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2D and 3D Views

The 2D and 3D views are the center of your activities when you work with a map. They have a number of features that make working with them very comfortable and straightforward. This section will familiarize you with the features of the 2D and 3D views.

In order to study the material presented in this section in an optimal manner, it is recommended that you try out and reproduce it with one of the finished maps that come with the Cafu SDK. This is much easier than starting with a new, empty map, where not enough objects are available to properly see some of the actions. Use the File → Open… menu for loading a map from the DeathMatch/Maps directory, e.g. Kidney.cmap.

By default, your screen is divided into four views that show your map from different sides and perspectives, and in different rendering modes. The upper left view is the 3D view, which shows the map as a perspective rendering. The three other views are the 2D views, showing the map from the top, the side or the front like an architects plan.

The active view

It is important to understand that many actions like key presses and some menu selections can work in any of the 2D or 3D views, and therefore rely on the currently active view to carry out their operation.

You activate a view simply by moving the mouse over it.

Subsequently pressed keyboard shortcuts or menu command will then use that view for their operation.

The 2D views

The 2D views show the map from the top, the side or the front. When a 2D view is active, you can use the following key and mouse actions to navigate in it:

  • The four arrow keys (up, down, left, right) scroll the map.
  • The + and - keys change the zoom level.
  • When you press and hold the SPACE key, the cursor turns into an open hand, and then you can use the mouse to pan the view.
  • Using the mouse wheel zooms, too.
  • The CTRL+E menu shortcut centers all 2D views onto the currently selected object(s).

In the status bar at the bottom of the screen you will see both the current position of the mouse cursor in world coordinates as well as the current zoom level of the active view. There is also other information shown in the status bar, depending on the currently active tool.

The 3D views

The 3D views show the map from a perspective that comes close to how the Cafu engine will render the map. It's very useful to get an overall impression, apply and align materials and objects, etc.

  • The four arrow keys (up, down, left, right) rotate the camera.
  • Use A, W, S and D to move the camera.
  • Press Z to toggle the mouse-look-lock. That is, when you pressed Z, you can let everything else go and moving the mouse will still rotate the camera. In combination with the A, W, S and D keys, this is very much like controlling the player when the map is running in-game. Press Z again to release the mouse.
  • The scroll wheel moves the camera into and out of the screen, just like the W and S keys.
  • Refer to and use the explicit Camera Tool for even more ways to set and control the 3D views.
  • Press and hold the SPACE key to temporarily control the camera as if the Camera Tool was active. That means that while you hold the SPACE key,
    • also hold the left mouse button to mouse-look (rotate the camera using the mouse),
    • also hold the right mouse button to move the camera using the mouse (strafe left and right, move up and down),
    • also hold the left and right mouse button to move the camera using the mouse (strafe left and right, but now move into and out of the screen).

All views

The four views are separated by splitter bars, and you can easily adjust their size by pulling the splitters into a new position. There is currently no full-screen mode available for the views, but moving the splitters so that the size of one of the views is maximized simulates the effect. Press CTRL+A to make the four views (arranged in a 2×2 pattern) all the same size again (this re-centers the splitter bars).

View types and render modes. In each view, there is a drop-down box in the upper left corner where you can change the type (2D vs. 3D) and the render mode (textured, solid, wire-frame, etc.) of the view.

Note that the render mode “3D Edit Mats” often looks much like the “3D Full Mats”, but whereas the latter shows the materials in their “natural” appearance (as they appear later in the game, e.g. translucent, distorted, invisible, black etc.), “3D Edit Mats” shows plainly textured surfaces instead. This can be very helpful for seeing the materials properly for editing purposes.



The images below show three frequently used render modes for the 3D views:
3D Wireframe 3D Flat 3D Full Mats

mapping/cawe/views.1246785768.txt.gz · Last modified: 2013-01-07 12:07 (external edit)