basic architecture-tutorial for PostEd [by Psychoriggen 2003]

Welcome to the basic architecture tutorial for Posted!

Before we start there are some things to mention:

1. What is "basic architecture" (normally called "BSP")?

-I call it basic architecture, because you will always use it building a map/level. In former versions of the UnrealEngine BSP was used to build nearly everything in a map,but today so called "Static Meshes" are used (f.instance: for a car, a table or such stuff). This is because BSP is build all the time you are playing, which means: If you create an object with many faces,vertexes blabla= an detailed object the game-performance will...suck. That's the reason why BSP should be only used for rooms (what means floor, walls, ceiling) or simple-shaped objects like a box etc. [Of course you want to use Static Meshes, too, but first read this tut and then the SM-Tut.]

2. What do I need to make a map?

-Of course you need the game (Editor comes with it) and the most important thing (after the first mentioned :) ) is: PATIENCE!!! It's for sure you'll have to do things again and again until they really work and look like you've wanted 'em! It does of course help you if you got a good (3)dimensional imagination (because you gonna build up a 3d-environment), but....PATIENCE ROCKS! Patience=God-Mode, understood?!

CREATION OF A ROOM
So let's start now...I expect your a clever one and already know you gotta open your unrealed for the following stuff :)

1. right-click (further "r-c") on CUBE -you get the cube-builder-box. For now it's enough if you look at height, width&breadth. The standard number entered is 256 for each, because it's fine, you can leave it as is.[If you want to change one of the values just click on the number-containing-field and change it.]

2. If you changed a value click on "build" (in the cube-builder) otherwise you can do this without something happening or "close". So, do you see the RED BOX in the viewports? That's the BUILDERBRUSH, which shows you, what you gonna build. If you change the Cubes-Height or something the BB will show it to you.

3. Now click on SUBSTRACT-there's your room! [Dont look at this bubble-texture! Its toxic!]You gotta imagine the "nothing" you got right after you started the ed-so no changes were done-as a great solid piece of ...whatever you want. Therefor you gotta "SUBSTRACT" something from it to be able to put a character or something in-OK?

CREATING A PASSAGE FROM 1 TO 2
1. Because just one room sucks, we gonna make another one + a passage to reach it, which will be half a room's size. So make a BB of a 128x128x128 size (see 1. above ). 2. Now move it on the first room's right side in the TOP-viewport. To do this click on the BB (being active is shown by a brighter red), then hold down Ctrl and (Ctrl still held down) and left mouse-button ("lmb") and move the mouse in the right direction until the BB's left-border lies on the right one of the first room (if you dont get it, take a look at the site's bottom and look for "grid"-there are some notes which could help you). 3. Good. But now the passage-room is only aligned on the x-axis, if you take a look at the other viewports you'll see the passage will be in the middle of the rooms wall. Just have a look at >2 < and you should be able to do the aligning for this axis too. 4. Substract it - Room and passage finished, one room missing. 5. Create the other room with a size like 256x256x256 or bigger, align it and substract it. [if you don't know how to do this-give up and go play with you he-man-action-figures :) ]

CREATING A PASSAGE FROM 1 TO 2

1. Because just one room sucks, we gonna make another one + a passage to reach it, which will be half a room's size. So make a BB of a 128x128x128 size (see 1. above ).

2. Now move it on the first room's right side in the TOP-viewport. To do this click on the BB (being active is shown by a brighter red), then hold down Ctrl and (Ctrl still held down) and left mouse-button ("lmb") and move the mouse in the right direction until the BB's left-border lies on the right one of the first room (if you dont get it, take a look at the site's bottom and look for "grid"-there are some notes which could help you).

3. Good. But now the passage-room is only aligned on the x-axis, if you take a look at the other viewports you'll see the passage will be in the middle of the rooms wall. Just have a look at >2 < and you should be able to do the aligning for this axis too.

4. Substract it - Room and passage finished, one room missing.

5. Create the other room with a size like 256x256x256 or bigger, align it and substract it. [if you don't know how to do this-give up and go play with you he-man-action-figures :) ]

USE OF OTHER TEXTURES (better ones than this bubble-thingy-thing)
1. Click on a wall/floor/ceiling of a room. There'll be a blue "overlay" on it. You now could change this single textures, but we gonna do it for the whole room in one procedure, so do "Shift+B" to mark all of the room's texes. 2. Open the Texture Browser and choose "Open" and open a package. Or use the AnimalSkins-Package which is already opened at the beginning. Click on the cat (or whatever). 3. Now the room's walls, floor and ceiling do have this texture. Do the same for the other room and the passage if you want. [For further stuff on using textures -like aligning, sizing, exporting, importing, etc.- have a look at the texture-use-tutorial, which will be available soon on postalediting!]

USE OF OTHER TEXTURES (better ones than this bubble-thingy-thing)

1. Click on a wall/floor/ceiling of a room. There'll be a blue "overlay" on it. You now could change this single textures, but we gonna do it for the whole room in one procedure, so do "Shift+B" to mark all of the room's texes.

2. Open the Texture Browser and choose "Open" and open a package. Or use the AnimalSkins-Package which is already opened at the beginning. Click on the cat (or whatever).

3. Now the room's walls, floor and ceiling do have this texture. Do the same for the other room and the passage if you want. [For further stuff on using textures -like aligning, sizing, exporting, importing, etc.- have a look at the texture-use-tutorial, which will be available soon on postalediting!]

FINISHING THIS KILLER-SIZED-MAP!
1. Good, we nearly got it. But: We haven't told the game where the player is meant to start yet. 2. R-C on the floor of any room (take the 256-one, it gonna do fine). and choose "Add Playerstart here". A small joystick will appear. 3. Okay, problem solved. But now click on Build All (this means: the engine builds all the stuff like architecture etc.). Now turn the 2d-viewports-view to "dynamic light". You'll see the rooms black-there is no light. We gotta place it manually. 4. R-C on the floor of a room and "Add Light here". A lightbulp-icon will appear showing you : Here I Am! Check it's not placed IN the floor/wall/ceiling. Move it in the room's center using the same technique as moving the BB (in the 2d-viewports). 5. Click Build All again. There you got it. 6. That's it! That are the very basics of PostEd. (also read the "Additional BSP-Using-tut" which will be soon available on the site). 7. Now we gotta save the map! click on that disk in the upper left corner of the screen. The window should show you Postal2's map dir. Enter something like "cus-MyFirstMap" as filename and save it. But do not forget the "cus-" (without the " " ), because it tells the game to show this map in the Custom Map-Menu in Postal2.

FINISHING THIS KILLER-SIZED-MAP!

1. Good, we nearly got it. But: We haven't told the game where the player is meant to start yet.

2. R-C on the floor of any room (take the 256-one, it gonna do fine). and choose "Add Playerstart here". A small joystick will appear.

3. Okay, problem solved. But now click on Build All (this means: the engine builds all the stuff like architecture etc.). Now turn the 2d-viewports-view to "dynamic light". You'll see the rooms black-there is no light. We gotta place it manually.

4. R-C on the floor of a room and "Add Light here". A lightbulp-icon will appear showing you : Here I Am! Check it's not placed IN the floor/wall/ceiling. Move it in the room's center using the same technique as moving the BB (in the 2d-viewports).

5. Click Build All again. There you got it.

6. That's it! That are the very basics of PostEd. (also read the "Additional BSP-Using-tut" which will be soon available on the site).

7. Now we gotta save the map! click on that disk in the upper left corner of the screen. The window should show you Postal2's map dir. Enter something like "cus-MyFirstMap" as filename and save it. But do not forget the "cus-" (without the " " ), because it tells the game to show this map in the Custom Map-Menu in Postal2.