Post by Hook on Apr 2, 2018 14:12:14 GMT -6
MyLevel Use (by Bulldozer - edited by Hook for clarity and language)
(as far as I know, Bulldozer is gone from UT and unavailable)
What is MyLevel and why is it used?
What can it do for a map as an enhancement and in a time saving way.
As always, first things first.
A map, texturepack, soundpack, and so on have specific extensions for the engine to know how to handle it.
In fact, they all really are the same and are U files. They just contain the data needed for the level to be playable.
Just to make this point a bit clearer >> You can open a map UNR to use it as a texturepack.
Let us say that the editor is opened and you opened a map for editing.
Now you just remembered that you had a very good and fitting texture for this map in another map that you finished last week.
In the texture browser just open, go to the maps folder in the file selector, select All Files.
Now you see the maps, select your map, and by UED magic the textures contained in that map's MyLevel will show up in the texture browser.
In the texture browser's pack selector you will see the name of that map.
Of course, this only works when you import in MyLevel.
When you create a map and save it to disk, that file contains data on the brushes used, what shape they have, meaning, their coordinates or vertices, the texture applyed on them, how these textures are aligned and re-sized, the actors used and placement.
In short, all the "stuff" in the map is stored as data, very obvious, correct?
Now, if you make a map with many texture packs, sound packs and music files you made outside of the original packages, you will have to upload them as well, and be sure that sooner or later you will forget one.
This will cause, as you already know, that the map on the user side will not open at all.
For textures and sound do this >>>
In the texture browser, file > import >select your file check any flag you need for that texture like masked, etc for the package type MyLevel.
Please NOT: it may NOT be mylevel or MYLEVEL or such, it has to MyLevel.
Now, what happens when you save your map as above? >>>
When you save your map, the texture's data, I mean the all the picture data is saved in the map file as being part of that map and not as being a separated textures data pack.
The Texture packs will all be saved within the map file itself (the unr file), and not needed as separate files outside the map file. Nice!!!
Look at it like this >>
You read a book showing how to use UED and the toolbars and further in that book you find a note that refers to another book that shows how to produce your animated characters.
This is the same as a map unr file plus an external texture utx file.
Now you got a another book that explains UED and at a given page it starts another topic explaining how to produce the actual animated characters, so you don't need to open a second book for it - they came in one single book.
This is a map containing all needed files in MyLevel. Nice!!!
I'm so sorry to put it in such a naive or beginner's way, but know this > some guys still come to me and say they still don't get the MyLevel story.
Note by Hook: NEVER EVER Save a package by itself with the name "MyLevel"!!! NEVER!!!
It causes a file mis-match error with all the other "MyLevel" packages out there that some inexperienced mappers have made in UT land.
(as far as I know, Bulldozer is gone from UT and unavailable)
What is MyLevel and why is it used?
What can it do for a map as an enhancement and in a time saving way.
As always, first things first.
A map, texturepack, soundpack, and so on have specific extensions for the engine to know how to handle it.
In fact, they all really are the same and are U files. They just contain the data needed for the level to be playable.
Just to make this point a bit clearer >> You can open a map UNR to use it as a texturepack.
Let us say that the editor is opened and you opened a map for editing.
Now you just remembered that you had a very good and fitting texture for this map in another map that you finished last week.
In the texture browser just open, go to the maps folder in the file selector, select All Files.
Now you see the maps, select your map, and by UED magic the textures contained in that map's MyLevel will show up in the texture browser.
In the texture browser's pack selector you will see the name of that map.
Of course, this only works when you import in MyLevel.
When you create a map and save it to disk, that file contains data on the brushes used, what shape they have, meaning, their coordinates or vertices, the texture applyed on them, how these textures are aligned and re-sized, the actors used and placement.
In short, all the "stuff" in the map is stored as data, very obvious, correct?
Now, if you make a map with many texture packs, sound packs and music files you made outside of the original packages, you will have to upload them as well, and be sure that sooner or later you will forget one.
This will cause, as you already know, that the map on the user side will not open at all.
For textures and sound do this >>>
In the texture browser, file > import >select your file check any flag you need for that texture like masked, etc for the package type MyLevel.
Please NOT: it may NOT be mylevel or MYLEVEL or such, it has to MyLevel.
Now, what happens when you save your map as above? >>>
When you save your map, the texture's data, I mean the all the picture data is saved in the map file as being part of that map and not as being a separated textures data pack.
The Texture packs will all be saved within the map file itself (the unr file), and not needed as separate files outside the map file. Nice!!!
Look at it like this >>
You read a book showing how to use UED and the toolbars and further in that book you find a note that refers to another book that shows how to produce your animated characters.
This is the same as a map unr file plus an external texture utx file.
Now you got a another book that explains UED and at a given page it starts another topic explaining how to produce the actual animated characters, so you don't need to open a second book for it - they came in one single book.
This is a map containing all needed files in MyLevel. Nice!!!
I'm so sorry to put it in such a naive or beginner's way, but know this > some guys still come to me and say they still don't get the MyLevel story.
Note by Hook: NEVER EVER Save a package by itself with the name "MyLevel"!!! NEVER!!!
It causes a file mis-match error with all the other "MyLevel" packages out there that some inexperienced mappers have made in UT land.