Stair Dismount 2 - Level Editing FAQ
FAQ revision 0.1 - First skeleton draft, work in progress!
1. Requirements- Windows PC with OpenGL drivers installed
- Stair Dismount 2 development beta build v0.5 download link
- irrEdit 1.5 download link
- SXcuboid plugin for irrEdit 1.5 download link NOTE: Only works with 1.5, not other versions!
- Vamopreto lighting tool download link
2. Setting Up the Tool Chain- Download all the four zip files linked above
- Unzip irrEdit, SD2 beta and Vamopreto to their own folders.
- Copy sxcuboid plugin to irrEdit folder. Note: sxcuboid zip file contains folders "plugins" and "resource", and the files in these folders are expected to find their way to the corresponding folders in the irrEdit folder.
3. Short Pipeline Summary- Design level in irrEdit -> save as scene.irr into Vamopreto folder
- Light level in Vamopreto, just double-click the executable
- Copy level data (scene.irr) and lighting data produced by Vamopreto (scene.vao) to the game data folder as either scene1.irr and scene1.vao or scene2.irr and scene2.vao
- Start game, test level, go to step 1 if necessary
4. Creating Dismount Levels in irrEdit
All the cubes in the levels are created with "sxcuboids", a custom geometry node enabled in irrEdit with our custom plugin.
All levels consist of cubes only. No skewing, no deformations.
You can move the cubes, rotate the cubes, duplicate cubes and change their size. That's all there is to it.
To make things easier, you can also create a bunch of cubes, move them under an empty scene node and then duplicate the node to have "brushes" of multiple cubes.
Note: Do not adjust the SCALE attribute of any cuboid. If you want to change the dimensions of any cube, adjust the SIZE attribute of the cuboid. This is important - modifying scale may lead to unexpected results.
Cuboids, cuboid attributes
Using hierarchies
spawn, camera_target, camera_pos and other important nodes
panorama camera nodes
lighting attributes
subdivision controls and visualization
And sigh, no... irrEdit doesn't have undo/redo functionality.
5. Lighting in Vamopreto
Save the level out from irrEdit with the name "scene.irr", and copy it to the Vamopreto folder.
Then rename any of the skydome files in the Vamopreto folder as simply "skydome.png". This image will be used to calculate lighting and soft occlusion shadows into the level geometry.
Feel free to edit your own skydome files if you wish. Just keep them the same size and file format.
If the Vamopreto folder has both scene.irr and skydome.png then simply double-click on vamopreto.exe to begin the level-lighting process. It is fully automatic.
After Vamopreto has finished (this may take a few minutes depending on the complexity of the level and the speed of your PC), a file named scene.vao appears in the same folder.
These can now be copied into the game data folder as either scene1.irr and scene1.vao or scene2.irr and scene2.vao, depending on which of our example scenes you wish to replace.
6. Testing Levels
Files related to each level:
scene
x.irr where x is either the number 1 or 2, created in irrEdit
scene
x.vao where x is either the number 1 or 2 together with the irr-file, created by Vamopreto
lighting_
y.xml where y is "day", "evening" or any other descriptive word, edited with notepad or any text editor. Name must match the property set in the level editor!
sky_
z.png where z is "day", "evening" or any other descriptive word, is a backdrop image used in the game on the backdrop environment sphere, lighting_y.xml defines which sky_z.png is used. Note: This file is not used by Vamopreto for anything!
You can find examples of all of the above files in the game data folder!
7. Optimizing Performance
subdivisions revisited
iPhone considerations
----
Original post still here for those confused by the unfinished FAQ
Everyone please read
To call every one of the forum members here patient is an understatement. Stair Dismount 2 has had a long development life filled with setbacks, delays and learning experiences.
The game is certainly not finished yet, but we are again setting some time aside to bring it closer to completion. In fact, this started today.
But to keep things more interesting for you guys, we thought of an idea that might make the wait more enjoyable than just reading our random forum posts.
We intend to soon release a development build and instructions how to create Dismount levels.
These will be the same tools we've so far used to make levels in the SD2 tech tests and the released iPhone version of Stair Dismount.
The development build will be rough: it only runs in a window, it has no sound, and it has no online leaderboards. Essentially it's a PC version of the iPhone game, but with only two levels included, one for reference, the other for the levels you can create.
So it's not a full game, but it is a very good sandbox to play with the Dismount physics and to try out level ideas.
If you're expecting user-friendliness and levels that can be done at the push of a button, it won't be that simple. The 3D editor is not the most user-friendly one out there, and there is also the lighting step that needs to be done in a separate tool before a level can be tested in the game. But these are the tools we've used, so they are arguably usable
We wanted to give a heads-up now to let everyone know of the plan. There may be some details we haven't thought of that can delay the plan, but I'll be keeping everyone posted of how things are going.
This thread will become the place for conversation, level editing information and level sharing (we'll figure out how to enable file attachments in the forum software).
We're eager to see where the next days and weeks will lead to, hope you are too.
Stair Dismount 2 - beta & level editing FAQ
Linear Mode
