Box

A Box is a BZW map structure that defines a rectilinear parallelepiped in the world.

Code

Default boxes

The code for a box object is as follows

box position 10 20 30 rotation 45 size 1 2 3 end

Valid parameters for a box are

Parameter	Description
position	defines the center of the box in X and Y and the bottom of the box in Z.
rotation	defines a rotation around the Z axis for the box, in degrees.
size	defines the distance from the center to the side of the box in X and Y, and the total height of the box in Z.
drivethrough	makes the box drivethrough, meaning tanks may drive through it.
shootthrough	makes the box shootthrough, meaning tanks may shoot through it.
ricochet	changes the box so shots bounce off it; shootthrough takes presedence.

In versions 2.0.8 and older, boxes do not support material, custom textures, or physics drivers. The meshbox object replaces the box object and supports all these features and capabilities.

box position 0 40 0 size 5 5 10 rotation 0 top matref something1 sides matref something2 y+ matref something3 y- matref something4 bottom matref something6 texsize 1 1 phydrv physics_driver_name end

Parameter	Description
x+ , x-, y+ , y-, z+, and z-	Assigns a material to a specific side of the box.
top	Assigns a material to the top (z ) of the box.
bottom	Assigns a material to the bottom (z-) of the box.
sides or outside	Assigns a material to the x , x-, y , and y- sides of the box.
texsize	Texture sizes, changes how the textures scale on the object.
texoffset	Controls the offset of the texture.
phydrv	Reference to a predefined physics driver.

More information that needs to be merged into the wiki, as well as the BZW manfile: Smart Boxes and Pyramids

Appearance

Box objects by default have a red brick texture on the vertical sides, and a white plaster texture on the top and bottom. A box of height 0 on ground level is visible.

The texsizes of boxes and boxes made of meshes (e.g. meshbox and box with one of the new properties) can be different. The size depends on the chosen display quality setting in the options menu.

Box type	texsize
box (old style box)	-2.0f -2.0f -8.0f -8.0f
meshbox	-8.0f -8.0f -8.0f -8.0f
box with one meshbox property	-8.0f -8.0f -8.0f -8.0f

Box type	texsize with lower quality setting than in the above table
box (old style box)	-2.0f -2.0f -8.0f -8.0f
meshbox	-2.0f -2.0f -8.0f -8.0f
box with one meshbox property	-2.0f -2.0f -8.0f -8.0f

This will cause the textures to scale differently for some players in X and Z axis. This can not be solved by adjusting the texsizes in map. The advice is not to mix old style boxes, meshboxes and boxes with one meshbox property, all in the same map.

History

The box is one of the original objects supported by BZFlag and has been a mainstay of maps since the very beginning. Boxes are heavily used by the software when generating random maps. In v2.0.0 the box was replaced with the meshbox object to support Materials and Physics Drivers. The original box definition was left unchanged, in order to maintain functional compatibility for older maps.

Editor Support

The box object is supported by all known editors.