you can see it internally which is where it will be seen in game. Note the texture aligns nicely because we stuck to a big grid size. The stone is appropriate for all four walls (which is why I textured the whole block in one go rather than one surface at a time) but now we need different textures for floor and ceiling...

== Selecting and Texturing Individual Surfaces ==

'''You cannot select a surface in the grid view''' so move inside the room in the camera view.

'''To texture the floor...'''

* Press Esc to make sure everything is DEselected
* Point at the floor and use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{LMB}}. Repeat a few times and you will see it selects/DEselects the surface. Keep it selected.
* Select the Media Browser again (on the tabbed panel)
* In the darkmod section select say stone/cobblestones or maybe you would like some wood/boards/worn_01 ? You choose but something like carpet might need special alignment so stick with stones or boards maybe for now? Remember - RIGHT click the texture name and select 'Apply to Selection'
* Alternatively you can click on several possibles then select them with one LMB in the Texture Browser on the other tab. In the Texture Browser you can enlarge the textures if preferred to see them better.
* Esc to DEselect so you can see it better in camera view.

'''To texture the ceiling...'''

* Press Esc to make sure everything is DEselected
* Point at the ceiling and use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{LMB}} again to select its surface.
* Select the Media Browser again (on the tabbed panel)
* In the darkmod section select say plaster/plaster01 and apply it.

'''If you change your mind about the walls you can change them to something else...'''

* Press Esc to make sure everything is DEselected
* Point at one wall and use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{LMB}} again to select its surface.
* Point at another wall use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{LMB}} again so now both surfaces are selected
* 'Accidentally' select the ceiling. No problem. Just use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{LMB}} on it again to DEselect it but the walls are still selected. In this way you can select which surfaces you want to select.
* Select the Media Browser again and just apply another type of stone, perhaps brick, to the walls if you want or just leave it as it is.

Now press {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|S}} to resave the mission or use the File menu. Get into the habit of doing this often unless you have autosave set. Now and again you can also save with a new name so you can go back to an earlier one if you totally mess up. Note: There is also a backup file made automatically by DR.

== Adding the Player's Start Point ==

One more thing is ''essential'' to play this in Dark Mod and that is the Player's starting position.

* Press Esc to DEselect everything.
* In the TOP grid view, point the mouse in the middle of the room and RMB to get a pop up menu. This menu is important so glance at some of the other items on it while you're here. 'Entities' are special function items and the player start is amongst them but there is a shortcut on the menu so instead...
* Select "Create Player Start here" on the menu. This will create the playerstart entity (red box) and put it where you clicked. Drag the entity around to the point where you want the player to start.
* You should see an arrow on the red box indicating the way the player will face at the start. If you cannot see the arrow then menu <tt>View > Show > Show Angles</tt> will reveal it. You can rotate the player by selecting ''Rotate'' tool ([[Image:DRrotate.jpg]], {{key|R}}) and dragging with the mouse.
* Use {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|Tab}} to switch to the side view (YZ) and use LMB to drag the ''inside'' of the player start box so its base is on the floor of the room (you can also use ''Translate'' tool, [[Image:DRtranslate.jpg]], {{key|W}}). Make sure you do not go below or the floor or the player might be stuck with his feet in concrete! Tip: In Thief games it was common to start just dropping over a wall with this player start a few feet above the ground. You might note that entities do not directly resize like brushes so LMB dragging on the ''outside'' of the box does nothing (unless you have selected the ''Translate'' tool).
* RMB in the grid view again and you will see there is now a ''Move player start here'' option so you can quickly move its position while testing different areas of your mission. But always remember to check both the side and top view when moving things around, to make sure the vertical position is also valid. (Also note that ''Move player start here'' does not ''select'' the player start - you will need to select it if you need to adjust its position by dragging.)
* With the player start still selected you can select the Entity Inspector (on the panel, or {{key|N}} to hide/show it) and see the properties of your first entity.

The game could now be played but it will be totally dark so we need to create at least one light.....

== Creating a Light ==

* Press Esc to DEselect everything.
* In the TOP grid view, point the mouse in the ''middle'' of the room and RMB to get the pop up menu.
* Select "Create Light" on the menu.
* A large red box appears with diagonals representing the light's centre and its rough 'radius'. The default light is more like six pyramids pointing out to their peaks in the centre of each side of the box. This gives a rough impression of a sphere of light and helps performance.
* {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|TAB}} to get a side view and LMB drag ''right in the centre of the light'' to move it up/down to centre it in the room if it is not already. Just dragging inside the radius box won't move it - you have to point at the centre.

== Resizing a Light ==

Resizing a light is awkward because dragging any side moves the centre (this might be changed in a later Dark Radiant.) Two ways of dealing with this. Just roughly drag it about and keep moving the light back to where you want it. But if you have very precisely positioned a light then you don't want to have to keep doing that so this is what I do...

* Select the Entity Inspector on the panel
* You should see it has a light radius property with three values for XYZ for the three dimensions. They are north and south for Y, east and west for X, and up and down for Z. (those are the compass directions in game by the way.)
* Click on the light radius property to highlight it.
* Note that its values appear in a choice of inputs at the bottom - You can type new values in a line with a space in between then click the check(tick) button or enter them as separate values or even use the little scrolly buttons at the side and then click the Apply button.
* The room interior is 192 x 256 x 128 (in XYZ order) so give the light radius the values 200 260 133 so it just protrudes outside the walls. We may well change this again later if we want the light to spill out through a doorway or something.

The light radius is not just a cut-off point. It can be regarded as a 'fade to zero point'. What this means is that the light is at maximum brightness at its centre and fades to zero at the limit of the radius. So in a big open area, if you extend the radius you will 'stretch the brightness' further. Imagine the scale from max to min compacted in a small radius or expanded in a large one. More on this later when we place wall torches.

== Changing a Light's Brightness ==

The light may be a little bright. To change it...

* Press L (or View menu)* to call up the Light Inspector
* Click on the white rectangle button just below where it says 'Colour'
* The brightness value is called erm... 'Value' and should default to 100. Reduce it to 90. It might not matter. I'm just showing you where the control is for now.
* Fool around with the colours if you want - there are extensive features I won't cover here.

Hey! We should have your first working mission! Do a {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|S}} to save it and then follow the next sections in Dark Mod itself not in Dark Radiant.....

== Sound ==

There is no need to do anything special about ''hearing'' sounds such as footsteps, collision sounds, etc. at this stage as it will work automatically. Adding custom sounds will be dealt with later.

== Pathfinding ==

Pathfinding data to tell the AI characters where they can move is created by dmap by default when compiling in the next section...

== Dmap: Compiling the Mission ==

* Your mission file cannot be played itself; it is simply the directions to create a game file. To do this...
* From any Dark Mod menu go to the console. By default, the console is {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{key|~}} (US Keyboards) or {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{key|'}} (UK Keyboards). This key is the top left below Esc and to the left of "1" on all keyboards I believe. But most people set up a shortcut to just use the ~ (` in UK) on its own so:

For single key click to get the console:
In your desktop shortcut to Doom3.exe add this argument to its properties (right click shortcut): '''''+set com_allowConsole 1''''' so the target line would be something like:

'''''C:\Doom3\doom3.exe +set com_allowConsole 1'''''

(plus any other arguments you might want)
* In the console type and Enter dmap Tut/T001 where you should substitute your subfolder name for Tut and your mission filename for T001. So, if you created your mission file directly in the maps folder then you do not need a folder name and can put dmap T001. If you made a subfolder in maps called MyMaps and named your mission MissionImpossible999.map then enter dmap MyMaps/MissionImpossible999. I recommend you do not use upper case in filenames in Doom as I think it can cause problems on other platforms.
* Wait while dmap compiles the mission. This should only be a few seconds with this tiny mission but will be much longer for big missions.
* If you get a 'leaked' error or some other serious red warning then recheck your work; look for gaps in the wall or a wrong texture like nodraw or have you got an entity outside in the void? See [[Performance: Essential Must-Knows#How to detect and fix leaks|HERE]] for more about fixing leaks but at this stage of this tutorial it might be easier just to redo. What I have laboured over is basically make a block, texture it, hollow it, stick in a player start and a light. As you get more proficient you can do it in less than a minute.
* Assuming there were no dmap red "ERROR"s then you should be returned to the Dark Mod menus and are now able to play the mission.
* Return to the console.
* Type and Enter map Tut/T001. Tip: Press the up arrow key toggles back through the history of what you have typed before so your dmap should re-appear. Just press the Home key and delete the 'd'. An alternative is to use 'testmap' instead of dmap which does both dmap and map but I prefer to see dmap's results.
* You should now be able to walk around in the room. If you have a player shadow set then you might notice that walking through that light looks odd so keep that in mind for light placement. But most lights you will place close to a visible source like a gaslight or wall torch.

That's the first part done!

{{A-Z Beginner Guide TOC}}

{{tutorial-editing}}

A - Z Beginner Full Guide Start Here!

2013-02-01T13:41:53Z

Zbyl: Clarification in setting texture scale.

{{A-Z Beginner Guide TOC}}
'''''PLEASE NOTE: THIS GUIDE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE "THIEF'S DEN" DEMO MISSION RELEASED JAN 18TH, 2008.'''''

== Introduction ==

Since writing this I've created a [[Startpack Mappers' Guide]] which is a ready made FM template with a set of ready made components to make it even easier to make a Dark Mod FM because it already includes things like objectives, briefing, readables, etc. etc and you just modify them and concentrate on building. However, I recommend you first follow this guide so you have some understanding of the basics and then the startpack will make more sense.

This is an easy guide for complete beginners to Dark Mod. It will lead you from start to finish, 'push that button, click that menu' and at the end you will have a fully working (but tiny) Dark Mod mission with all the main essential features including objectives all zipped up. You will be able to include variations of your own as you progress if you wish. Links to more detailed info is included but ignore those first time if you wish. Creating this mission is a learning process: although others will be able to play it, it will be too simple for that purpose - though it might be fun to see how varied the results might be from different players following the same instructions! When finished you can modify it and customise it to learn more or just shelve it for reference while you start your ''real'' mission!

This tutorial does not describe how to make your mission architecturally beautiful - just the opposite; the build may be as crude, quick, and ugly as you like. Nor does it advise how to design for good gameplay, etc. For that you should go to [[Mission Design Tips]] after you have mastered the basics. This is a ''method'' tutorial, not a ''design'' tutorial. Nor can it answer every question. It will merely present the most basic information for making a complete mission.

Feel free to experiment, add to, or even skip parts you already know or seem obvious, especially if you have a background producing Doom or Quake maps.

This guide was inspired by Komag's famous tutorial which helped a great many Dromeders (including myself) to get started producing Thief 2 FMs. If you are or were a Dromeder then you might first like to browse quickly through [[Dromed - Dark Mod Differences]] before proceeding - though it is not essential for this tutorial as I am trying to make few assumptions of prior knowledge. It will refer to default keys/mouse settings in Dard Radiant (editor - see later) so if you have changed any hot keys in Dark Radiant's help menu then keep that in mind. Also note that any screenshots might be in a different colour to your settings of course.

== Installation ==

This tutorial assumes that you have Dark Mod already installed. If not, please refer to [http://www.thedarkmod.com The Dark Mod] website for information.

Alternatively you can use the limited Dark Mod resources provided by the pre-release demo mission [[Thief's Den]]

== The Dark Mod Editor ==

To edit Dark Mod missions you will need a game editor. '''This tutorial is based on the [[Dark Radiant]] editor''' (hereinafter may be called DR) but you can possibly follow most of it in other editors like DoomEd. Variations might be shown where possible but it will mainly assume Dark Radiant. If you haven't got Dark Radiant yet, consult the [[Dark Radiant]] sections, install it and set it up how you like it. If you want to use DoomEd then you need to look elsewhere first. DoomEd of course is supplied with Doom.

You might wish to open the [[Dark Radiant Controls, Keys & Mouse|DR Controls]] page in a new window in your web browser for quick reference while following this tutorial. I'll try to make it so you don't need to!

Make sure you can run Dark Mod and your editor before proceeding. In particular remember you can undo your last step(s) (edit menu or {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|Z}})

== Your First Mission ==

Let's get started.

* Open Dark Radiant (hereinafter DR) and also open Dark Mod for quick testing.
* If you have a mission already open in DR then select File menu > New Map to clear it.
* Save it now as any suitable name. You might prefer to save later but I always do it immediately. All missions must go (with exceptions I will describe later in [[A - Z Beginner Full Guide Page 5#Managing your Mission Files|Managing your Mission Files]]) in the darkmod\maps folder or a folder within that. I urge you to create a new folder for each project within that maps folder. In this case:
# Open File Menu > Save As
# Make sure you are in the 'maps' folder.
# Select 'Create Folder' and type in say 'tutorial'. You might prefer 'Tut' or even 'T' because you have to keep typing it over and over in the Dark Mod console when testing!
# Select that folder
# Enter the name of your mission at the top.
* The game will be saved as a 'map' file with a .map suffix and is commonly called a 'map' in Doom circles. But I will use the term 'mission' or 'FM' (Fan Mission) or maybe 'game' for the map file to try to avoid confusion with actual 'city' or 'treasure' maps within the mission.

First, let's consider our rough storyline so we have some idea what to build...

== Story, Briefing ==

Formal mission objectives will be described much later in this tutorial. But before you begin your mission you will obviously need to have at least some idea of storyline and plot else you will have no idea what to build. You might have a detailed story or just some simple ideas which you can develop later.

Ultimately, you will need to brief the player with information about the story, characters, and the main purpose of the mission. It probably makes sense to write that fully when you are nearly finished the mission because new ideas or even technical difficulties might make you change your story. However, in this tutorial I'll describe it early so as you build the mission the layout and objects make sense.

Your briefing text should eventually be entered as described at [[Briefing]] but temporarily you might just write it in a plain text document for reference.

This mini tutorial mission is called 'Thief's Den' so here is an example briefing ('''not''' in correct format for the gui or .xd file):

"I had a nice haul the other night including a grand scepter from Lord Frothley. But a low-life named Creep who had given me the info, then stole it from ME! Never trust a thief I say. But I know where he lives...

I also still have his message in his own hand, giving the low-down. If I can dispose of Creep and drop the message nearby then he should take the heat for the heist diverting all suspicion from me.

Creep is a nasty piece of work who is handy with a blade. He can be dangerous and may be expecting me - may even have recruited a thug or two as back up - but he has badly underestimated my stealth skills..."

== Preparing to Build ==

When you open Dark Radiant it will default to a grid size (in the XYZ orthoview) of 8 units by 8 (changeable from version 0.9.5 onwards.) These [[Conversion of Game Units|units]] are 1.1 inches. Check your preference (default key P) in DR as it will be easier during this tutorial if you have the following checked (ticked) in Preferences > Orthoview...

* Show Grid
* Show Size Info
* Show Coordinates

'''Important:''' It is recommend you generally build with the grid set reasonably to a large size such as the default 8 or 16 for all walls, floors, etc. This makes alignment easier. You can reduce this in the grid menu for fine placement but don't leave it like that generally or you will have complexity problems. Snap to grid ([[Image:DRsnapGrid.jpg]], {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|G}}) will re-align a selection to the current grid size.

We'll mostly be working in the XYZ grid orthoview but if you have room for the camera view at the side so much the better. The camera view does a rough render in 3D (F3 toggles a better rendering with lighting etc but keep that off if it slows things down which it is likely to and just use it now and again.)

* Note the origin icon of the 'world' at 0,0,0 in the grid view
* Zoom in and out with the mouse wheel
* Right mouse drag the grid view to scroll around (zoom out further to scroll around faster)
* Use ''Change views'' tool ([[Image:DRnextViewBut.jpg]], {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|Tab}}) to toggle between top (XY), front (XZ), and side (YZ) views (you can open aditional windows using menu <tt>View > New XY view</tt>).

The blank windows in the grid and camera views can be regarded as empty void - the space in which we shall build. We have to build in bubbles sealed off from that void like an airtight spaceship or a submarine. Any gaps will cause leaks and crash your game so it's obviously the first major rule to learn: always build inner spaces sealed off from the outer void

Apart from special materials like water and weather, all the raw material you will use is 'solid' to form different shapes. So we can make panels and place them together to form lots of floating airtight boxes and these can be linked together. The entire game then takes place inside those boxes. One box can hold a tiny cupboard or an entire cathedral and a lot of boxes can hold a city. Inside those boxes you cannot see the void.

A shortcut to putting panels together is to make one solid block and hollow it out to form a box and this is what we are going to do now to form our first room.

== Making Your First Room ==

First we make a rough solid block...

* Select the top view (XY) in the grid view (toggle with [[Image:DRnextViewBut.jpg]]).
* Left mouse drag out a rectangle any few grid units across in the middle somewhere.
* This rectangle is called a 'brush' and used to define raw shapes for walls, floors etc.
* Left drag ''within'' that brush to drag the brush around
* Select the ''Resize'' tool ([[Image:DRdragResize.jpg]], {{key|Q}}).
* Now left drag ''outside'' that brush to resize it.

Now we adjust its top view area...

* Left drag outside that brush to resize it to 256 across left to right (X direction) by 192 up and down (Y direction in top view.) You should see those dimensions at the sides of the rectangle if you have 'Show Size Info' set in Edit > Preferences > Orthoview. The position of the top left corner is in brackets at top left.
* Left drag within the brush to move it so its sides fit on the bigger grid. If all sides don't fit then check your dimensions and that you are still in grid size 8 (see grid menu.)
* I prefer to build up in the top right corner from the world 0,0,0 so none of the values are negatives but you decide for yourself. Move it where you want but ideally so the sides are on the big grid.

Now we adjust its height to get our finished block (brush)...

* Use [[Image:DRnextViewBut.jpg]] ({{key|CTRL}}+{{key|Tab}}) to switch to side (YZ) or front (XZ) view and left drag outside the brush to change its height to 128
* Left drag inside the brush to move it up and down so its sides are on a big grid same as you did in the top view.
* You should now have brush 256 x 192 x 128 (see [[Conversion of Game Units#Tips|Unit Tips]])

<center>[[Image:AZblock.jpg]]</center>

== Selecting and DEselecting ==

We only have one item in our view but eventually many. Operations only work on what is currently selected. When you have just created something as we just have it is automatically the current selection and should be highlighted in your views (see DR Preferences for colour.)

* To DEselect it, point your mouse at it in either the grid or camera view and use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{LMB}} (or just press the {{key|Esc}} key.)
*To select it again, point your mouse at it and use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{LMB}} again.

Selecting is something you'll do a lot of so get familiar with that {{key|SHIFT}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{LMB}}. It's an exclusive select to get just one item. There are other selects I'll describe later. The {{key|Esc}} key always deselects and it is vitally important to get into the habit of DEselecting before you select or create something new or in some cases you will have multiple selections without knowing it and can delete or change something you didn't want to. This is why the {{key|SHIFT}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{LMB}} is the safest select as it is exclusive and will automatically DEselect anything else that was left selected. But it won't protect an item when creating. Yes, it is possible to have say a brush selected, forget it is selected, then create say, a new light. Oh! what happened to the brush? It's gone - replaced by the light. Develop a nervous habit of keep hitting {{key|Esc}} to deselect when you go to create!

From now on I'll use LMB, MMB, and RMB to refer to the mouse buttons.

== Camera View ==

You should be able to see this block in the camera view. If the camera view is just black remember {{key|F3}} toggles true light rendering and we don't yet have a light so hit {{key|F3}} to get a constant bright test light throughout. I won't go into details of all the camera controls suffice to say use the arrow keys and {{key|D}} and {{key|C}} to move vertically. But scroll down to 'camera' in [[Dark Radiant Controls, Keys & Mouse]] and you will see a fantastic amount of control you have in DR's camera view - especially with the mouse. It will take time to get used to them all so for now perhaps just learn enough to move around to see what you've done so far.

If you can see your block(brush) in the camera view then it is likely not to have any particular texture unless you were doing something before this tutorial. Close up you may see it is covered in a checkered blue 'shader not found' message. Don't worry if it's covered in something else like stone or wood though. Since it will eventually be hollowed out to form a room, let's paint it now with some material more suitable to the Dark Mod universe...

== Materials, Textures, Painting the Block ==

This is the tiny home of a cheap thief so we'll use some old stonework.

I've mentioned 'textures', 'shaders', and 'materials'; what do these terms mean? A 'material' or 'shader' is the properties of a surface, including (but not necessarily) texture, sound, and others. To 'paint' our block we...

* Select the Media Browser. This is one of the tabs on a panel. Pressing N or T hides/shows the whole panel but I guess most people leave the panel showing all the time and just select the tab they want.
* Allow a few seconds for DR to read in the media first time and then you should see 'textures' listed
* Click 'textures' and it opens up to show all available textures. Many of the ones you see are Doom textures. Scroll down and select 'darkmod' which reveals the ones most suitable for our use. Scroll down to stone, open it, then cobblestones and select blocks_mixed_multicolour. Right click it and select 'Apply to selection'. This covers all surfaces of the block because we have still got selected the whole block not just one surface. You should see this in the camera view. Use this throughout the house (and eventually on its outside surface for consistency.)
* Select the Texture Browser. This is one of the tabs on the same panel as Media Browser. The Texture Browser only shows recently used textures. You should see only the one texture you selected so it's handy for future use. Odds are you will want to re-use the same textures. It will also show other textures if you clicked on them in the media browser plus any others if you were using DR before this tutorial. You can also copy and paste textures onto single or multiple surfaces (see later.)
* Hover the mouse over the four little buttons at the top of the Texture Browser and read the text so you have some idea of what features are there for the future. For now, click on the one that says 'Flush and Reload Shaders' and it should clear all of them except the one we put on our brush. As we add others they will appear in the texture browser so you can get to them more quickly.
* Now, press S for Surface Inspector (or View menu)
* If you have only one face selected (more about this later) you can set Horiz and Vert scale. Value like 0.3 makes it harder for the player to see any pattern repetition (in this situation and in my opinion - use your own judgement with other textures and wall sizes.) In the mean time you can use arrow buttons to adjust the scale for the whole selected brush. Whatever scale you use, generally you should be consistent with it for the same texture wherever used in a mission. If you use copy and paste then it will transfer the scale as well which is far easier.
* There will be more on texture adjustment later in this tutorial.

== Hollowing out a Room from the Block ==

Building to a large grid size helps performance. The outside of our block will never be seen in the game. Once we hollow it out then the player will only see the inside so that is the surface that is rendered and that we need to align to the large grid. There are two tools to hollow out a block, both activated by a button on the left button bar: one called 'hollow' and the other 'room'. Don't use 'hollow' as it reduces the internal sides so they don't fit the big grid AND it overlaps the corners which can cause rendering errors like so....

<center>BAD!</center> 
<center>[[Image:AZhollow.jpg]]</center> 

Instead use the 'room' button which does the job right (note the increased size so the ''internal'' dimensions will be the same as our original block and align to the big grid... 

<center>GOOD!</center> 
<center>[[Image:AZroom.jpg]]</center> 

All brushes in Doom must be convex. They cannot have any inward angles (like an L shape which would have to be two brushes together) and cannot actually be hollow. The above tools really create new side panel brushes to replace the original brush. In the case of our six-sided block that is six new brushes positioned as walls, floor, and ceiling. ''The walls they create are one small grid line wide so their width will vary depending on your grid size setting.''

Examine the block in the camera view and zoom right inside so you can see it internally which is where it will be seen in game. Note the texture aligns nicely because we stuck to a big grid size. The stone is appropriate for all four walls (which is why I textured the whole block in one go rather than one surface at a time) but now we need different textures for floor and ceiling...

== Selecting and Texturing Individual Surfaces ==

'''You cannot select a surface in the grid view''' so move inside the room in the camera view.

'''To texture the floor...'''

* Press Esc to make sure everything is DEselected
* Point at the floor and use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{LMB}}. Repeat a few times and you will see it selects/DEselects the surface. Keep it selected.
* Select the Media Browser again (on the tabbed panel)
* In the darkmod section select say stone/cobblestones or maybe you would like some wood/boards/worn_01 ? You choose but something like carpet might need special alignment so stick with stones or boards maybe for now? Remember - RIGHT click the texture name and select 'Apply to Selection'
* Alternatively you can click on several possibles then select them with one LMB in the Texture Browser on the other tab. In the Texture Browser you can enlarge the textures if preferred to see them better.
* Esc to DEselect so you can see it better in camera view.

'''To texture the ceiling...'''

* Press Esc to make sure everything is DEselected
* Point at the ceiling and use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{LMB}} again to select its surface.
* Select the Media Browser again (on the tabbed panel)
* In the darkmod section select say plaster/plaster01 and apply it.

'''If you change your mind about the walls you can change them to something else...'''

* Press Esc to make sure everything is DEselected
* Point at one wall and use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{LMB}} again to select its surface.
* Point at another wall use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{LMB}} again so now both surfaces are selected
* 'Accidentally' select the ceiling. No problem. Just use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{LMB}} on it again to DEselect it but the walls are still selected. In this way you can select which surfaces you want to select.
* Select the Media Browser again and just apply another type of stone, perhaps brick, to the walls if you want or just leave it as it is.

Now press {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|S}} to resave the mission or use the File menu. Get into the habit of doing this often unless you have autosave set. Now and again you can also save with a new name so you can go back to an earlier one if you totally mess up. Note: There is also a backup file made automatically by DR.

== Adding the Player's Start Point ==

One more thing is ''essential'' to play this in Dark Mod and that is the Player's starting position.

* Press Esc to DEselect everything.
* In the TOP grid view, point the mouse in the middle of the room and RMB to get a pop up menu. This menu is important so glance at some of the other items on it while you're here. 'Entities' are special function items and the player start is amongst them but there is a shortcut on the menu so instead...
* Select "Create Player Start here" on the menu. This will create the playerstart entity (red box) and put it where you clicked. Drag the entity around to the point where you want the player to start.
* You should see an arrow on the red box indicating the way the player will face at the start. If you cannot see the arrow then menu View > Show > Show Angles will reveal it.
* {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|Tab}} to get a side view and LMB drag down ''inside'' the player start box so its base is on the floor of the room. Make sure you do not go below or the floor or the player might be stuck with his feet in concrete! Tip: In Thief games it was common to start just dropping over a wall with this player start a few feet above the ground. You might note that entities do not directly resize like brushes so LMB drag ''outside'' the box does nothing.
* RMB in the grid view again and you will there is now a 'move player start here' so you can quickly move its position while testing different areas of your mission. But always keep in mind the vertical as well as top view when moving things around (and note that this does not ''select'' the player start - you will need to select it if you need to adjust its position by dragging.)
* With the player start still selected you can select the Entity Inspector (on the panel, else N to hide/show it) and see the properties of your first entity.

The game could now be played but it will be totally dark so we need to create at least one light.....

== Creating a Light ==

* Press Esc to DEselect everything.
* In the TOP grid view, point the mouse in the ''middle'' of the room and RMB to get the pop up menu.
* Select "Create Light" on the menu.
* A large red box appears with diagonals representing the light's centre and its rough 'radius'. The default light is more like six pyramids pointing out to their peaks in the centre of each side of the box. This gives a rough impression of a sphere of light and helps performance.
* {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|TAB}} to get a side view and LMB drag ''right in the centre of the light'' to move it up/down to centre it in the room if it is not already. Just dragging inside the radius box won't move it - you have to point at the centre.

== Resizing a Light ==

Resizing a light is awkward because dragging any side moves the centre (this might be changed in a later Dark Radiant.) Two ways of dealing with this. Just roughly drag it about and keep moving the light back to where you want it. But if you have very precisely positioned a light then you don't want to have to keep doing that so this is what I do...

* Select the Entity Inspector on the panel
* You should see it has a light radius property with three values for XYZ for the three dimensions. They are north and south for Y, east and west for X, and up and down for Z. (those are the compass directions in game by the way.)
* Click on the light radius property to highlight it.
* Note that its values appear in a choice of inputs at the bottom - You can type new values in a line with a space in between then click the check(tick) button or enter them as separate values or even use the little scrolly buttons at the side and then click the Apply button.
* The room interior is 192 x 256 x 128 (in XYZ order) so give the light radius the values 200 260 133 so it just protrudes outside the walls. We may well change this again later if we want the light to spill out through a doorway or something.

The light radius is not just a cut-off point. It can be regarded as a 'fade to zero point'. What this means is that the light is at maximum brightness at its centre and fades to zero at the limit of the radius. So in a big open area, if you extend the radius you will 'stretch the brightness' further. Imagine the scale from max to min compacted in a small radius or expanded in a large one. More on this later when we place wall torches.

== Changing a Light's Brightness ==

The light may be a little bright. To change it...

* Press L (or View menu)* to call up the Light Inspector
* Click on the white rectangle button just below where it says 'Colour'
* The brightness value is called erm... 'Value' and should default to 100. Reduce it to 90. It might not matter. I'm just showing you where the control is for now.
* Fool around with the colours if you want - there are extensive features I won't cover here.

Hey! We should have your first working mission! Do a {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|S}} to save it and then follow the next sections in Dark Mod itself not in Dark Radiant.....

== Sound ==

There is no need to do anything special about ''hearing'' sounds such as footsteps, collision sounds, etc. at this stage as it will work automatically. Adding custom sounds will be dealt with later.

== Pathfinding ==

Pathfinding data to tell the AI characters where they can move is created by dmap by default when compiling in the next section...

== Dmap: Compiling the Mission ==

* Your mission file cannot be played itself; it is simply the directions to create a game file. To do this...
* From any Dark Mod menu go to the console. By default, the console is {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{key|~}} (US Keyboards) or {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{key|'}} (UK Keyboards). This key is the top left below Esc and to the left of "1" on all keyboards I believe. But most people set up a shortcut to just use the ~ (` in UK) on its own so:

For single key click to get the console:
In your desktop shortcut to Doom3.exe add this argument to its properties (right click shortcut): '''''+set com_allowConsole 1''''' so the target line would be something like:

'''''C:\Doom3\doom3.exe +set com_allowConsole 1'''''

(plus any other arguments you might want)
* In the console type and Enter dmap Tut/T001 where you should substitute your subfolder name for Tut and your mission filename for T001. So, if you created your mission file directly in the maps folder then you do not need a folder name and can put dmap T001. If you made a subfolder in maps called MyMaps and named your mission MissionImpossible999.map then enter dmap MyMaps/MissionImpossible999. I recommend you do not use upper case in filenames in Doom as I think it can cause problems on other platforms.
* Wait while dmap compiles the mission. This should only be a few seconds with this tiny mission but will be much longer for big missions.
* If you get a 'leaked' error or some other serious red warning then recheck your work; look for gaps in the wall or a wrong texture like nodraw or have you got an entity outside in the void? See [[Performance: Essential Must-Knows#How to detect and fix leaks|HERE]] for more about fixing leaks but at this stage of this tutorial it might be easier just to redo. What I have laboured over is basically make a block, texture it, hollow it, stick in a player start and a light. As you get more proficient you can do it in less than a minute.
* Assuming there were no dmap red "ERROR"s then you should be returned to the Dark Mod menus and are now able to play the mission.
* Return to the console.
* Type and Enter map Tut/T001. Tip: Press the up arrow key toggles back through the history of what you have typed before so your dmap should re-appear. Just press the Home key and delete the 'd'. An alternative is to use 'testmap' instead of dmap which does both dmap and map but I prefer to see dmap's results.
* You should now be able to walk around in the room. If you have a player shadow set then you might notice that walking through that light looks odd so keep that in mind for light placement. But most lights you will place close to a visible source like a gaslight or wall torch.

That's the first part done!

{{A-Z Beginner Guide TOC}}

{{tutorial-editing}}

A - Z Beginner Full Guide Start Here!

2013-02-01T13:24:50Z

Zbyl: Added tool icons and some minor clarifications.

{{A-Z Beginner Guide TOC}}
'''''PLEASE NOTE: THIS GUIDE CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE "THIEF'S DEN" DEMO MISSION RELEASED JAN 18TH, 2008.'''''

== Introduction ==

Since writing this I've created a [[Startpack Mappers' Guide]] which is a ready made FM template with a set of ready made components to make it even easier to make a Dark Mod FM because it already includes things like objectives, briefing, readables, etc. etc and you just modify them and concentrate on building. However, I recommend you first follow this guide so you have some understanding of the basics and then the startpack will make more sense.

This is an easy guide for complete beginners to Dark Mod. It will lead you from start to finish, 'push that button, click that menu' and at the end you will have a fully working (but tiny) Dark Mod mission with all the main essential features including objectives all zipped up. You will be able to include variations of your own as you progress if you wish. Links to more detailed info is included but ignore those first time if you wish. Creating this mission is a learning process: although others will be able to play it, it will be too simple for that purpose - though it might be fun to see how varied the results might be from different players following the same instructions! When finished you can modify it and customise it to learn more or just shelve it for reference while you start your ''real'' mission!

This tutorial does not describe how to make your mission architecturally beautiful - just the opposite; the build may be as crude, quick, and ugly as you like. Nor does it advise how to design for good gameplay, etc. For that you should go to [[Mission Design Tips]] after you have mastered the basics. This is a ''method'' tutorial, not a ''design'' tutorial. Nor can it answer every question. It will merely present the most basic information for making a complete mission.

Feel free to experiment, add to, or even skip parts you already know or seem obvious, especially if you have a background producing Doom or Quake maps.

This guide was inspired by Komag's famous tutorial which helped a great many Dromeders (including myself) to get started producing Thief 2 FMs. If you are or were a Dromeder then you might first like to browse quickly through [[Dromed - Dark Mod Differences]] before proceeding - though it is not essential for this tutorial as I am trying to make few assumptions of prior knowledge. It will refer to default keys/mouse settings in Dard Radiant (editor - see later) so if you have changed any hot keys in Dark Radiant's help menu then keep that in mind. Also note that any screenshots might be in a different colour to your settings of course.

== Installation ==

This tutorial assumes that you have Dark Mod already installed. If not, please refer to [http://www.thedarkmod.com The Dark Mod] website for information.

Alternatively you can use the limited Dark Mod resources provided by the pre-release demo mission [[Thief's Den]]

== The Dark Mod Editor ==

To edit Dark Mod missions you will need a game editor. '''This tutorial is based on the [[Dark Radiant]] editor''' (hereinafter may be called DR) but you can possibly follow most of it in other editors like DoomEd. Variations might be shown where possible but it will mainly assume Dark Radiant. If you haven't got Dark Radiant yet, consult the [[Dark Radiant]] sections, install it and set it up how you like it. If you want to use DoomEd then you need to look elsewhere first. DoomEd of course is supplied with Doom.

You might wish to open the [[Dark Radiant Controls, Keys & Mouse|DR Controls]] page in a new window in your web browser for quick reference while following this tutorial. I'll try to make it so you don't need to!

Make sure you can run Dark Mod and your editor before proceeding. In particular remember you can undo your last step(s) (edit menu or {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|Z}})

== Your First Mission ==

Let's get started.

* Open Dark Radiant (hereinafter DR) and also open Dark Mod for quick testing.
* If you have a mission already open in DR then select File menu > New Map to clear it.
* Save it now as any suitable name. You might prefer to save later but I always do it immediately. All missions must go (with exceptions I will describe later in [[A - Z Beginner Full Guide Page 5#Managing your Mission Files|Managing your Mission Files]]) in the darkmod\maps folder or a folder within that. I urge you to create a new folder for each project within that maps folder. In this case:
# Open File Menu > Save As
# Make sure you are in the 'maps' folder.
# Select 'Create Folder' and type in say 'tutorial'. You might prefer 'Tut' or even 'T' because you have to keep typing it over and over in the Dark Mod console when testing!
# Select that folder
# Enter the name of your mission at the top.
* The game will be saved as a 'map' file with a .map suffix and is commonly called a 'map' in Doom circles. But I will use the term 'mission' or 'FM' (Fan Mission) or maybe 'game' for the map file to try to avoid confusion with actual 'city' or 'treasure' maps within the mission.

First, let's consider our rough storyline so we have some idea what to build...

== Story, Briefing ==

Formal mission objectives will be described much later in this tutorial. But before you begin your mission you will obviously need to have at least some idea of storyline and plot else you will have no idea what to build. You might have a detailed story or just some simple ideas which you can develop later.

Ultimately, you will need to brief the player with information about the story, characters, and the main purpose of the mission. It probably makes sense to write that fully when you are nearly finished the mission because new ideas or even technical difficulties might make you change your story. However, in this tutorial I'll describe it early so as you build the mission the layout and objects make sense.

Your briefing text should eventually be entered as described at [[Briefing]] but temporarily you might just write it in a plain text document for reference.

This mini tutorial mission is called 'Thief's Den' so here is an example briefing ('''not''' in correct format for the gui or .xd file):

"I had a nice haul the other night including a grand scepter from Lord Frothley. But a low-life named Creep who had given me the info, then stole it from ME! Never trust a thief I say. But I know where he lives...

I also still have his message in his own hand, giving the low-down. If I can dispose of Creep and drop the message nearby then he should take the heat for the heist diverting all suspicion from me.

Creep is a nasty piece of work who is handy with a blade. He can be dangerous and may be expecting me - may even have recruited a thug or two as back up - but he has badly underestimated my stealth skills..."

== Preparing to Build ==

When you open Dark Radiant it will default to a grid size (in the XYZ orthoview) of 8 units by 8 (changeable from version 0.9.5 onwards.) These [[Conversion of Game Units|units]] are 1.1 inches. Check your preference (default key P) in DR as it will be easier during this tutorial if you have the following checked (ticked) in Preferences > Orthoview...

* Show Grid
* Show Size Info
* Show Coordinates

'''Important:''' It is recommend you generally build with the grid set reasonably to a large size such as the default 8 or 16 for all walls, floors, etc. This makes alignment easier. You can reduce this in the grid menu for fine placement but don't leave it like that generally or you will have complexity problems. Snap to grid ([[Image:DRsnapGrid.jpg]], {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|G}}) will re-align a selection to the current grid size.

We'll mostly be working in the XYZ grid orthoview but if you have room for the camera view at the side so much the better. The camera view does a rough render in 3D (F3 toggles a better rendering with lighting etc but keep that off if it slows things down which it is likely to and just use it now and again.)

* Note the origin icon of the 'world' at 0,0,0 in the grid view
* Zoom in and out with the mouse wheel
* Right mouse drag the grid view to scroll around (zoom out further to scroll around faster)
* Use ''Change views'' tool ([[Image:DRnextViewBut.jpg]], {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|Tab}}) to toggle between top (XY), front (XZ), and side (YZ) views (you can open aditional windows using menu <tt>View > New XY view</tt>).

The blank windows in the grid and camera views can be regarded as empty void - the space in which we shall build. We have to build in bubbles sealed off from that void like an airtight spaceship or a submarine. Any gaps will cause leaks and crash your game so it's obviously the first major rule to learn: always build inner spaces sealed off from the outer void

Apart from special materials like water and weather, all the raw material you will use is 'solid' to form different shapes. So we can make panels and place them together to form lots of floating airtight boxes and these can be linked together. The entire game then takes place inside those boxes. One box can hold a tiny cupboard or an entire cathedral and a lot of boxes can hold a city. Inside those boxes you cannot see the void.

A shortcut to putting panels together is to make one solid block and hollow it out to form a box and this is what we are going to do now to form our first room.

== Making Your First Room ==

First we make a rough solid block...

* Select the top view (XY) in the grid view (toggle with [[Image:DRnextViewBut.jpg]]).
* Left mouse drag out a rectangle any few grid units across in the middle somewhere.
* This rectangle is called a 'brush' and used to define raw shapes for walls, floors etc.
* Left drag ''within'' that brush to drag the brush around
* Select the ''Resize'' tool ([[Image:DRdragResize.jpg]], {{key|Q}}).
* Now left drag ''outside'' that brush to resize it.

Now we adjust its top view area...

* Left drag outside that brush to resize it to 256 across left to right (X direction) by 192 up and down (Y direction in top view.) You should see those dimensions at the sides of the rectangle if you have 'Show Size Info' set in Edit > Preferences > Orthoview. The position of the top left corner is in brackets at top left.
* Left drag within the brush to move it so its sides fit on the bigger grid. If all sides don't fit then check your dimensions and that you are still in grid size 8 (see grid menu.)
* I prefer to build up in the top right corner from the world 0,0,0 so none of the values are negatives but you decide for yourself. Move it where you want but ideally so the sides are on the big grid.

Now we adjust its height to get our finished block (brush)...

* Use [[Image:DRnextViewBut.jpg]] ({{key|CTRL}}+{{key|Tab}}) to switch to side (YZ) or front (XZ) view and left drag outside the brush to change its height to 128
* Left drag inside the brush to move it up and down so its sides are on a big grid same as you did in the top view.
* You should now have brush 256 x 192 x 128 (see [[Conversion of Game Units#Tips|Unit Tips]])

<center>[[Image:AZblock.jpg]]</center>

== Selecting and DEselecting ==

We only have one item in our view but eventually many. Operations only work on what is currently selected. When you have just created something as we just have it is automatically the current selection and should be highlighted in your views (see DR Preferences for colour.)

* To DEselect it, point your mouse at it in either the grid or camera view and use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{LMB}} (or just press the {{key|Esc}} key.)
*To select it again, point your mouse at it and use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{LMB}} again.

Selecting is something you'll do a lot of so get familiar with that {{key|SHIFT}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{LMB}}. It's an exclusive select to get just one item. There are other selects I'll describe later. The {{key|Esc}} key always deselects and it is vitally important to get into the habit of DEselecting before you select or create something new or in some cases you will have multiple selections without knowing it and can delete or change something you didn't want to. This is why the {{key|SHIFT}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{LMB}} is the safest select as it is exclusive and will automatically DEselect anything else that was left selected. But it won't protect an item when creating. Yes, it is possible to have say a brush selected, forget it is selected, then create say, a new light. Oh! what happened to the brush? It's gone - replaced by the light. Develop a nervous habit of keep hitting {{key|Esc}} to deselect when you go to create!

From now on I'll use LMB, MMB, and RMB to refer to the mouse buttons.

== Camera View ==

You should be able to see this block in the camera view. If the camera view is just black remember {{key|F3}} toggles true light rendering and we don't yet have a light so hit {{key|F3}} to get a constant bright test light throughout. I won't go into details of all the camera controls suffice to say use the arrow keys and {{key|D}} and {{key|C}} to move vertically. But scroll down to 'camera' in [[Dark Radiant Controls, Keys & Mouse]] and you will see a fantastic amount of control you have in DR's camera view - especially with the mouse. It will take time to get used to them all so for now perhaps just learn enough to move around to see what you've done so far.

If you can see your block(brush) in the camera view then it is likely not to have any particular texture unless you were doing something before this tutorial. Close up you may see it is covered in a checkered blue 'shader not found' message. Don't worry if it's covered in something else like stone or wood though. Since it will eventually be hollowed out to form a room, let's paint it now with some material more suitable to the Dark Mod universe...

== Materials, Textures, Painting the Block ==

This is the tiny home of a cheap thief so we'll use some old stonework.

I've mentioned 'textures', 'shaders', and 'materials'; what do these terms mean? A 'material' or 'shader' is the properties of a surface, including (but not necessarily) texture, sound, and others. To 'paint' our block we...

* Select the Media Browser. This is one of the tabs on a panel. Pressing N or T hides/shows the whole panel but I guess most people leave the panel showing all the time and just select the tab they want.
* Allow a few seconds for DR to read in the media first time and then you should see 'textures' listed
* Click 'textures' and it opens up to show all available textures. Many of the ones you see are Doom textures. Scroll down and select 'darkmod' which reveals the ones most suitable for our use. Scroll down to stone, open it, then cobblestones and select blocks_mixed_multicolour. Right click it and select 'Apply to selection'. This covers all surfaces of the block because we have still got selected the whole block not just one surface. You should see this in the camera view. Use this throughout the house (and eventually on its outside surface for consistency.)
* Select the Texture Browser. This is one of the tabs on the same panel as Media Browser. The Texture Browser only shows recently used textures. You should see only the one texture you selected so it's handy for future use. Odds are you will want to re-use the same textures. It will also show other textures if you clicked on them in the media browser plus any others if you were using DR before this tutorial. You can also copy and paste textures onto single or multiple surfaces (see later.)
* Hover the mouse over the four little buttons at the top of the Texture Browser and read the text so you have some idea of what features are there for the future. For now, click on the one that says 'Flush and Reload Shaders' and it should clear all of them except the one we put on our brush. As we add others they will appear in the texture browser so you can get to them more quickly.
* Now, press S for Surface Inspector (or View menu)
* In both Horiz and Vert scale enter 0.3. This makes it harder for the player to see any pattern repetition (this situation and my opinion - use your own judgement with other textures and wall sizes.) Whatever scale you use, generally you should be consistent with it for the same texture wherever used in a mission. If you use copy and paste then it will transfer the scale as well which is far easier.
* There will be more on texture adjustment later in this tutorial.

== Hollowing out a Room from the Block ==

Building to a large grid size helps performance. The outside of our block will never be seen in the game. Once we hollow it out then the player will only see the inside so that is the surface that is rendered and that we need to align to the large grid. There are two tools to hollow out a block, both activated by a button on the left button bar: one called 'hollow' and the other 'room'. Don't use 'hollow' as it reduces the internal sides so they don't fit the big grid AND it overlaps the corners which can cause rendering errors like so....

<center>BAD!</center> 
<center>[[Image:AZhollow.jpg]]</center> 

Instead use the 'room' button which does the job right (note the increased size so the ''internal'' dimensions will be the same as our original block and align to the big grid... 

<center>GOOD!</center> 
<center>[[Image:AZroom.jpg]]</center> 

All brushes in Doom must be convex. They cannot have any inward angles (like an L shape which would have to be two brushes together) and cannot actually be hollow. The above tools really create new side panel brushes to replace the original brush. In the case of our six-sided block that is six new brushes positioned as walls, floor, and ceiling. ''The walls they create are one small grid line wide so their width will vary depending on your grid size setting.''

Examine the block in the camera view and zoom right inside so you can see it internally which is where it will be seen in game. Note the texture aligns nicely because we stuck to a big grid size. The stone is appropriate for all four walls (which is why I textured the whole block in one go rather than one surface at a time) but now we need different textures for floor and ceiling...

== Selecting and Texturing Individual Surfaces ==

'''You cannot select a surface in the grid view''' so move inside the room in the camera view.

'''To texture the floor...'''

* Press Esc to make sure everything is DEselected
* Point at the floor and use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{LMB}}. Repeat a few times and you will see it selects/DEselects the surface. Keep it selected.
* Select the Media Browser again (on the tabbed panel)
* In the darkmod section select say stone/cobblestones or maybe you would like some wood/boards/worn_01 ? You choose but something like carpet might need special alignment so stick with stones or boards maybe for now? Remember - RIGHT click the texture name and select 'Apply to Selection'
* Alternatively you can click on several possibles then select them with one LMB in the Texture Browser on the other tab. In the Texture Browser you can enlarge the textures if preferred to see them better.
* Esc to DEselect so you can see it better in camera view.

'''To texture the ceiling...'''

* Press Esc to make sure everything is DEselected
* Point at the ceiling and use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{LMB}} again to select its surface.
* Select the Media Browser again (on the tabbed panel)
* In the darkmod section select say plaster/plaster01 and apply it.

'''If you change your mind about the walls you can change them to something else...'''

* Press Esc to make sure everything is DEselected
* Point at one wall and use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{LMB}} again to select its surface.
* Point at another wall use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{LMB}} again so now both surfaces are selected
* 'Accidentally' select the ceiling. No problem. Just use {{key|SHIFT}}+{{LMB}} on it again to DEselect it but the walls are still selected. In this way you can select which surfaces you want to select.
* Select the Media Browser again and just apply another type of stone, perhaps brick, to the walls if you want or just leave it as it is.

Now press {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|S}} to resave the mission or use the File menu. Get into the habit of doing this often unless you have autosave set. Now and again you can also save with a new name so you can go back to an earlier one if you totally mess up. Note: There is also a backup file made automatically by DR.

== Adding the Player's Start Point ==

One more thing is ''essential'' to play this in Dark Mod and that is the Player's starting position.

* Press Esc to DEselect everything.
* In the TOP grid view, point the mouse in the middle of the room and RMB to get a pop up menu. This menu is important so glance at some of the other items on it while you're here. 'Entities' are special function items and the player start is amongst them but there is a shortcut on the menu so instead...
* Select "Create Player Start here" on the menu. This will create the playerstart entity (red box) and put it where you clicked. Drag the entity around to the point where you want the player to start.
* You should see an arrow on the red box indicating the way the player will face at the start. If you cannot see the arrow then menu View > Show > Show Angles will reveal it.
* {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|Tab}} to get a side view and LMB drag down ''inside'' the player start box so its base is on the floor of the room. Make sure you do not go below or the floor or the player might be stuck with his feet in concrete! Tip: In Thief games it was common to start just dropping over a wall with this player start a few feet above the ground. You might note that entities do not directly resize like brushes so LMB drag ''outside'' the box does nothing.
* RMB in the grid view again and you will there is now a 'move player start here' so you can quickly move its position while testing different areas of your mission. But always keep in mind the vertical as well as top view when moving things around (and note that this does not ''select'' the player start - you will need to select it if you need to adjust its position by dragging.)
* With the player start still selected you can select the Entity Inspector (on the panel, else N to hide/show it) and see the properties of your first entity.

The game could now be played but it will be totally dark so we need to create at least one light.....

== Creating a Light ==

* Press Esc to DEselect everything.
* In the TOP grid view, point the mouse in the ''middle'' of the room and RMB to get the pop up menu.
* Select "Create Light" on the menu.
* A large red box appears with diagonals representing the light's centre and its rough 'radius'. The default light is more like six pyramids pointing out to their peaks in the centre of each side of the box. This gives a rough impression of a sphere of light and helps performance.
* {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|TAB}} to get a side view and LMB drag ''right in the centre of the light'' to move it up/down to centre it in the room if it is not already. Just dragging inside the radius box won't move it - you have to point at the centre.

== Resizing a Light ==

Resizing a light is awkward because dragging any side moves the centre (this might be changed in a later Dark Radiant.) Two ways of dealing with this. Just roughly drag it about and keep moving the light back to where you want it. But if you have very precisely positioned a light then you don't want to have to keep doing that so this is what I do...

* Select the Entity Inspector on the panel
* You should see it has a light radius property with three values for XYZ for the three dimensions. They are north and south for Y, east and west for X, and up and down for Z. (those are the compass directions in game by the way.)
* Click on the light radius property to highlight it.
* Note that its values appear in a choice of inputs at the bottom - You can type new values in a line with a space in between then click the check(tick) button or enter them as separate values or even use the little scrolly buttons at the side and then click the Apply button.
* The room interior is 192 x 256 x 128 (in XYZ order) so give the light radius the values 200 260 133 so it just protrudes outside the walls. We may well change this again later if we want the light to spill out through a doorway or something.

The light radius is not just a cut-off point. It can be regarded as a 'fade to zero point'. What this means is that the light is at maximum brightness at its centre and fades to zero at the limit of the radius. So in a big open area, if you extend the radius you will 'stretch the brightness' further. Imagine the scale from max to min compacted in a small radius or expanded in a large one. More on this later when we place wall torches.

== Changing a Light's Brightness ==

The light may be a little bright. To change it...

* Press L (or View menu)* to call up the Light Inspector
* Click on the white rectangle button just below where it says 'Colour'
* The brightness value is called erm... 'Value' and should default to 100. Reduce it to 90. It might not matter. I'm just showing you where the control is for now.
* Fool around with the colours if you want - there are extensive features I won't cover here.

Hey! We should have your first working mission! Do a {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|S}} to save it and then follow the next sections in Dark Mod itself not in Dark Radiant.....

== Sound ==

There is no need to do anything special about ''hearing'' sounds such as footsteps, collision sounds, etc. at this stage as it will work automatically. Adding custom sounds will be dealt with later.

== Pathfinding ==

Pathfinding data to tell the AI characters where they can move is created by dmap by default when compiling in the next section...

== Dmap: Compiling the Mission ==

* Your mission file cannot be played itself; it is simply the directions to create a game file. To do this...
* From any Dark Mod menu go to the console. By default, the console is {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{key|~}} (US Keyboards) or {{key|CTRL}}+{{key|ALT}}+{{key|'}} (UK Keyboards). This key is the top left below Esc and to the left of "1" on all keyboards I believe. But most people set up a shortcut to just use the ~ (` in UK) on its own so:

For single key click to get the console:
In your desktop shortcut to Doom3.exe add this argument to its properties (right click shortcut): '''''+set com_allowConsole 1''''' so the target line would be something like:

'''''C:\Doom3\doom3.exe +set com_allowConsole 1'''''

(plus any other arguments you might want)
* In the console type and Enter dmap Tut/T001 where you should substitute your subfolder name for Tut and your mission filename for T001. So, if you created your mission file directly in the maps folder then you do not need a folder name and can put dmap T001. If you made a subfolder in maps called MyMaps and named your mission MissionImpossible999.map then enter dmap MyMaps/MissionImpossible999. I recommend you do not use upper case in filenames in Doom as I think it can cause problems on other platforms.
* Wait while dmap compiles the mission. This should only be a few seconds with this tiny mission but will be much longer for big missions.
* If you get a 'leaked' error or some other serious red warning then recheck your work; look for gaps in the wall or a wrong texture like nodraw or have you got an entity outside in the void? See [[Performance: Essential Must-Knows#How to detect and fix leaks|HERE]] for more about fixing leaks but at this stage of this tutorial it might be easier just to redo. What I have laboured over is basically make a block, texture it, hollow it, stick in a player start and a light. As you get more proficient you can do it in less than a minute.
* Assuming there were no dmap red "ERROR"s then you should be returned to the Dark Mod menus and are now able to play the mission.
* Return to the console.
* Type and Enter map Tut/T001. Tip: Press the up arrow key toggles back through the history of what you have typed before so your dmap should re-appear. Just press the Home key and delete the 'd'. An alternative is to use 'testmap' instead of dmap which does both dmap and map but I prefer to see dmap's results.
* You should now be able to walk around in the room. If you have a player shadow set then you might notice that walking through that light looks odd so keep that in mind for light placement. But most lights you will place close to a visible source like a gaslight or wall torch.

That's the first part done!

{{A-Z Beginner Guide TOC}}

{{tutorial-editing}}

Console Useful Controls

2013-02-01T12:36:31Z

Zbyl: Added section about spawning entities, sorted general commands table.

==Introduction==

This is a list of common console commands and cvars that are of use to Dark Mod mappers and developers for testing etc. It is in order of key words and meaning.

==Notes==

* Where a cvar or command is followed by a 1 (parameter) it can be taken that it is enabled by 1 and disabled by 0 unless otherwise stated. '''N''' indicates a range of values.
* The current value of a cvar can be shown by entering its name without a value.
* Parameters can be toggled between values by preceding the control with 'toggle' and following it with eg, 1 0. Example : toggle r_showtris 3 0
* Controls can be bound to keys to be used in-game, including the toggle command, eg, <tt>bind "v" "toggle r_showportals 1 0"</tt>
* Many controls can be included in the file '''Doomconfig.cfg''' in the darkmod folder so they are automatically effective.
* Some controls are disabled on exit from a map; others are permanent until manually changed.

{|class="wikitable sortable" border=1 style="border-color: grey; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 92%; margin-left: 1em" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3

|-
!bgcolor=#ffdead|Command
!bgcolor=#ffdead|Description

|-
!align=left|noclip
|Player flies through everything.

|-
!align=left|notarget
|enemy AI will not attack player

|-
!align=left|god
|Player cannot be harmed.

|-
!align=left|killmonsters
|Removes all AI from a map.

|-
!align=left|tdm_show_loot
|Shows loot items through walls for a short time.

|-
!align=left|g_dragentity 1
|Aim at entity and hold attack control then pull back

|-
!align=left|pm_noclipspeed N
|Changed the speed of player noclip movement

|-
!align=left|g_fov N
|N=angle of field of view, eg, '''<code>g_fov 30</code>''' = zoom in to restrict field of view to 30 degrees. Default = 90

|-
!align=left|g_showEntityInfo 1
|Show info about near entities (as box with classname)

|-
!align=left|com_showfps 1
|Show fps to test performance.

|-
!align=left|g_frametime 1
|Timing info for each frame, see [[Profiling#g_frametime|Profiling]].

|-
!align=left|r_showPrimitives 1
|Show info about number of [[drawcalls]] and tris/shadow tris rendered.

|-
!align=left|r_showskel 1
|Shows skeleton in-game with joints names

|-
!align=left|g_showCollisionModels 1
|Shows collision models. Use '''g_maxShowDistance N''' to increase the distance where they are shown to.

|-
!align=left|r_showtris N
|(1) Shows triangles being rendered directly (2) shows overdrawn tri's (3) shows all tri's in scene, direct and indirect.

|-
!align=left|r_showportals 1
|Shows all portals in scene (red=closed,green=open) If your portals dont show up they are most likely not sealing.

|-
!align=left|r_showlightcount 1
|Using colours shows the number of lights hitting a surface, black = 0, red = 1, blue = 2... etc

|}

== Spawning entities ==

{|class="wikitable sortable" border=1 style="border-color: grey; border-collapse: collapse; font-size: 92%; margin-left: 1em" cellspacing=0 cellpadding=3

|-
!bgcolor=#ffdead|Command
!bgcolor=#ffdead|Description

|-
!align=left|spawn atdm:weapon_blackjack
|Spawns blackjack in front of the player. Look up if entity gets spawned under the floor.

|-
!align=left|spawn atdm:weapon_shortsword
|Spawns a sword.

|-
!align=left|spawn atdm:ammo_broadhead
|Spawns one arrow.

|-
!align=left|spawn atdm:ammo_broadhead inv_ammo_amount 50
|Spawns 50 arrows (one entity with 50 ammo). Simillar technique can be used for other ammo types.

|-
!align=left|spawn atdm:ammo_firearrow
|

|-
!align=left|spawn atdm:ammo_gasarrow
|

|-
!align=left|spawn atdm:ammo_mossarrow
|

|-
!align=left|spawn atdm:ammo_noisemaker
|

|-
!align=left|spawn atdm:ammo_ropearrow
|

|-
!align=left|spawn atdm:ammo_waterarrow
|

|}

With the Doom 3 console you can press tab after typing something to autocomplete, for example <tt>spawn atdm:<tab></tt> will cycle through the various spawnables. You can also add additional spawnargs using the following syntax: <tt>spawn classname [key value] [key value] ...</tt>.

==See Also==

[[Cvars in The Dark Mod]]

{{editing}}

[[Category:CVARS]]

Adding Script Events to sys

2013-02-01T11:19:13Z

Zbyl: Added more detailed info about adding events.

{{Original_Reference|Ishtvan|1582}}

Btw, if anyone's curious how to add new "sys" events, i.e., events you call with $sys.<eventname> from the script, they're located here:

/src/game/script/script_thread.cpp (and .h)

Just add them there as you would add any other script events. See [http://www.iddevnet.com/doom3/ iddevnet.com] under "11/11/04 Adding a new event" for a guide to adding script events. Here is a quick overview of how to add new event to "sys":
* in ''script_thread.cpp'' add: <code>const idEventDef EV_Thread_Print( "print", EventArgs('s', "text", ""), EV_RETURNS_VOID, "Prints the given string to the console.");</code>
* in ''script_thread.cpp'' under <code>CLASS_DECLARATION( idClass, idThread )</code> add: <code>EVENT( EV_Thread_Print, idThread::Event_Print )</code>
* add a method to <code>idThread</code> class: <code>void idThread::Event_Print( const char *text )</code>
* add an entry to ''tdm_events.script'' (''doom_events.script'' in DOOM 3): <code>scriptEvent void print( string text );</code>

This way you can add events that are global, for example as a frontend for accessing a global object contained in game_local.

The "sys" object is an artificial "global object" within the scripting language. The scripting language only sees actual spawned entities, and the global object. So you can't have abstract objects (like container classes contained within an entity or something). Therefore if you want an object to call functions without spawning an entity, the "sys" object is a good choice. (It's not a real object in the sdk either, it's just seen that way by scripting, and it can only call methods/events on the idThread class).

For an example of a script event attached to an entity other than "sys" see "wasDamaged" event on <code>idPlayer</code>.

{{sdk}}