Platinum Arts Sandbox Free 3D Game Maker - User contributions [en]

FAQ

2008-09-15T01:59:07Z

LinuxDonald:

A list of questions we've been asked and the answers too them<br>
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

= General =

'''The game starts up, and closes shortly afterwards'''<br>
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's manufacturer, specially if you use windows, since Microsoft's default OGL (WGL) implementation is horrible and is hardly capable of running sandbox.

= Editing =

'''How do I make sloped "roofs" like those in house?'''<br>
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).

'''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.

'''Gras'''

To activate it:
:Type gras 1 in the console

:Type grass 0 in the console

'''Rain'''

To add rain-entity to the map:

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

= 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.

FAQ

2008-09-15T01:57:50Z

LinuxDonald: /* Editing */

A list of questions we've been asked and the answers too them<br>
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

= General =

'''The game starts up, and closes shortly afterwards'''<br>
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's manufacturer, specially if you use windows, since Microsoft's default OGL (WGL) implementation is horrible and is hardly capable of running sandbox.

= Editing =

'''How do I make sloped "roofs" like those in house?'''<br>
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).

'''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.

'''Gras'''

To activate it:
Type gras 1 in the console

Type grass 0 in the console

'''Rain'''

To add rain-entity to the map:

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

= 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.

Main Page

2008-09-15T01:11:22Z

LinuxDonald: /* Tutorials */

'''Platinum Arts Sandbox''' is a 3D game design tool based on the Cube 2 engine that allows users to quickly and easily create and edit their own worlds in game, even cooperatively. It is free, open source, and easy to use for Kids and Adults.

<div style="width:49%;float:left;">

== General information ==

* [[Platinum Arts Sandbox|About Platinum Arts Sandbox]]
* [http://Kids.PlatinumArts.Net Project homepage]
* [[FAQ]]
* [[Contact The Team]]

== Installation ==

* [[Installing Platinum Arts Sandbox]]
* [[Compiling the source code]]

== Development ==

* [[bug reports|Bug Reports]]
* [[development|Obtaining development version]]

== Getting started ==

* [[Map Editing Basics]]
* [[Beginner's video tutorials]]

</div>
<div style="width:49%;float:right;">

== Advanced topics ==

* [[Cooperative Editing]]
* [[Editing Reference Guide]]
* [[Configuration Reference Guide]]
* [[Translations|Engine/menu translations]]
* [[Adding Models to Sandbox]]
* [[Cubescript|Programming in Cubescript]]
* [[map_config|Map Configuration]]
* [[musicpacks|Music Pack Documentation]]

== Tutorials ==

* [[Mapmodels|Loading and adding mapmodels]]
* [[Menu Editing|How to Modify the menu]]
* [[Lighting|How To light a map properly]]<br>
* [[Glowmaps]]
* [[Tips]]

</div>

__NOTOC__

Compiling the source code

2008-09-14T18:26:06Z

LinuxDonald: /* Debug under Linux */

This page discusses on how to modify and compile the source code.

==Windows:==

===Main Method===
Click here to download the version of Codeblocks with the mingw compiler:
[http://kids.platinumarts.net/codeblocks.exe]

Then go into your /src/mingw folder. Click on sandbox.cbp and codeblocks should load up. Go to build and then build and it should create the Windows binary :)

Other Methods: There is a visual C++ project file included that you can use. Load up the proper file and compile :) I'm not sure if you'd need any libraries but you probably shouldn't need any.

==POSIX systems==

You may need to convert some of the text file from dos format. There's a handy program to do it with so you may need to install and use tofrodos

===Linux===

<big>NOTE</big> The Binaries are compiled for 32 bit systems, so if you're on a 64 bit system, you'll have to 1) compile your own, by using modified versions of the below instructions, or 2) install and use 32 bit libraries.

====Makefile====

First of all, make sure you have the the SDL and GLUT development libraries installed on your system.
Next up, go into src folder. and type 'make', you can add one of the following at the end of the line

* all - compiles the client
* libenet - compiles enet library
* clean - cleans up temporary files
* client - builds enet and integrates it into a client
* install - compiles enet and the client, and compies the client in /bin_unix/
* distinstall - creates a directory names /usr/local/sandbox/, and copies everything in there. it then sets permissions and some symlinks, so you can play the game by typing 'sandbox' into a console.
* distclean - deletes /usr/local/sandbox/

The compile automatically defaults to 'all'

Chances are, you won't have everything you needed installed, so if you receive any errors from missing devel libraries and frameworks, just installed them too.
if you receive errors similar "bash: ./configure: /bin/sh^M: bad interpreter" you'll need to use 'fromdos' to convert them to unix friendly files.

====Debug====

If you're interested in compiling a version with debugging symbols, just follow the instructions.

# first, open the Makefile with a text editor,
# next, you'll need to add '-ggdb3' somewhere in the 'CXXOPTFLAGS' list. It's normally recommended to clear everything else out of there. you're not meant to optimise and debug simultaneously.
# thirdly, scroll down to near the end, and remove all the lines with 'strip' in them
# finally, you may wish to change the PLATFROM_PREFIX to something else, like debug for example.

====Debug under Linux====

Compile the debug version with: make install -f Makefile.debug
Than start gdb and type this:

file bin/debug_client
run -r -t

when it crash than type bt

===MAC OSX===

Compiling in OSX is a bit harder, you need to install the following frameworks before you can even attempt it

*SDL
*SDL_Mixer
*SDL_Image

====Xcode====

OSX developers normally use the XCODE IDE, you're in luck as PAS ships with an Xcode project file.

Just select the appropriate release version (release, debug, etc), and build the client, and probably the launcher to.
If any errors occur, make sure the right frameworks are installed.

====X11/Terminal====

Make sure you have a compiler installed (if you did install Xcode, they should already be there), along with the right frameworks.

Now it's merely a replica of the Linux instructions in where you cd to the right directory and typing 'make' to compile it

===FreeBSD===

Unwritten

Compiling the source code

2008-09-14T18:25:46Z

LinuxDonald: /* Debug */

This page discusses on how to modify and compile the source code.

==Windows:==

===Main Method===
Click here to download the version of Codeblocks with the mingw compiler:
[http://kids.platinumarts.net/codeblocks.exe]

Then go into your /src/mingw folder. Click on sandbox.cbp and codeblocks should load up. Go to build and then build and it should create the Windows binary :)

Other Methods: There is a visual C++ project file included that you can use. Load up the proper file and compile :) I'm not sure if you'd need any libraries but you probably shouldn't need any.

==POSIX systems==

You may need to convert some of the text file from dos format. There's a handy program to do it with so you may need to install and use tofrodos

===Linux===

<big>NOTE</big> The Binaries are compiled for 32 bit systems, so if you're on a 64 bit system, you'll have to 1) compile your own, by using modified versions of the below instructions, or 2) install and use 32 bit libraries.

====Makefile====

First of all, make sure you have the the SDL and GLUT development libraries installed on your system.
Next up, go into src folder. and type 'make', you can add one of the following at the end of the line

* all - compiles the client
* libenet - compiles enet library
* clean - cleans up temporary files
* client - builds enet and integrates it into a client
* install - compiles enet and the client, and compies the client in /bin_unix/
* distinstall - creates a directory names /usr/local/sandbox/, and copies everything in there. it then sets permissions and some symlinks, so you can play the game by typing 'sandbox' into a console.
* distclean - deletes /usr/local/sandbox/

The compile automatically defaults to 'all'

Chances are, you won't have everything you needed installed, so if you receive any errors from missing devel libraries and frameworks, just installed them too.
if you receive errors similar "bash: ./configure: /bin/sh^M: bad interpreter" you'll need to use 'fromdos' to convert them to unix friendly files.

====Debug====

If you're interested in compiling a version with debugging symbols, just follow the instructions.

# first, open the Makefile with a text editor,
# next, you'll need to add '-ggdb3' somewhere in the 'CXXOPTFLAGS' list. It's normally recommended to clear everything else out of there. you're not meant to optimise and debug simultaneously.
# thirdly, scroll down to near the end, and remove all the lines with 'strip' in them
# finally, you may wish to change the PLATFROM_PREFIX to something else, like debug for example.

===Debug under Linux===

Compile the debug version with: make install -f Makefile.debug
Than start gdb and type this:

file bin/debug_client
run -r -t

when it crash than type bt

===MAC OSX===

Compiling in OSX is a bit harder, you need to install the following frameworks before you can even attempt it

*SDL
*SDL_Mixer
*SDL_Image

====Xcode====

OSX developers normally use the XCODE IDE, you're in luck as PAS ships with an Xcode project file.

Just select the appropriate release version (release, debug, etc), and build the client, and probably the launcher to.
If any errors occur, make sure the right frameworks are installed.

====X11/Terminal====

Make sure you have a compiler installed (if you did install Xcode, they should already be there), along with the right frameworks.

Now it's merely a replica of the Linux instructions in where you cd to the right directory and typing 'make' to compile it

===FreeBSD===

Unwritten

Map config

2008-09-10T02:00:56Z

LinuxDonald:

Normally the defaults will suffice, but for that occasion when you wish to perhaps use a specific set of textures, play some music, write some cubescript triggers etc, you can use a map configuration file. Pretty much anything placed in a regular cfg file can be placed in one of these. But take note these can't overwrite persistent variables and overwrite binds without some special tinkering. it's a safety thing

=Things to do=
==level_triggers==

level triggers are the 4th mapmodel tag, you can assign a specific level trigger action. and don't forget the special aliases that're trigger specific. The following is for a type 11 and some sort of a switch combo

level_trigger_1 = [if (= $triggerstate -1) [echo "The door is locked"] [echo "The doors screeches violently as it flies open"]]

in fact, that's just an example of what you can do with triggers, there are plenty more possibilities, the next one would be a type 12, a triggered once only.

level_trigger_2 = [setfullscreenshader bloom - 200; echo "it becomes hard to see"]

==Loading Skyboxes==

The two commands useful in loading a skybox is /skybox, and /spinsky. /loadsky was removed and turned into an alias. the change allowed /skybox to echo the current skybox

To even consider loading a skybox. there have to be _dn, _up, _ft, _rt, _lf and _bk versions of it. those are down, up, front, right, left and back

an example of such a command is /skybox skyboxes/dunes

==Playing Background Music==

The music command is /music (file) [ondone]

The file is a song you specify to play, if an ondone isn't specified, it'll just loop over and over. if an ondone is specified, a script will be executed once it's done

eg /music music/sample.ogg [echo "finished playing"]

==Loading textures==

There are 6 key commands in loading textures.

*materialreset
*setshader
*setpixelparam
*setvertexparam
*texturereset
*texture

They all perform different functions, texturereset will clear the texture list, meaning it has to be populated from, the begining. Materialreset will do the same, but only for materials (as texturereset leaves materials unaffected). setshader is used to set a shader for the textures, so they can take advantage of bump, glow, parallax and specular mapping. the setparam commands are used to set variables on a per texture basis. this is to intensify an effect or speed it up.

texture will add textures obviously, you have to specify the type of texture as well. valid arguements are 0, 1, n, z, g, d, water, lava, s, e

the full syntax is texture T F (R) (X) (Y) (S)

they each stand for type, file, rotation, x offset, y offset and scale, the ones in () are optional.

Note the first texture you specify as texture 0 must be a skybox one.

0 is a new texture slot. 1 loads an additional texture to use with the current texture slot, n loads a normalmap for the current texture, z loads a depth map (also called a bump map), g loads a glow map, d loads a decal to place over the texture (use 32 bit pngs WITH transparency for this. TGA will also suffice). water will load the water texture if material reset was used, and likewise for lava. s loads a specular map, and e loads an environment map (it uses the envmap entities or just reflects the skybox if one isn't specified).

===Materials===

water takes a surface texture, and has use for 3 additional slots. Note the below, and their order especially.

texture water golgotha/water2.jpg<br>
texture 1 textures/waterfall.jpg<br>
texture 1 textures/watern.jpg<br>
texture 1 textures/waterdudv.jpg<br>

For lava, there's only room for 1 additional slot. mostly as there's no need for a normal map, or a dudv one. As you can notice there's no specularity on the lava, and no distorted reflections either.

texture lava hirato/lava.jpg
texture 1 hirato/lava.jpg

===setshader===

setshader is used to set the used shader of any following texture slots. The available list is

*bumpenvglowworld
*bumpenvglowworldalt
*bumpenvparallaxglowworld
*bumpenvparallaxglowworldalt
*bumpenvparallaxworld
*bumpenvparallaxworldalt
*bumpenvparallaxpulseglowworld
*bumpenvparallaxpulseglowworldalt
*bumpenvpulseglowworld
*bumpenvpulseglowworldalt
*bumpenvspecmapglowworld
*bumpenvspecmapparallaxglowworld
*bumpenvspecmapparallaxpulseglowworld
*bumpenvspecmapparallaxworld
*bumpenvspecmappulseglowworld
*bumpenvspecmapworld
*bumpenvspecglowworld
*bumpenvspecparallaxglowworld
*bumpenvspecparallaxpulseglowworld
*bumpenvspecparallaxworld
*bumpenvspecpulseglowworld
*bumpenvspecworld
*bumpenvworld
*bumpenvworldalt
*bumpglowworld
*bumpparallaxworld
*bumpparallaxflowworld
*bumpparallaxpulseglowworld
*bumppulseglowworld
*bumpspecworld
*bumpspecglowworld
*bumpspecmapglowworld
*bumpspecmapparallaxglowworld
*bumpspecmapparallaxpulseglowworld
*bumpspecmapparallaxworld
*bumpspecmappulseglowworld
*bumpspecparallaxpulseglowworld
*bumpspecparallaxglowworld
*bumpspecparallaxworld
*bumpspecpulseglowworld
*bumpworld
*colorworld
*decalworld
*envworld
*envworldfast
*glowworld
*pulseworld
*pulseglowworld
*stdworld

if they have any attributes to set, use /setpixelparam and /setvertexparam to do it, the syntax is set*param (ID) (val1) (val2) (val3) (val4)

All the bump variations have the same vertex and pixel params, just the majority goes unused.

====Shader params====

* bump*world
** The available params for the bump*world shader differs as they're all created with a bumpshader alias.
*** pixelparam 0 affects the glowmap colour, pixelparam 5 and vertexparam 4 the pulse colour frequency respectively
*** pixelparam 1 affects the brightness of the specularity map
*** pixelparam 2 affects the strength of the depth map
*** pixelparam 3 affects the strength of a loaded envmap, higher RGB values means it'll show less of the texture and more of the reflection. it'll also effect normal reflections with a texture e supplement
* colorworld
** Very simple Shader to modify the diffuse texture's RGB values. pixelparam 0 is the colour controller
* envworld
** pixelparam 0 sets the strength of the reflection
* pulseworld
** vertexparam 0 sets the flickering frequency
* pulseglowworld
** vertexparam 0 Affects the initial glow of the glowmap
** vertexparam 1 sets the flicker frequency (how many times a second)
** vertexparam 2 after the full pulse takes effect, this'll be the RGB of the glowmap

==Specifying Shaders==

==Overwriting the menu==

==Setting special binds==

==Base messages==

==Split map file==
You can split the map file in many files. But in the main file you must set the paths to the files.
For example:
The main file is in this example test.cfg and map is test.ogz

test.cfg:
exec packages/base/test-menu.cfg
exec packages/base/test-model.cfg
exec packages/base/test-code.cfg

It´s only example you can choose names that you want.

=See Also=

*[[Cubescript]]
*[[Mapmodels]]
*[[Glowmaps]]