How do i use build?

[oak man]

imma first time builder long time player. i got tired of playing the regular levels of dn 3d so i tried makeing my own they realy sucked! 1 textured pieses of crap! so i would realy appreatiate it if some one could help me use build

[Ding Bat]

Start with reading the build help files on the CD, also on the CD there is a map FAQ . Then if that is not enough help, go to http://rtcm.thecomitatus.com/.

There is not enough room on the UBB to hold all the info.
Plus to try and figure out what you need to know is rediculous.

First Read-Read-Read then come back here and ask spicific questions and the people here will be happy to help. Including me.

[oak man]

good idea why didn't i do that?!thatnks for the link.

[oak man]

how does one make a texture transparent? and doors?

[Boinky]

t on the texture for transparency and read the faq there are several types of doors. You need to be specific

[supertanker]

Here is the most basic door type:

(This assomes you understand two sided lines, musicandfx sprites, an how to make a sector)
3.1 How to make a rising door

Rising doors rise into the roof. To make one, make three sectors as shown
below:


---------------\ / ------
- *---* -
- * * -
- *---* -
---------------/ \-------


Point at the smaller sector in between and press "t". Type in 20 and press
return. Go into 3D mode. Chose nice textures, and lower the roof of the door
sector down to the floor. Then add two sprites, a sectoreffector (sprite 1)
and a musicfxs (sprite 5). Go back into 2D mode and move the sprites into the
door sector. Give the sectoreffector a lotag of 10, a hitag of 128. This is to
make the door close by itself. Give the musicfxs a lowtag of 166 to chose the
sound. Run it!


Enjoy! And oh, to run a map, type in duke3d.exe -map mapanme.map

Replace mapname with the name of the map. And here are three types of doors I made for you

And here is a list of good door sounds, include in the zip with a sample called doorsnd.map (different sounds for each door)

[supertanker]

Oh, and the tutorial is a WIP (work in progress)

[oak man]

awsome man thanks your the only 1 whos helped me so far.

[supertanker]

Your welcome. darn, the stupid "graphic" in the post got messed up, Next time ill use an actualy screenshot.

Anyways, if you want you can email me your levels and i'll give you tips on how to improve them. I had to learn without the forums....

[oak man]

supertanker said:
Your welcome. darn, the stupid "graphic" in the post got messed up, Next time ill use an actualy screenshot.

Anyways, if you want you can email me your levels and i'll give you tips on how to improve them. I had to learn without the forums....

ok but my map files are on jf duke and i dont know what drive thay are on when i get the chance i will. how do i post a file?

[supertanker]

Well you can email them, (use attachements), or you can post them here.

When you click reply, look for a checkbox near the bottom that says "I want to preview my post and/or attach a file"

Make sure that is checkled and click Continue. Then, click browse and find the file. When you click the ok, submit button, it uploads it and links it to the post. It must be smaller than 100000 bytes, or 100 kb, or 1/10th of a megabyte.

Now, when you make a map by default it saves it as "newboard.map" to the directory BUILD is in. So, if you did the default (c:\program files\jfduke3d) it should be in c:\program files\jfduke3d as newboard.map or whatever you named it.

[oak man]

thanks i'll post my first 3 levels today

[Jeff]

I made a map where I stepped into the playing field and 50 guys just blew eachother up after they saw me. There were guys lined up on all four corners. I put a bunch of health and stuff in a room where I could re-fuel. In the end, one of them was the boss, so the map ended easily.

[oak man]

was that your first map?hers mine

[oak man]

yikes how do i put files on my posts, every time i try to add an attacthment it tells me this,"

The files you may upload must have the following extension: .gif,.jpg,.txt,.zip,.png''

what does this mean?

[Frenkel]

It means you can't upload a .map file. You'll need to zip it first with Winzip or something.

[oak man]

and how can i do that? cause i have winzip.

[Boinky]

Zip the file up and attach it

[oak man]

Boinky said:
Zip the file up and attach it

duh

[Sinister]

Wow this thread brings back memories... years ago my dad and I used to stay up late making levels. They were pretty good too.

[oak man]

you and your da? cool

[Descent]

oak man said:
you and your da? cool

Sorry to be picky, but that does it, he actually wrote "my dad and I", but you really have to re-ask the question.. WHY?!?!

Sorry, couldn't stand the temptation..

[oak man]

sheesh man!

[NutWrench]

Descent said:
Sorry to be picky, but that does it, he actually wrote "my dad and I", but you really have to re-ask the question.. WHY?!?!

Sorry, couldn't stand the temptation..

Maybe you should switch to decaf.

[oak man]

I agree! any ways heres my maps.

[oak man]

this should be my first level.I made when i started this threed.
Is it any good?

[NutWrench]

oak man said:
this should be my first level.I made when i started this threed.
Is it any good?

Compared to what? It's about what I'd expect for a first level

Keep the level fairly small. (Around 500 sectors). The bigger your level is, the more detail you'll need to add to make it interesting.

Keep the textures consistent throughout the level.

You can avoid jarring texture transitions by adding things like support columns or ducts (See E1L2 for examples of this)

Use sector shading to simulate light coming from different places.

Make the monster corpses non-blockable. I know it's not realistic, but there's nothing more annoying that getting killed in a level because you got stuck on a piece of scenery.

At the end of the level, you can make the Cycloid Emperor walk around by giving his sector a lowtag of 3. (In 2D mode aim your mouse within his sector, press 'T' and then 3 and enter. You should see a "[0,3]" in the sector if you did it correctly).

[oak man]

yeah i had troubl making the cycloid emperror walk around. did you really get stuck on a pieace of the scenery?I'll post sommore of th levels i've made. but on a scale of 1-10 what would you give it?

[NutWrench]

oak man said:
yeah i had troubl making the cycloid emperror walk around. did you really get stuck on a pieace of the scenery?I'll post sommore of th levels i've made. but on a scale of 1-10 what would you give it?

On a scale of 1-10 compared to a retail level? I would give it a 2 and that's only because you used textures and there wasn't any map corruption.

The level needs to be more interesting. Right now, it's just a connected series of rooms. There aren't any stairs, ramps or doors. There's no shading. Weapons are way too easy to find.

Check out some of the retail levels. Notice how the levels are laid out. There are lots of things to DO in those levels. Access is controlled with locked doors that require keycards. There are lots of ambient and triggered sounds. Lot's of lighting effects. There are barriers around the edges of the level, which makes it look like the level goes on beyond your field of view.

You can also use things like fences, bars, lava, pits or forcefields which let you see later parts or the level but don't allow you to get to those areas right away. This keeps the player interested and makes him want to keep playing in order finding a way to get there (finding a door keycard, for instance).

Try learning how the Sector Effectors work. Make a Doom-type door. Lay out the rooms in shapes that don't let you see the whole thing at once. Levels get a lot more interesting when you don't know what's behind a door or around the next corner.

[SS4_Gogeta]

oak man said:
I agree! any ways heres my maps.

better than wat i can do most of the time X_X it's good

[supertanker]

Here was my first PUBLICALY RELEASED map, my first one sucked so bad, ill release it LATER after I get over the shame of making such a peice of $E*(%&$()^_W

ANyways, EDF Base.

Im making a remake of it too.

[oak man]

nut wrench, need i remind you that this was my first level. i didnt know about sector effectors and stuff so...one simple answer would be good

[oak man]

supertanker said:
Here was my first PUBLICALY RELEASED map, my first one sucked so bad, ill release it LATER after I get over the shame of making such a peice of $E*(%&$()^_W

ANyways, EDF Base.

Im making a remake of it too.

this is cool. heres anouther one of my levels

[supertanker]

Tiberius Station 5....second in the series

[NutWrench]

oak man said:
nut wrench, need i remind you that this was my first level. i didnt know about sector effectors and stuff so...one simple answer would be good

Hey, you asked for an opinion. In my opinion, it rated a 2 compared to a retail map. And I offered constructive criticism. I didn't just say "it blows" and leave it at that.

[oak man]

yeah i no i took i thwrong way sorry i was in a bad mood when i read your post,sory. but thank you for your openion and advice.

[SS4_Gogeta]

supertanker said:
Here was my first PUBLICALY RELEASED map, my first one sucked so bad, ill release it LATER after I get over the shame of making such a peice of $E*(%&$()^_W

ANyways, EDF Base.

Im making a remake of it too.

O_O When i looked at this in build i heard frylock (from ATHF) say "oh my god!" when he saw that mummy

but seriously it was great!

here's my VERY first level.... don't say "it sucks" because i was still a noob at build at the time

[oak man]

how do you make walls transparent?like glass?

[GodBlitZor]

on Masked walls press "t"

[oak man]

GodBlitZor said:
on Masked walls press "t"

masked wals come out as purple right?