FAQ

A list of questions we've been asked and the answers too them
This is still an FAQ as the order of the questions and answers will be rearranged periodically based on the frequency they've been asked

You may wish to use Ctrl-F with a few keywords (eg model) to find your query with a common solution faster

General

The game starts up, and closes shortly afterwards

This is sort of an ambiguous situation, read carefully

A1: If you saw a message similar to, could not load core textures, you're trying to run the bin directly, or in the wrong directory. please use the sandbox_unix bash script, or the click_me_to_start batch, or the Launcher.

A2: You might have broken/corrupt drivers. Please install the newest ones provided by your GPU (aka, video card) manufacturer, especially if you use windows, since Microsoft's default OGL (WGL) implementation is horrible and is hardly capable of running sandbox.

A3: Your graphics card might not have shader support, though sandbox should automatically turn it off, if it doesn't, use the launcher turn shaders off. Otherwise in linux enter -f in the launch command. On windows, open CLICK_ME_TO_START.bat with notepad (or you can right click the file and select edit) and add -f after the sandbox.exe Note: If given a number (f1 or f2), it'll set the shader quality to that value.

A4: If you have an ATI card you might need to do this "I found that it wont run unless you disable the Catalyst A.I. After i did that it loaded right up! Hope this helps anyone that has problems running sandbox." Thanks Fudwumper!!

I have really low FPS and/or bad performance, what do I do?

A1: Make sure you update your graphics card drivers. Also just because you have a new computer doesn't mean you have the latest graphic cards drivers.

A2: Lower the resolution

A3: Try turning shaders off

I am unable to utilise Alt-TAB or similar functionality

This only applies to non-Windows systems.

This is due to inane behavior inside SDL. Whenever the window is set to fullscreen using SDL_SetVideoMode, SDL takes exclusive control of your keyboard. SDL Also takes exclusive access of your mouse if SDL_ShowCursor(0) is called (this disables acceleration and breaks everything if the pointer is reliant on absolute positioning). Whilst fullscreen with SDL hogging all input, you can not send any input events to anything but the SDL application, with the exception of exclusive events meant for the kernel and events meant for whatever allows SDL such access.

So basically if you don't wish to be afflicted by this stupidity, run sandbox in windowed mode. This can be achieved by using the -t command line option, manually entering /fullscreen 0 in game or toggling the option in the options menu.
Linux/FreeBSD users can also opt to start sandbox in windowed mode and change it to fullscreen using your window manager. For example using KDE + Kwin, right click the title or press alt - F3, go to advanced and select fullscreen.

Are there weapons in Sandbox?

Sandbox is intended to be kid friendly. In the RPG there is "action" with a melee vegetable extractor and spells. Also we will be doing a child friendly squirt gun battle mode. However if someone wanted to make adult violence from the rpg and water gun mode they certainly could though that is not our current focus.

How do I edit/play MULTIPLAYER with my friends/other people?

Our next release will include a master server so people can see all the servers available, but currently you need to directly connect to the server. For instructions on how to do this and how to set up a server please see this link.

How do I add my own models and characters to Sandbox?

Please see the Adding_Models_to_Sandbox page for tutorials on model creation and bringing your creations into Sandbox.

My Mouse only has 1 button

This means you don't have access to a scroll wheel, which is mostly referred to as universal delta in the documentation.

A1: go into options and click the "PG UP and PG DN as universal delta"

A2: delete config*.cfg and open data/defaults.cfg and modify the mouse4 and mouse 5 binds, mouse 2 and 3 (right and wheel clicks respectively) are mostly for convenience and not nearly as important as the wheel.

A3: Obtain a mouse with a scroll wheel :P

Editing

How do I add an NPC to the game?

Take a look at village.cfg and savetheprincess.cfg which are located in the packages/base folder. You can open them with a text editor such as notepad or wordpad. If you check out where the models are listed you'll notice near the end of the savetheprincess.cfg that there is mmodel rc/pink This is the princess. To add this to your own map you can either copy this config and rename it to exactly what your map is named, or you can create your own config and add it at the bottom of the list. To create your own config all you have to do is create a new text document, name it exactly how your map is spelled and change the .txt at the end to .cfg Savetheprincess.cfg for reference

How do I make an NPC talk and/or give quests?

Review the previous question on how to add the npc. If you look at the savetheprincess.cfg you'll notice this

  level_trigger_1 = [showgui Princess-Robochimp]
  newgui Princess-Robochimp [
  guitext "Thank you for saving me!" chat
  guitext "You're my hero!" chat
  ]

That is the format for making a character talk. You can copy and modify that code according to what you'd like your character to say. Now you need to into the map and fly over to Princess robochimp. In edit mode click on her and then press . Make sure to press enter after you've made your modifications to save the entity. If you set the 3rd attribute to 1 she'll talk once, if set at 11 she'll talk each time she is approached. For the 4th attribute it needs to be set to 1 to correspond to the code in the config. If it was level_trigger_2 in the config then that 4th attribute would need to be 2. If notice in Savetheprincess the 1 1 values to make her talk are actually in an invisible model close to her. This is so that it shows her idle animation (jumping with the arms up). To make a model invisible set the 2nd attribute to 0. Setting up quests works in a similar fashion, check out village.cfg and take a look at the quest code. Try changing it to what you are looking to do. For a version that isn't so complicated check out the old version of village.cfg that I modified to be a quest to find five keys.

How do I make items that can be picked up?

Please review the previous question. The third attribute needs to be 12 and then it will be picked up.

How do I add creatures such as butterflies to my map

Type /newent creature 0-6 Note: 0 is the butterfly, 1 the dragon, etc

note if you're using 2.2.0 or older, it's /newent monster

How do I light my map?

A basic way to do it is first select an area on the map where you want to place it. Then go to the new light menu. Make sure you select a color and a radius and then select create light. You can either enter /calclight in the console or you can go to editing gui and then lighting and select what options you want when creating your lights. Finish the process and your map will be lit according to the light you created :) Check here for more detailed information

The lights aren't working

A1: Check if you placed any lights inside mapmodels or geometry

A2: Did you calculate lightmaps? ie, the /calclight and /patchlight commands

A3: Does the light have a very small radius, or RGB values of 0? ie light 256 0 0 0 won't make any light, light 256 200 100 50 should emit a relatively bright orange.

How do I make sloped "roofs" like those in house?

Note, this refers to sloped geometry in general

A1: Hold the middle mouse button, and selected the vertices (point were 2 or more edges meet) you wish to edit, and scroll up/down to deform the cube

A2: Select 1 or more cubes, and hold in Q. Scroll while hovering over a vertice to deform that specific vertice in the whole selection

A3: select 1 or more cubes, and hold F. Scroll the wheel to deform the whole face (collection of 3 or 4 vertices, note computers are limited to triangles and quadrilaterals, a circle for example is a series of triangles).

How do I create grass?

First make sure grass is turned on! (/grass 1)

Hold the Y button down and scroll with the mouse wheel until you come to the texture that includes the 3D grass. To change what texture the grass is linked with check /data/default_map_settings.cfg

To add grass, add a autograss "texture" to a texture's loading statement

How do I create rain or snow?

To add a water particle entity to the map:

Type /newent particles 10 300 256 868 1000 in the console

10 is the type, 300 the shape, 256 the radius, 868, a 12 bit colour, 1000 the fading time

To add snow particles entity to the map:

Type /newent particles 12 300 256 0xFFFFFA 10000 0 0 0

I can't see my custom mapmodels

A1 Check that the mmodel command of the model you're trying to load points to a valid object, relevant to packages/models, if you use windows, just invert the slash (note that the model listings are generated automatically on mapsave from 2.3 onwards)

A2 is there a tris.* present? or a md*.cfg or an obj.cfg loading the current model if it isn't named tris.*?

A3 note that mmodel is directed to a directory, not to the model file

How do I edit my map's configuration

A1 use an external file editor like notepad or kate to open the respective map configuration

A2 enter editmode, and press F6, then the load button in the GUI that appears

Is there any program to make editing easier?

A1 Yes, It's called Notepad++. You can download it here http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm

Other

Are there any sandbox user groups?

In short no, if there are any, we're not aware of them

Can I use sandbox maps in (insert fave game here)

In most cases this can't be done, unless the engine you're using happens to be cube 2, or has support for the cube 2 octree map format. However you can export the map geometry to .obj format using the command /writeobj