S W A T 3 M O D H Q |
MISSION TOPIC - CLOSE WINDOW WHEN FINISHED |
Building AI and Lightmaps
So, you've finished your work in Worldcraft and you're all set to give your map a try in SWAT3. If your map has just been exported from Worldcraft, you'll be missing a few important things: lightmaps, and a cube cell map file (.ccm). These are necessary for a final "production-quality" map; lightmaps give the appearance of realistic lighting, and cube cell maps are necessary for artificial-intelligence driven characters to interact with your map.
To build these necessary components of your map, you must first load your map in SWAT3. Take the .scn file that was exported by Worldcraft, and put it in your main SWAT3 directory. Then run the following command from your Windows Command Line (accessible through the Start Menu and selecting Run):
<Path to SWAT3 directory>\swat3.exe -map <your map name w/o extension>
As an example, say your map was named testmap1. Assume that your SWAT3 directory is C:\Sierra\SWAT3. Your command line would be:
C:\Sierra\SWAT3\swat3.exe -map testmap1
Upon this command, SWAT3 will load your map and start your player at the element leader SWAT start point you placed on the map. From there, you must perform three commands to build your AI and lightmaps.
Open the console by holding SHIFT and pressing the ` key (That's the accent mark key, to the left of the 1 key on most keyboards)
To build the lightmaps, type "blmaps" (without the quotes). This will begin the lightmap calculation process. This may take quite a while on large maps or maps with a number of lights. This step will only need to be performed once every time you build a map.
To build the AI maps for your characters, type "ai build" (without the quotes). This will begin AI path calculations. This may take quite a while, and the speed of the calculations depends heavily on your computer's processor. This step will only need to be performed once every time you build a map.
All done? The final output from these two processes is an updated .scn file, and a .ccm file. You should find them in your main SWAT3 directory. Both of these are to be distributed as your mission map data.