The official "wouldn't it be nice" thread

[PAN-Kaiser]

Hey guys, I hope you all are having fun with the tools. This is the official wish list thread. We tried our best in our limited time to get you guys all the files you need, and make things as easy as possible for you, but certainly there are some areas that can be improved. Post any requests you guys would have for a follow-up release of the tools. Any files that we neglected to package up (please be SURE they are missing before you post, I'm pretty sure we got most everything) or any MINOR changes that could be made to the editor, or to the munge tool that would make your lives easier.

Keep in mind, we have very little man-power to devote to this from here on out, and anything that we do get to, is going to be pretty much under the radar, so things like "an odf editor would be great!" isn't gonna fly. Small, quick things that can make something easier for you that we can reasonably do, we will consider, and do our best to make things better for you.

Please DO NOT post questions like "How does the munge tool work" here. Ask questions in other threads, and if there is something missing, then post a request here.

Oh and, drumroll please........there will be an exporter for XSI mod tools. It's possible it may be released soon seperately, but it may have to wait until the next mod tools release. That's all. Thanks guys, and have fun with the tools!

--

Sean Soucy
Lead Level Designer - Battlefront Team
Pandemic Studios LLC

[Teancum]

Wouldn't it be nice if there was a BF1 source folder importer? I mean, I have my map in-game, and I can see the terrain through Free Cam, but it crashes during a spawn.

[PAN-Kaiser]

That is exactly the kind of thing that there's no way we'll have the time to get around to. But I agree, that would be nice.

Converting BF1 maps. I'll see about writing a tutorial on that though.

[Teancum]

Is the old terrain format obsolete?

[DFYX]

- Something simple: more pictures in the docs and maybe they could be a little more tutorial-like (at least the ones I read so far)
- Resizable zeroeditor. I have a 19" screen set to 1600x1200, but the editor windows seems to be about 1024x768 and I can't resize it.
- Nice and small lua editor with syntax higlighting and intellisense

[Darthlarrious]

- making it possible to create maps without having the 4 default CP's magically apear after the munge -- EDIT: thanks, it now works
- that little Particle Editor's "new" function on the toolbar dosen't work, it just opens up an already existing file, it'd be nice to have some new particle systems
- give yourselves a pat on the back, kick back (or don't) and enjoy the mods

Metal On

Darthlarrious

[PAN-Kaiser]

- Something simple: more pictures in the docs and maybe they could be a little more tutorial-like (at least the ones I read so far)

I can probably take another swipe at some of the docs, and picture-ize them a bit more. Due to time contraints, some of the docs are straight from the original BF1 release, but they are still pretty accurate. I could maybe polish those up a bit.

- Resizable zeroeditor. I have a 19" screen set to 1600x1200, but the editor windows seems to be about 1024x768 and I can't resize it.

As for resolution. Create a shortcut to zero, and add the line "/resolution 1600 1200" without the quotes.

- Nice and small lua editor with syntax higlighting and intellisense

We used UltraEdit on battlefront 2, and I know there are other editors out there (EditPad for one) that can edit lua, and have syntax highlighters available.

--

Sean Soucy
Lead Level Designer - Battlefront Team
Pandemic Studios LLC

[PAN-Kaiser]

- making it possible to create maps without having the 4 default CP's magically apear after the munge

It is possible to delete the default CPs. Just open the map in Zero, select the conquest layer, and delete the CPs. Otherwise, you can just delete the conquest layer files, and remove the references to them in your .req file, and your .ldx file.

--

Sean Soucy
Lead Level Designer - Battlefront Team
Pandemic Studios LLC

[Rends]

It would be so cool if we could have a working animation tutorial (simple anim created in XSI->correct export->import to the map)

[Teancum]

It would be nice to have a heightmap import option in ZeroEdit. I think I have a bad terrain file (in BF1 units would occasionally fall through according to SPTest) so I need to export my heightmap (easy) then re-import to Zero. I'll have to repaint it, but at least it would all be there.

[TheTao]

It would be nice if I wasn't such a mod-tool-noob so I could understand these tools... O__o Anyway, I can tell you've done a great job with these, PAN.

It would be really nice to have a more concise set of tutorials... an illustrated walkthrough would be awesome.

[minilogoguy18]

yes PAN, we need a good aniguide with like detailed hierchy arrangement and such, i always get the animations to munge but all the bones get centered at 0,0,0 >='(

[PAN-Kaiser]

I think you actually can use height maps, but I have to research that.

As for animations, have you guys checked out the animation_guide, and art_guide docs? I'm a designer, so pardon my lack of knowledge on the animation stuff. If you can't find what you need in those docs, I'll see if I can get our animator to write something up. You guys are looking for character related stuff, or animated word object stuff?

--

Sean Soucy
Lead Level Designer - Battlefront Team
Pandemic Studios LLC

[Lord-Bandu]

both animations would be great . Theres plenty of people who'll want to make new jedi etc ... whilst for me ..just having new animated doorways , spinning radars etc etc would be sweet.

BTW youv done a great job on the tools .

[minilogoguy18]

yeah saturn V was the ONLY person to get custom animations in SWBF and ive been trying for so long now, the aniguide though is the same as the old one =/

[squipple]

Yes, great job on the tools and the docs. I'd always like to see more tutorial docs from the devs. Adding water, foliage, changing skies, etc

When you open a .wld file in zeroedit, the camera's always at 0,0,0. It would be nice if the view camera remembered it's position at last save.

Some things I found in the 'Getting Started.doc': P13,para2, I think "cp2_control" is supposed to be "cp5_control", but I'm not sure, because this region box is never integrated later in the tutorial. Right now I'm having problems getting a vehicle spawn point to work on my ABC map and I don't know if it's because of that cp5_control region or if it's something else.
On the same page there's a "(insert pic)" that I'm guessing should be a pic.

[Slayer_Hunter_J]

I want a way to rotate objects (or is there a way already?).

[squipple]

Yes, look in the ZeroEditor_guide.doc

[Slayer_Hunter_J]

Where, i cant find it?

[Teancum]

Use the three mouse buttons plus one of the following keys to manipulate objects:

C - Move X/Y/Z
X - Rotate P/Y/R
Z - Scale X/Y/Z