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Forum > Tutorials
[TUTORIAL] Worldbuilding Basics
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Eluo:
INTRODUCTION
Welcome!
Hi,
this guide is about the worldbuilding basics. Here you are gonna learn how to build up a COMPLETE new and custom area out of nothing by your self.
As not every tutorial is in this thread here, be sure to check after every tutorial the overview again, so that you don't miss any of them!
And here a little overview what i will teach you:
* Basic Modding Information
* Packing MPQs
* Create a new Instance or Continent
* Set up your new Continent on your Server
* Everything that you need to know about noggit
* Texturing and Ground Moddelling
* placeholder
* Spawn doodads with noggit
* Spawning Doodads with Taliis(Advanced, outdated)
* Spawn Doodads with Cryect's Tools(Advanced, outdated)
* Doodad placing
* Ground Effects
* Area Name & Background music
* Custom Tilesets
* Add Skyboxes(new update soon!)
Downloads
Every single tool used in these guides can be found in the Resources and Tools section.
To find a single tool.use either the search function or the overview thread in the resources section,where every tool should be listed by their function.
Link:
http://modcraft.io/viewtopic.php?f=59
Eluo:
First of:
Recently a new tool was made public by cromon which does aaaaaaaaaaalll that stuff wich is explained in this tutorial ._. you can see cromons post here: Click click!
A reason not to use it is that you will get a basic understanding here how everything works, and the knowledge presented here may help you in further occasions to work with wow files.
New instance and a new continent
For making a new instance and a new continent you'll need to make a new .wdt ,new adts and some dbc edting.
First of the List of tools which you will need:
-Taliis
-a mpq editor of your choice(Example: Ladiks MPQ editor)
-adt adder
(click on the names to get to the download page)
We first start with the creation of the wdt file.
Open up taliis and go on File->new
A window pops up and asks you which file you want to create. We choose wdt.
As we appoved that, another window pops up,where taliis wants us to enter the name of the new instance. Think of something awsome and how you maybe want to anme your project and type that in.
Now after we confirmed the name , taliis jumps back to the normal view but see! it opened our new wdt.
Click now in the navigation on "ADT Array".
As you will see, the adt array opens up and shows us as foreseen the adt array :P
You can try out to click some where on that pattern. A little tick will appear.
Every tick in that pattern symbolizes a single adt. Now try to imagine how many adt you will need for your project and add about 30% to have enough space for your work.
Now search a place ,like something in the middle of the adt array and make as many ticks as many adts you want to have. Try to make sth like a square ,then its not gonna be that difficult to create the new adts.
I checked way too much but thats okay. Then i have enough space to work on.
For now ,we can save our wdt file.
In the saving window just enter the same name you gave taliis and add the filetype ending .wdt to that name.
Press "save" to save your wdt file. Dont close taliis yet!
========= Part 1/3 finished
Now we need one new adt.
Again we go to File ->new.
But this time we choose adt^^.
In the upcoming window taliis asks us how we want to name our adt.
Simply enter the same name as the one of the wdt. You can leave the adt coordinates as they are, because we dont need them right now.
In the lower section of this window,theres a drop down menue where you can choose your client version. Right now every adt version works in every client version BUT choose the adt version of your actual client just to be sure,that everything works fine with noggit and your wow client.
As we confirmed our settings,taliis jumps back to normal view and shows us our adt.
In the navigation, we now need to go to Texture files.
Why that?
The adt we created has no texture files ,which means that you have no texture for your ground. And as noggit (just like any other 3d program) can't render something that isn't there, it will crash(just like wow^^). So we need to set a gorund texture so that we can work with our adt.
For now just copy following path:
--- Code: ---tilesetelwynnelwynngrassbase.blp
--- End code ---
And paste it in the white command field.
When you press the Green plus beside the command field, the texture is added to the adt file.
(the display of that is atm a little bit buggy...just reload the texture files by clicking in the navigation on another work field e.g. Heightmap and then switch back to Texture Files,the new rows should now be there!)
The adt is now finished and we can save it.
Again just like with the wdt,enter the same name and set the filetype ending behind it(.adt)
Now to the mass adt creation,because right now we just got only one adt, but will need many more.
Open up adt adder.exe
Now you browse your adt you just created with taliis.
Enter in Map Name your MAP name.
Below that, you are asked to give the upper left adt and the lower right adt.
Why and how?
This pic should explain nearly everything:
With those two coordinates , a simple quadratic form can be made. And this program creates a quadratic form of adts with those coordinates. So just go back to taliis where your wdt file should still be there and search for your coordinates.
As you know an adt file name is build up like this:
mapname_xcoords_ycoords.adt
In taliis you can read out the coordinates simply like that:
So Now just do that with your quadrate
So now i know that my adt name is:
Left upper corner "my awsome instance name_29_27.adt"
Right lower corner "my awsome instance name_37_35.adt"
Back to Adt adder.
Now that we know our adt names and their coordinates, we just enter the coordinates into the fields.
ADT from: xcoords ycoords (left upper corner)
ADT to: xcoords ycoords (right lower corner)
After that, we start the creation and wait some secs until its done.
Now there should be all the created adts in your ADTadder folder.
Now like that they won't show up in Noggit or InGame.
You need to fixx them a little bit...for taht ,just copy the offsetfixx.exe and the cygwin1.dll into the folder where the adts are located. Now create a new Textdocument where you paste this in:
--- Code: ---@echo off
for %%i in (*.adt) do OffsetFix.exe "%%i"
pause
--- End code ---
After saving that, dele the fileending .txt and replace it with .bat
and then just use it^^
The fixing is done.
========= Part 2/3 finished
Now to the dbc part.
We open up your favourite MPQ editor, and open up locale.MPQ and extract the Map.dbc from the DBFilesClient folder.
NOTE: To asure that it will work, use the newest map.dbc. You can find that one in the patch-enUS-x.MPQ. Choose again the mpq with the highest value for x.Just use the locale.MPQ if there are no patch-enUS-x.MPQ files.
Open that dbc with taliis and switch to the first table menu in the navigation.
Now select any row,right click and copy it.
Now scroll down and see: The new row is there but still with the values of the original row.
We will need to change that but first,switch to "strings" in the navigation.
Now enter in the white command prompt your map name,and press the green plus on the left side of it.
Now scroll all the way down again. There should be a new entry with the name of your map.
On the left side of this name , there is a number which you should keep in mind.
Switch back to the first table menu.
Scroll again down to your entry you made before.
Now look at all the values which are in you row.You should be able to cognize which number in which column approximately stands for sth.
You can do that by looking at the other rows.
Well but here for those who don't know what to change:
Column #0 is the id of your map. As we copied a exsisting row, it still has its number. In my example its 1 which is from Kalimdor.
I now look to the upper row and look which number it has,and add 1 to it.
Now in column #1 there is the name of the old map. We now click on it, now the name disappears and it shows us a number. This is the string offset... you now need to remember or look up your added string id and enter it there.
Switch to column #7 and replace the number there with your sting id of your map.
Now there should be your map name in those two columns.
Leave the rest as it was. If you want more to know about this dbc and which column means what visit this site.
Now save the dbc and close taliis.
For your Server
If you want to be able to teleport on your server on this map, you will need to add an entry on you database of your sever.
Take your favourite MySQL tool ,connect to your server and open the Worldmap_info(Aspire).
Again as in the dbc,duplicate any row and change the values of the duplicated row.
The first two numberes are again your map ID which are the same number as the id in the map.dbc.
In the Area_Name column you change the name of the old map name into your new map name.
OR when you don't have aspire, just browse the dbc folder of your server and replace the Map.dbc with the one you just edited for your client. The structure and the content are the same for those dbcs.
And then : restart your server.
If you use Trinity you have to add a row in the MapDifficulty.dbc add this to your server and the client patch.
For the Client
Pack your new DBC,wdt and adts into a patch and now you should be able to port your self in the new instance.
At this point noggit won't show up your new instance because you will have to put the Files also in the wow folder and not in the patch beacuse noggit sets the priority of the dbc files to those who are extraced into your wow folder.
Now just take the adts and the wdt files and put them in to the wow folder like this:
For adts and wdt files:
wowfolderworldmapsyour awsome instance name
(Be sure that the folder of your adts has the EXACT name as you entered it into the dbc)
And move the .dbc files into this folder:
wowfolderDBFilesclient
Well just the same folder sturcture as in the mpq file :)
If you still have problems with packing the files into a patch, look at jacks tutorial, where he explains the basics of MPQ files. Link: viewtopic.php?f=26&t=41
Forget MPQs: don't pack anymore(advanced)
A better way to do all this is to just use local files and only pack a MPQ if you want to distribute the files for your server or for other people. This way you don't have to do much with your files after you are done with noggit.
Basicly just follow this here: viewtopic.php?f=26&t=1828
And your wow Client should be able to load the files without using a MPQ file.
Traveling to your Map
Now if you want to find out the coordinates for your new instance,just open noggit and select your map.
Now follow this tutorial: viewtopic.php?f=22&t=255&p=1258#p1263
or just press 'G' on your Keyboard to get the coordinates extracted into the ports.txt file, which is located in the noggit folder. Therein you should then find the teleport commands for your location for Trinity and ArcEmu!
Now teleport your self ingame to your new instance!
FAQ:
Q: "My ground looks greyish and not how it should be ,in noggit."
A: Just save the adt one time and reload it with noggit.
Q: "How do i get the coods without noggit?"
A: Hum take a look at this:
[spoiler:22lx35a8][/spoiler:22lx35a8]
Eluo:
How to Texture and ground modelling(landscape design)
After we created a new plane with just nothing, we're gonna start making something out of it.
Before we add trees and all the other stuff, we're gonna give the landscape a characteristic look.
This time we just gonna work with noggit.
Please read this wiki article about noggit first,so that you get some basic knowledge about it.
So start noggit,choose our instance and klick somewhere in the middle of our plane.
Maybe you got an idea what your first area could look like...to get some ideas browse the internet for some concept arts. You soon will see a pic ,of sth. you really want to have in wow.
You should first plan your area.
How you can do that is described here:
concept art tut link
First off, like we learned from the conecpt art tutorials ,we sketeched our area with diffrent colours and descriptions.
Here you can see my raw map presketched in noggit:
Sketch
The areas are seperated in three sectors:
The mountains
The hills
The gorund
The Tilesets
The first thing we do after we made the sketch: We choose the tilesets.
I'm looking for some greyish -green textures which fit into a fjord scene where a Vampire Lord has its own residence.
The tilesets i first thought of, which could fit very good in that theme are the textures from the grizzlyhills, an area in northrend.
The Sketch
First we start to create a raw sketch , what size and wheat we will find on our island.
My island will be around 4 Adts big.
Then i start to delete the old textures which are sourrounding the island and replace them with the new ones.
I also start to presketch the ground with the Raising tool. I leave the rest flatterd which represents the ocean,because i will only later add the ocean, when the groundmodeeling and texturing is finished.
After that i start to flatter the ground and getting the Island in a more smoothed shape.
I also deleted the whole left textures and replaced them with the new base texture.
The mountains
In my example, the mountains are mostly the cliffs. I'm first coating the raised sides of the island with the dirt texture.
Don't forget to save your adts!!
Now How do we draw mountains or small hills?
Well there are maaaany styles you can do.
The easiest and fastest one is the "blop" style^^
You first start drawing a small circle with the brush setting:
Hardness 20-40
Radius 3-5 (i mostly take 4.9 because with that the 3d texture works still perfekt)
Pressure 10-15
Well after that its pretty easy. Just raise the area where you made the circle with the linear raising brush. The most important hting with that style is just: Change the size of your cirles variate them as much as you can. With that you can easily get a "good" looking mountain style.
Here is a video where you see that in detail:
[youtube:lhsbfn3x]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0H7U6s15BJI[/youtube:lhsbfn3x]
Conitune doing this all arround the island... this will take you some time but don't give up yet!^^
With some practice you will get better and faster.
The Ground
Now i start to change the ground.
I'm seperating the whole "ground" area into two parts:
-The edge of the forest on the side to the sea
-The forest itself
For both of them i will take diffrent Tilesets. Why? Because it looks much better.
The light dirty grass texture in the forest is optional.
I did use it ,because i only wanted a small little path to the castle instead of a big paved street.
Now just raise again the lightern parts and lower the dirty and darker parts. Not much...just a little bit.
Why? We never ever have anywhere a flat plane. Nor in World of Warcraft neither in reallife,because nothing is perfekt, and thats good like that.
If you got that last step behind you,you're finished with the groundmodelling!
PS: You can also make some hills in the middle of the forest, or on a wide field. Rocks and Cliffs are always good to create a diffrent feeling of size.
FAQ:
Q:"Hey i can't add another texture!"
A: That maybe because you already have four textures on your chunk.
Q:"How can i create a unique mountain style?"
A: Look at some photos or concept arts and try to imagine how you can create them with noggit.
You can also combine the ground with models! Give them the same texture as the rock tileset
you used.
PS:
I DON'T! want to tell you to texture like this always, thats what i started with and what i am currently using very often but if yo're creative and try new styles of texturing it makes even more fun.
Eluo:
Here will be soon a tutorial which explains the diffrent strategies of how you can spawn doodads and wmos in Noggit.
Eluo:
Doodad Placing
Note: This tutorial will not teach you how to spawn models on an adt file.
For this tutorial i invited a friend to help me with it as he is know for his ridicilously detailed "lego" building style:
Bullshitmaster. (Watch some of his videos here: Youtube
If you want to make your own world builds truely "blizzlike", you should hold the richness of detail in high regard. It's bullshit to say, a world build is done. I've been working on my Deadwind Keep for three years now and there are still spots where a model would be fitting.
Basicly you can divvy the doodad placing process into three main parts:
* Basic doodads (Deadwind Keep example: bookshelves, tables, chairs)
* Details (Deadwind Keep example: candles, books)
* Critter (Deadwind Keep example: bats)
1) You should start with the basic models. If you already have a clue of what kind of models you want to spawn, it's recommendable to open the listfile and search the treepaths of different objects. You can compare them in the Wowmodelviewer.
Note: Be creative. Feel free to divert models from their intended use. Changing the model-texture offers you lots of new usable doodads. The gate to ahn'qiraj is the top of my highest Deadwind Keep tower.
Note²: The models should fit to the brushing as well. It looks more realistic when there is a bit dirt below a tree.
2) When the bigger models are placed roughly, you should start with the smaller ones.
According to the style of your area, there are several useful doodads in worldgeneric. I think, the best way is to look though the whole list and note the treepath of useable models.
Don't be too frugal when you define the amount of a certain model. You can't spawn too much grass or bush models in a meadow. If you really can't use these models just let them "disappear" under the ground.
Amateurs often tend to spawning models in a too large scale. At the lastest ingame it looks just weird if there's a skeleton which is 5 times as big as an ordinary human (apart from the blurred texture.). In most cases something about 1000 is just ok. However, don't make the mistake of spawning every tree of a forest in exact the same height and angle.
Note: Another tip is to make several "modelgroups". Don't just allocate the trees steady-going all around the forest, but make a crowd of them with bushes around.
3) Critter (WorldCritter) can really help you to lety our area appear to be living. In almost every outdoor-area birds are fitting and in every lake fishes.
Note: It's hard to select them in NoggIt. I usually replace these models with an errorcube (just create the treepath with folders, MPQs are not required).
I hope, this little tutorial could help you to make your world builds look more professional.
I'm looking forward to seeing your results.
Tutorial written by bsm
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