Scene Elements

Overview

Scenes are composed of a lot of different elements. This document will help you identifying these elements more easily.

Terrain and sky

Each land based level has the ground (the terrain) and the sky. The terrain can be textured, and many different kinds of objects placed upon it. A

Ocean

Within open air levels, it is possible to set a height for the sea, for the entire level.

Clouds

Cloud objects can be placed in the sky, to add an extra element of space and realism to your level . Various different cloud types exist, allowing interesting, realistic sky setups.

Related topics:

Weather Effects tutorial

Vegetation

Plants and trees can be manually placed on your terrain, both by hand or procedurally, as part of a terrain texture.

Related topics:

How to use the Vegetation Tool

Edit vegetation file menu

Roads

Roads are created using a special tool, which has the capacity to align terrain along its path.

Related topics:

Road Tool tutorial

Road Tool reference

Rivers

A similar tool in function to the road tool, which can be used to create realistic looking water flows within a level.

Related topics:

River Tool tutorial

River Tool reference

Brushes

Brushes are static objects, composed from geometry with materials assigned to it. Brushes can be breakable.

Related topics:

Brushes

Entities

Entities are script based objects with advanced functionality: physicalisation attributes, breakability, animation, player interaction, scripting and artificial intelligence.

Important entity types include:

AI

Artificial intelligence entities are an entity type with advanced scripting assigned to it.

Geom and basic entities

A geom entity is a very simple entity, which takes its physicalisation parameters from its assigned geometry. A basic entity is a similar, but more complex thing, with more available perameters.

Vehicles

Vehicles, created via script or with the vehicle editor, are also an entity type.

Lights

Various kinds of light entities, of different colors and intensities can be placed within a scene.

Particle Effects

Related topics:

Entities reference

AI Triangulation

How to set up AI

How to set up a simple AI flowgraph

Geom Entity

The Vehicle Editor

Lights

Creating Particle Effects - part 1

Creating Particle Effects - part 2

Particle Editor Refrence

Entities Particle Effect Reference

Decals

Decals are projected textures which can be placed upon the surfaces of terrain or objects.

Related topics:

How to place Decals in the editor

Decal tool reference

Triggers

Triggers are a tool which can be used to cause any scripted event to occur.

Related topics:

Triggers reference

Game logic triggers

Points, paths and shapes

Alongside other scripting elements to a level, various other technical objects are required for specific functions. For example, points can be used to allow AI to navigate, paths can be used to guide vehicles, and areas can be set up as forbidden zones, where AI cannot go.

Volumes

Areas can be given a height value, which changes it into a volume. Such volumes can also be assigned specific properties, such as setting an area which flying AI will be able to navigate with.

Related topics:

Logical Gameplay Areas

Render objects

There are various objects that assist the game to render correctly, and not render un-needed objects.

Vis Areas

A vis area is like a self contained rendering box. If you are inside it, you cannot see outside, and from the outside, cant see the objects within. You can create links between these areas with portals.

Occluders

These objects will stop any object behind them being rendered and they are heavily used for optimization.

Related topics:

Render objects

Cameras

Cameras are used for viewing scenes from different angles, for example, in cutscenes.

Related topics:

Camera reference

Sound objects

A level needs sound. There are a range of objects that exist to allow population of the level, from point sounds to ambient sounds, to music.

Related topics:

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