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Apply textures in using SOFRadiant.

Mapping 101 - Applying Textures - Tutorial 2

There are a number of ways to apply and manipulate textures in SoF Radiant. We'll cover the basics here.

1. If you haven't got the first tutorial map open in SoFRadiant, open it now.

2. Select Textures>armory from the texture menu.

3. Using the cursor keys, move the camera into the room, navigating via the 3D preview. If you're too low or too high, press 'D' to go up and 'C' to descend. The comma (,) and period (.) keys allow you to move from side to side.

4. Once inside the room, hold down the Ctrl key. While still holding it, press and hold the Shift key. Now click o­n the floor, in the 3D view. You should see the floor turn slightly red.

5. Let go of the keyboard and select a the "1_concrete_floor" texture by clicking o­n it. o­nce you've done that, press ESC to de-select the floor.

5. You have just placed a texture o­n the FACE of o­ne brush. Tap the 'C' key to lower your view so you can see the bottom of the room. You'll notice that it still retains the original texture you picked when you created the cube.

6. Now, hold down the Shift key only and Left Click the ceiling. Pick the "3_cement" texture.

7. As soon as you click o­n the texture it's applied to the ceiling. However, if you tap the 'D' key to raise your camera outside and upward, you'll see that you've applied the texture to the entire brush. This is the difference between selecting a brush (Shift + Left Click) and selecting a brush face (Ctrl + Shift + Left Click)

Applying the same texture o­n different brushes/faces

Your room should now have three textures: o­ne o­n the ceiling, a different o­ne o­n the floor, and the four walls painted with a third texture.

You can also do the reverse of steps 4 & 5 above. First select the texture "3_woodfloor2" in the texture display window. Now apply it to the floor brush face by holding down Ctrl + Shift, and Middle Clicking o­n the floor in the 3D preview window.

If you find the texture window background too dark, go the Misc menu, select Colors>Texture Background, and pick a lighter color.

To texture the walls, select the "2_brick_5" texture and use the same key/mouse commands to apply it. Use the Ctrl-Middle-Click trick to move the camera quickly.

Texture three of the four walls, then press Esc to deselect everything.

One more trick is to copy a texture from o­ne face to another, which saves you hunting for it in the texture list.

Ctrl-Shift-Left-Click o­n o­ne of the walls that you have just textured, this should turn it red, now Ctrl-Middle-Click to apply that texture to the 4th wall.

Adding a light

If you were to full compile and run the map now, it would be totally dark, so we had better add a light.

Switch the editing area to TOP VIEW by holding down the Left Ctrl key and tapping the Tab key. You'll see the 'Top View' in the upper left corner of the main editing window.

You should now be looking down at your room in the editing window. The camera's view will not change in the 3D preview window.

1. Right-Click anywhere in the editing window and a long drop-down menu will appear. If the menu doesn't appear, you need to go to the Preference Settings (located under the Edit menu) and make sure the 'Right click to drop entities' option is checked.

2. From this menu, scroll down and select "light". A light should appear in your room, near where you clicked. Center the light from the top view. You might have to change the grid setting to 8, by pressing 4, to center it properly.

3. Change to a side view (Ctrl-Tab) and adjust your light so that it's not buried inside a brush. Just click inside the light and drag it around until it's in the center of the room, and then adjust it so that the top is just touching the ceiling. Hit ESC to de-select the light.

Adding the player

Repeat the procedure for adding a light by Right-Clicking in the editor window. Except this time select "info." A sub-menu should drop down. Pick "info_player_start"

Adjust your views and move the box that represents the "info_player_start" entity. You can move the entity with the mouse either through the editor window or through the 3D preview window. Up-and-down positioning can be done by clicking and dragging in the Z-Window, if you have it visible.

The 3D view is helpful for showing you if your entity is partially buried in a brush, as in Figure 1.

Testing the level

1. Save your map (Ctrl-S) as tutorial2

2. Click o­n the BSP menu.

3. Select "bsp_FullVis (qrad -extra)"

4. Go to a DOS shell and type the following:

cd your sof path - eg. cd c:\games\sof
sof +map tutorial2

If everything looks ok, move o­n to tutorial 3.