Small tutorial on howto create levels for LBZ.

This small document is supposed to tell you enough to start creating levels.
Before you start you need: The Gimp (or another graphics program) and some knowledge about TGA.

What is an lbz level?

LBZ levels are made up out of three things:
1: A heightmap: this is like a field with height values that can be used to represent hills/mountains/ground... (easy)
2: A walls system: this is putting simpel geometric shaping in the level that can be blown to bits.... (a bit harder)
3: A model system: this is a system that lets your add your own models to the level..... (easy)

For the first two things there is an editor in the game-engine itself.
You can bring out that editor by pressing F7 in a 2player game.
For the model system there is another simple script like language.

What will this tutorial teach you?

This level will teach you the basics of building a level.
So! fire up your copy of lbz! lets start right away ok?

STEP 1: Making a heigtmap:

Got LBZ running? you can press the backslash key to make it run in a window.
Ok! start a two player game and select your characters.
Now press F7 to access the editor, you should see that the level is now a bit further away.
In the top left corner there are a few button's: they are three modes in the editor, try them out!

Now activate the Heightmap mode. (the top button)
You should see a simpel window in front of the level with a few buttons on it and a top-down view of the heightmap.
You should also see a slider bar with a white marker on it. click on it with the mouse. (in the middle)
Now move your mouse over the overview of the map: see the red area?
That is the area you can affect.
Left clicking on the top-down view creates a crater in the land, right clicking raises it. simple huh?
So we can select size, and draw ourselfes a nice heigtmap, the result is shown directly on the level.

The buttons you saw are simple to: they are for raising or lowering the terrain, and clear it.
The smooth button attempts to make things a bit more smooth when they are to rough.

HINT: use the bracket keys to select textures for your land. “[“ and “]”

STEP 2: The viewer:

It's time to see the result of our hard work.
Click the viewer button with your mouse.
This is a special mode that lets you see things in any way you like.
It works like this:
The Q A and Z keys on your keyboard are ROTATION keys.
You can press and hold 1 or more of these keys.
Now hold them all three, and click and hold the RIGHT mousebutton and move your mouse.
(I'ts like DRAGGING with the RIGHT mousebutton.)
See how you can rotate the level like this? Cool huh?
The W S and X are much the same: but they do not rotate: the MOVE.
Try pressing (and holding) 1 or more of these keys and dragg with your right mousebutton again.
See? moving and looking at things is not very hard right?

HINT: you can reset the viewmode and rotation etc by pressing SHIFT + the corresponding axis key.

STEP 3: Saving and loading:

Now we have a little level we can test.
Press the O key once to SAVE the level. (You should see a message onscreen saying you saved it.)
Now you can exit the editor (press F7) and play a little :)

Press the F7 key again: back in the editor.
Maybe you wrecked parts of your level? NO PROBLEM: just press L to LOAD your level again.
You should get a message, and you level should be fine again.

STEP 4: Adding walls to it! (advanced)

Now it's time to learn how to use the WALLS editor.
Click the GEOMETRY button.

You should see a weird redlined object somewhere on you level.
This is your geometry cursor. you can rotate and move this around with the same axis keys as in the viewer.
Try it out now. You need to dragg with the LEFT mousebutton to change the CURSOR and with RIGHT to VIEW the level from a different position.

While MOVING and ROTATION you should see that the cursor SNAPS to an invisible grid.
You can change the size of this grid with the , and the . keys. (A message in top-left should say what gridsize you are in)

There are more keys to change the shape of the cursor:
The number keys 1-7 are used to select a THICKNESS for the cursor.
The E,D,C keys reset the shape of the cursor and choose what axis is used as a base.
The U,J,I,K keys also change the shape of your cursor, try and find out yourself.
The + and – keys make the cursor bigger or smaller.
The [ and ] keys change the TEXTURE used for the cursor.

Once you have the cursor the way you like it: press the spacebar to make a wall....
Pretty simple huh?

HINT: the BACKSPACE key deletes the last wall!

STEP 5: The finals:

Save your level.

Goto the directory you installed LBZ in and copy the file level.lev to a safe location.
If you dont: it will be overwritten!

Read the FILES tutorial on how to put it in the game!



EXTRA : the map-model system.

You can add models to the game: open the file data/levels/cellarena/level.mmd to see how! ;)