AgeCreate
From Alcugs
Note: Anything extracted from any Plasma Resource Files is property of Cyan Worlds, Inc. You may not use these assets without recieving written permission from Cyan Worlds, Inc.
Please read this Notice from Cyan about Age Creation before continuing.
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Contents |
kortee'nea
Yes, you need a blank book to start writing. In order to create that book, we need to follow a really complex system.
Creating a new blank book is as simple as:
- Select the scripts window
- Select the sub menu "Add" -> "PyPRP..." -> "Create a New Book"
If you cannot see the "PyPRP..." option be sure that you have updated your Python menus.
Q: But, where is my new blank book?
Your new book has been created into layer 3, so select layer 3, that we are going to study the properties of this book.
You should be able to see a big box called "xBook", and several small boxes called "xPage-n". The big box is your book, and each small box is a page. Yes, I know how a book looks and that these boxes are far away from being a book.
Now select the big box "xBook", and then select the "logic" button from the "buttons" panel. You will see a list of properties.
Start Date Time
The default value it's 0, on some ages it's a big integer value with the age's startup Date. (I think).
Day Length
The default value it's 24.
Max Capacity
This value sets the maximum number of players that can visit a instance of your age at the same time. This is only a server side option, completely ignored by the client.
Linger Time
Set's the time that the server instance will continue running when the last player linked out. This is only a server side option, completely ignored by the client.
Sequence Prefix
This is the most important setting that you must set in your age!!. By default it's 100. It's an unique identification for that age.
It is very important to avoid collisions with this number, if two ages have the same Sequence Prefix, Uru will crash.
Please see the List of Sequence Prefixes, and pick up one not used by any existing age.
Pages
Inside the big box, you will see 3 small boxes, one for each page. Go to the Logic panel of a page and check the properties.
You will see 3 pages, BuiltIn, Textures and mainRoom. I suggest not modifying BuiltIn or Textures. You can safely rename mainRoom.
page
This is the page number. Each page must have an unique number.
name
This is the page name, and as a rule avoid name collision. If not the exporter will complain.
hide
Sets the hidden page flag.
type
Sets the page type.
In order to create a new page. Select the page 0, and clone it. Then change the name and the page number.
Adding stuff
Now go to layer 1 and add some objects, I suggest creating a big plane that will be the ground, and then add some walls if you want a safe age.
By default everything will be stored into page number 0. Named "mainRoom" if you have not renamed it. If you want to change where the objects are stored, you will need to add the String property "page_num" to all desired objects with the desired page number.
Enabling Collision
All objects (meshes) that you have added will have by default no-collision information.
You need to add the String property "col_type" with the value 4 in order to enable collision on that specific Mesh. On another tutorial we will discuss more in detail the different colliders, and it's properties.
Adding the Spawn Point
This step is important, at least your age must have one spawn point, you can add as many as you want, but at least add one.
You will find the spawn point option under the python add menu. "Add"->"Uru PRP..."->"Create a New SpawnPoint"
The spawnpoint will be created under layer 2. Remember that in blender you can select at the same time several layers. The created point determines the startup orientation and position of your avatar. Be sure that the spawn point is placed over and object with collision.
Now, your age should look like this:
Facing the right Direction on arrival:
Once you have created your spawn point, you may wish to arrive in your age facing a particular direction. In order to change which way the avatar faces when you arrive in your age, you need to select the spawn point and then change your Belnder window to the LOCAL transformation and then rotate the spawn point so that the (green) Y-axis is facing the OPPOSITE direction that you wish to face when you arrive in your age.
Exporting your age
Exporting the age is as simple as selecting the option "Export"->"PyPRP..."->"All as full age (.age)". Then you need to type the age name plus the extension age, for example: "test.age". Depending of the complexity of the age it will take more or less time. (Also, it will take more time if compression of vertices or textures is enabled)
Please remember, this is the simplest age that we have created. There are no textures, no light, nothing. In the next tutorials we will learn how to add more things to our age.
The final result is this simple age:
Other Export Options
Generate *: These options will enable texture compression when exporting the age/PRP.
All as full age (.age): This option will export all pages, and will generate the age file. You must provide a valid age filename ended with the extension ".age".
All as full age, per-page textures (.age): This option is the same as "All as full age", except that it places each page's textures inside the page's PRP, instead of the age name_District_Textures.PRP file.
All as single PRP (.prp): In order to work you must always first export as a full age, then you can export Single PRP pages. You need to select always an existing PRP file, exported by the previous option. This export method will export only the selected page, it will update the textures page, and it will update the age file. This is useful, if your example you have a lot of things in your age, and you are separating them into different pages to reduce the export time. For example, if you modify an object in page 0, you will need to export only that page and not all the pages.
All as single PRP, per-page textures (.PRP): This option is the same as "All as single PRP", except that it places the page's textures inside the page's PRP, instead of the age name_District_Textures.PRP file.
Selection as ****: I think that I'm going to remove this option, because in order to work the entire Book must be inside the selection, and all the items that you want to export. You are going to have only problems and errors using these two options.
Detailed Walkthrough
Below are instructions on how to export an age and explore it in Uru.
This walkthrough tries not to make any assumptions about the user's abilities by providing as many details as possible, in order to make age creation more accessible to the public.
Downloading A Starter Age
If you do not want to create your own age, you can download an existing "starter" age so that you can quickly export and explore an age.
1. Get the Blender file for the tutorial age.
- Right click on this link here and choose "Save Target As..."
- In the file browser, click on "My Desktop" and click OK. This will save the file tutorial01.zip to your desktop.
- Double-click the zip file to open it. A window should open showing you the contents of the zip file - which is just one file: tutorial01.blend. Drag this file onto your desktop, then close the Windows Explorer window.
You can download the tutorial blend file from here
2. Load the age into Blender.
- Double-click the file tutorial01.blend on your desktop. Blender should start up, and after a pause, you'll see the age.
Exporting Your Age
Here's how to export your age into the file format required by Uru: Complete Chronicles.
1. Click on the File menu, then click on Export (which brings up a submenu), then click on PyPRP from the submenu.
2. A popup menu appears named "Export: PyPRP". Click on "All as full age (.age)" in the popup menu.
3. The bottom portion of the Blender screen should now show a directory listing of your desktop. You need to navigate to your Uru dat folder.
- Click on the '..' until you reach the 'C:\' directory.
- Then click on "Program Files"
- Then click on "Ubi Soft"
- Then click on "Cyan Worlds"
- Then click on "Uru - Complete Chronicles"
- Then click on "dat"
4. You need to specify the name of the age file. Select the text in the Blender file browser that says "tutorial01.blend" and change it to say "tutorial01.age".
5. Click the button that says "Export .age"
6. After a short pause, the file browser will disappear. If you switch to the Blender output window (which resembles a DOS command shell), you'll see the output of the export, which would look something like this:
Exporting C:\Program Files\Ubi Soft\Cyan Worlds\Uru - Complete Chronicles\dat\tutorial01.age ... Args are e_age ['e', 'age'] Exporting age tutorial01 ######################################### ## ## => Exporting page Textures -1 <= ## ######################################### ######################################### ## ## => Exporting page BuiltIn -2 <= ## ######################################### ######################################### ## ## => Exporting page mainRoom 0 <= ## ######################################### [Lamp Lamp] [Lamp Lamp.001] [Camera Camera] Camera Brain: fixed Exporting Camera Modifier Object Calculating FOV for lens is 35 mm Exporting CameraBrain1 Exporting CameraBrain1_Fixed WARNING: Camera has NO regions associated [SpawnPoint LinkInPointDefault] [Visual Object Plane] Drawable object has 4 vertices [Visual Object Tube] Drawable object has 1376 vertices @ Saving page BuiltIn -2 @ Saving page Textures -1 @ Saving page mainRoom 0 => Storing 1380 vertices of geometry... \/ Unloading page BuiltIn -2 \/ Unloading page Textures -1 \/ Unloading page mainRoom 0 Writing tutorial01.fni Writing tutorial01.xml Writing tutorial01.sum done in 0.36 seconds
7. From the File menu, choose Quit to exit Blender.
Exploring Your Age
To register your age so that you can explore it in Uru: Complete Chronicles, click here for instructions.
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