What is a shell? 
Components of a shell Shell snaps within WorldEditorTutorial: Modelling a room as a shellTutorial: Creating portalsLabelling portalsShell planning - dividing up an internal spaceShell navigation constraintsTown planning - using portals to create cities and townsPortal creation: using materials on custom hullsPrevent sparkles and improve culling Creating an undercover areaOutside only Referencing the room and plug texture mapsExporting shellsExporting the plugs
What is a Shell? Shells are modularised objects built in a 3d application that are designed to snap together in WorldEditor.
Their main purpose is to exclude geometry (including the terrain) from being rendered by the game engine when the player is inside a room, thereby potentially increasing the frame rate performance.
Using shells will improve the performance of your game.
Shells also provide an efficient method for level building, since you can simply auto-snap them (middle click) together to create entire rooms, streets or corridors.
Shells don't have to be inorganic and square. The 3D geometry that defines the explorable space within the shell can be any shape you wish, providing it stays within the bounds of the shell’s custom hull (if a custom hull is used) or bounding box.
The diagram below illustrates one such implementation of shell design. The explorable space (white) can be any shape. The custom hull (red) must be convex.
The shells will automatically snap together in WorldEditor at the portals (blue). It is important that you make the explorable areas at the portal boundaries match each other, otherwise there will be an obvious transition between shells.
Shells also allow for a more customisable lighting environment than the outside world. For more information on lighting shells see the lesson Add Lights to the World.
Components of a shell Shells consist of up to three unique parts:
portals
custom hull (optional)
game geometry
PortalsPortals are basically windows into a shell – they tell the game engine when it can see into the next shell.
There are three types of portals, each allowing the engine to see in a different direction:
The type of material or texture
assigned to each portal is irrelevant. The textures assigned to
the portals are there for visual identification purposes only (they can be found in bigworld\doc\tools_tutorial_examples within the path helper_maps
Standard portals
Standard/inter-shell portals allow the direct connection of one shell to another, providing a two-way passage for the player to move through. When two shells are connected (or resolved), the inside of one shell can be seen when viewed from the other, and vice-versa.
In 3ds Max, the tag line "portal=true" must be added to the Properties dialog box under the Object Properties→User Defined tab for that portal. To add a Standard portal flag to
your portal geometry in Maya, use the BigWorld Shelf's Add Portal button
(
).
Exit portals
Exit portals allow a two-way passage from the inside of a shell to the outside terrain. When the player is inside the shell, the terrain (outside) will be visible to the player, and vice-versa.
In 3ds Max,the tag line "portal=true" followed by
"exit=true" on a new line must be added to the Properties dialog box under Object Properties→User Defined tab for that portal. To add an Exit flag to your portal geometry in Maya, use
the BigWorld shelf's Add Exit Portal button
(
).
Exit portals (green) must be used whenever there is an indoor-to-outdoor transition.
Heavenly portals
Heavenly portals are essentially one-way Exit portals. They allow all external objects to be rendered from the view of the internal shell. They do not allow the internal shell to be rendered when viewed from outside. Heavenly portals also have the unique feature that they let the sunlight in.
The tag line "portal=true" followed by "heaven=true"
on a new line must be added to the Properties dialog box under Object
Properties→User Defined tab for that portal. To add a Heavenly flag to
your portal geometry in Maya, use the BigWorld shelf's Add Heavenly
Portal button (
).
Portal Rules1 Portals must lie on the surface of a bounding box, or of the custom hull (if one is used).
2 Portals must be convex. They cannot be concave.
Portals must be convex
Custom Hull Hulls are a way of defining an artificial bounding box of a shell. The shell's bounding box or hull defines what objects lie within it, and is used to cull outside objects. Hulls are not a requirement of a shell – if a shell model is exported without a custom hull, then the model's bounding box is used.
Using custom hulls simplifies the work of making building shells. If you define a custom hull then it is very easy to ensure that your portal lies on its surface. If you use the object's bounding box, a single stray vertex on the shell could offset the bounding box, making it difficult to place the portal on the bounding box's surface.
Below are two instances where a hull would be useful.
In the example above, the shell's bounding box (red) cannot be used as the hull, because the blue portal would not be on the boundary of the shell. In this case a custom hull matching the surface of shell1 is required.
In the example above, the shell1's bounding box (red) defines the blue object
within Shell2 as belonging to Shell1. If a hull was
used (green line), then the blue object would clearly not belong to
Shell01.
Hulls must be convex geometry,
so the yellow line cannot be used as a hull boundary.
When exporting a shell with a portal that is not aligned to an axis (as in the example above) you may need to turn the exporter option Snap vertices to OFF.
The Snap vertices option will force a portal's vertices to snap to the nearest tenth of a millimeter. This is usually a desirable feature when creating portals that are aligned to an axis. However, when a portal is not axis-aligned it can cause the portal to be pulled off the surface of a hull or bounding box resulting in the following error.
If you get the following error, try turning Snap vertices to OFF. If the error persists, your portal is probably positioned incorrectly on the surface of your shell.
Custom Hull Rules1 Custom hulls must be convex. They cannot be concave.
2 Custom hulls are identified by the suffix "_hull", for example "insertname_hull"
Custom hulls must be convex.
Game GeometryThe geometry of the shell makes up the artistic content of the shell; its walls, floors, archways and pillars.
Just remember that if you haven't used a custom hull, altering the game geometry can affect the bounding box position, which may result in portals being lost because they no longer lie on the surface of the bounding box.
Game Geometry Rules1 The explorable space of the shell should lie within the bounds of the custom hull (if one is used). In the diagram below, the player P (red) in the right image would probably experience strange culling anomalies because he has moved outside the bounds of the custom hull (black).
Keep the explorable space within the custom hull.
Shell snaps within WorldEditorA shell's movement within World Editor is quantised to 0.01-metre translations and 0.1 degree rotations. Sometimes it can be useful to move set dressing items with the same snap restrictions as shells. In such cases you can use the preset snap setting Shell Snaps within World Editor. This will force any object you move to snap to 0.01-metre translations and 0.1 degree rotations.
Modelling a room as a shellAlthough the following tutorial was performed in 3ds Max, the same principles apply for those creating shells in Maya. If you are a Maya user, please take the time to read through the tutorial.
To model an example room, follow the steps below:
1 Open 3ds Max.
2 Load the example file room_shell.max from
the bigworld\doc\ools_tutorial_examples folder
The file can be found in tools_tutorial_examples\working_files\sets\shells\Room_shell.max.
3 Create a box at the origin in the perspective viewport, with the following size (in generic units):
125 length x 110 width x 40 height (in generic units).
Segments of 3 length x 3 width x 1 height.
4 Change to a user viewport to see the home grid in an isometric view.
Created box with its segments
5 Convert the box to an Editable Poly.
6 In 3dsMax, use the Move tool to translate it 27.5 units in the Y-axis.
Box after translation in 3ds Max
7 Create the first portal – a rectangle object will be used to represent the portals that the BigWorld engine uses to snap together different shells.
A In the front viewport, create a rectangular shape of 40x40 units using 3d grid snap.
B Apply an Extrude modifier to it, with a height value of 0.
A 40x40 rectangle |
B Extruded rectangle |
C Using the grid snaps, move the shape to the box position just beside the middle segments.
Moving the shape near the box, using grid snap |
D Select box's middle-left row of vertices.
A Select the box.
B Enter Sub-Object mode.
C Select the middle row of vertices on the left.
Middle-left row of vertices selected
E Set the reference coordinate system to Pivot Point centre.
F Align middle-left row of box vertices to shape.
A Using the Align tool, click on the shape.
Aligning the vertices to the shape's left edge
B In the Align Sub-Object Selection dialog box, select the X Position check box, and in the Target Object group box, select the Minimum option button.
Align Sub-Object Selection dialog box
C The vertices should move in the x-axis, to the left edge of the shape, as shown below in Top view.
Top view showing vertices aligned
G Align the middle-right row of box vertices to shape.
Follow the same procedures as in step F with the right row of vertices, so that they also lie on the grid, but this
time select the Maximum option button in Target Object group box.
Middle-right of vertices selected |
Top view showing vertices aligned, using the right side of shape as the target |
H Both rows of the middle vertices of the box should now lie on the home-grid.
Top view showing vertices aligned to the grid
8 Create second portal
A Exit Sub-Object mode of the box.
B Select the shape.
C While holding Shift, click the shape, to
make a new copy of it.
D Move and snap the copied shape to the adjacent side of the box, to absolute position [X: 60, Y: 40, Z: 20].
Shape copied and offset to absolute position
E Rotate the shape's orientation by 90 degrees in the z-axis using Angle snap.
Rotating shape by 90 degrees
F Select the box.
G Enter Sub-Object mode.
H Align the middle-left row of box vertices to shape.
A Select the middle-left row of vertices in line with the second shape.
B Align the box's vertices to the shape.
In the Align Sub-Object Selection dialog box, select the Y Position check box, and in the Target Object group box, select the Minimum option button.
C The vertices should move to the left edge of the shape.
|
|
|
A Middle-left row of vertices is selected |
B Align Sub-Object Selection dialog box |
C Vertices moved to left edge |
I Align the middle-right row of box vertices to shape.
A Select the middle-right row of vertices.
B Align the box's vertices to the shape.
In the Align Sub-Object Selection dialog box, select the Y Position check box, and in Target Object group box, select the Maximum option button.
C The vertices should move to the left edge of the shape.
|
|
|
A Middle-right row of vertices is selected |
B Align Sub-Object Selection dialog box |
C Vertices moved to left edge |
J From the top view, both rows of vertices should now lie on the grid in line with the second shape.
Top view showing vertices aligned to the grid
At this point the room only needs an entrance, some sockets, plugs, and portals.
The walls in this example have been
spaced a minimum of 0.5 metres away from the bounding box (outside edges) of the
shell – this is to allow room for doors to open inside walls, and prevent
zero-thickness walls in corners of shells.
Objects must be no larger than
100 metres (1,000 generic units) on any axis – this is the limit of object
size inside the BigWorld engine.
Creating ceiling height variationTo create a ceiling height variation for the room, follow the steps below:
1 Enter Poly Select mode.
2 On top of the box, select the six polygons opposite the second shape.
3 Using the Inset tool, scale the polygons inwards, to create additional edges inside the original selection.
4 Using the Extrude tool, slightly raise the height.
5 Using the Bevel tool, slightly scale the polygons up and out.
6 Using the Extrude tool, raise an edge on the rooftop, to complete the ceiling height variation.
7 You can now UV Unwrap the object and apply texture maps to it.
Creating portalsTo create a socket for an exit hole, follow the steps below:
1 Enter Sub-Object mode for the "shell_room".
2 Create first portal
A Select the polygon next to the first shape.
B In the Extrude Polygons dialog, set Extrusion Height to -5.0.
 Original polygon |
 Extrude Polygons dialog box |
 Extruded polygon |
C Completely detach the polygon, and
name it "portal_01".
3 Create second portal
A Rotate the view so that the polygon next to the second shape is visible.
B Select that polygon and apply the same Extrude Polygon settings as before.
Extruded polygon
C Detach this polygon and name it "portal_02".
4 Create third portal
A Rotate the view back to see the opposite wall.
B Select the polygon directly
opposite "portal_02"
C Apply the same Extrude Polygon settings as before.
Opposite polygon extruded
D Detach the polygon, and name it "exit_portal".
5 Exit Sub-Object.
6 Delete the two rectangle shapes previously created.
7 Assign textures to the portal objects
A Select the two portal objects
named "portal_01" and "portal_02".
B Assign a portal texture to the selected portals.
Inter-shell portal texture
C Select the "exit_portal"
object.
D Assign an exit portal texture to it.
Exit portal texture
8 Assign properties to the portal objects
A Select the "portal_01"
object.
B Right-click the selected object, and in the quad menu select Properties.
C In the User
Defined tab, type "portal=true".
3ds Max's Object Properties dialog box – Setting portal_01
D Select the "portal_02"
object.
E Set the same properties as for "portal_01".
F Select the "exit_portal"
object.
G In the User
Defined tab, type "portal=true"
and "exit=true".
3ds Max's Object Properties dialog box – Setting portal_02
Labelling PortalsPortals can be labelled so that they can be accessed via game script. This might be used by programmers to close off a portal so that entities cannot navigate their way through.
In Maya an empty label is created in Extra Attributes when you click any of the add portal shelf buttons .
In 3dsMax, labels are added to portals by adding the line "label=your_name" to the User Defined properties tab of the portal geometry. "your_name" is replaced with what ever label name you chose.
Shell planning - Dividing up an internal spaceBefore you begin converting your model of a room into a shell it is a good idea to sit down with a bit of graph paper and plan out the best way to divide up the room.
Imagine we have a top down view of our room, as in the image below.
1. The first thing you might notice is that in these circumstances, we are forced to use a custom hull because the portal doesn't lie on the surface of the bounding box.
2. Because custom hulls must be convex, simply adding a custom hull around our object will not suffice, because, again, the portal is not on the surface of the custom hull/bounding box.
3. The only way to convert this space into a shell successfully (without artifacts) is to divide the space in two, and surround each section with a custom hull. The point at which the division occurs will require a portal.
Shell navigation constraintsDue to limitations of entity navigation, shells should not be made with more than a single portal connecting two shells. If two doorways are required between two shells it is better to either split the shells or to use a single portal and object blockers.
Town planning - Optimising portal cullingPortals can be used to increase the rendering performance of geometry-rich areas such as towns and cities. When designing a city it is important to take into consideration how portals can be utilised.
It is important to understand how portals work in order to maximise their effectiveness. In Image 1 in the examples below, player P (red) is rendering the final shell (Shell3) because all the portals (blue) are aligned.
A better design choice would be to include a second portal (as in Image 2). In this example the player will not render shell4.
Shell geometry is not used to cull portal tests.
Umbra software can use shell geometry to occlude portals.
City type 1This type features narrow streets with high buildings and surrounding walls. The high walls and tall buildings of this city type occlude vision into neighbouring areas, making it ideal for using shells.
Sections of the city can be created as shells. Portals can be placed at the end of streets and in archways.
Considerations
If the city contains tall
buildings that are to be seen from multiple shells, then these shells must use
heavenly portals as their ceiling.
Heavenly portals allow the outside world to be rendered. Therefore the tall buildings must be outdoor objects and not belong to any shell.
Because heavenly portals do
not allow players to see into a shell, players cannot look down into the city
from a high viewing position, such as a skyscraper – the heavenly portals
allow rendering one way (out), but not in.
This type of city should be surrounded with
a high wall, to prevent players looking into the city.
Shells can be snapped
together in WorldEditor, making town- and city-building fast.
Terrain geometry under the
city can be deleted to further increase rendering performance and prevent
Z-fighting.
City type 2This type features large streets with open areas such as markets and parks, with mostly small buildings in which you can enter.
Shells can be used to create the interior of houses and buildings.
It is very important to
create at least two shells for each building.
The first shell (an entrance hallway, set of stairs, or reception room) allows the second more important and highly detailed room to be culled using the portal method.
The longer the hall (and hence the further the two portals are from each other), the bigger is the chance that the room will be culled from outside. Most game designers will use a bent "L" shaped entrance way to maximise portal culling. Multiple shells will help increase the probability of culling the main internal shell.
Portal and shell visibility considerations
The outside of a shell (brown) is a standard model which we refer to as a façade.
Even though the façade geometry does not
overlap the shell, its pivot point might. This results in the 3d engine mistaking
the façade for an internal object belonging to that shell, and lighting
it as such. To ensure that façades light correctly, in WorldEditor's
Properties tab, set the outside only property to
True.
WorldEditor's Properties tab
Minimise the size of each portal
Because portal culling depends on portals lining up with each other and the camera, the smaller the size of each portal, the greater the chance that culling will occur. For this reason, it is best to make the portal dimensions extend just beyond the size of the geometry defining the doorway, window or entrance, and no further.
Portal creation: Using materials on custom hullsCreating a piece of geometry to represent a portal is not the only way you can create a portal. When using a Custom Hull you can create a portal by assigning a specifically named material to the surface of the custom hull.
To create portals by assigning materials:
1 Make sure the name of your Custom Hull has
the suffix "_hull" – this allows the exporter to choose this
object as your custom hull.
Creating a custom shell hull
3 Assign a material with the name standard_portal , exit_portal, or
heaven_portal, to one of the surfaces of the custom hull. This will create a portal at that
position.
The type and name of texture applied to the hull is irrelevant,
but for viewing purposes we use three easily identifiable textures that you
can find in bigworld\res\helpers\maps.
Creating a portal on a custom hull
The alternative method for creating portals (using geometry) still works with custom hulls.
Preventing Sparkles and improve culling Sometimes no matter how carefully you make shells they do not resolve together closely enough in WorldEditor to prevent players from seeing a small line of "sparkles" between shell boundaries. This is due to floating point inaccuracies from asset creation to display. The sparkly line visible in the picture below is a result of the outside world being visible between two shells.
These sparkles are not only visually unappealing, they can result in decreased game performance due to bad culling. See the section on how to create assets when using Umbra
There are two ways to solve this problem:
add a flange to your shell
that extends past the boundaries of your shells, or,
use an object to fill the gap
between shells – we call these objects plugs.
Shell flangesTo prevent sparkles (light from outside penetrating gaps between shells) a flange can be added to each shell. The flange should be wider than the visible interior of your shells and overlap with flanges on connecting shells.
Because the flange sits outside the portal (blue), you will need to create a custom hull (yellow). This is because the exporter will not recognise portals unless they are on the shell's bounding box, and the creation of the flange would move the bounding box, preventing the portal from being recognised.
Side view of the fantasy demo asset dun_highpassage_4x.visual designed with a flange (inset)
PlugsThe other way to prevent sparkles (gaps) between your shells is to hide the gaps with objects. We call these objects "plugs". Plugs are just standard models that hide any visual gaps between shells. They do not have any special specifications and are not a requirement for shell design.
In this part you will create plugs for the standard portal and the exit portal created earlier in this lesson.
Plug for the standard portalTo build a window plug that fits the standard portal socket, follow the steps below:
1 Create a rectangle shape of 40x40
units over "portal_02" in the left viewport.
Rectangle shape created over portal
2 Create archways.
A Inside the rectangle shape, create an archway shape for the window.
B Make a copy of the archway shape, so that two windows occupy the rectangle shape.
C Collapse the rectangle shape to an editable spline.
D Use Attach on the rectangle and on both archways, to combine them all into one shape.
E Weld all the vertices.
Rectangle shape with archway windows
3 Apply an extrude modifier to the window shape with a height value of units.
Extruded window shape
4 Remove polygons outside the object.
A Collapse the window plug to an editable poly.
B Enter Sub-Object mode.
C Select and delete the polygons around the outside of the extruded object.
 Outside polygons in red |
 Object with outside polygons removed |
D Exit Sub-Object mode.
5 Name the object "plug_windows".
6 Using 3D snap with vertex mode, move the
plug_windows object over portal_02 and inside the
socket you created previously in the lesson.
 |
 |
Plug object moved into position using vertex snaps | |
Plug for the exit portalTo build a window plug that fits the exit portal socket, follow the steps below:
1 Create a rectangle shape of 40x40 units over
exit_portal in the left viewport.
Rectangle shape created over exit portal
2 Create archways.
A Use the line shape tool to draw an archway shape over the rectangle that you just created, using the grid snaps as a guide.
B Attach the line shape to the rectangle and trim the segments at the bottom to close the shape.
C Weld all vertices.
 |
 |
Archway with vertices attached and welded |
|
3 Apply an extrude modifier to the shape with a height value of 5 units.
Extruded window shape
4 Remove polygons outside the shape.
A Collapse the shape to an editable poly.
B Enter Sub-Object mode.
C Select and delete the polygons around the outside only.
 Outside polygons in red |
 Object with outside polygons removed |
D Exit Sub-Object mode.
5 Name the object plug_doorway.
6 Turn on the 3D vertex snaps.
7 Move the plug_doorway object over the
exit_portal to fit neatly into the socket created.
 |
 |
Plug object moved into position using vertex snaps | |
8 UV unwrap and apply texture maps to both
plug_windows and plug_doorway objects.
Texture-mapped window and doorway plugs
9 Build an entrance object to cover the outside doorway.
A Create a box next to the exit_portal with
the following settings:
World position: x=-65, y=40, z=0.
Dimensions (in units): length=60, width=10, height=50.
Segments: length=3, width=1, height=2.
Box created with specific world position coordinates
B Rotate the view until you see the exit_portal object.
C With the box still selected, convert it to an editable poly.
D Enter Sub-Object mode.
E Enlarge the slot for the opening.
1 Enlarge frame to the right.
Select the middle-right vertical row of vertices.
Using 3D vertex snap, move
them to the outside right corner of the exit portal socket.
 |
 |
Vertices snapped to the socket's right corner | |
2 Enlarge frame to the left.
Select the middle-left row of vertices.
Using 3D vertex snap, move them to the outside left
corner of the exit portal socket.
 |
 |
Vertices snapped to the socket's left corner | |
3 Enlarge frame upwards.
Select the middle-horizontal row of vertices.
Using 3D vertex snap, move
them up, to the top of the exit portal socket.
 |
 |
Vertices snapped to the top of socket | |
F Enter polygon mode.
G Select the bottom and inside polygons, and delete them, including any isolated vertices.
 Inside and bottom polygons selected |
 Inside and bottom polygons deleted |
H Enter vertex mode.
I Select the inside border vertices and move them 5 units relative in the X-axis.
 Before moving |
 After moving |
J Create the opening.
1 Rotate the view to the front of the entrance.
2 Enter polygon mode.
3 Select the middle polygon and extrude it inwards -10 units.
 Before extruding |
 After extruding |
4 While pressing Ctrl, select the bottom
polygon.
Now both the middle polygon and bottom polygon are selected.
5 Delete the selected polygons.
 Middle and bottom polygons selected |
 Middle and bottom polygons deleted |
6 You can now UV unwrap and apply texture maps to the entrance object.
Texture-mapped entrance object
The finished 3ds Max scene should now contain a room object, a windows plug, a doorway plug, and an entrance object for outside the shell.
Creating an undercover area
This awning is typical of an outside area that rain should not penetrate. In the Urban demo this was achieved using a shell.
Shells can be used to create an outside area that is sheltered from the weather.
The outside only tag in Particle Editor will prevent particles from being rendered when inside a shell.
If you create a shell with exit portals on all sides of the shell and a heavenly portal it will appear as if the shell is an outside space yet it will still prevent particles tagged with Outside only from being rendered.
IMPORTANT: The heavenly portal will allow sunlight and time of day changes to effect the insides of the shell. The location of the heavenly portal is not important, it simply acts as a switch to allow light into the entire shell or not.
This image shows the portal setup used in the shell office_exit.visual
IMPORTANT: The base of the shell must have some geometry or a custom BSP. If no bsp is used an entity will not be able to navigate through this shell.
Note the custom bsp. Without this entities would fail to navigate the shell
Outside only: lighting propertySometimes, objects that exist on the border of exit portals (usually exit plugs, and building facades) think they belong to the inside of a shell. These objects will not light correctly and may appear dark during the day. This can be fixed by forcing an object to be lit by outside lighting only, from the Properties tab in WorldEditor.
Outside only property
Before and after setting the outside only property in WorldEditor
Referencing the room and plug texture mapsAll art assets to be used in the BigWorld engine must reside in the resource folder your_game/res
or one of its subdirectories.
This includes bitmaps referenced by any shells or plugs you may create. If your
shell or plug is referencing bitmaps from another location other than the /res directory, you must move
those bitmaps into the resource folder (or one of its subfolders).
To reference the room and plug texture maps, follow the steps below:
1 Open Windows Explorer.
2 Navigate to your game's resources
folder res/sets/town.
3 Under folder town,
create folder shells and another folder for plugs.
Folder shells contains copies of the finished bitmaps
Folder plugs contains copies of the finished bitmaps
5 Open the 3ds Max Bitmap/Photometric Path Editor or the Asset Tracker utility.
6 Reassign the materials to the folders just created.
3ds Max utility for reassigning bitmaps
Exporting ShellsFor shells to export correctly all portals must exist on a 0.1 Metre (1 standard 3ds Max unit) grid. Otherwise the shell will not comply with the exporter's visual rules.
To export "shell_room", follow the
steps below:
1 Hide all plugs.
2 Hide the entrance.
3 Make sure that all portals are visible in the scene.
4 Select menu item File→Export.
5 In the File Browser dialog:
Navigate to the new folder shells.
In the File
Name field, type "shell_room_exit".
In the Save As
Type drop-down list box, select the entry "Visual
Exporter (*.Visual)".
Click Save.
File Browser dialog
6 In the Visual Exporter dialog:
In the Visual
Type group box, select Static
option button.
Clear the Allow
Scale check box.
Check Bumpmapped
if your shell is going to use normal maps. Otherwise leave it unchecked.
Click OK.
Visual Exporter dialog
Exporting the plugsTo export the plugs, follow the steps below:
1 Centre the plugs to the origin, for proper grid snapping with the shell.
2 Hide all visible elements in the scene.
3 Unhide the "plug_windows"
object.
4 Make sure that the home-grid is displayed.
5 Select the plug object and centre it to the world origin using absolute coordinates, but keep the base of the object flat on the grid.
 Original plug object |
 Plug object centred to the origin |
6 In the Hierarchy panel, under Adjust Pivot, activate the Affect Pivot Only option.
7 Centre the pivot point at the world origin.
Affect Pivot Only option
 Original plug object |
 Plug object pivot-point-aligned to the origin |
8 Select menu item File→Export....
9 In the File Browser dialog:
Navigate to the new folder plugs.
In the File
Name field, type "plug_windows".
In the Save As
Type drop-down list box, select the entry "Visual
Exporter (*.Visual)".
Click Save.
File Browser dialog
10 In the Visual Exporter dialog:
In the Visual
Type group box, select Static
option button.
Clear the Allow
Scale check box.
Clear the Bumpmapped
check box.
Click OK.
Visual Exporter dialog
11
With the "plug_windows" object selected,
select menu item File→Save
Selected.
12 Save the object to its own 3ds Max file.
13
For the "plug_doorway" object:
Repeat the process above (steps 1 to 12).
13
For the "entrance" object:
A Unhide, then select the "entrance"
object.
B Edit the pivot point and offset it by 5 units in the X-axis relative.
|
|
C Using absolute coordinates, centre the object to the world origin on the home-grid.
|
|
D Export the "entrance" object.
Follow steps 8
to 10, saving the object in the same folder
as the plug objects.
Copyright 1999-2011 BigWorld Pty. Ltd. All rights reserved. Proprietary commercial in confidence.
