Editing Mission Builder (section)

==Info dump of Sam's forum posts on the subject:==

I know some of you guys are interested in trying out the mission builder... so here's some quick links and instructions.

If you produce something useable in the game, great!
If not, no problem!

'''This is the mission builder''' (Windows application, 250MB )

http://www.dark-wind.com/missionBuilder/missionBuilder.zip 

There's also a Media Encrypter (Windows executable) which is required if you're making your own DIF models using the Torque Constructor:

http://www.dark-wind.com/missionBuilder/mediaEncrypter.zip


To start editing a mission:
Choose a vehicle and click 'start mission' then choose the mission.
Once in the game, press TAB to move the camera back behind the vehicle (otherwise you're stuck inside it). Driving around is a good way to make sure the track is the right size and that the ground is flat/bumpy as appropriate.
Use the mouse to steer and W/S to accelerate/brake
Use ALT/C to separate camera from vehicle
I know the cars drive very badly, its based on the default vehicle physics; I have improved things quite a bit in the real game, but this mission builder is based on a default Torque build.

The best way to learn about how missions are set up is to open a few and examine them. There's a bunch of finished and half-finished ones in the Mission Builder. (Some aren't very good and were never added to the game).

'''MissionArea'''

centrePoint = "303.000000 77.000000";
This is the centre point of the mission (2 numbers: X Y only, the up direction (Z) is ignored)

fixedRadius = "482";
How far the camera should be allowed to go from that centre point


'''Checkpoints'''
ONLY USED ON RACE TRACKS
You need a set of these, probably between 5 and 10 of them. In fact, the more the better. Make sure they overlap the track boundaries generously, so we don't penalise people who drift over the edges a little.

Each checkpoint is a Trigger object:
checkpoint = "1";
This numbers the checkpoints (pretty obvious I guess) so we can tell that they're being visited in the right order to finish a lap without taking illegal shortcuts.
isLast = "1";
Only the final checkpoint has this value. Note that the final checkpoint needs to precisely line up with the start/finish line. The finish line is just an object, no special data needed. In fact I've used things like orc's clotheslines and hitching posts blown up to massive proportions.. ;-)


'''Spawn Areas'''
RACE TRACKS HAVE 1 SPAWN AREA ONLY
The spawn area is specified by using ''two SpawnSpheres'' inside a SimGroup called PlayerDropPoints. These two SpawnSpheres show the opposite corners of a rectangle into which the cars will be spawned. The first is the 'front' of the starting grid and the second is the 'back' of the grid. The rotation of the first SpawnSphere will be the rotation that cars are spawned at.

Alternatively, you can out a full set of 25 SpawnSpheres into the PlayerDropPoints SimGroup. This specifies precise locations rather than have the server fit them all within an area.

ARENAS HAVE EXACTLY 2 SPAWN AREAS
(Open up SomersetMineArena.mis to see)
Now we have 4 SpawnSpheres inside PlayerDropPoints. The first 2 points delimit the first team's spawn area, and the last 2 delimit the second team's spawn area.

WILDERNESS ROADS HAVE SEVERAL SPAWN AREAS 
PlayerDropPoints1Pirate and PlayerDropPoints1Trader are two SimGroups containing either 4 or 25+ SpawnSpheres. If they have 4, then they delimit the front-left, front-right, rear-left, and rear-right corners of an area. If they have 25+ then these are precise spawn locations. Note that the Y axis is the forward direction of the car.

To have additional spawn locations on a wilderness map, use PlayerDropPoints2Pirate, PlayerDropPoints2Trader etc. – are SimGroups containing SpawnSphere objects.

AmbushPoints1Pirate, AmbushPoints2Pirate etc. are optional extra SimGroups containing 25+ SpawnSphere objects.


'''Waypoints'''

Open a .mis file and look for a Path object called CarPath. In this are Markers (which are the actual waypoints the NPC cars use). The names and seqNum values are ignored: it's only the order of them that matters. Their important fields are:
__scale __- this is the actual size of the waypoint. The NPCs aim towards their centre, but as soon as they cross the boundary of the one they're heading for, the immediately aim for the next one. Notice how they're set up on some of the key corners, to make the NPCs turn into the apex at the right time.
__speed __- the speed the NPCs should aim to be at when they hit the waypoint. This is actually metres per second: multiply by 2.25 to get mph. As a rule of thumb, I use 200 for a waypoint you can take flat-out, maybe 40 for ones that can almost be done flat-out, and anything down to about 20 or 25 for tighter corners.
__mustNotAvoidCars__ - give this field the value 1 if the waypoint is too dangerous to do anything silly like avoid enemy cars or mines, since there are walls etc. too close nearby.
__isOffroad __- this takes 2 possible values, or can be omitted. A value 1 means this waypoint is only for offroad vehicles (e.g. the buggy or the landrunner) to use (they have better tyre friction and this can be significant in places where other cars slide a lot). A value 2 means this waypoint is only for non-offroad vehicles. If you omit the isOffroad field then all cars use the waypoint.

RACE TRACKS HAVE 1 CARPATH

ARENAS HAVE BETWEEN 2 AND 4 CARPATHS
(open up SomersetMineArena.mis.waypoints and you'll see the first is called CarPath and the second is called CarPath2. The first is the path that cars from the first team start to drive on until they decide there's something better to do. The second is the path the second team start to drive on at the beginning of the combat.

Never make an angle of more than about 70 degrees between 2 subsequent waypoints, otherwise the NPCs can get confused and might turn the 'long way around' to face the way they need to go.

WILDERNESS MAPS HAVE 1 OR MORE CARPATHS.
The key thing here is to recognise that the terrain repeats itself, and the CarPaths need to connect to themselves or another CarPath in order to provide data for the NPCs to drive the road over multiple terrain repetitions. It can get a bit confusing, but if you stick to a single carpath that covers exactly 1 terrain repetition then it will work fine. More complex terrains are harder (take a look at gates of somerset for example).

=== Some extra notes on getting waypoints and checkpoints right: ===

Waypoints:
---------
These are 'Marker' objects that must be inside a path called 'CarPath'
Do not apply any rotation to them as it will be ignored by the AI code and it therefore misleading
Make sure they are not narrow in any direction. The way the AI cars use these is that they aim for the centre of the waypoint, but as soon as they cross the waypoint edge, they then switch to the *next* waypoint. So a narrow waypoint will cause erratic driving.
They need one dynamic field:
--> 'speed' is the maximum speed that should be driven when close to this waypoint. It is measured in metres per second (1ms = 3.6kmh = 2.25mph)


Checkpoints:
-----------
These are 'Trigger' objects and must use the 'CheckPointTrigger' datablock
You *can* apply rotations to checkpoints
Make sure their bases are below ground so cars don't pass under them. Make sure their tops are nice and high too, just in case cars are airborne etc.
They need to have two dynamic fields added:
--> 'checkpoint' takes the checkpoint number (starting at 1)
--> 'isLast' takes the number 0 or 1. The checkpoint that lines up with the start/finish line is the only one that should have 1 for this value. Note that this should also be your *final* checkpoint, not your first one.

Spawn Spheres:
-------------
The order of these, rather than their name, determines their position on the grid 

=== Notes on Racetracks: ===

(1) To get the cars spawning at the right place, make sure that the SpawnSpheres are *inside* the PlayerDropPoints simgroup, not after it. To be inside, they need to be directly after the { symbol and before the }; symbols 

Like this: 

  new SimGroup(PlayerDropPoints) {
    spawnspheres are in here..
  };

(2) The scale of the Marker objects (which define the NPC route around the track) is very important. The position of the markers obviously defines where the NPCs should steer towards, but until they cross the edge of a Marker they won't move onto the next one. So if the scale is "1 1 1" they'll have a very hard time driving the track since they will insist on passing through a precise area 1x1 metre in size. If you open up one of the existing files, such as the Northern Desert Circuit, you'll see how the size is used to make them start turnning before they get to the apex in many cases. 

(3) Don't worry about the looping constraint, that will be easy to fix by forcing the track to always have 1 lap races.

[[Category: World]]