The 3D close-up
Press 3D in the middle of the top bar to look at the level from just behind the player start, the way the player faces. Or select anything and press View and place in 3D in its panel (or V, or right-click it) to look at that. The map gives way to a 3D close-up of the spot, drawn from the game's own models and textures: the ground with your shaping, the buildings, walls, fences, props and vehicles, the guards and the player as their characters holding their weapons, pickups as their models, cameras with their view cones.
The level's things look as the game draws them. Yours are tinted gold, and the one being edited is outlined.
The bar
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Range | How far round the item things are gathered, 10 to 60 m (60 to start). The ground reaches further and fades into the haze |
| Around | Circles round the item |
| Top (T) | Looks straight down |
| Eye level | Stands at a person's height |
| Walk (G) | Walks on the floor, see below |
| Camera view | For a camera: looks through its own lens |
| Cut | Cuts everything above a height, to see into rooms |
| X-ray | Makes other buildings see-through |
| Walkways | Shows the guards' walkway points and links, and a selected guard's patrol |
| Textures | Off shows plain colours |
| Done | Back to the map, as Map in the top bar is |
Looking and moving
The close-up drives like a shooter's free camera: the mouse is the view's.
- Move the mouse to look around; no button needed. A small cross marks the middle, and names what it is on.
- W A S D or the arrows fly where you look while held; Shift flies fast. Q and E go straight down and up. The camera eases in, and glides to a stop when you let go. The wheel gives it a push forward or back.
- Esc gives the mouse back (for the bar, or another window); a click in the view takes it again. Esc a second time goes back to the map.
- Walk: you land on the floor under you and walk at eye height, following floors, stairs, slopes and roofs. Walls, crates and fences stop you. Shift runs.
- Fly or walk anywhere: what is near you is gathered again every few metres, so you can cross the whole level from any item.
Moving things in 3D
Hold Alt to edit: the mouse becomes a pointer again, and letting go of Alt goes back to looking.
- Alt+click selects anything, to edit it or just to look at it.
- Alt+drag moves anything, whether it was selected or not: a floor item (a guard, a pickup, a crate, any prop) slides over floors, desk tops and the ground; a wall item (a camera, an alarm button, a siren, a light) slides along walls, facing out; a building slides over the ground.
- Shift+Alt+drag lifts it or lowers it, straight up and down. Alt+right-drag circles round it.
- R and Shift+R turn it 15° (Alt for 1°). Ctrl+arrows nudge it 5 cm (Shift for 50 cm).
- The readout says what it stands or hangs on, and how far above or into it.
- Placing: with something picked in the inventory, the mouse is a pointer: a ghost of it follows it over floors (or walls), and a click puts it there.
Every move is an ordinary change: undo, the change log and saving all work, and the map shows it too. A height you set in 3D is kept exactly when the mission is built. Whatever rests on something (a rifle on a crate, a crate on a crate) moves with it.
Test from here
While walking, Test from here builds the mission with the player starting where you stand, facing where you look, and starts the game. See Applying and playing.
Next: the AI designer.