Post your Level Designs

[Tassadar]

My first map, havent seen any cave ones yet. Only problem is that i cant seem to change the skybox, seems like it would be the easiest thing to do but it just wont change.

[Gastricpenguin]

Tassadar, only the tiles inside the yellow chunk will be playable terrain D:
Anything outside the ylelow box is neglected.

[Wayback]

My problem is I cannot figure out how to get this chunk in the game so I can see how it plays hooked up to the stock chunks. I have spent 2 days trying to fuse this chunk in with the game and I'm getting frustrated. I am reading the other tutorials, but they are all using portals/scrolls to get to the map...I just want mine to run in place with the game. I tried messing with the rules.dat files and I just have no clue. Any help would be great.

To get new map chunks to show up in randomly generated maps, they need to be located in the \media\layouts\ sub-folders, in this case \media\layouts\crypt. From there, you need to determine the orientation of the chunk, it looks like East to West, so it will go into the \media\layouts\crypt\1X1EW folder. From there the rules.dat file for the dungeon looks in each of those folders so from there it works like any other mod.


Here is the chunk I've made so far, not props or lighting or whatnot yet though. On the plus side, the chunk area being 25x25 squares makes it easy to sketch out layout ideas on graph paper.

[Tassadar]

Hm never realised that before, its playable ... mabye just not chunkable.

[Gastricpenguin]

Finished the entrance to my chunk.
It features an area trigger teleporter activated by a lever and can be viewed here: http://www.screencast.com/users/Gastric ... 1de87fb5a2
It's a little jumpy here and there but that's because the editor eats a million CPU per second.

Also, does anyone know how to change the skybox in the editor? Mine is always on the cave

[FireMind]

Finished the entrance to my chunk.
It features an area trigger teleporter activated by a lever and can be viewed here: http://www.screencast.com/users/Gastric ... 1de87fb5a2
It's a little jumpy here and there but that's because the editor eats a million CPU per second.

Also, does anyone know how to change the skybox in the editor? Mine is always on the cave

I'm loving the level and the time you put into the detail of it, but add some action to it

[Carbon14]

Also, does anyone know how to change the skybox in the editor? Mine is always on the cave

My first map, havent seen any cave ones yet. Only problem is that i cant seem to change the skybox, seems like it would be the easiest thing to do but it just wont change.

In the "options" tab on the right there is a tag named "dungeon rules", hit the drop down to select any of the existing skyboxes. If you want to make your own go to data editor, dungeons, then make your own rule set (probably easiest to start of by duplicating an existing one). I think that's the solution, not sure though because I haven't actually tested things in-game yet, only in the editor :p

[Omnifas]

Working on another layout


And by the way,
Do you guys do the back sides or do you leave them blank since it's a fixed camera(minus the pause cam).

[syltman]

I'm an experienced level designer from back in the day, but this is definitely quite a new system to get used to. This chunk was created completely by scratch; no greebles, templates, or other parts were used whatsoever. This chunk is fully functional, checks out 100%, has a couple traps and some scripting, lays out perfectly with the exit/entrance, has Quest/Item markers, and looks great all around. It also features two very different variations which change the map dramatically for maximum playability. Creation time was about 3 full nights.

My problem is I cannot figure out how to get this chunk in the game so I can see how it plays hooked up to the stock chunks. I have spent 2 days trying to fuse this chunk in with the game and I'm getting frustrated. I am reading the other tutorials, but they are all using portals/scrolls to get to the map...I just want mine to run in place with the game. I tried messing with the rules.dat files and I just have no clue. Any help would be great.

good job there!

[gorogorosama]

Hey, just started to dab with Torched a couple days ago and put together a simple crypt chunk.



It's got 4 layout variations and 2 independent style variations (so 8 distinct possibilities), along with a couple minor variations just to change it up.

All the stuff you guys are posting already is really impressive!

[Ojji]

You all do understand that, if you making just one strata(floor) that isn't randomized, then you don't need to stay in that yellow box. Thats just so if you make multiple stratas, and are randomized the game can connect them all randomly like a puzzle via blue squares in the yellow box.

[Shardz]

To get new map chunks to show up in randomly generated maps, they need to be located in the \media\layouts\ sub-folders, in this case \media\layouts\crypt. From there, you need to determine the orientation of the chunk, it looks like East to West, so it will go into the \media\layouts\crypt\1X1EW folder. From there the rules.dat file for the dungeon looks in each of those folders so from there it works like any other mod.

Yup! I did all that and it hasn't showed up yet at all. As a matter of fact, all the crypt dungeons (Shadow Vault) seem to be going NW and my NS piece doesn't appear to be in the queue. I have my chunk in AppData\runic games\torchlight\mods\ShardzScapes\media\layouts\crypt\1X1NS\1X1_NS_Shardz_A.layout. I'm including a crypt.dat file in the crypt folder and that doesn't seem to do anything. Are you sure this is all you have to do for it to show up in the Shadow Vault cause I've been waiting 6 days to see it pop up and nothing. I'm getting very frustrated with this process.

You all do understand that, if you making just one strata(floor) that isn't randomized, then you don't need to stay in that yellow box. Thats just so if you make multiple stratas, and are randomized the game can connect them all randomly like a puzzle via blue squares in the yellow box.

Yup, that's exactly what I'm trying to do, but my chunk isn't showing up in the game at all.

good job there!

Thanks! I worked my butt off on it...now if it would only show up in the game, I'll make another one. But until then...I need to know why it's not showing up.

And by the way,
Do you guys do the back sides or do you leave them blank since it's a fixed camera(minus the pause cam).

I've been putting in the backsides and I probably shouldn't as it's really boosting up the file sizes (read - longer load times), but half the users have TorchCam going so...I guess that is really up to you and your level of anal retentiveness (mine is pretty high(.

[Wayback]

Yup! I did all that and it hasn't showed up yet at all. As a matter of fact, all the crypt dungeons (Shadow Vault) seem to be going NW and my NS piece doesn't appear to be in the queue. I have my chunk in AppData\runic games\torchlight\mods\ShardzScapes\media\layouts\crypt\1X1NS\1X1_NS_Shardz_A.layout. I'm including a crypt.dat file in the crypt folder and that doesn't seem to do anything. Are you sure this is all you have to do for it to show up in the Shadow Vault cause I've been waiting 6 days to see it pop up and nothing. I'm getting very frustrated with this process.

The crypt.dat file doesn't need any changes to it as it should already pull from the proper folder where the file is. Based on what you said, it should be working so it could just be a simple case of bad luck making it not turn up. One thing you could try is temporarily making an altered rules file for the crypt from the dungeon tab and telling it to only pick NS(including entrance and exit) chunks when making a crypt map so that it won't have any choice but to spawn it. I probably just got extremely lucky seeing it pop up on a quick run through the main crypt.

[Shardz]

The crypt.dat file doesn't need any changes to it as it should already pull from the proper folder where the file is. Based on what you said, it should be working so it could just be a simple case of bad luck making it not turn up. One thing you could try is temporarily making an altered rules file for the crypt from the dungeon tab and telling it to only pick NS(including entrance and exit) chunks when making a crypt map so that it won't have any choice but to spawn it. I probably just got extremely lucky seeing it pop up on a quick run through the main crypt.

Well, shucks...now that you mention bad luck. *cough* Yeah, I have a case of that wherever I go it seems, so that could be the culprit. I really appreciate your responses as I have been finding it quite difficult to get any answers from anyone that is trying to do what we are. If you found your chunk with an unaltered rules.dat then I must really have some bad luck...but the game hasn't crashed, either...so my chunk is in limbo until I finally find it in the game. I did notice the [LAYOUT][/LAYOUT] bug in the editor and I also spotted the different tags in the test rules.dat like [CHUNKTYPE] & [CHUNK_RANDOM] that aren't in the default crypts.dat file. It's just a matter of messing around with this more of getting more patience for it to finally pop up.

[Wayback]

I will take a look at what I did to get it to work later on tonight, I may have zoned out on a step I did along the way.

[Wayback]

words

Hey, so I double checked all my files and even temporarily turned my shadow vault into a crypt only dungeon to verify it and my chunk appeared in game as it was mostly supposed to. I say mostly because this time none of my linked layout particle items appeared in game this time. Anyhow, to make 100% sure your chunk will appear, I will contradict my previous advice and suggest going into the crypt/rules.dat under the dungeons editor, going to the chunk editor, selecting the proper chunk orientation (NS in your case), then browsing to the NS folder from the drop down menu, then going in the right-hand pane and selecting your chunk and adding it to the inclusive list.

Here is a pic of how it looks for me now:



Waterworks being my crypt chunk.

Hope this helps.

[Wayback]

Well, now I cannot figure out how to get the layout link particle items to show up in the actual game, even though they turn up in the editor when I run it. Looking at official rooms has provided no insight unfortunately.

[Shardz]

words

Hey, so I double checked all my files and even temporarily turned my shadow vault into a crypt only dungeon to verify it and my chunk appeared in game as it was mostly supposed to. I say mostly because this time none of my linked layout particle items appeared in game this time. Anyhow, to make 100% sure your chunk will appear, I will contradict my previous advice and suggest going into the crypt/rules.dat under the dungeons editor, going to the chunk editor, selecting the proper chunk orientation (NS in your case), then browsing to the NS folder from the drop down menu, then going in the right-hand pane and selecting your chunk and adding it to the inclusive list.
Here is a pic of how it looks for me now:
Waterworks being my crypt chunk.
Hope this helps.

This helps more than I can say and I thank you for your time! Yes, I did this exactly, but I didn't include the other relative chunks as inclusive, so that might be my problem. Also, there is that Layout tab which is most confusing...did you end up ignoring that part? I do know that you have to edit the crypt.dat manually at this stage and include;

[LAYOUT]
[/LAYOUT]

Right before
[/LEVEL]

And then you can go into the Layout tab and make a layout and save that again. Very confusing, though.I guess what that does is make a predetermined layout direction that will include the chunks that you indicated above.

Well, now I cannot figure out how to get the layout link particle items to show up in the actual game, even though they turn up in the editor when I run it. Looking at official rooms has provided no insight unfortunately.

I'm not sure how, but I do know why I believe; the game didn't produce a .CMP file for your level, which is basically the particle information. Only once have I got the game to create one for me, but I still never saw the level in the game...but whatever configuration I had at the time might have been correct. LOL! They sure don't make this easy. By the time all is said and done, you should have a .layout, .adm, and a .cmp file per chunk in your mods folder. The only way I know how to get a .cmp file is the actual game creating one for your chunk when it does its magic parsing thing.

[Wayback]

I didn't mess with the layout tab and the chunk appeared as it was supposed to, connecting to the other areas quite nicely. I dud just check if it had a .cmp file and it does, but all the particle files still do not seem to be generating unfortunately. I copied the examples from the official maps, in the way that I took my items from the 'levelsets' folders like all the official maps do. Unless I am completely missing a tab, I cannot tell what feature I am missing that makes these items not appear in the game. A ton of enemies also seem to spawn underwater, but a few well places nospawn areas should take care of that.

[Shardz]

I didn't mess with the layout tab and the chunk appeared as it was supposed to, connecting to the other areas quite nicely. I dud just check if it had a .cmp file and it does, but all the particle files still do not seem to be generating unfortunately. I copied the examples from the official maps, in the way that I took my items from the 'levelsets' folders like all the official maps do. Unless I am completely missing a tab, I cannot tell what feature I am missing that makes these items not appear in the game. A ton of enemies also seem to spawn underwater, but a few well places nospawn areas should take care of that.

This is most helpful and I appreciate the info very much. After one week of messing around with just the rules.date files, it was getting a bit frustrating. I have only once seen the game create a .cmp file for my map and that was the closest I got to having the game recognize my chunk. I will try the includes as you posted above and see what that does.

Regarding the water areas, yes...I did notice there are nospawn entities over water areas and in greeble spots around the map that are inaccessible and just for show. Those little bugger populate all over the place apparently...but I can't speak from experience quite yet.