ShootersForever.com Forum Index

GoldenEye 007 Nintendo 64 Community, GoldenEye X, Nintendo 64 Games Discussion
GoldenEye Cheats, GoldenEye X Codes, Tips, Help, Nintendo 64 Gaming Community


DeleD CE
Goto page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8  Next
 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    ShootersForever.com Forum Index -> Mapping and Modelling
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Dragonsbrethren
Hacker
Hacker


Joined: 23 Mar 2007
Posts: 3058

 PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2009 7:34 am    Post subject: DeleD CE Reply with quote Back to top

DeleD CE is a free, easy to use 3D modeling program designed for creating low-poly models for use in video games - perfect for GoldenEye. It has an interface similar to Hammer, but unlike Hammer it is not intended to create maps for BSP-based games and does not have a compiling process. You have full control over your geometry, which means you can create much more optimized maps, but you also need to be careful about not having useless geometry where it can't be seen. You create maps with various primitives just like Hammer.

Official Site
Plugins (OBJ Exporter, which is required for GoldenEye mapping, comes with the program)
Wiki (Tutorials)
Forums (Post there if you have a problem with the program itself)


Last edited by Dragonsbrethren on Tue Jan 19, 2010 5:46 am; edited 2 times in total
 
View user's profile Send private message
Dragonsbrethren
Hacker
Hacker


Joined: 23 Mar 2007
Posts: 3058

 PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2009 7:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

After installing DeleD and the OBJ Exporter plugin, I recommend doing the following:

Go to View -> Options and click the Defaults tab:

1. Change the 3D camera control to whichever setting you're more comfortable with. Hammer allowed both the arrow keys and WSAD to move around its 3D view, but DeleD only allows one or the other.
2. I highly recommend changing the material preview image from the sphere to a flat depiction of the texture. Do this by clicking on the picture.
3. Change any other settings you want.

Now click the Colors tab:

1. Change the object geometry color to something else. By default it is really hard to tell your geometry from the background gridlines in the 2D views.
2. Customize the colors to whatever you prefer. Hammer users might want a dark theme, instead of the default light theme.

Feel free to poke around the other tabs and change anything you else want.

----------

Go to Info -> Hotkeys for a list of hotkeys for whatever version you are using. The 2.0 and 1.XX versions use a few different hotkeys.

----------

One thing that threw me off when first using this editor is that there is no way to expand one part of your object when in object mode. Scale scales the object as a whole, so if you wanted to say expand a wall to the left two units you couldn't do this. Instead, select the object, then switch to edge mode, select the left edge and then simply move that to the left while selected.

The best object to use for 90% of your modeling is the rectangle. It is a flat plane and has no faces that need to be deleted. It will divide into two tris when imported to GE (or by using the triangulate option in DeleD), regardless of its size. Simply model your walls by using a single rectangle, and extrude an edge to do things like wall supports, arches, etc. You can turn a rectangle into a tri by deleting one of its vertices.

The polyline tool is also very useful, this time for creating round objects that will actually snap to the grid, unlike the cylinder and ellipse primitives. To create one, click on a spot on the grid, then simply move to another spot and click again, continue until you've created the shape you want, then right click to stop drawing. You can now use extrude on the edges of this object to create walls or whatever you need.

If you ever insert and object and it's facing the wrong way, a common occurrence, just select in in object mode, use the mirror tool, and select the correct dimension to flip it.

Vertices created by the extrude tool are always merged. Additionally you can merge vertexes manually by selecting more than one, and choosing weld from the toolbox. There does not seem to be any way to unmerge them though, so be careful. Merged vertices allow for smoother lighting effects, while unmerged allow you to use vertex coloring to recolor textures.

The X, Y, and Z buttons on the top toolbar are used to restrict and object's movement in that direction. This is highly useful if you decide to make use of the round object primitives, as you can align your object in each dimension individually and not worry about accidentally moving it in another after getting it aligned correctly.

----------

Textures must be put in the /textures folder where ever you installed DeleD. You can place them inside subfolders if you want. All textures should be 24-bit bitmaps; no other color depth wants to load.

----------

While this editor does support vertex coloring, it unfortunately does not support exporting them to obj files. Now that the setup editor has an awesome lighting editor this doesn't matter so much, but it's still a bit irritating that the functionality is there but not utilized.

Update: After inquiring about this on the DeleD forums, it looks like the vertex colors (actually material colors) will be supported in future versions.

Edit: The method I originally described here for importing multiple room maps has been removed because, frankly, it was a pain in the ass. See my post farther down for a much easier, superior method.

----------

Despite the shortcomings described above, I still feel DeleD is probably the best editor for GE map creation of all the ones I've used. It is very easy to learn, lightweight, and gives full control over how the models will appear in-game. Feel free to ask any questions about using the editor here. I've come to the conclusion it's easier to just answer questions than write a tutorial, much like Hammer I just couldn't get anywhere with the one I was writing.


Last edited by Dragonsbrethren on Sat May 23, 2009 3:47 pm; edited 6 times in total
 
View user's profile Send private message
Wreck
Administrator
Administrator


Joined: 14 Dec 2005
Posts: 7197
Location: Ontario, Canada

 PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2009 11:15 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

Excellent information, DB!
I still haven't had a chance to test out DeleD, but am looking forward to giving it a try. Thanks for all the details on where to get it and how to set it up. Smile
_________________

YOUTUBE | FACEBOOK | VAULT | MOD DB | RHDN
 
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Dragonsbrethren
Hacker
Hacker


Joined: 23 Mar 2007
Posts: 3058

 PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2009 12:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

The interesting thing is that there is an SDK for developing plugins. If someone who knows what they're doing gives it a go I bet we can have a plugin to import/export directly to GE's map format. I'm not sure how much power plugins have over the editor but it would be awesome if we could do things like set primary/secondary indices in DeleD itself before exporting. At the very least maybe someone could write an obj import/export plugin that retained the vertex coloring, that would allow for easy edits to existing stages.
 
View user's profile Send private message
monkeyface
Moderator
Moderator


Joined: 05 Apr 2008
Posts: 275

 PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2009 1:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

Seems intuitive, especially if you want more control of the geometry. Right now I'm having some trouble with the textures, and where is that vertice painter really?
 
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail MSN Messenger
Dragonsbrethren
Hacker
Hacker


Joined: 23 Mar 2007
Posts: 3058

 PostPosted: Wed May 13, 2009 2:06 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

Yeah, texturing can be a bit tricky, I think it could've been handled better, more like in Hammer. First select an object, click the object tab in the toolbar, and set auto UV to false. Switch over to faces mode, select a face, then apply the material. You can use the scale and move tools to adjust it from there, but keep in mind that scale works backwards (50 is double the size of 100).

For vertices, select a vertex, then again click on the object tab, and click on the button next to vertex color at the bottom. The button usually doesn't show at first for me, I have to click into the box with the numbers (you can change them here as well, if you want), then it'll show up.

For both operations you can do more than one face/vertex at a time.
 
View user's profile Send private message
Dragonsbrethren
Hacker
Hacker


Joined: 23 Mar 2007
Posts: 3058

 PostPosted: Thu May 14, 2009 3:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

Carving Without the Subtract Tool

Note: Now that DeleD is completely free, you no longer need to use this method. You can use the actual subtract tool, and it works wonderfully from what I've seen. It's perfect for making doorways in existing walls; much better than this method. Just be sure to use the optimize tool on your geometry after subtract!

If you liked to carve out your doors and windows in Hammer, you may be disappointed that the subtract tool (which does the same thing as carve) is not available in the free version of DeleD. While you could buy the pro version, I wouldn't recommend that unless you're sure you like the editor. There is another way to carve, which should be good enough for most purposes:

1. Create a rectangle primitive (this works with other primitives, of course, but this is just an example) and select it in object mode.

2. Switch to polygon mode and select the front of the rectangle.

3. Select inset tool and confirm at the bottom of the edit panel (the default settings are fine). This will create another, smaller rectangle inside of your existing one, and divide the existing rectangle into four polygons.

4. Select this smaller rectangle, and delete it. For doorways, you'll want to delete the bottom polygon as well. Now just switch to vertex mode and move them around to create your desired shape.


The same procedure applies to more complicated primitives, just note that you'll need to select whichever polygons you want to carve, and the polygon created will always be a smaller copy of whatever your original shape was. The top of a cylinder will get a rounded hole, for example.

----------

Working With Round Objects

In my post above I said that round objects don't snap to the grid, this is true by default, but it's possible to force them to snap. Go into the object tab while one is selected and change the snap method to center or vertex. Center is very similar to the default behavior, except the very center of the object will always be on the grid. This is similar to Hammer's behavior. Vertex will force each vertex of an object to snap, and is not recommended since your objects will get heavily distorted as you move them. I still recommend editing round objects so that each vertex touches a part of the grid, but I do suggest working with a smaller grid for this until you get your object where you want it. This will make clipping around these objects much easier.

----------

Round Objects and Clipping

Note: Even with subtract, the below method still works well.

Let's say you've got a cylindrical object sitting on your floor, and you don't want to allow the player to walk through it in-game. Designing your clipping floorplan around this manually would be a nightmare, you don't have the subtract tool available to you in the free version, and inset will do nothing for you in this case. You might think now is the time you need to buy the pro version to make clipping this area possible, but there is another way to do this:

1. Insert a rectangle about the same size as your cylinder directly under the cylinder, so they're touching on the grid.

2. Select the cylinder and copy it. This is important. Now select the cylinder and rectangle at the same time.

3. Use the union tool, this will merge the two objects together (and make a mess of the rectangle, don't worry about this for now).

4. Switch to polygon mode, and delete every polygon that belonged to the cylinder, including the circular part of the floor.

5. Select what remains of the merged cylinder and rectangle, and use the optimize tool. The mess of tris that union created should now all meet at four points along the edges of the rectangle. This will make designing the rest of the clipping floorplan easier.

6. Paste the cylinder back into the map and align it where you want. If you're designing a separate floorplan for clipping then this step isn't even necessary, since your map geometry can be entirely different than your clipping geometry, and it makes more sense to use the most optimized geometry for your actual map as possible.


Last edited by Dragonsbrethren on Tue Jan 19, 2010 5:58 am; edited 1 time in total
 
View user's profile Send private message
TimEh
Agent
Agent


Joined: 08 May 2009
Posts: 187
Location: oakville. ONT, Canada

 PostPosted: Thu May 14, 2009 2:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

mice little app. works alright. Alternative solution: XSI Mod Tool http://www.softimage.com/products/modtool/ If DeleD LITE doesnt tickle your fancy id suggest that. its also free. This post should probably be moved to a new thread under model editors compatible with GE, as im sure theres alot of em out there(*.obj is a very supported format). And people should be able sample as many modelers as they can to find the one that feels best for them.
 
View user's profile Send private message
Dragonsbrethren
Hacker
Hacker


Joined: 23 Mar 2007
Posts: 3058

 PostPosted: Wed May 20, 2009 7:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

Before following this guide, be sure you have version 2.3.00 or higher of the setup editor! You will get small gaps between your rooms if you're using an older version, which will prevent your clipping tiles from connecting and the auto portal feature from working!

Multiple Room Maps - The Superior Method

I just found another way to do multiple room maps, and it's much easier than the way I was originally doing it since you don't need to manually reorder the obj file after export. All you need to do is merge every object that will appear in a room together. Originally I assumed that this would also produced merged vertices, but oddly it doesn't, it only makes all of the geometry selected act as a single object to DeleD. After merging all of your rooms go to the scene tab, you should see a bunch of "user specified XX" objects. Select the first one, click the object tab, and change this object's name to Room01. Go down the list until you've renamed everything, then save this as a new map, and use the obj exporter. Saving as a separate map is not required, but it saves you from having to extract each polygon in your rooms manually. If you want to move a room as a whole after this, click on the object tab and set the snap method to vertex, otherwise you'll have a hell of a time getting everything lined up.


Last edited by Dragonsbrethren on Tue Jan 19, 2010 5:50 am; edited 5 times in total
 
View user's profile Send private message
Dragonsbrethren
Hacker
Hacker


Joined: 23 Mar 2007
Posts: 3058

 PostPosted: Thu May 21, 2009 11:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

Importing a GoldenEye Background

Importing an existing map background file is really easy with DeleD, but I figured I'd write a quick guide for that anyway. Download the OBJ Importer plugin if you haven't already, and put it in your plugins folder as instructed. First things first, open the setup editor, select a setup (or do File -> New, it doesn't matter for this), and open the visual editor. Switch the editing mode to room positions, and select Export Full Level to .obj. Change the filename to something more descriptive, and save it anywhere you wish. You're textures will get saved in the same place, but you'll need to convert these to 24-bit bitmaps before DeleD can make use of them, several image editing programs have batch conversion features to make this easier.

Once you've got everything in place it's time to import. Open DeleD, go to Plugins -> Wavefront OBJ Importer, and launch it. Navigated to wherever you saved and select your background file, leave the scale set at 1, and click OK. It will take some time, but eventually you should see your background in the editor. Note that all lighting and shadowing effects will be missing. Additionally, each room of the map has all of its tris merged together like in my above example for exporting.



Last edited by Dragonsbrethren on Sat May 23, 2009 8:17 am; edited 1 time in total
 
View user's profile Send private message
Dragonsbrethren
Hacker
Hacker


Joined: 23 Mar 2007
Posts: 3058

 PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2009 8:05 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

There is a confirmed bug with texture scaling using percentages in version 2.0. If you happen to have an older version of DeleD I would suggest holding off on upgrading until that is taken care of. 2.0 was released on April 26th, so I doubt anyone besides me has/had an older version, unless you downloaded it before I started writing this.

Edit: Version 2.1 was released, and fixed these bugs.


Last edited by Dragonsbrethren on Sat Jun 20, 2009 4:38 am; edited 1 time in total
 
View user's profile Send private message
bmw
Hacker
Hacker


Joined: 04 Jan 2006
Posts: 1366
Location: Michigan

 PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2009 8:45 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

Excellent. This could be used to easily modify the bottling room in the facility for multiplayer play - that room is so slow because there is so much geometry. That pipe in the back of the room attached to the ceiling has a ridiculous number of tris. I think deleting that pipe alone could drastically improve framerates. But I was never able before to figure out a way to do this before.
 
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website
Kode-Z
Hacker
Hacker


Joined: 09 Nov 2007
Posts: 1142
Location: London, England

 PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2009 8:48 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

bmw wrote:
Excellent. This could be used to easily modify the bottling room in the facility for multiplayer play - that room is so slow because there is so much geometry. That pipe in the back of the room attached to the ceiling has a ridiculous number of tris. I think deleting that pipe alone could drastically improve framerates. But I was never able before to figure out a way to do this before.


Not only that bmw, wouldn't it help you with adding those extra rooms to your Runway extension? That project looked sweet! Very Happy
 
View user's profile Send private message
Dragonsbrethren
Hacker
Hacker


Joined: 23 Mar 2007
Posts: 3058

 PostPosted: Fri May 22, 2009 9:03 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

Deleting the pipe should be fairly easy. As I said the whole room will be grouped so you'll need to select the pipe tris using polygon mode rather than object mode.
 
View user's profile Send private message
Dragonsbrethren
Hacker
Hacker


Joined: 23 Mar 2007
Posts: 3058

 PostPosted: Sat May 23, 2009 8:04 am    Post subject: Reply with quote Back to top

It sounds like importing the "vertex" colors from the obj file will be supported by DeleD in the future. The problem is that they aren't actually stored with the vertices in the exported file, but as a part of the material information. This will be implemented into DeleD with multi-layered materials, and the exporter will support them as well. They're actually already being imported fine, but DeleD can currently only display a texture or a color, not both. If you use the importer but move the textures out of the directory with the obj you'll get the color information instead.

The scaling, movement, and rotation issues in 2.0 will be fixed in the next release. On a side note a few things have changed in version 2.0 (hotkeys and how importing is handled) so I'm going to have to update the information in a few of my posts here.
 
View user's profile Send private message
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    ShootersForever.com Forum Index -> Mapping and Modelling All times are GMT - 8 Hours
Goto page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8  Next
Page 1 of 8

 
Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum

Cobalt 2.0 BB theme/template by Jakob Persson.
Copyright © 2002-2004 Jakob Persson


Powered by BB © 01, 02 BB Group

 


Please Visit My Other Sites: GoldenEyeForever.com | GrandTheftAutoForever.com

Got kids? Check out my Dora The Explorer site with games and coloring pages!

Our forums feature Nintendo 64 games, GoldenEye 007 N64 New Maps and Missions, GoldenEye Cheats, N64 Emulator, Gameshark, GoldenEye Multiplayer and more!

[ Privacy Policy ]