vgtutor2

VisGroups: Part II

The purpose of this tutorial is to show you not only how VisGroups work, but how they can work for you. Also, I'll be pointing out some of the common problems and errors encountered when using VisGroups and other Worldcraft related issues (such as copying items from one map to another) as well.

No better example of the power of VisGroups can be seen than that of a multi-level building, like the one in Death In A Flash. Each level contains different architechture and objects peculiar that particular 'floor' in the map. When viewed from the top down (in the XY Window), selection of certain items or brushes becomes almost impossible without resorting to repositioning the camera and selecting objects in the 3D Window.

But - suppose for a moment that there was a way to show only the objects on a particular floor? Wouldn't that be great? Well, stop dreaming, because Ben Morris added this ability from the very start in the form of VisGroups!

We're going to look at a simple 3-storey building created in Worldcraft especially for this tutorial. The .map file and the .rmf file are included in this archive so that the level can easily be viewed and studied in Worldcraft. If you want to modify and recompile the map, you'll also need the textures found in the custom wad file also contained in the archive. Just click Tools/Options and Add the wad file to Worldcraft. Click OK (and OK again), close Worldcraft and restart it.

First, the building was created by taking a block and hollowing it out. The interior of the first floor was set at 512x512 square by 128 high.

Since the hollowing out procedure left the brushes grouped, it was easy to copy (shift-left click and drag) the room two more times vertically to make our three floors.

The 'rooms' were then UnGrouped, and the 'ceilings' of rooms one and two were deleted. The walls of rooms two and three were lowered onto the other rooms to make a 3-storey building.

At this point, we'll get into some actual pictures, taken from Worldcraft.

In this first shot, you can see the interior of the building of all three floors before any items or walls were added. The end walls of all three floors have been removed by selecting them (CTRL-left click) and then clicking on View/Hide Selected Objects.

We'll restore these later on, but right now, let's move on!

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