Overview
A Guide on useful Binds, shortcuts, making teleporter, jumppads, adding items and how to use the Content Browser
what to do 1st
There has been a lot of question and confusion on IRC and Forums about how the editor works and how to do things, so I thought I do a guide to help.
The 1st thing you should really do is set up binds for different commands, It will save you lots of time and lots of typing.
You can find Commands and properties in C:Program Files (x86)SteamSteamAppscommonReflex the file name is readme.html I recommend that you read this file as it also gives you the ports you need to open so other’s can connect to your server if you don’t run a dedicated server.
Important:
With each build that comes out, at the moment your .cfg files will be over written so it’s advisable to back up your .cfg files, the files can noramlly be found in C:Program Files (x86)SteamSteamAppscommonReflex
Binds
BINDS: Has been included in the editor.cfg as of build #27
In your install folder normally C:Program Files (x86)SteamSteamAppscommonReflex you find an editor.cfg 1st make a copy of this file, in case you mess up, Also back it up cause on each build all the configs get reset atm, then open it and paste in the binds. You can take out any // (Comments) it will bring up an error if you leave them in but they don’t have any effect on any thing, just atm Reflex don’t understand comments.
You can use any keys you wish, these are just the ones I’m using.
Also it’s best to save your map before you start. Type in the console savemap mapname then reload the map with the command map mapname so that you don’t over write the empty map by mistake, then you can use the bind to continue saving.
Binds that have been added to the Editor.cfg by Reflex build #27
bind 1 me_createtype worldspawn
bind 2 me_createtype teleporter
bind 3 me_createtype jumppad
bind 4 me_createtype target
bind 5 me_createtype effect
bind 6 me_createtype pointlight
Bind 7 me_createtype pickup // This bind was left out so I added this to key 7
Bind 8 me_createtype playerspawn // Credit to praxismo for pointing this out
// Keys below are new rebinds that I use, remember you can use you own keys
//Quick way to for grid snapping, also for making small adjustments to your brushes
Edit: changed the binds as now you have voting set to ket F1, F2 for yes and no
Bind F4 me_snapdistance 2
Bind F5 me_snapdistance 8
Bind F6 me_snapdistance 16
Bind F7me_snapdistance 32
Bind F8me_snapdistance 64
Bind F10 r_lm_build
Bind F11 savemap
What keys can be use to bind a command too?
Thanks to AEon for this tip
The list of bind-able keys can be looked up via:
keylist
And the keys in question on the numerical keyboard are:
numpadadd
numpadsubtract
Ok I did a config called brush.cfg just copy it to your Reflex folder (C:Program Files (x86)SteamSteamAppscommonReflex).
Open the config in a text editor and read the 1st part as it has some Important Info inside,
This config has been broken up in to the different categories so you can easy find what you need.
Please Remeber I have not added every single command from the ContentBrowserHack only the ones I think will be used and is just an easy way for people to use if you have problems using the Content Browser Hack (Or even if you want to bind them instead of using the Browser)
[link]Shortcut keys and explanations and errors
Shortcut keys can be found in the readme.html file but I will give you them here with some explanation to each.
0: (that’s Zero not num-pad zero) to toggle editing mode
Shift: Used for moving brushes at the same hight they was created, Also used for adjusting faces of the brushes.
To move the brush you need to select it 1st then with the mouse drag it around, it will move on the same hight plane you created it.
To adjust the brush size, select the brush then with the mouse highlight the side you wish to adjust, you will see a white line on one side of the brush then you can drag it to resize, you will get use to which place the white line will be on to which side to adjust.
ALT: Use Alt to move the brush up and down vertically.
Backspace: Deletes the brush or object.
G: Will clone the brush or object, the clone will appear but slightly closer to you and slightly up above the original, so if cloning multi brushes (IE for making stairs) try to do it by facing the direction you want then to appear.
V: Vertex editing, when press V you will see small dots appear on the corners of the brush hovering mover over the dot will give you a circle, left click and drag to move the vertex, You can use the Alt key the same way as normal to move the vertex up and down. This is a good way for making ramps, but as there is no way to to rotate the brushes you can us the vert editing to do rotating by hand, It’s messy but till they Implement rotating this is the best way I have found.
Z: Will undo, I have no idea what the undo limit is so if any one know please post it.
X: Will redo, again no idea of the max limit.
M: Applies the current material. To get a current material use the ContentBrowserHack. To get the material select the material you want from the browser, make sure the console is down then click Send to Reflex and you should see the material name pasted into the console.
You can apply materials to just one side of a brush by using shift + m with the mouse over the side of the brush you want the material on.
Now some people are having problems with the ContentBrowserHack not pasting into the console, sorry but you are going to have to type it in by hand, just find the material you want and type in the path. People also have problems with not beeing able to see the ContentBrowserHack when going into window mode. I have noticed that Reflex can stay on top of all other windows so try going into window mode and resize Reflex like any other window or try using a different r_resolution.
Shift + k: will copy a material from any brush on your map, just select the brush you want to copy the material from.
ALT + TAB: Switch between window and full screen. Some people are having problems with getting either window or full screen sorry I don’t have an answer to this problem. Another problem (one I get) is switching between to many times, suddenly the monitor gets lines running up and down and the screen shifts to the right, the only way I have found getting rid of this is to reboot.
Light leeks: Some times when building a Lightmap you might see light leaks appear you can get rid of some of them (this does not work all the time) by using the nolight material on one side of the brush you can find it in the browser under base/internal/editor/textures/editor_nolight.
Lightmap building: some times when building a lightmap and you come out of edit mode the lighting can seem to change this is because of r_lm_textel_size being in your game config you can comment it out using the // this will fix it, but that comes at a price as the build time will be a lot longer.
Content Browser Hack Problems
Some people are having problems with sending items to ReFlex, from what I have found out it’s normally to do with keyboard layouts, You will know if this is your problem by doing a test.
Place an effect and try to send over the teleporter effect in the proprities if you have a layout problem you will see internal?world?teleporter?teleporter_portal all the will be replaced with a ?.
One way to over come this is to high light the item you want in the content Browser, and then press Ctrl C for copy then in the effectName field press CTRL V to paste.
How to make a Teleportal
Use the me_createtype effect effect command in the console or if you have a bind for it use the bind.
Place the effect, with the effect selected press N key to get the propities up, click in the bottom text box and in the content Browser Hack go to Internal/world/teleporter and choose teleporter_portal the type Effect, then change the angles as needed.
Now you will need to create the teleportal it’s self so in console type me_createtype teleporter or use your bind if you have one, Like the brushes just click and drag it to the size you want it.
Press N to get the propities box up and in the target field type in a unique name, Thing to remember is to press enter once typed or it wont save the name in the text field.
Next you need to make a Target for the portal, in the console type me_createtype target or use the bind if you have one, place it where you want the player to emerge from the portal, press N key for the propities box and set the angle on the red brush you will see a pointer for the direction the player will go use that to get correct direction. Then in the name text field type in the same name you gave your teleporter and remeber to press enter to set the name.
Now test your portal, remeber to move it around to get the correct exit point for the player.
You can also add detail to the portal by adding two effects either side of the portal using the teleporter_frame_L and teleporter_frame_R
If for some reason the text does not get put into the text field from the content browser make sure you have the text fiekd selected, it will look gray if selected.
If for some reason your text you type in the text fields are not there when you re select propities then you have not hit enter.
How to add Decals:
Use Bind key 5 to add an effect, Press N key to bring up the propities box select the effectName field (it will turn gray if selected properly), then from the Content Browser Hack select structural/decals/decal_dev_logo_reflex and click send to reflex (Make sure you select EFFECT and not the MATERIAL).
In irc and forums I have seen people having trouble the decal showing up, with some playing around with it and the materials on the walls I think I have found the best placement of the Effect Entity. The Effects Entity works best if set 2 to 3 units from the wall, The angle also come into play, once the Effect Entity has been placed I find that diffrent angles can effect weather the decal shows or not so try adjusting the 1st box for the angle (I’m takeing it as the Z axis) in incerments of 90 degrees so 90, -90, 180 etc.
I have not yet decided on how to tell what face of the Effect Entity is front or back, so play with the Z angle.
Pick up placements adding items to the map
The bind key was left out so I bound me_createtype pickup to key 7. Place the Pickup Item then Use the N Key to get the properties box up and use the numbers below to add the Pick up you want. Remeber to press enter after adding the number you want.
Burst Gun 0
Shotgun 1
Grenade Launcher 2
Plasma Rifle 3
Rocket Launcer 4
Ion Cannon 5
Bolt Rifle 6
Stake Gun 7
5 Health 40
25 Health 41
50 Health 42
100 Health 43
5 Armor 50
Light Armor 51
Medium Armor 52
Heavy Armor 53
Quad Damage 60
JumpPad’s And BoostRamps
JumpPad:
Use bind key 3 to create a JumPad, to place it drag it out just like a normal brush, set the size you want then Press the N key to bring up the properties box, In the target field type in a unique name (one that you can remember and relates to the area the JumpPad is in IE: quad1), remember to press enter after you have typed in the target to set it.
Now go to the place you want them to jump up to and use key bind 4 to set a Target, Press N key to bring up the properties box, and In the name field type the same name you used In the JumpPad properties box, again remember to press enter to set the name, (what you have done is connect the two together thats why It’s Important to use the same names In both properties box’s).
Next you need to place the Target Entity so the player can reach the ledge or platforum you want then to jump to, noramlly It should be above and in a bit, you will need to play with the placement of the Target Entity to get the best Landing spot.
BoostRamps:
Do the same as above except now you are going to make the JumpPad in to a ramp. Press V to go Into Vertex mode and raise the 4 vert’s upwards (use Alt key to move the verts up and down) , try to make the ramp point upto the ledge or platforum you want the player to land on.
Next place the Target. There are two ways to do this (I’m sure there are more, these are the two that I normally use, so try and test other ways if you wish).
1st way: Stright fast ramp jump. Place the Target like you did above on the ledge or platform. The player will fly quite fast to the landing spot.
2nd way: slow Arc. Put the Target about halfway to two thirds of the way from the ramp and up high, you will get a slow arcing jump. Now you will have to play around with the exact distance and hight to get the best speed and look you are after.
With this type of JumpPad you will find that when the player lands there is a skiding movement on the landing so becarefull if you have a platform with no walls as the player could slip off, again its trail and error getting the landing the way you want It.
Neon Lights
Neon lights are just textures you apply to a brush just as you would with any other texture. Use the content Browser Hack and send over the texture and use M to apply, remember to have the console down when sending over textures.
The textures are in structural/dev and called dev_light_* The * is the name of the colour you want to use.IE: dev_light_blue.
Now a lot of people will place the neon light and it will only come up white, this is because most of us had to dumb down our option via the config, so most of us have r_bloom disabled, to see the diffrent colours you will need to re enable r_bloom 1 to see the colours.
*Thanks to Bonuspunkt that helped to find out the reason behind seeing only white neon* (I will write a bit about setting up diffrent configs for playing and editing).
Using different Configs for playing and editoring
Now It might seem silly to write about configs as there are diffrent configs for game and editor. What I have found is that some of the setting you turn off in the game.cfg can still effect the editor.cfg.
ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR CONFIG FILES BEFORE CHANGING ANY THING.
When swetching between game mode and edit mode if you bring down the console you will notice that the program changes between the game.cfg and the editor.cfg, so you can use this to your advantage.
In the game.cfg I use this.
r_bloom 0
r_dynamic_lights 0
r_dynamic_shadows 0
r_fxaa 0
r_resolution 800 600 60
but in my editor.cfg i use
r_bloom 0
r_dynamic_lights 0
r_dynamic_shadows 0
r_fxaa 0
r_resolution 1280 720 60
But if I want to use neon lights and do a full light build to see how it all looks I have a HD.config
r_bloom 1
r_dynamic_lights 1
r_dynamic_shadows 1
r_fxaa 1
r_resolution 1280 720 60
To change between configs in the console type loadconfig <configname>
Things that will help making life easer
A players hight is 56 units.
A players normal jump upwards is 56 units
A players normal forward jump is around 192 – 224 units
Steps should be around 16 units
To place lava make a brush then get the lava material from the ContentBrowserHack its under base/environment/liquids/lava/ and you want the lava material make sure you have a brush under the lava to stop players falling through.
At the moment use the textures from the base/structural/dev folders
The dev_light_ textures under the base/structural/dev folders will give a glow like a light source.
Devils Mapping Tips, This is great reading has great tips on map size, brush size, Lighting tips and more. Jump over and give some love by liking and a comment saying thanks for the hard work.
[link]
Praxismo done a great post on how to easy put colours on to your brushes. Check out his post, Like and send some love by thanking him for the post.
[link]
Bonuspunkt done a guide on jump hights and distances great info in there and well worth reading if you want to make that perfect jump map [link] him some love by Likeing and comment a thank you for the hard work.
Blindlight posted some great links to map design guides, some exellent information in there and for the up and coming mappers out there, a must read. Thanks Blindlight for gathering this together. Show your appreciation and like the thread
[link]
Easy way to make stairs: Thanks to Blindlight for this tip
When making stairs place the furest one 1st then facing the camera to the back of the stair with you back towards the place your building upto use the G shortcut key to duplicate the 1st stair and it will paste the next one one unit up and one unit over in the direction of the camera.
How to Re-Theme you map easy: Thanks to Blindlight for this tip
you can re-theme maps by doing a simple find and replace in the .map file for the material name for example turn all your grey walls to blue.
You will find the map files under C:Program Files (x86)SteamSteamAppscommonReflexbaseinternalmaps and just open them with a text editor like wordpad.
Where most of this info can be found
Most of this info can be found in the readme.html file and from the youtube vid tutorial [link] made by Reflex.
All I have done is elaborate on some of the stuff. I will add more as I work them out.
If anyone else has any stuff they think should be in here please post it below and I add it or if you see any mistakes do the same.