252 lines
14 KiB
Markdown
252 lines
14 KiB
Markdown
# Environment: zones, fog, music and light
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This chapter covers everything that sets the *mood* of a level: fog and draw distance, sky and
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backdrop colours, music, teleports between areas, the lights that colour object models and the
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baked vertex colours that light the level geometry itself.
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Most of it lives in the **Environment** panel (left dock, next to the Outliner) with its three
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tabs **Zones**, **Lights** and **Lighting**, plus four tools: **Zones**, **Lights**, **Paint vertex
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colours** and the region painter of the next chapter ([Visibility regions](13-visibility.md)).
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## How the game uses zones
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The game stores a small list of *environment zones* in every level. Each zone holds a complete
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environment: fog mode and distances, fog/sky colour, the ambient colour for object models, a
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music track and a sky model. There are two kinds:
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* **The start zone** (exactly one per level). The level begins with its fog, colours and music.
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Its trigger cell is not used – the original levels park it outside the playfield at cell
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(3, y, 0).
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* **Teleport / environment zones.** Each one belongs to a *trigger cell* of the grid. When the
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player walks onto an **exit floor** (collision material **16**) or into a door object
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(RubyIdolDoor, PressurePadDoor) in that cell, the game looks up the zone of the player's cell,
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moves the player to the zone's **target** facing the zone's direction, and switches to the
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zone's fog, colours and music. The house doors in the Village work this way: you enter a door
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and arrive inside the house, with the indoor fog and music.
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A zone can also *only* switch the environment without moving the player: untick **Move the
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player here** in its Inspector section. That is how you make, for example, a cave entrance that
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turns the fog dark while the llama keeps walking.
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> **Engine limit:** the game switches zones only through these triggers. There is no "area" in
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> which a zone is active – after a teleport the new environment stays until the next trigger.
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## The Zones tab
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**Level → Environment zones** opens the Environment panel on this tab.
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### Fog preview
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| Option | What it does |
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|---|---|
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| **Live fog in the viewport** | Draws the game's fog in the 3D view: geometry fades to the fog colour and everything beyond the fog end disappears, just like in the game. Also **View → Fog preview**. |
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| **Zone** | Whose fog is shown: **Camera (nearest zone area)** guesses the zone from where the camera looks (nearest teleport target or the player start), **Start zone**, or **Selected zone only**. A selected zone is always previewed. |
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| **Detail** | The game's detail setting **Minimum**, **Medium** or **Maximum**: the fog distances are interpolated between the Min and Max pairs of the zone. |
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The line below shows which zone is previewed and its fog distances in cells. The distances are
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measured from the point the camera orbits around (the game camera follows the llama a few cells
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behind), so orbiting shows the "visible bubble" around that point. When you zoom far out for an
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overview, the preview pauses and says *Zoom in to see the fog of …*.
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### Zone list
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The list shows the start zone first (*Start zone (level default)*), then every other zone with a
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swatch of its fog colour, its trigger → target, the fog end distance and the music track.
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Clicking selects the zone (also in the viewport and the Inspector), double-clicking frames it.
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| Button | What it does |
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|---|---|
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| **+ Teleport** | Starts the **Zones** tool: click the trigger cell, then the arrival point. |
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| **+ Environment** | Adds a zone that only switches fog, colours and music, at the cell the camera looks at. |
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| delete | Deletes the selected zones. |
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| frame | Frames the selection in the viewport. |
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New zones copy the environment of the start zone, so they look the same until you change them.
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## Environment zone section
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Selecting a zone shows the **Environment zone** section in the Inspector. Its header has
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**Frame**, **Make start zone** and **Duplicate** (a copy one cell east). Raw fields whose meaning
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is unknown stay in the generic properties below the section.
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### Trigger
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| Field | Meaning |
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|---|---|
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| **Cell X**, **Cell Z (row)** | The trigger cell. It needs an exit floor (material 16) or a door object, otherwise the teleport never fires. |
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| **Cell Y (height)** | The height of the trigger, for stacked zones in one cell. |
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| **Height test** | When the zone matches: *player y ≤ cell Y*, *player y ≤ cell Y − 1* or *player y ≤ cell Y + 1 (no step)*. The lowest matching zone of the cell wins. |
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For the start zone this part only explains that the trigger cell is not used.
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### Teleport target
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| Field | Meaning |
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|---|---|
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| **Move the player here** | On: the player is moved to the target. Off: only fog, colours and music change. |
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| **Target X / Y / Z** | Arrival point in cells. |
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| **Facing (°)** | Direction the player looks after arriving: 0 = +z (down the grid), 90 = +x (east). |
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| **Step forward** | Cells the player is pushed along the facing after the teleport, so they do not stand on the exit floor again. Not used with the height test *Y + 1*. |
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### Fog and draw distance
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| Field | Meaning |
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|---|---|
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| **Mode** | *0 – no fog*, *1 – darkness, light around the player (radius = fog start…end)*, *2 – fog (table)*, *3 – fog (vertex, most levels)*. No original level uses mode 1. |
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| fog ramp bar | Shows the fog band from start to end in the zone colour. |
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| **Draw distance** | Draw distance in cells at detail Min, Medium and **Max**. Beyond it nothing is drawn. |
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| **Start (Min)**, **End (Min)** | Fog start and end at detail Minimum. |
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| **Start (Max)**, **End (Max)** | Fog start and end at detail Maximum. If the Max start is not above the Min start, the game uses 1.5 × the Min pair. |
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| **Fog / sky colour** | The colour everything fades to; also the backdrop colour behind the sky. |
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| **Ambient (objects)** | Added to the light of all object models in this zone. Tiles are not affected – they use their vertex colours. |
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Colour pickers update the viewport live while you pick; the whole pick is one undo step.
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> **Tip:** the original levels end their fog between 7 and 23 cells. Much shorter fog makes a wall
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> right in front of the player, much longer fog is slow on old PCs and wakes enemies from far away.
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### Music and sky
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| Field | Meaning |
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|---|---|
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| **Music** | Track started when the zone becomes active (`music/<name>.ASF`): VILLAGE, JUNGLE1, RIVER, CITY, CATACOMB, LAB, BALLOON, KRONK, VICTORY … *0 – (none)* stops the music. Tracks marked *(no file on the CD)* have no music file (on the German CD) – pick another one. |
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| **Sky model** | The object model drawn as the sky dome (one of the sky models used in this level), or none. |
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| **Sky yaw** | Turns the sky dome. |
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## Zones tool
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The **Zones** tool (toolbar group *env*, or **+ Teleport**) edits triggers and targets directly in
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the viewport. The options bar has two modes:
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| Mode | Click / drag |
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|---|---|
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| **Target** | Nothing selected: a click on a cell creates a new zone there (its trigger) – then click where the player should arrive. With a zone selected: click or drag places its arrival point; **Shift+drag** turns the facing (22.5° steps). |
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| **Trigger cell** | Clicks move the selected zone's trigger cell. |
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**[** and **]** turn the facing of the selected zone by 22.5°.
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The viewport shows a ring and a facing arrow at every zone target (layer *Zone targets &
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facing*). The selected zone additionally gets a filled trigger cell, a box and an arc to its
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target. The target ring is pickable: clicking it selects the zone.
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## Lights
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The **Lights** tab lists all lights of the level (colour swatch, type, position and radius).
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| Control | What it does |
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| **Preview lights on objects** | Lights every object model in the viewport with the engine's formula (also **View → Light objects (LGHT preview)**). |
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| **+ Point** | Starts the **Lights** tool. |
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| **+ Directional** | Adds a directional light (a sun). |
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| delete | Deletes the selected lights. |
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> **Engine limit:** lights only light **object models** (characters, pickups, props), per vertex:
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> the zone's ambient colour + all directional lights + the nearest point lights (6 at most). The
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> level geometry (tiles) is never lit at run time – it keeps its baked vertex colours. To light
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> tiles, [bake the lighting](#baking-the-lighting) or [paint vertex colours](#painting-vertex-colours).
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Directional lights have no position; the viewport draws them as diamonds with a direction line
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above the player start. A new level keeps the base level's directional lights (Village: three) and
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none of its point lights.
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### Light section
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| Field | Meaning |
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| **Light type** | **Directional (sun)**, **Point light** or **Negative point light (darkens)**. Other type numbers are ignored by the engine. |
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| **Colour** | Light colour (red / green / blue). |
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| **Intensity** | 1.0 = colour value 128 (the engine doubles it), 2.0 = maximum. |
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| **Azimuth (°)**, **Elevation (°)** | Directional lights: where the light comes from (0 = from +z, 90 = from +x / east). |
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| **X**, **Y (height)**, **Z (row)** | Point lights: position in cells. |
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| **Full radius** | Full strength up to this distance (cells). |
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| **Falloff radius** | Linear falloff to zero at this distance; nothing beyond. |
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| **Flicker** | The engine randomly scales the light ×1.5 / ×0.5 every frame (torches, fires). |
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**Frame** and **Duplicate** are in the section header.
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### Lights tool
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Click on the level to place a point light one cell above the surface; drag to set its radius. The
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options bar chooses a colour preset – **Torch (orange)**, **Fire (red)**, **Lamp (warm white)**,
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**Magic (cyan)**, **Moon (blue)**, **Glow (green)** – the **Height** above the surface and the
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**Radius**.
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In the viewport, directional lights are shown as arrows above the level centre and point lights
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as radius rings (layer *Light gizmos*); a selected point light shows spheres for both radii.
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## Baking the lighting
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The **Lighting** tab (also **Level → Bake lighting…**) computes new vertex colours for the tiles:
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sun light with real shadows, a sky/ground hemisphere and ambient occlusion in corners. A bake of
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the whole Village takes under a second and is one undo step.
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| Group | Options |
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|---|---|
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| **Preset** | **Day**, **Dusk**, **Night**, **Cave**, **Flat (no lighting)** fill in the values below (nothing changes until you bake). **Level's current** loads the level's own lighting settings. |
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| **Sun** | **Azimuth (°)** (0 = from south, 90 = from east), **Elevation (°)**, **Strength**, **Sun colour**. |
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| **Sky** | **Sky colour** (light from above), **Ground colour** (light from below), **Ambient occlusion** (darkening of corners and crevices), **AO radius** (cells), **Shadow light** (0 = black shadows, 1 = no shadows). |
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| **Bake** | **All tiles** or **Selected tiles**; **Add point lights (LGHT) to tiles** (the level's point lights also brighten the tiles, with shadows); **Also light brushes (level setting)** – brushes are lit when they are built, from the level's lighting settings, so the bake can store its values there; **Set start zone fog & ambient colour** – takes the preset's fog and ambient colour into the start zone. |
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| **Display** | **Textured** or **Vertex colours only**; **Paint vertex colours** switches to the brush. |
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Press **Bake lighting**. The status line says how many tiles were baked.
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> **Note:** the bake reproduces the look of LlamaMod's level builder, not the hand-tuned original
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> lighting of Argonaut. Bake **Selected tiles** if you only want to relight a part of an original
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> level.
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## Painting vertex colours
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The **Paint vertex colours** tool (**V**) is a brush for the vertex colours of tiles – darken a
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corner, warm up a fireplace, add a glow under a lamp. Every stroke is one undo step.
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| Option | Meaning |
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|---|---|
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| Mode | **Paint** (blend towards the colour), **Lighten**, **Darken**, **Smooth** (evens out neighbouring vertices). |
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| colour | The paint colour. **Ctrl+click** on the level picks a colour. |
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| **Bright** | Brightness: 1.0 = the texture's own colour, 2.0 = maximum (the engine doubles vertex colours). |
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| **Radius** | Brush radius in cells (0.1–16, default 1.5). |
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| **Str.** | Strength per dab (0.01–1, default 0.5). |
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| Falloff | **Smooth**, **Linear** or **Constant** towards the brush edge. |
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| **Selection only** | Only paint the selected tiles. |
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> **Tip:** tiles that share a model still have their own vertex colours, so painting never
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> changes other tiles.
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## View options
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| Menu item | Effect |
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| **View → Fog preview** | Live fog of the zone (see [Fog preview](#fog-preview)). |
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| **View → Light objects (LGHT preview)** | Engine lighting on object models. |
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| **View → Vertex colours only** (**Shift+V**) | Shows only the baked/painted vertex colours, without textures – useful to judge the lighting. |
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## Environment checks
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**Level → Check for problems** and every build also check the environment:
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| Severity | Problem |
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| warning | No start zone (the level starts without its fog, colours and music), or several start zones (the last one wins). |
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| warning | Fog ends after less than 3 cells even at detail Maximum, or the draw distance is above 30 cells. |
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| warning | Fog start is not before fog end. |
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| warning | A trigger cell is outside the grid (never entered). |
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| error | A teleport target is outside the grid. |
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| info | No exit floor (material 16) or door object in a trigger cell – the teleport only fires on an exit floor. |
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| warning | Tiles with flat grey (unlit) or completely black vertex colours – bake the lighting. |
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| warning / info | Point lights with falloff radius 0 or smaller than the full radius, black lights, light types the engine ignores. |
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Double-click a problem to select the zone or light. The visibility checks are described in
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[Visibility regions](13-visibility.md).
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