VERTEX EDITING AND TERRAIN BUILDER (OUTDOOR LANDSCAPES)

"Machismo"
cool_machismo@yahoo.com

INTRODUCTION

This tutorial is aimed at the intermediate level designer and will show you how to make use of the vertex editing feature to manipulate brushes and how to create realistic looking outdoor environments using the Terrain Builder (some of you familiar with vertex editing may want to jump to the terrain builder part).

BASIC VERTEX EDITING

Vertex editing helps you to manipulate the edges or vertices of brushes. The brush can be of any type - a solid, semi-solid, an added brush, a subtracted brush, etc. [Newbie mappers may want to have a peek at the Semisolid Tutorial]. Vertex editing basically helps you to move the edge of the brush in virtually any direction that you please. I'll show you how to move the vertex of a simple brush.

REMEMBER: Basic vertex editing here refers to moving a single vertex one at a time. Complex vertex editing refers to moving multiple vertices at a time (discussed later on in the tutorial).

STEPS INVOLVED

1. First and foremost lets make the two rooms for the level. The aim is to move a few vertices of the first room onto the second room. Make the two rooms 512x512x512 in dimension. Ensure Vertex Snap is turned on. Set gird to 16 units (important to follow my steps latter turn it to this).
   

2. IMPORTANT STEP: Remember a cube brush has 8 edges (vertices). In this example we are concerned with only 4 of them. It would be more convenient to name the four vertices of the first room like this:
   
   Remember that in the top down view you will only be able to view vertices A and C. This is how they look:
   
   To see vertices B and D look in the front and side view for each one.

3. Selecting A Vertex: Ok now we need to select vertex A before we can move it. First select the brush so that it is highlighted in all the views. Now hold down the right mouse button and click on vertex A in the top or side view. When you have selected a vertex it is highlighted with a red dot like in the picture on the top.
   
   Now it is important that you verify that vertex A is the one that is really selected by going to the 3d view and having a look. if it is not hold down the right mouse button and click on vertex A in the 3d view itself.

4. Moving A Single Selected Vertex: This is the crux of the matter. Now that vertex A is selected, here is the vertex editing commandment:
   HOLD DOWN ALT AND THE LEFT MOUSE BUTTON AND DRAG VERTEX IN DESIRED DIRECTION
    In our example drag vertex A in the top down view to the following location:
   
   Now select Vertex B in the top down view (it should be easily selectable now that vertex a is out of the way). Now move it to the same location as vertex A in the top down view (hold down ALT and left mouse). See this in the top view: 
   
   Now all that is left is to do the same thing to vertices C and D. Now select C (it could even be D), hold down alt and the left mouse button and move it. Then select D and move it to the same position as C. The final top down view of the vertex edited room One is shown below:
   
   You should now see the first room connected to the second room in the 3d view.

5. WARNING - Editor Crash Ahead: Ok everyone get out your crash helmets ;). The current version of UnrealEd 2.0 does not support dragging of vertices on top of other vertices on the same brush (will be supported in a future version I don't know when) - the editor will crash on you. Now save all your work and TRY THIS OUT ON AN EMPTY NEW LEVEL (I will not be responsible if U screw your level while trying this). Why am I asking you to crash the editor on purpose?. Well this will just clarify the point to you and will drive home how not to make INVALID VERTICES. Drag vertices one on top of the other to see the limit.

6. VERTEX SNAP (TO GIRD): This button which is located at the bottom of the editor toggles vertex snap on and off. When this is turned, and you drag a vertex say A it "sticks" to the gird (depending on the amount of the gird value it moves from one point ton the gird to another). When it is toggled off you are able to move the vertex independent of the gird. Try this - turn the gird way down to 1 unit, toggle of vertex snap you now see that you will be able to move the red vertex dot off the gird to any place on the 2d view that you like. Another great use of the Vertex Snap (toggled on state) is that it allows you to align brushes to the gird with a simple click. Say the red builder brush is not sitting on the exact lines of the gird, just select it and right click on any of the vertices - it will automatically jump to the gird (naturally if its already on the gird it wont "snap" :). You will be using this feature a lot in your level building process.
   NOTE: There are two other buttons near the vertex slap button. The one of the gird when toggled off allows you to move a brush without it sticking to the gird and the same thing applies to the circular button (it allows free rotation).

7. REBUILD TO SEE THE EFFECT: In order to see any of the changes in the 3d view you must immediately rebuild the level. Its a good idea to rebuild the level constantly to see what effects vertex editing has wrought on your masterpiece.

8. MISC TIPS: Sometimes the brushes vertex may misbehave and if this happens for some reason just right click on the brush go to the reset submenu and choose reset pivot. Now try selecting the vertex again. HOT TIP: If the brush does not snap to the gird properly - first turn off vertex snap, select the vertex and then turn on vertex snap and move the vertex (this has proved invaluable in a lot of cases.

MULTIPLE VERTEX EDITING

Warning!!. It is important that before proceeding with this part of the tutorial you are familiar with and have understood how simple vertex editing described above works. Whereas in the previous example you moved only one vertex at one point of time, multiple vertex editing allows you to do just that - move multiple vertices at the same time. The concept of multiple vertex editing is relatively simple. I'd like to kill two birds with one stone. I'll explain how to move many vertices simultaneously and how to create realistic looking terrain with UnrealEditor 2.0 itself.

THE TERRAIN BUILDER BUTTON

This button is called the Terrain builder (located in the primitives section) and allows you to create BSP based terrain. Even though there are custom programs like TerraEdit that allows you to make great outdoor levels it creates a lot of BSP holes and needs a lot of manipulation to make the level run fast. Whereas the Terrain Builder allows for greater control over the terrain. You can make the terrain using multiple or simple vertex editing. Lets see how to use multiple vertex editing to create terrain using this brush.

1. Make The Brush: First open up the Terrain builders properties, and put in the following values or the values that you need:
   
   
   The width and depth segments determine how may vertices that you actually have to edit. For this example I used width segments =5 and depth segments =5. This gives you a comfortable amount of vertices to edit, while at the same time it doesn't overwhelm you. The actually terrain that you will be able to create depends for a large part on these values. Ok now enter these values and subtract the brush lest see how to create realistic looking ground with this brush.

2. ENABLING MULTIPLE VERTEX EDITING: Well then, lets get into vertex editing mode, hit this button:. If at any time you want to go out of vertex editing mode you need to hit this button. It will immediately take you out of vertex editing mode. Now that you have enabled vertex editing mode. Go into any of the views (for now try the top down view its more convenient) and left click on the subtracted brush. The whole view changes like this:
   
   It is IMPORTANT that YOU SELECT A BRUSH before editing its vertices or you will not be able to perform any action on it.

3. SELECTING MULTIPLE VERTICES: You can select multiple vertices by holding down CTRL and left clicking on any of the vertices. But by far the best method is the CTRL+ALT+DRAG method. This method works in the following way - hold down CTRL+ALT and the left mouse button while the cursor is pointed at any of the 2d views and drag the mouse cursor over the area that holds the vertices that you want to select. Now try this in the top view over say four vertices of the brush in the center (select the brush first if its not already selected).
   
   After the CTRL+ALT+DRAG over the area that hold the vertices that you want to  edit, on releasing the cursor you will see all the vertices within the red box selected (highlighted in white) like this:
   
   That's how you should select multiple vertices all the time.

4. MOVING MULTIPLE VERTICES: Well now that you have the multiple vertices that you want to move selected, HOLD DOWN CTRL+LEFT MOUSE BUTTON and move the vertices in the desired direction in any of the 2d view ports, thus:
   

5. MOVING VERTICES IN THE 3D-VIEW: You can move the vertices that you have selected directly in the 3d view. To do so select the brush and select the vertices you want to move (remember that you can select a brush in the 3d view by holding down SHIFT and left clicking on any surface of the brush that you want to select). After selecting a single or multiple vertex hold down CTRL and the left mouse button to move the vertices forward and backward. To raise and lower the vertices hold down CTRL+LEFT MOUSE+RIGHT MOUSE BUTTON and move the mouse up or down to raise or lower the vertex and left and right to move it in that direction.

6. Now that you know how to use multiple vertex editing, its time to experiment a little to see what you can come up with. Select a few vertices at a time and move them up or down to create hills and valleys respectively. See what you can come up with:
   
   (Click to see bigger picture). I was able to get a frame rate of 80 fps in this scene - I doubt that if I had used TerraEdit I would have been able to create terrain like this. Not only that the scene looks great as well. Even though the terrain builder may involve you having to move vertices one at a time the effort that you put in is worth it to get some great scenes.

TESSELLATED CUBE

The tessellated cube allows you to create realistic looking stuff like rocks via multiple vertex editing described above. Making use of this feature is as simple as turning tessellated to true in the primitive cube properties:

Lighting outdoor terrain can be a big pain - but its better to use a small number of lights with a large radius. Also creating a realistic looking (and interesting ;) skybox is a difficult job. If you are still a novice you can brush up on your skills with the Lighting Tutorial and the SkyBox Tutorial. That concludes the vertex editing and terrain tutorial. If you need more information please email me. See u in the next round!.