This wiki is archived and useful information is being migrated to the main bzflag.org website
Editing Category:Map Making
Warning: The database has been locked for maintenance, so you will not be able to save your edits right now. You may wish to copy and paste your text into a text file and save it for later.
The administrator who locked it offered this explanation: Archived wiki
The edit can be undone.
Please check the comparison below to verify that this is what you want to do, and then save the changes below to finish undoing the edit.
| Latest revision | Your text | ||
| Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
| − | BZFlag uses | + | [[BZFlag]] uses it's own map file format called the [[BZW]] file. [[BZW]] files are text based and contain a list of objects and map options that are read by the [[BZFS]] server. |
| + | |||
| + | == Map Creation Methods == | ||
| + | [[BZFlag]] has several well practiced methods for the design of maps, from simple text editing, custom editors, to exporters for 3D modeling software. While basic dedicated map editors, such as BZEdit, can often only create simple objects, 3D modeling software can create complex custom [[mesh]] objects, but have a much steeper learning curve. | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Dedicated Map editors === | ||
| + | Dedicated [[BZFlag]] map editors (i.e. written specifically for graphically editing [[BZW]] files) generally go by the name [[BZEdit]]. There are a number of versions of [[BZEdit]] that have been developed over the years, some of them sharing code, some of them not. Each editor has it's own level of support for various map features. At this time there is no custom editor that supports every feature of the [[BZW]] format. In general, these will only support simple map objects such as a [[box]], a [[pyramid]] or a [[teleporter]]. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Editors supporting [[BZW]] 1.10 features | ||
| + | *[[BZEdit]] | ||
| + | *[[BZEditWin32]] | ||
| + | *[[BZFed]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | Editors supporting some [[BZW]] 2.0 features. | ||
| + | *[[iBZEdit]] | ||
| + | *[[pyBZEdit]] | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Blender === | ||
| + | There does exist a [[BZW]] plug-in for the [http://www.blender.org/ blender] 3d modeling application, known as [[BZWTools]]. This plug-in lets blender read and write the [[BZW]] file format, as well as allows blender to create [[BZW]] specific objects. This is the preferred method of editing [[BZW]] 2.0 map files. Tutorials on using blender (not specific to BZFlag) can be found at the [http://www.blender.org/tutorials-help/tutorials/ blender web tutorials] pages. | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Wings 3D === | ||
| + | [http://www.wings3d.com/ Wings 3D] is a good modeler to use if you're new modeling. It has a much smaller learning curve than Blender, although it doesn't have as many features. There is also a plugin (which you can download [http://trepan.bzflag.bz/wings3d_to_bzw_1.1.tar.gz here]) created by trepan which allows you to export objects to a [[BZW]] file. | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Editing by Hand === | ||
| + | The last method of creating maps is simply coding them by hand as text files using the raw [[BZW]] structures. This is still one of the most common ways that people create and edit maps, and can be very fun and challenging. This is easilly done in any text editor, for example NotePad on Windows, and TextEdit on Mac OS X. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Most maps made by hand tend to be fairly simple, though experienced mappers have made some extraordinary maps in this way. The reason for the popularity of the 'hand made' approach is partly because of the simple structure of the [[BZW]] code, but also the fact that, until recently, there were no graphical editors available for operating systems like Mac OS X. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Maps that contain 2.0 objects (such as [[mesh]]) tend to have been either completely made in a text editor, or partly modeled in 3D modeling software, and later manipulated in text format. | ||
[[Category:Server]] | [[Category:Server]] | ||
