» Introduction Worldcraft 1.6 represents a large jump in features and expandability. This article is being based on the beta version of Worldcraft 1.6, and on speculation about what may be in the final product. As such, any information contained herein may not be representative of the final product. Worldcraft 1.6 contains a number of new features to work with Hexen II, and to a greater extent, Quake II. Probably the largest change to the interface comes in the Tools | Options dialogs. A close second, though, would have to be the Texture Application tool, which has been modified to also be the Quake II surface/content property modifier. » Game Configuration
One of the new features in Worldcraft's game support is the ability to use multiple FGD files (where Worldcraft stores its entity information) for one game. This will be especially useful when you are developing a partial or total conversion. You can have the standard FGD file loaded (quake2.fgd for example) and also load in specialtc.fgd. Entities from quake2.fgd can be redefined in specialtc.fgd, and Worldcraft will use the new ones. Also controllable from this dialog are the texture format (WAD or PAK), the .MAP format, the executable location, and the default solid and point style entities. » Texture Application dialog
A note about detail brushes Detail brushes are your friend. They should be used liberally thoughout your level. Normally, the VIS stage of compiling a level is the longest part. Marking a brush as "detail" causes VIS not to "see" that brush until the leaf building process is complete. This will significantly speed up the compiling process. Detail brushes should be used for anything in your level that does not occlude another part of the level. For example, light fixtures, railings, structural support beams, etc. Besides detail brushes, there are a number of other interesting things that can be done with the Quake II surface properties. You can define a brush as a ladder, make a brush face emit light, or make a brush transparent. The content flags also allow you to define a brush as water, lava, or slime. There are a number of other features of the Quake II surface properties which are covered in more detail at Zoid's QE4 page. » Miscellaneous Some of the other features that are in or may be showing up in Worldcraft 1.6 are:
» Availability The big question on everyone's mind is When will it be ready?? Well, the simple (and oft repeated) answer is "when its done." Of course, this is just a way of avoiding the question. Obviously, we can't give you an exact date, but judging by the quality of the current betas, and the speed with which bug reports are taken care of, I would hazard a guess and say within a week. When ready for public release, a patch to upgrade from version 1.5b to 1.6 (and 1.3 to 1.6 as well) will be available on the Worldcraft homepage and The Forge. Both sites will also make available a list of alternate download sites. Note that there will be no shareware version of Worldcraft 1.6, it will remain at version 1.5b. All graphics copyright Valve Software. Worldcraft is a trademark of Valve, LLC. Copyright © 1996-98, All rights reserved. Written by Ben Morris. |
The Tools | Options dialog received the addition of the Game Configuration tab (to the right). This dialog allows you to make different profiles for the different games Worldcraft is capable of editing (currently Quake I, Quake II, and Hexen II). Half-Life will also be supported in Worldcraft 2.0, which will only be available on the Half-Life CD.
The Texture Application tool has been modified to include the ability to edit the Quake II surface attributes. It is now functionally equivalent to QE4, though it does address some problems found in that editor (being able to modify several solids' surface properties without changing their textures is a nice feature).