Time to Train

The space home is setup but there is much training to do before it will be ready for more players.

Overview

This lesson will show how to design a combat training building. It will focus on using groups and templates to organize a large collection of items for easy modifications.

Create a New Group

Right click the Hierarchy and select New Group. Name it Combat Training. This will be main root object that contains all the children objects.

Add a Base Platform

Start by creating a base platform to visualize the size of the building.

1. Search for cube in the Core Content window.
2. Drag and drop the Cube object into the scene.
3. In the Hierarchy, place the Cube object as a child to Combat Training group.
4. Rename the Cube to Base Platform.
5. Resize to be a large platform.

Give Platform a Material

Open the Core Content window and search for asphalt. Drag and drop the Asphalt 01 material onto the Base Platform cube in the scene window.

Find Whitebox Meshes

Whitebox is the process of setting up geometry before adding any material. It is useful to quickly design an environment without having to worry about the visual details.

Open the Core Content window. Search for whitebox and it should bring up many different meshes.

Create a Floor

The building will need a floor on top of the platform. It will be made up of many floor tiles.

Add a Floor Tile

From Core Content, drag the Whitebox Floor 01 8m x 8m mesh into the scene. Place near one of the corners of the platform.

Make a Row of Tiles

Select the floor tile in the Hierarchy. Duplicate the object by pressing Ctrl + W. Move the duplicated floor tile to be side by side. Repeat the process until there’s a full row of floor tiles.

Make a Grid of Tiles

Select the entire row of floor tiles. This can be done in the Hierarchy by selecting the top tile, holding Shift, and the selecting the bottom tile. Duplicate the row by pressing Ctrl + W and move it to be side by side the other row. Repeat the process to have an entire grid of tiles.

Organize the Hierarchy

Select all the floor tiles in the Hierarchy and group them together using the Ctrl + G keyboard shortcut. Name the group Floor 01 and place it inside the Combat Training group.

Create Walls

In similar fashion to the floor, create walls surrounding the building. Make one side of walls and the duplicate it for the other three sides.

Here are useful objects to search for in Core Content:

• Whitebox Wall 01
• Whitebox Wall 01 Corner

Place all of the wall objects into a group named Walls 01 and add it as a child to the Combat Training group.

Create a Second Level of Walls

Duplicate the Walls 01 group and name the new group Walls 02. Move it to be above the first level of walls.

Make Some Openings

The players will need to enter the building somehow. Delete some walls from the Walls 01 group to make multiple entrances.

Add Doors

There is whitebox door template available in Core Content that has scripting to open and close the door based on player proximity.

Add the Door Template

From Core Content, drag the Whitebox Wall 01 – Door Basic Template into scene. Position and rotate it to fit inside the opening. Repeat this for every opening.

Group the Doors

Select all the doors in the Hierarchy and group them using Ctrl + G. Name the group Exterior Doors and add it as a child to the Combat Training group.

Add More Geometry

Fill in the building with more whitebox objects or basic shapes. Make sure to group the objects to keep the Hierarchy organized.

Apply Material

The whitebox phase of our combat training building is now complete. It is now time to add material to the geometry.

Wall Material

In the Hierarchy, search the phrase whitebox wall to filter for objects with the phrase in their name. Click in the Hierarchy and select all the objects matching the phrase by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + A. From Core Content, find the material Metal Steel Triangle 01 and drag it into the Hierarchy.

Floor Material

For the floor material, it would be cool to have a checkerboard pattern. To prepare to do this, toggle the visibility of the groups within the Combat Training group except for Floor 01. A group visibility can be toggled by clicking the eyeball button to the right of the group name.

Now move the scene camera to get a top down view of all the floor tiles. While holding down Ctrl, left click the tiles to start group selecting one color for the checkerboard pattern. Once all are selected, drag and drop the Basic Material from Core Content into the Hierarchy. The color of the material can be changed inside the Properties window.

Add Remaining Material

Continue to add material to the rest of the geometry. Feel free to change any material as desired.

Update Door Template

The doors were added as a template which allows for them to be updated simultaneously.

Deinstance a Door Template

Right click one of the Whitebox Wall 01 – Door Basic Template in the Hierarchy and select Deinstance Template. This will now make it freely editable.

Add Material

If you haven’t assigned material to the door, then select the Whitebox Door 01 child object inside the deinstanced door template. Drag a material from the Core Content window into the Properties window. The Base Material property is for the door body and the Detail 1 property is for the door knob.

Add a Sign

From Core Content, add a Cube and World Text object to the Geo_StaticContext group. Using the Properties window, change the Cube and World Text objects to create a sign notifying the player to enter.

Update the Template

Once the template is finished being edited, right click Whitebox Wall 01 – Door Basic Template and select Update Template From Object. This will update all other door template instances.

Summary

The Combat Training building is now ready to be used! Make sure the player can easily traverse the geometry and all the materials look good together.