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| + | ====== Introduction to Editing ====== | ||
| + | ===== Brushes ===== | ||
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| + | Do you know how a Lego model or a real house is built from bricks? | ||
| + | Invidividual, small bricks are combined to form a complex architectural structure. | ||
| + | CaWE works principally in the same way, and thus if you can visualize how individual bricks form a model or a big building, | ||
| + | you will find it easy to grasp the concepts behind CaWE. | ||
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| + | In CaWE, the bricks are called //brushes//, and they come in several shapes: blocks, wedges, cylinders, pyramids etc. | ||
| + | Moreover, you can modify the default brushes in many ways. They can be scaled, sheared, mirrored, cut in pieces, carved and so on. | ||
| + | You can create an arbitrary big number of these brushes in any shape you like, and use and combine them for building | ||
| + | the matter that forms your world: walls, floors, roofs, furniture, rocks, ... . | ||
| + | Brushes eventually get //materials// assigned that represent the surface properties of that brush, | ||
| + | as for example rock, glass, concrete, sand or water. | ||
| + | The creation of brushes is detailed at [[mapping:cawe:editingtools#newbrush]]. | ||
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| + | ===== Bezier Patches and Terrains ===== | ||
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| + | Modelling really complex surfaces can be difficult with brushes alone, especially if the surfaces should be curved, organic, or very big. | ||
| + | Cafu and CaWE therefore provide two additional basic elements that complement brushes: | ||
| + | //Bezier patches// are curved surfaces that you can imagine like bent or stamped metal plates. | ||
| + | They can be used to model pipes, curves, smooth archs, and many other organic objects. | ||
| + | The creation of bezier patches is detailed at [[mapping:cawe:editingtools#newbezierpatch]]. | ||
| + | //Terrains// are similar, but as their name suggests, aim at surfaces that are much bigger and more irregular. | ||
| + | They're also treated specially by the engine and have very high performance. | ||
| + | The creation of terrains is detailed at [[mapping:cawe:editingtools#newterrain]]. | ||
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| + | ===== Entities ===== | ||
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| + | //Entities// define and represent all other interesting things in a world, and they come in two flavours: | ||
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| + | * **Point-based entities** exist at a specific coordinate in space and can be thought of as a reference point. Although these entities may refer to objects that actually have a volume, for example a monster, they are only treated as points in CaWE, and the Cafu engine provides the volume later in the game. An example is a monster entity: In CaWE, it just represents the point where the monster will be, in Cafu, it will acutally be there. | ||
| + | * **Brush-based entities** are related to at least one brush or bezier patch and thus have a volume. Examples for brush based entities include doors and platforms, bodies of water, area triggers, etc. | ||
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| + | The creation of entities is described in the [[mapping:cawe:editingtools:newentity|New Entity tool]] documentation. | ||
| + | A list with a description of all available entity types can be found in the [[mapping:cawe:reference:entityguide|Entity Guide]]. | ||
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| + | ===== Static Detail Models ===== | ||
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| + | While //static detail models// are really nothing more than (point-based) entities of type ''static_detail_model'', they provide another powerful means to augment the detail in your world in a way that is not easy or even impossible to achieve with brushes, bezier patches and terrains alone. | ||
| + | Such models can be imported from your favourite 3D modelling program, they can be arbitrarily complex, and they can for example be under the control of a level-of-detail system. | ||
| + | Examples include models for furniture, statues, household or laboratory inventory, vehicles, etc. | ||
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| + | ===== Putting it All Together ===== | ||
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| + | By combining these simple components, you can create stunningly virtual worlds whose number of variants is virtually unlimited. | ||
| + | Starting with a rough outline of brushes and possibly terrains, you can fill in architectural detail with other brushes, patches and entities. | ||
| + | Eventually you will populate your world with more entities that bring your creation to life. | ||
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| + | The final step in making a world is compiling it so that it can be run with the Cafu engine. | ||
| + | This is a quite complex process that precomputes visibility, lighting and many other details. | ||
| + | However, CaWE has a great built-in facility to make the compilation process as easy as possible for you. | ||
| + | The article [[mapping:compiling_new]] has more information about how CaWE assists in compiling maps. | ||