In Depth Tutorial

NOTE:This Tutorial is a little out of date.it will be updated after more features added.

Hi all

this is a more in depth tutorial to look more into RPG builder this one is if you are familier with the tutorial called MyWorld by Kama and would like to go a little more in depth..

Lets Get Started: -

When you first load the program you will be confronted with a load screen click new and type in the title of the game. If this results in a grey map or the project takes a split second to create - Restart the program and try it again (BUG AT THE MOMENT ON SOME MACHINES).

After about 10-20 seconds (Depending on computer) your new project will be created.

Navigating

The camera controls are reletively simple

Right Mouse - PAN Left Mouse - Rotates camera in perspective mode Dual click LEFT+RIGHT Mouse zooms in and out Middle Mouse wheel - Zooms in and out (in top view only)

Adding roads and paths

When you have completed the previous step the window will close leaving the editor in front..

you will now be able to add roads/paths to the current map (MAP_1). The Default path will be a flagstone path which is suitable for many town village maps.

There is currently a selection of 4 types of tile Flagstone/Dirt/Deep Grass/Sand - you can use these by clicking on the TILES TAB.

To place the tile HOLD CTRL+CLICK The tile that you want to start painting on then move the mouse in the direction of the path you want.

If you make a mistake just simply press the middle button on your mouse and this will then erase the tile and return it to the original grass tile.

do this until you have a nice path for your map. Advice try to double the width of the path for a town as this will look nicer.

so far you should be able to do something like the below image

you dont have to stop at just that simple path you can expand on it later but i recomend you follow that for this tutorial

Adding Buildings --- Ok YAY We have made our first path i know nothing to special but what the hey its a start

We need to start adding our buildings to the map now

Next to the Tiles tab is the models tab here you will be confronted with a list box and thumbnail image - When you click on the list box you may notice the push button on the menubar change from the Tiles button to the Models button. When this happens you have changed to the model brush.

as you select different models you will see the thumbnail change to what you have selected

the first model we will use will be a church model

To place this on the map again CTRL+CLICK on the tile closest to the location that you want as i show below

for that model we keep it simple by clicking on the tile that is circled on the screenshot you will not need to re-position it at all

you can now rename the model on the map this is advisable because the more models you have the harder it will be to track them down when your map is complete.

to rename your model click the project tabs then Objects select your model and click properties

When you are done renaming press the finish button and your new name will replace the old one on the list box.

The next bit will be the adding of the Town House Model.

I wont repeat everything from before so simply place the models on each of the Building markers as below

Okay this looks kinda sucky at the moment so we will need to re-position them

to reposition them go back to the model list where you renamed the last model and select one of the Town Houses this will disable the model placement button to all you to move them. Simply click and drag to re-position on the map.

But you will first need to rotate them

that is what the scrollbars on the bottom of the list are for.

there are 2 ways to rotate them you can either click on one of the arrows or drag the bar for a more precise rotation..

I prefer to use the arrows as they rotate in 10 degree increments and are more suitable but if i wanted to add a bit more realisim in placement i will use the precision rotate.

So basically move and rotate the models - Rename them too if you want untill you have you map looking a little something like this

Saving maps --- in the current debug version click on project then the maps tab then click on the map to save it - when the map flashes you know you have saved it

the next release will have a save map button in the file menu or by simply pressing F5

Trees Next -

Okay our next step will be to add trees

Trees are a great lttle feature but you have to be cautious of the ammount that you put in as this can have major repercussions on framerate believe me i know i have done it.

In the current DEBUG Version which is available on these forums you cannot delete a tree when it is placed. the next version you can

click on the foliage button - Next to the Model button and you will be shown a new window - i will explain briefly what the check boxes and things do

This is what you will see when you click foliage.

The boxed sections i will explain

The first 2 listboxes contain the various trees here you can chose one type of tree or randomise through them.

the next group is a couple of check boxes called positioning. The foliage painter works by adding trees within the range of a map tile you can place many hundreds of trees on a single tile but this looks rediculous and just kills the framerate

Random [] means to place the trees in random places on the hovered tile and Center[] Means to place the selected tree in the middle of the tile. For this tutorial we will be using the center check box

following on from that is the rotation boxes - I recommend using the rotation box for all tree work because this makes it look more natural. So for this tutorial we will be using this. Though Zero Rotation may be usefull on certain maps

FLOW/PLACE - This is a very important feature as it tells the engine whether or not we will be painting trees or just adding 1 at a time.. For Town maps like this we will not use flow as this will start behaving erratically and we will paint more trees then we need for such scenes so uncheck this box to start Placing instead of flowing

the slider on the bottom is the scale of the trees. usefull if you want to make your scene look more green without the need for so many trees.

we will leave this as it is for now

that should now be the layout of the foliage painter next we will start greening up our scene

As always CTRL+Click where you want trees to be placed there are no other things to do on this so just fill you scen up until you get something like this

The Labs ---

There are currently 2 labs on RPG Builder - MTN-LAB and SKY-LAB

MTN-LAB Is the first part of the project to support importing from other locations - But in this tutorial we will be using the morrow bay height map

Brief explanation

A Height map is a 256x256 Greyscale image - as the grey gets lighter this means the height is heigher there are many more detailed explanations of height maps all over the web - i will be soon posting a tutorial on how to make mountainscapes for RB3d using a free piece of software called BRYCE 5 - but for now we will use our templat ones

to get to the MTN-LAB simply click the button that looks like a mountain - this is situated near the tool buttons there are 2 buttons on there own

When you press this button the editor transforms into the mountain lab

this looks like alot i know but it is really simple really

you should know - The Mountain labe does not remove anything from your project just hides them - while it is running - what makes this usefull is you can simply show all of the models in your scene while you create your mountain scape to see if it will fit. It is highly recomended for you to make a mountainscape the size of the map it gives a much more interesting look to your maps

Ok now we are here lets create our mountainscape

you will notice the huge dark grey image to the left this is the heightmap file sample - underneath that you will see an edit box with a file loader button to the right of it [...] click this to bring up the file browser window -&gt; double click heights and then Morrowbay.bmp -&gt; open

you notice the Grey picture has changed into a greyscale image and the checker tile in the main window has now morphed its shape

you have successfully imported the heightmap to rpg builder

next we will need to add a texture to it look underneath the height map edit box which should now have a filename in it, same as before but instead of heights double click textures and select MorroTexture.jpg -&gt; OK

Almost done now looking good hey.

Detail Textures: -- These are miniture tiling images that add texture to each poly on a height map when near it which gives it as much mor realistic look. Again there is many articles of information on these and other types of shaders all over the web

Repeat the same process again then but the next box down instead of textures go to detailmaps -&gt; Detail12.bmp -&gt; OK

that is you final mountainscape.

what we do next is make it so it fills the entire map to do this simply click the dropdown box and select whole map.. this will then scale the mountain to fit the whole map except for the height

When you see this set the height to 15 or higher/lower to suit - for the benefit of this tutorial though i set it to 15

if it looks like that then you have finished the mountain

when you are happy with it press the [   SAVE MOUNTAIN    ] button on the bottom of the editor name it then press ok...

you will be redirected to the Map-editor with everything back to how it should be :lol:

Now when you are back click the models tab select height meshes and your new mountainscape will be in its list box

when you are ready to add it to the map select the height mesh and position it two tiles right from the player start location and 1 tile down from the top edge of the map this should create it out of harms way but also add a nice little extra to the map

If you place it in the wrong place go to project tab-&gt;OBJECTS-&gt;MOUNTAINS - select the mountain and press the [  DELETE  ] button then go back to the models tab and try it again

save your map

--- Finaly lets have a walk through --- Now We have created our first map saved it and we are ready to walk through to see if it is all good...

the very end button on the tools group is the player start locator it seems obvious as it looks like a player icon - go to the tile you would like your player to start from and CTRL+Click it. When you are happy with its location:

click the walktrhough button (the button that looks like an eye)

and enjoy your map

On a final note: I have just scratched the surface with this tutorial there are several more things that you can experiement with - perhaps use more than 2 of the 18 Template models we have, Change the sky and fog (do this in front view), create and import your own heightmaps, add lighting, change music all of these are possible in this version of rpg builder - Experiment and have fun