Portal 2 -Just the exemplary sequel, the remarkable scientific and fantastic spatial puzzle, which forces to move with gyrus, activates some secret nervous endings and, finally, just entertains. It's a pity that the game is playing in just a couple of evenings. I want additives unbearably.

[Bullet]] The Portal 2 Authoring Tools includes the same tools that were used by developers in creating Portal 2. And this is especially nice.

The official set of tools will help to brighten up the languid expectation of a third part and uploaded additions Portal 2 Authoring Tools , released Valve Soon after the release of Portal 2. In fact, this is such a specialized set Source SDK , includes an incredibly powerful level editor, viewer of 3D models, a program for creating animation, teaching examples and handling of cards, as well as plugins for Google Sketchup.

Using all these instruments, you can create an almost complete continuation of the game, not to mention something simpler like separate rooms with tasks and skins of characters.

According to the developers, all Portal 2 levels were created precisely using Portal 2 Authoring Tools. Today we will talk about the basics of creating cards for Portal 2.

The first acquaintance

To get tools, run Steam , Pass on the section Library/Tools , Find the list in the list Portal 2 Authoring Tools – Beta , Click on it with the right mouse button, in the drop -down menu, select the item Install the game ..

When in the column State The status will change with Not installed on Ready for the game , Click the element with the right mouse button and select item in the context menu Launch .. A small https://sister-site.org/harrys-casino/ window with the Portal 2 Authoring Tools heading containing several different Portal 2 modding tools will come to the forefront.

We are so far interested in exclusively an editor of the levels whose name is Hammer World Editor (abbreviated Hammer ). To start the application, double -click on it with the left mouse button.

[Bullet]] whatever one may say, Hammer World Editor is much closer to the serious packets of three -dimensional modeling than the usual game editors.

When the program is loading and you click on the empty working area, it will be immediately proposed to open one of the existing cards for editing. At the first acquaintance with the Hammer World Editor, it makes no sense to refuse a sentence: it is better to study on a standard example how it is all arranged there, and only then do something of your own from zero. So, choose an arbitrary card from the list (say, zoo_mechanics.VMF ), click the button Open.

Spartan anatomy

You will probably be slightly shocked by what you see: the Hammer World Editor is ascetic: four projection windows surrounded by instrumental panels with many some of the icons incomprehensible at first glance, the mandatory main menu and the information window and the information window Messages (log of actions).

[[Bullet]] texture the box room.

One gets the impression that we have not a game editor, but a real package of three -dimensional modeling. And partly so. We are already accustomed to the fact that in most tools of this kind of card the map are created on the basis of ready -made templates, we only need to choose the most suitable fragments, drag them onto the stage and collect them together. A kind of designer.

There is not a single finished room here, everything needs to be created independently from the clean sheet. So if you have ever dreamed of trying yourself as a virtual architect, then here he is your chance, do not miss. This approach has only one significant minus – the difficulty of mastering.

But it is worth sorting out a little management, to learn the basic principles of building levels, and you will open an almost limitless field for amateur performances. Continuous freedom of creativity, no artificial restrictions.

That we should build the world

So, let's figure out how to work with Hammer World Editor. And we will start traditionally with the navigation keys in projection windows. Moving the camera in 3D space is carried out using "fever" WSAD , And the turn and inclination – by means of cursor shooters (alternative – gap + mouse with a clamped left button).

As for the various 2D-views (from the side/front/on top), then the WSAD keys do not work, and cursor arrows are responsible for moving along the planes. The picture is scaled in all windows with a mouse wheel.

We will make an elementary level in Hammer World Editor, consisting of several rooms interconnected by a corridor. Select the menu item File/New To create a new scene. Activate the tool Creation Block Tool on the toolbar on the left side of the program (button with the image of a gray cube, fifth from above). After that, go out the window with one of the 2D-views and designate the primitive in an arbitrary place on the map using a mouse with a clamped left button.

Having decided on the dimensions of the element on one of the types (say, in front), go to the other projection (side, for example), grab the left mouse button for one of the tops of the object and, moving the mouse up/down and left/right regarding the rug, adjust the dimensions of the structure.

Having finished with this, you can at the same time change the location of the workpiece at the level. To do this, on one of the projections, enter the cursor on the object, when you appear above the element of the cross -shaped arrow, click on it with the left button and, without releasing it, move the manipulator.

Finalization of forms

To complete the formation of the object, press the key Enter. To transform the resulting 3D form (the so-called Brash) into a full-fledged room with four walls, the ceiling and the floor, arrange an instrument Selection Tool on the panel in the left side of the editor (the very first button on top), highlight the previously created cube with a click of the left mouse button in the 3D-Vida window, click on the illuminated element with the right button on the plane (for example, Side (x/z) ) and in the drop -down menu, select the modifier Make Hollow.

A small window with the Hammer heading will appear, where you will be asked to set the thickness of the walls in units. Depending on whether you indicate a positive or negative number, the walls will be created “inside” or “out”. The optimal, in our opinion, value-somewhere around 10 points.

Paints on canvas

The level of the level is ready, it's time to cover it with textures. Go to the 3D-Vida window and place the camera in the center of the room for ease of work. Then switch to the level texture mode by clicking on the button with the image of a cube with multi -colored faces on the toolbar on the left side of Hammer World Editor (sixth from above, an alternative – a combination of keys Shift+a ).

[[Bullet]] to create a complex level in the editor, you may move from a few days to a week.

Select one of the faces of the object (floor, ceiling or wall), which you are going to assign new material in the window Face Edit Sheet Select from the opening list Current Texture The most suitable til (for example, Wood/Wood_int_03 ) and press the button Apply. You will see that the text you have chosen will be immediately cloned all over the side of the cube. Pay attention: first holding the key Ctrl , You can highlight several faces of the element at once.

Scaling

If necessary, you can back up the image applied to the experimental object or, say, change the angle of rotation of the picture. In the first case, you need to adjust the values ​​of the fields X And Y Under the mark Texture Scale (If you, say, will bring values ​​2 and 2 into these fields, then the texture will be automatically increased twice), in the second – fields Rotation (the digital value indicated in it exactly corresponds to the angle in degrees).

To fit the texture to the size of the plane – in our case, stretch the image to the entire wall – use the button Fit From the group Justify In the window Face Edit Sheet. What else? If you have neither the strength nor the desire to delve into the list of available textures, you can quickly search for a graphic library, weed out obviously inappropriate options. To do this, click on the button Browse In the window Face Edit Sheet , In the texture browser, find the field Filter And write into it the keyword, which requires to filter the images: Suppose, Floor (floor textures).

As soon as you choose the right texture and click on it twice with the left mouse button, it will immediately appear in the pre -viewing window, which means it will be ready for use. Also, no one prevents you from taking advantage of the searches for the Kevords determined by the developers themselves (field Keywords In the window Textures ), indicate what size images you need to find (field Size ), and even in trifles.

Interior refinement

And now we’ll complicate the geometry of the level – we will create another room and dock it with the existing. And for starters, perhaps, cut the doorway in one of the walls of our room. It is done very simple. Activate the tool already familiar to you Block Creation Tool on the panel in the left side of the editor, create a cubic brash with the help of a doorway with it, crossing the wall in the required place, press on the button Carve using the Selected Objects On the instrumental panel in the upper part of the program (the ninth in a account of the beginning), arm yourself with the Selection Tool tool and delete the object used to form the opening of the opening (select it and press the key Delete ).

[[Bullet]] Cut the doorway in one of the walls of the room.

The result is an ideal rectangular hole in the wall, just what we need. Further according to the plan – the creation of the second room. The easiest and fastest way to get a new room is to clone the existing one, which is already trained in everything else. The procedure here is the following. Go to the object of excretion of objects (tool Selection Tool ), click the left button to the previously created room in the 3D-Vida window, then copy the object to the buffer using a key combination Ctrl+C , and then place the double on the card using the key combination Ctrl+v.

I go to the junction

We go to the docking of the premises. Grasp the element of the left mouse button in one of the 2D-Vida windows (the best option is on the TOP projection) and place it opposite the source object. To combine the doorways, we need to turn the cloned element 180 degrees.

It is not at all difficult to do this – it is enough to click twice with the left button in the center of the new room on the projection of TOP, when the circles appear on the tops of the object to grab one of them and move the mouse. To create a corridor, we take another parallelepiped (tool Block Creation Tool ), devastate it (cut out from the inside using the modifier Make Hollow ) and place the resulting design between the doorways.

Then we highlight the future corridor element, click on it with the right mouse button on any of the projections and select item in the context menu in the context menu Ungroup Selected Groups , To break the object into components. And now we completely calmly remove the walls, adjacent, or rather, blocking the doorways. As a result, we got a two -room room.

Test!

It's time to determine the player's appearance on the map. Choose a tool Entity Creation Tool on the toolbar in the left side of the editor (it corresponds to the fourth button on top), go to one of the projection windows and click on the left mouse button at the place at the level where you want to create a starting mark.

Made? Great! Now you can try your masterpiece directly in the game. To save the work and perform a test launch of the card, press the key F9.

That's it for today. In the next article, we will continue to learn the editor of the Hammer World Editor – we will talk about the arrangement of various objects at the level (including scenery and light sources), consider some subtleties of card building and not only.

All the questions that you will have during the development of the editor, send at the address Gamedev@igromania.ru. To the most interesting of them, we will certainly answer on the pages of our column.