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| I'm going to use this section to get you started in your quest
in making prefabs. In the near future I hope to add tutorials
on how to make different prefab objects from start to finish,
but there is much to do at the moment so I'm just going to
give youthe basics for the time being. So grab a cup coffee,
fire up your editor, and pay attention.
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| First off I am going to assume that you know a bit about level
editing and have somewhat of a grasp on the features of your
favorite editor.
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| Secondly you should be familiar with brushes and entities:
What they are and what they do. I will be adding tutorials
on some of the tougher entities as well... until then you can
check out Rust.
There you'll find great tutorials on just about everything you
could think of.
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| Ready? Good...
When designing prefabs I usually try to get a clear picture of
what I am about to build jotted down on paper or in my head.
I also try to choose my textures ahead of time. Choosing the
textures ahead of time will help you in a couple of ways.
It'll help you get an idea of what shapes your brushes should
be and will save you time from going back and forth through
your texture browser looking for something that 'fits'.
For example if you're making a door you'd pick your door
texture and then decide where the seams should go.
If you examine the screenshot you'll see I broke the doors
along the 'seams' in texture and they open in 3 directions.
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| Now that you know what textures you're going to use and what
you are going to build there's a couple other things that'll
help you. |
| 1.) WORSHIP THE GRID!!! The grid is your friend and will help
you to be sure everything is aligned properly and proportioned
correctly. You should design on at least a 16x16 unit grid
for most things. Never go below that unless it absolutely
necessary. The higher the grid, the less chance of having
to do alot of texture re-alignment. Also always try to snap
everything to at least a 2x2 unit grid. This will prevent
funky bsp errors and brush seams.
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| 2.) Always build in the center of the world. If you are making
a prefab it will help you if you keep the bottom center of your
prefab at origin 0,0,0. This will make texturing a breeze as
well as make it easier to add the prefab into a level down the
road. Obviously if you are building the prefab directly into
a level it's probably not going to be located at origin 0,0,0.
This rule is for prefabs you are making to save into a database
to use over and over or to submit to a site like this one for
the rest of the world share. |
I know I didn't give you alot of info here but keep checking back
as I will be adding specific tutorials on making prefabs in the
near future.
If you would like to write a tutorial for this page
or have any questions/comments drop me a note. |
