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04 - Your First Island in Noggit

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Steff:
Introducing

In this part of the tutorial we will start to create something with noggit.
I made a pre textured island for you, where we will add water, model the ground, swap textures and add some models to make it look nice.

>> Run noggit and select the test01 map

MENU > Continent > "test01"

>> Click on the middle one of the orange squares.




--- Quote ---Orange squares are located in your project directory. The others are located in the MPQs. So if you have edited one ADT on an existing map like Azeroth, only the one you have saved get orange. This way you find your modded ADTs faster.
--- End quote ---

Now you should see something like this.



Noggit Interface Overview

On the left side you see the toolbar. It contains 6 tools to edit the map. From top left to bottom right you have:

* Raise/Lower - Modeling the ground height.
* Flatten/Blur - Flatten and blur the ground.
* 3D Paint - Modify textures.
* Holes - Open and close holes in the ground. Needed for cave or house basement entrances.
* AreaID painter - Set the Area ID flag on chunks. This is influencing different things like name display or map show upon pressing M.
* Impassible Flag - Make a chunk impassible for the player like an invisible wall.

At the bottom of the toolbar you see the current selected texture for painter and swapper. If you click on this the texture browser to load and select textures will open up.

On the top of the main window you have several menus to access many additional functions.
The bottom status line shows some information about your current position on the map.

Some tools also show an option window on the left top of the screen.

You should also have a look at the noggit user manual in our wiki. All functions of noggit are explained there.

<!-- l -->wiki/index.php5?title=Noggit_user_manual<!-- l -->

And you can always press H inside of noggit to get a list of common keyboard shortcuts.

Add Water

As we want to create an island we will need water on our map to really be able to model the ground right. Just to see if it's under or above water surface. I use scripts to add water to ADT's and have created one for you to add the water now. We will later focus on how to expand and setup this script.

>> Close noggit! Never access files from 2 applications. (See part 2 of this tutorial for reference)
>> Run the script in the following path.

F:WoWModdingProjectsTutorialProjectscriptsWater-test01.bat

The script calls the AllWaterWotlk.exe for all the ADT's on the map and set water with the height of 0.
The ground has the same height, so you get a funny overlay effect till we model the ground.




--- Quote ---Noggit doesn't save water at the moment. So you need to run this script every time you saved some ADT's and close noggit or else, you won´t have water in-game or even in noggit on said ADT's.
--- End quote ---

Modeling the Ground

Next we will model the ground to shape this flat plane into a "3D island" - meaning, we add heights and depths. You use the tools "Raise/Lower" and "Flatten/Blure" for this. The first one lets you change the height of the ground, while the second helps to smooth the ground. We can also create plane regions to place houses or just to model roads.


--- Quote ---You can also switch to the tools you need by pressing the number keys 1 through 6 (Numpad will not work!)
--- End quote ---

>> Select the Raise/Lower tool. It's the first icon on the left side in the toolbar decorated with the 4 stones or just press 1 on the keyboard.


--- Quote ---All tools in noggit are used in a combination of mouse move and click and some keys on your keyboard.
--- End quote ---

>> Hold down the SHIFT key, left click on the ground and move the mouse.

This will increase the ground height.

>> Hold down the CTRL key, left click on the ground and move the mouse.

This will lower the ground.

Also some tools have an option window. Here you can setup some stuff such as how the tool should act like.
These are the options for the Raise/Lower tool.



You can set 6 different editing modes for how the tool modifies the ground. Linear creates the smoothest result and is set as the standard option but try around with the different modes to get a feeling for how they work.


--- Quote ---The Z key will also let you switch between the different modes.
--- End quote ---

Next is the option for brush radius. It defines the size of your circle and the region the tool works on.
Next you have the speed that defines how fast the ground gets changed. For a rougher base modeling a fast speed is good. To work out details you should use slower speeds.


--- Quote ---You can also change the radius with a shortcut.
Hold down the ALT key, left mouse button and move the mouse.
--- End quote ---

Now do a basic shaping of the island with this tool. Lower the underwater parts so they are located under the water surface and raise the islands' ground and rock regions like this.




--- Quote ---You can set some view options in noggit over the view menu. Here you can also toggle on and off the rendering of different parts of the world like models or water.
--- End quote ---

>> Select Menu > View > F4 Water or press the F4 key.

Now you have parhaps some irregularities on the ground like me.



>> Select the Flatten/Blur tool. It's the second icon with the blue twister on it or press 2
>> Hold down SHIFT, left click on the ground and move the mouse over the bad areas.

This will take time to get an effect. So be patient. You should get a result like this.



Another nice view option to get control over your ground modeling is the height lines also called map contoure infos.

>> Select MENU > View >  Map contoure infos or press F9



Model now with different brush sizes and speeds to work out the rock details like you see in the previous image. Try to get round contoure lines. This will looks better ingame.

Now you will perhaps have height variations on parts of the ground that you may not want.
 


You can use the Flatten tool to get these parts plain again.

>> Select the Flatten/Blure tool
>> Place the cursor circle on a flat part near the problem region like on the above image.
>> Hold down CTRL and click with left mouse button.
>> Now slowly move the mouse in direction of the problems.

This should end in a result like this.



Now use what you have learned to model your full island and get familiar with the 2 tools and it's options.

Swapping Textures

Now perhaps you don't like the textures I used on this map. You can use the texture swapper to change them.
First you need to select the texture you want to change.

>> Turn on Texture mode. Select the Icon with the brush on or press number 3 on keyboard.
>> Hold down CTRL and click on the ground.

A window will open up that shows you the textures linked to the chunk you have clicked on.
This tool is called texture picker. You can now select one of the textures by clicking on it in this window.



>> Press the button Texture swapper in the option window of the paint tool.
 
The window will swap to another one. You are now in swapper mode.



>> Press the button set destination.

The swapper will now show your selected texture.

>> Click on the texture icon inside the toolbar to openup the texture browser.
>> Load some textures by pressing the Loadtextures button on the bottom and select some zones to load their textures.
>> Select the texture that you want to have.



>> Close the manager and load the window again.

>> Now press the swap adt button on the top of the swapper window.

The selected texture in the swapper will be replaced with the selected one from the toolbar on the ADT you are located on. You have to do this with all 9 ADTs now.

To see where an ADT ends and another start turn on the chunk lines view option.
>> Select MENU > View > F7 Lines or press F7

The red lines mark the border of the chunks, the green ones of the ADT.

>> Fly now to all ADTs and select the swap adt button in the swapper.

You can repeat this with the other textures. It's not easy to find fitting ones so don't give up too fast and play around. I swapped mine like this.



Add Models

Now the base shaping is done and the map looks like we want it to. Next we will add some models.

>> Start noggit and load the map.
>> Start the ModelViewer.


--- Quote ---You can start both apps at the same time because they use different WoW copies as their respective source. Noggit uses the Client335aNoggit folder and ModelViewer uses the Client335aTest folder.
--- End quote ---

>> Use the ModeViewer search function to find a model you want to add.



>> Switch to noggit.
>> Place the cursor where you want to add the model.
>> Press SHIFT + V to add a M2 or Press ALT + V to add a WMO.

Repeat this with different models. You only need to add them once. After this you can simply copy+paste them around.

>> Select a model you want to copy inside of noggit.
>> Press CTRL + C
>> Move the cursor to the location you want to add the copy.
>> Press CTRL + V

You should modify every model position,rotation and size a bit so that the player does not see that it's often the same model.

>> Select a model by clicking on it.
>> Hold down SHIFT, CTRL or ALT and use the left and the middle mouse button to change size, move or rotate it in different directions.
>> Press SHIFT + R to reset the model rotation.
>> Press PageDown to place the model on ground level.
>> Use the numpad keys to fine tune models values.



Now we are done with the first build. Lets get to next tutorial part to get this ingame.

This guide has been completely proof-read and corrected in grammar by Mountainlion. Feel free to message him.

05 - Create first MPQ patch and get ingame

nisshomaru:
Why can't I copy the model?

Steff:
Restart noggit. Sometimes selecting don´t work after save. Close and reopen.

Solarion:
I downloaded the latest noggit update and I dont have that test map.....How and where do I add it, and from where do I get it?

Steff:
What noggit update?

In the pack there is the latest noggit SDL 1.2 included!

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