WED - Frequently Asked Questions
Q. How can I assign an action or a material to an entity? I see no actions to choose from when I click on the Behavior tab.
A. WED looks for actions and materials in the script assigned in Map Properties. You can either write actions yourself, or include another script that already contains actions or materials f.i. from the templates. The standard shader materials are contained in mtlFX.c.
Q. How can I make water?
A. Apply a standard water material to a terrain block, f.i. mtl_envWater.
Q:
My level takes a long time to compile, and then gives an out of memory error.
A:
Switch off
radiosity bouncing until the final release compilation. Radiosity takes a long time to compile. It also
stores the light emitted from any surface, and thus requires a large amount of memory on huge levels.
Q: I'm getting visible light seams across some blocks in the floor or ceiling.
A: The most frequent reason for light seams is splitting a block - f.i. by CSG Subtract - and setting the Smooth flag for the split parts of the block. This smoothes the lighting around the edges of the parts, thus generating seams of different brightness where the parts touch.
Q. I've imported high resolution models as geometry into my level, but they don't look as smooth as when I place them as entities. There are brightness seams along polygon edges.
A. You can see lightmap brightness differences when you import a model with polygons that are extremely small, leaving space for only one or a few lightmap pixels per polygon. The lightmaps have then not enough pixels to "smoothe out" between polygons. You must increase either the light sample and lightmap resolution, or the polygon size. Also, normals between adjacent polygons are only smoothed when you set the Smooth flag of the block - otherwise you normally get sharp edges on level geometry.
Q: The dynamic lighting in my level looks wrong, especially when I use shaders. Models seem not to react on all dynamic light sources.
A: Make sure that you haven't accidentally compiled the level in A6 mode (with Create Meshes switched off). Unlimited lights are only supported in A7 levels, and they number can be set up through max_lights. Also, make sure that your level does not consist of one single huge mesh - otherwise you won't see more than 8 dynamic lights.
Q. Help! I'm getting all sorts of map compiler errors like "Region leaking" "Too many portals" or "Plane too Narrow".
A. Compile a normal level, not a BSP level. BSP levels must follow special design rules and are not for beginners. If you don't have A7 Pro, you won't
need a BSP level anyway. But if you want to do one, look into the Level Design Hints.
Q. I've imported animated models, and assigned template scripts to them, but the models behave strange. They can't move close to walls and seem to float slightly above the surface.
A. The default values of the bounding boxes as well as the standard template movement
and camera functions assume that a
human figure is about 50..150 units tall. Depending on the units you are using in your model editor,
the size of your imported models can be quite different. For instance, your
models can turn out to be dwarfs 0.1 units tall, or giants with a size of 1000
units. For using models of this size, you must adjust their bounding boxes and the view
and collision parameters. Better scale your models before
or after importing so that they get the standard size in the range of about 100
units for a human figure.
Q.
I've placed a model entity in a dark room, but I still see the model in bright colors as if the room is well lit.
A.
There are several possibilities. Either the model itself has wrong light settings in its flags, material, ambient, or color. Or its origin is at a wrong place, like underneath the floor or inside a wall. Or the model is illuminated by dynamic light - for instance, the sun. Unlike static light, dynamic light can penetrate the thickest walls, so make sure to disable sun light in a dungeon level. For details, see lighting.
Q: I can not publish. The ".CD" folder is not created.
A. You are probably attempting to create a folder in the Gamestudio installation folder. For this you'd need access rights to the Programs section of your PC, or log in as administrator the whole time. A better solution is to create your projects not in the Programs section, but in the Documents or ProgramData section of your PC.
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