Glossary

started by Fidcal

The world of 3D game editing has inherited much confusing terminology to confuse the beginner. They often have little or no relationship to their normal dictionary definition. Here are a few common ones explained...

AI

These are the functioning characters or creatures having AI - artificial intelligence to represent living sentient beings in the game: humans, animals, monsters.

Brush

A brush is normally an applicator to apply paint, ink, glue but in 3D gaming it means a raw shape. The most common shape is a simple block but Dark Mod provides pyramids, cones, spheres.

All Dark Mod brushes must be convex so you cannot have any recesses or concave angles such as in an L shape, a bowl, a hole in a wall. Instead multiple brushes must be used as building blocks to form these shapes.

Brushes are intended for simple shapes. More complex, detailed shapes like trees, AI characters, etc. are created externally as 'models'

A brush is a primitive and begins as a child of the worldspawn entity. This means it is a direct offshoot of the game world and inherits any properties applied to the worldspawn. If you select a brush and look in the Entity Inspector you will see the worldspawn properties.

A brush may be parented to another entity when it will inherit its properties.

Entity

A functioning item. (Multiple) primitives such as brushes and patches, and also models, can be parented to it and thus inherit its properties and functions.

Key

The property of an item (see #Spawnarg

Also used in-game for door and container keys etc.

Map

A game file. In Dark Mod saved with the suffix .map. A mission. A A game level.

Also used in-game for city, treasure maps, etc.

Patch

A two dimensional surface

A patch is a primitive - a child of the worldspawn entity. This means it is a direct offshoot of the game world and inherits any properties applied to the worldspawn. If you select a brush and look in the Entity Inspector you will see the worldspawn properties.

A patch may be parented to another entity when it will inherit its properties.

Also may be used in-game by pirates!

Primitive

Initially a child of the worldspawn entity. This means it is a direct offshoot of the game world and inherits any properties applied to the worldspawn. #Brushes and #Patches are primitives.

Spawnarg

A spawnarg is an argument (in the mathematical sense) given to an entity or primitive when it is first created (spawned.) These are the properties of the item and consist of a property name and its value (quantity, type, description or nature.) It is often referred to as a key value pair as it represented in the software code in that form. The key is the property name such as origin, rotation, team. The value can be numerical: 99 - or a string of alphanumeric character abcd99_xyz. There can be one or more values. Examples:

Name (property, key) : origin
Value : 496 656 128

Name : team
Value : 2

Name : head_joint
Value : Head

see also Spawnarg