Yes, its the long-awaited Tutorial #5 - This tutorial will
be covering a few different topics, as listed in the title. I'm going to keep
the intro short (yet again); Blue statements
are the functions I want you to perform.

  NOTE:
I AM going to assume that by now you've mastered how to perform the functions
we've done in the previous tutorials.

  You came
here for the tutorial -so without further ado, why don't you load
up Worldcraft now.  All tutorials are going to assume you have
the latest version, and use the default setup with a 2-button mouse - you should
also have all of the proper directories and tools configured before using this
tutorial.  Refer to the documentation, the WC
Setup guide. I will be covering individual WorldCraft commands each time
we execute a new command for the first time.  

   
Once Worldcraft has been loaded, go up to the
"File" menu item and click on "open".  Choose
the file from our last tutorial, and be sure the textures load up
properly!   In Half-Life, all textures are stored OUTSIDE of the map in
.WAD files. These must be loaded by the map-editor so that you can apply them
to various brushes. Without textures, your shapes and levels would be done in
single colors; and who wants that?? Also, I personally like to have all of the
menus and status bars turned on (you can select which ones are displayed from
the "View | Screen Elements" menu). You may not want this if you have
a small screen or are running at lower than 800x600 resolution; but at least
note this: ALL Worldcraft menus and toolbars are DOCKABLE.

  So
I have mine arranged like this  (Note: this screenshot was from
v1.6; but I still suggest something similar to this setup) - it gives me a large
main workspace for my maps, and an organized area for referring to textures,
VISgroups, and some entity controls. Feel free to experiment around and
find what's comfortable for you - as it is important that you have an arrangement
that allows you to work freely and without frustration. 

  Okay,
first on the list is to show you one more type of door. I've gotten
several requests asking about how to create that swinging door you encounter
throughout much of the game (i.e. Maintenance doors, etc), where you push them
open. Its surprisingly simple to create; so let's go ahead and select
our rotating door from before. Click the "To World" button.
Then, set your grid spacing to 8 units. You may also
want to zoom in some with the zoom tool. Use the selection tool to select the
origin brush. Delete this brush. Also, select and delete the two buttons we
had created. Now, Select our door. I'm tired of it swinging "into"
our walls - so I'm going to make a simple door-frame piece that will help make
things look a little better. In the XY view, drag the
northern edge of the door down (south) 8 units - so that the Y coordinate changes
from "0" to "-8". This will create an 8-unit
gap between the door and the wall that we will fill with our "door frame".
As an artistic note, I want to say now that this is STILL not the best
way to do this; there are many more elegant and clean-looking ways to make a
door rotate such that it does NOT appear to move "into" other objects...
but I want to keep this simple; as well as let all of you figure some of these
things out for yourselves through experimentation.

   Now
we're ready to add our frame, but first let's go back and make our
door functional again.  Click on the "Browse"
button in the textures box and filter on "origin". Select an origin
texture and then switch to block creation mode. In the XY view, drag out a new
brush from coordinates (-192, 0) to (-176, -16). This should put
the "X" center handle of this brush on the "-8" Y coordinate;
which happens to be the edge of our door. Now, re-size
the brush in the XZ or YZ views so that the brush is aligned top-to-bottom with
the door. Press enter to confirm this brush. Next, use
the selection tool (and the CTRL key) to select both this origin brush AND our
door brush. Hit the "To Entity" button; and choose "func_door_rotating".
Then, scroll down in the attributes list and change
the "delay before close" to "1". Also, change the "move
sound" to "Squeaky1" (leave the "stop sound" at "no
sound"). Close this dialog box.

   Once
our door is defined, its time to make the door-frame brush. Browse
the texture box and filter on "lab3_w6brd". Select this texture and
switch to brush creation mode. Drag out a new brush in the XY view from coordinates
(-192, 0) to (-176, -8). Then adjust it in the XZ or YZ views to be aligned
(top to bottom) with the door. Once things are lined up, go ahead and hit the
enter key to create the brush. Its probably tough to see your door
frame brush with the origin brush in the way - so switch
to the selection tool and click on the door. Now, hit the "Hide selected
objects" button    .
This will remove the object from your view and let you see things more clearly.
Hit the "Show all hidden" button    again
once you're done.

   Compile
and run your map, and test this new door out! It should have to be
"pushed" against to open, and creak and squeak as it moves... Notice
that if you let it close and push on it from the other side, it swings the other
way.

   Now,
on to the "meat" of this tutorial... Lifts! Lifts are those
wonderful platforms that raise up. Before we MAKE a lift; we're gonna need to
make some space for one to do something... I've never given you a specific set
of Z-coordinates; but I will need to today; so lets make sure everything lines
up between your map and my tutorial here... go to "Edit
| Select All", and then MOVE the entire contents of our map up or down
in the XZ or YZ views until the BOTTOM of the floor brushes lie on Z coordinate
(-64); and also make sure that the X coordinate of the far left outer-edge of
our brushes (in the XY or XZ views) is (-512). NOTE: You may need
to adjust your 3d camera position after doing all this.

   Our
current room has a pretty low ceiling, so let's raise it up some.
Change the grid spacing to 8 units (you may want to
zoom in on the map some), and go to our "second" room (the westerly
one - on the left in the XY view). With the selection tool, grab the roof brush.
MOVE this brush up in the XZ or YZ views so that the bottom of the roof brush
lies on Z coordinate (168) - this should make for a nice, tall second
room - but we now need to get the room sealed again... as our walls don't extend
that high! So go ahead and select each wall (or all
of them at once by using the CTRL key while clicking), and use the selection
handles to RE-SIZE the brushes UP so that their upper edges lie on Z coordinate
(168).

   This
ALMOST completes sealing the room.... But if you switch
to camera mode, and point the camera from the room looking back at the hallway,
and rotate the camera view pointing slightly upwards; you'll notice
that we have a space ABOVE our hallway now that we didn't have before.

   Since
we didn't have it before, we now need to add a NEW brush there to
plug this hole. So either select the current wall texture
in the texture browser; or select another texture that you would like to use,
and create a brush in the XY view that extends from coordinates (-272, 0) to
(-256, -64). In the XZ or YZ view, re-size this to span from Z coordinate (64)
to (168). Once you press enter to confirm the brush, you should see that it
fills the gap.

   Since
our room is now ready, let's do one more preparatory step before
adding our lift. Let's make a place for the character to step off of the lift
once it raises him/her up... So pick a new texture
for this "catwalk", and go to XY view coordinates (-496, 112) and
create a new brush that extends to (-432, -16). In the XZ or YZ views, make
the Z component of this brush run from coordinate (64) to (72). Confirm the
brush placement; and we're ready to start making our lift!

   Its
time again to choose a new texture. Pick
one that you think will look like a good lift platform. I leave the
texture choice and alignment up to you now, its a creative process and something
you should know HOW to do by now at least. Back in
brush creation mode, make a new brush in the XY view that spans coordinates
(-496, -24) to (-432, -88). In one of the "Z" 2d views, make this
brush span Z coordinates (64) to (72). Note: This is our LIFT right
now. We have drawn it in its RAISED position. ALL "func_plat" entities
will START in their "lowered" position IN the game, but must be created
in the level editor in their "raised" position.

   Switch
to the selection tool, pick this lift brush, and hit the "To Entity"
button. Now, choose entity type "func_plat". We need to
edit several key values to make our lift function properly, so let's step through
that. First up is the "height" key ("Travel
Altitude" if you are in SmartEdit mode). This controls how far
the platform moves up and down. The easiest way to show this is with a diagram,
so here goes (yellow is text and such that I added with my image editing program):

   Go
ahead and pick any Move sound and Stop sound you like. 
Once you have those filled in; its time to test your map. Now, the lift SHOULD
work; but when you get in the game you'll notice its a little quirky. Compile
and run the map; and you'll see what I mean.

   You
might have noticed 3 things, two of which are related:

•  The lift
  sometimes moves before you get on it.


•  The lift
  STAYS "up" if you stay on it.


•  The lift
  moves whenever you get close to it.

   Let
me address the second issue first.  This is unfortunately just
something that can't be helped - func_plat objects are designed to be 1 way
(you can make them lower only with a negative value in the "height"
("Travel Altitude" if in SmartEdit mode) key. Now the other two issues
can't be changed either; but they do clue us into some workarounds... The func_plat
entity seems to activate whenever a player gets close to one; however, the platform
is actually designed to activate whenever a player's location in the XY plane
intersects the extents of the XY coordinates that the platform brush(es) make
up. This is all done without regard for the Z axis (which is why you can be
standing on the catwalk and move close to the lift and it will raise up); the
catch to all of this is that the player is REALLY defined as a rectangular box
roughly 32 units wide, 72 units tall; and 32 units FRONT TO BACK. This
means that while you may not be "stepping" on the platform, the game
engine detects that your player's BOUNDING BOX is activating the platform.

   So
what can we do about this?? Well, the simplest solution is to make
sure the player "steps" on the platform while s/he is above it or
level with it; so that the platform may rise, but the forward momentum of the
player will be such that they can still climb on the train before it raises
above them.  Normally; I would advise making the floor such that the lift
was actually on the same level (i.e. make an indent or recessed area of the
floor that the platform sinks into without actually sinking into the actual
floor brush itself). But, this would require messing with our floor brush; and
this really is an example only... so lets do this instead: Pick
a texture that you like for a floor or piece of metal, it doesn't
matter. Now, create a new brush in the XY view spanning
from coordinates (-432, 112) to (-272, -112). Re-size this in the XZ or YZ views
so that it rests on the top of the floor brush; and is 8 units tall. Then, press
enter to confirm this brush. Try running your map again, and notice
how much better it works when your player is standing level with the platform
BEFORE they get to it...

   Close
the properties dialog box, and go compile the level. Note how the
"platform" works now as a door.  At this point it should work
fairly similarly to what we were doing with the func_plat entity.  One
thing to try, just to see one way to make the func_door as a "platform"
work differently than the func_plat, is to go BACK
to the entity properties box for the func_door "platform" and check
off the "Toggle" flag. This will make the lift stay at
whatever level you step off (top or bottom); and it won't move until you trigger
it again (although it is VERY sensitive and will re-trigger if you don't step
off before the platform gets to the top or the bottom). Try
compiling again and you'll see what I mean. Also, I won't be demonstrating
it here; but you should see how the fact that this is a func_door means
that the lift can be activated with triggers or buttons, just like our doors
in Tutorials 3 and 4.

   There
is _1_ more platform type of entity that I have yet to cover: the
"func_train" entity. This entity makes a moving platform that can
travel between any number of points in any direction. Its not the simplest of
entities to use; but I'll demonstrate a quick example of how to make one a lift
that moves between a raised and lowered position. Note that I hope to have a
more complete func_train (and func_tracktrain) tutorial up by mid-week. For
now, select our platform, hit the "To World"
button, and then hit the "To Entity" button, bringing up the entity
properties box (doing this clears all of our settings out for the
func_door; so that we start "clean" with this entity). Change
the entity class to "func_train". Enter "path1" in the "first
stop target" key. Fill in any sounds you like, and name this thing "train1".
Then close this box, and switch to the entity creation tool. In the objects
box (with the "To World" and "To Entity" buttons), choose
entity type "path_corner". Switch to a grid spacing of 4; and in the
XY view, place an entity at coordinates (-464, -60)... and yes, this
is centered on our platform. Also, in the XZ or YZ
views move the entity to Z coordinate (-44). Press enter to confirm it's placement,
and note that the center of this entity will be used to line up the center of
the func_train platform. Since this entity type has no substance; having it
overlap brushes or other entities is not a concern; as long as it doesn't
stick out into the "exterior" of our level.

   While
its selected, open the entity properties
dialog box. Name it "path1", and in the "next stop target"
key, put in "path2". If you wanted the platform to pause
for a couple of seconds, you could enter this into the appropriate key; BUT
we're going to click over to the flags, and select
"wait for re-trigger". I want the player to have to trigger/activate
the func_train platform manually every time they want it to move. Go ahead and
close the dialog box. Switch back to entity creation
mode, and place another path_corner at XY coordinates (-464, -56), but this
time with a Z coordinate of (68). Confirm the placement, and bring up the entity
properties box. This path_corner should be named "path2";
and since we want the train to go back down to the first level, the
"next stop target" is actually "path1". Once again, in the
flags area click the "Wait for retrigger" flag.

   Almost
there, we just need a button to trigger this func_train to move.
And I have an easy way to make one. First off, a warning here again that
these techniques (and indeed much of them in my tutorials) are solely to demonstrate
the possibilities; they aren't meant to look good or be elegant

   Switch to brush creation mode, and select
a texture for our button; but realize that this button is going to
be rather large. The brush should span XY coordinates
(-496, -96) to (-432, -112); and Z coordinates (128) to (-32). Confirm the brush,
select it, and then hit the "To Entity" button. Make it a func_button.
Give it an angle of 270, and a target of "train1". Also, give it a
lip of "4", and any sound you like. Now close the dialog box and compile
and test your map.

   For
the last part of this tutorial; I was going to talk about lights.
Up until now, we've done everything without lights, so the game renders things
at full-brightness. Its rather ugly; but makes it easy to see details. So, what
I am going to do, is recommend that you go download the .zip of the next tutorial
and the example map; and I will explain the different lights that I placed within
that map. I think this is easier than having to have you place each light in
the map yourself. For those interested, the next tutorial I have planned (AFTER
the lights tutorial) will cover func_trains some more; and func_tracktrains.