A Comprehensive guide to scene editiong

[Jubal]

[size=14]THE ULTIMATE SCENE EDITORS GUIDE[/size]

Scene editing is a difficult and frustrating part of modding, but any modder wishing to create an immersive game experience really does need to get it right. This guide should help with that...

Enabling Edit Mode

Either;
1. On the options screen before you start Mount&Blade, click on options.
2. Select to open in windowed mode.
3. Click the advanced tab.
4. Select to open in Edit Mode.
5. Run the game. Edit mode will now be enabled.

Or do steps 1, 3, 4, and 5, then when ingame press alt+enter to got into windowed mode.

With edit mode enabled, you can go to any scene in the game and press cntrl+E to get the edit menu bar. It has five tabs on it; terrain, colour, items, AI mesh, and heights.

General Scene Editor's Advice
Remember, the aim of a scene is NOT to create a perfect model of a town, village or city for the player to wak around. It is to create something which LOOKS TO THE PLAYER like an exact replica of a town, etc. Make sure all the areas the player can go around look good FROM THE PLAYER'S PERSPECTIVE, and you'll be fine. In village scenes, you can actually affors to be a bit lax on the outer edges of the scene because nobody ever goes there, but that's the only real exception to the above.
Also, scenes are more than just vessels to have charcters in. they can be intersting, challenging and fun parts of the game in themselves. Use secret passageways and easter egg secions, and add detail to your towns and in castles; it makes thegaming experience far more immersive for the player.

Ok, now let's start editing. Use the W,A,S,D controls as usual, LEFT click to swivel the camera, and RIGHT click to place objects, increase height or paint terrain.

Colour
This paints the terrain a statndardised, fixed RGB hue.

AI mesh
This shows the AI where it can and can't walk. I'll document this properly when I've messed around with it more.

Height and Terrain
The first thing to think about when creating a new scene is the basic lay of the land. Height is the first part of this; make suer your map has believeable gradients and  that there are no sudden vertical drops unless you want a cliff.
It's best not to use the editor on the maximum weight and hardness as this make the height go VERY fast.
    Another point to note with the height editor is that by lowering the map to a certian level you can create water feautes such as pons or lakes. The level can be edited in the terrain generator or in module_scenes,py.

Terrain is equally important to height, and far more difficult to get right. A good mix of terrains is necessary, and the trick is not to make the joins too obvious.
     However, there's a catch. On joins between several terrain types, you get a partially transparent rim. There is as far as I know (but I'd love to be proven wrong), no way around this except care and carefulness.

Objects
The most important section bymiles. All scene objects, in-scene passages, scene exits, charcter entries, and so on are defined in the Scene objects.

When placing objects, there are five menus; plants, items, scene props, passages, and entry points.To place an object select add object and right click where you want it to go. The objects will all start in a single, fixed rotation, facing the camera. This is different for different objects, even some quite similar ones.

After or during placement, you can use a number of keys to move and maniplaute the object, these are as follows;

T moves it up and down
G Moves side to side OR back to front
U rotates.
X Rotates arond the X axis
Y Rotates arond the Y axis
Z Rotates arond the Z axis
B enlarges or makes smaller

Plants is the sipmlest of the menus. it contians trees, bushes and rocks which you can scatter around. They look good with the forest terrain beneth them.

Items simply places the mesh of any one of the player items defined in module_items.py, indcluding horses.

Scene Props is the largest and most important menu. It contains all the buildings and props, as well as light objects and barriers.
    When placing buildings, walk round them with your charcter after plcement and check that they are on ther cround properly. It's easy to fix by raising the ground a bit, but looks very shoddy if you leave it.
     The Fake House props are for city use only, but are amazingly useful. The fake_house_far props are equally importnat, and should be placed behinf the fake houses to give the impressiont hat the city goes on a lot further than it actually does.
      Make sure you check that the player actually IS kept in the area you want them - use a barrier if you need to, but remember barriers are wierd if you don't add some kind of object to visibly block the player.
     One major problem with t eh smaller props is that most of them have their center point at ground level, so they are placed half underground. the best solution is to place a wall where you want the item and then place it at the right height up against the wall. This done, you can exit edit mode and delete the wall,leaving the item where you want it.
Particualr props of note
    The dungeon inside props are very useful in indoor scenes, and are much underused.
     You'll find stone_step_a very useful, just to get the player up onto that nearly-reachable platform you've placed.
      Castle_f_wall_way_a is lovely for making balconies.
      Earth_Gate_A is really nice for blocking gaps between houses, altohugh the arena barriers are also good for this.
      Castle_f_tower is also really nice as you cna wlk up it, allowing you to have an NPC at the top of a tower who the player can go u and talk to.

Passages
These are points at which the player, when facing the BLUE FRONT of the passage, can  jump to another scene (or a different point in t he same scene). Which scene it is is defined in module_game_menus.py.The Entry Point defines the Entry point the player will come in at in t he new scene, and the Menu Item defines which scene the player goes to.
In ALL CITY SCENES (Castle, Tavern, Streets, Shop)
0 - Castle
1 - ----
2 - Castle
3 - Town Centre
4 - Tavern
5 - Shop
6 - Arena

In castles;
0 - Inside
8 - Courtyard

Entry Points
Entry points are quite simply points where theplayer or an NPC enters a scene. Simple? NO WAY. There's a very ocmplex system of which numbers go with which specific NPCs, and woe betide those who do not follow it. For any NPCs you add, you can simply define the point number you want to use (up to a max value of 60), then simply slap the point down where you want it ingame. However, for guards, guildmasters, lords, and so on, the troops HAVE to have particular points in place to deploy correctly.

The following points are in every scene of thier type, some are required, the green ones are just accepted conventions;
Villages;
0 - Player
11 - Village Elder
30 - 40 - Village Walkers
45 - Fugitive from Lord quest

Town Centres;
0 - Player whn entering on foot
1 - Player when entering on horseback
11 - Guild Master
23 - Castle Guard
24 - Prison Guard
25&26 - High Level Guards
27&28 - Low Level Guards
30-40 - Town Walkers
9 - Armor Merchant
10 - Weaponsmith
12 - Horse Merchant

Castle Indoors (In cities or in castles)
0 - Player
6&7 - Guards
16-24 - Lords

Castle Outdoors
40-42 Guards

Taverns
0 - Player
16-24 - Tavern Mercenaries, Travlers, etc.
9 - Tavern Keeper

Arenas are very complex and I haven't investigated them in much depth yet.

Anywaly, I hope this tutorial was useful...

[Son of the King]

This guide is now also on our wiki .

Here!

[Jubal]

Thanks, doing a good job already.  

[Bullethead]

Jubal-

Have you given any thought to making this guide more comprehensive? There are still a number of gaps in it, that I can't find out about elsewhere.

For others, I found this very good tute by Mortus over at Taleworlds on what's up with the AI mesh:  http://forums.taleworlds.net/index.php/topic,61126.0.html.  This really demystified it for me.  No I understand it from having dealt with similar things in other games.

Now, as to my areas of continuing pain..

#1.  How, in detail, and in plain English for somebody not fluent in modder-speak, do you do anything with entry points without totally hosing the whole scene?  i've of course read the lists of which number to assign to an entry point for what purpose, but every time I do anything to entry point 0, it ends up being about 5 miles away from the village and stuck about 1/2way up the side of a sheer cliff where I can't move.  I can fly there in edit mode, but no matter what I do to move entry point 0 near the village, I always end up stuck on the cliff when I test it in the game.

#2.  How, in detail and plain English, do you use passages to link scenes, whether interior or exterior?

#3.  How, in detailed plain English, do you create a new scene (interior or exterior) from scratch, without replacing an existing scene?

Thanks in advance.

[Conquistadores]

#3.  How, in detailed plain English, do you create a new scene (interior or exterior) from scratch, without replacing an existing scene?

Thanks in advance.

Copy paste an existing scene from the MS and then edit it.

[Brother Librarian]

im giving this a go on the red khanate castle. - tring to solve the floaty castle problem with the ground elevate option.
- its not easy

- and after that half the trees still float.

[Jubal]

It ain't easy; sometimes it's best to move the objects down rather than the ground up. Remember to go out & re-enter scenes from time to time, too, to allow the grass and any ambient trees to snap to the new terrain heights.

[Cuddly Khan]

This really help me to do the Nord's castles and villages.

[Cuddly Khan]

In village scenes how do you place where bandits spawn?

[Jubal]

Can't remember which one it is; just spread the remaining spawn points around and they'll spawn at one of them.  

[Cuddly Khan]

Too much work. For now I'm just doing the basics.

[Cuddly Khan]

I just found something out. I'M AWESOME AT SCENE EDITING!!

[Cuddly Khan]

im giving this a go on the red khanate castle. - tring to solve the floaty castle problem with the ground elevate option.
- its not easy

- and after that half the trees still float.

I replaced the Red Khanate castle with my own design. Sorry. At least it is bigger and has a proper siege scene now. And the way to solve the floating castle problem is to delete the castle and build another one from scratch. It's more fun.

P.S. 700TH POST!! YAY!!

[Silver Wolf]

It's nice to hear that! Maybe you could show us some screenshots ?

[Cuddly Khan]

Ok. I just need to finish up my latest work.