Overview of World Building with Multiverse Tools

From Multiverse

Multiverse Tools

Overview  •  Installing Using World Editor Release Notes  •  FAQ  •  Tools Troubleshooting  •  Future Plans

Tools UI References

Model Viewer  •  World Editor  •  Terrain Generator

Working with Terrain

About Terrain  •  Using L3DT Pro  •  Using EarthSculptor  •  Using PnP TerrainCreator  •  Importing Heightmap Terrain  •  Using Mosaic Creator

Other Tools

Third-Party Tools  •  Creating Skyboxes with Terragen

Contents 1 Introduction 2 General process 3 Multiverse model and animation assets 4 Sound assets

Introduction

Multiverse provides a suite of graphical tools for virtual world building:

• Terrain Generator creates a world topography, that is, a world's basic contours and terrain elevation. It can either generate a fractal topography based on a seed heightmap or use heightmap terrain generated by third-party tools such as L3DT Professional and PnP TerrainCreator.

See About Terrain for more information on creating terrain.

• World Editor is the central tool that enables you to:
  • Place, move and edit objects (static assets) in a world.
  • Create and edit markers, specific identified locations that you can use in various ways.
  • Create and edit regions, enclosed areas that can contain water, trees, or other terrain/world features.
  • Create and edit roads, visual features used for travel and orientation.

See World Editor Tasks for more information on using World Editor.

• Model Viewer displays 3D models and animations with various lighting and rendering conditions.

See Using Model Viewer Version 1.0 for more information.

Multiverse also provides tools for converting 3D assets to Multiverse format from popular modeling tools and tools for managing media assets.

General process

The typical workflow with the Multiverse tools is:

1. Create your world's basic terrain using the using Terrain Generator.
2. Create static and animated assets using tools such as Maya, 3D Studio Max, or Blender. Follow guidelines and requirements in Creating and Exporting Assets.
3. Export models into COLLADA data exchange format.
4. Convert COLLADA files to Multiverse formating using the Model Conversion Tool.
5. Import assets to your asset repository using Asset Importer.
6. View assets using Model Viewer.
7. Add water, trees and forests, buildings, and other objects to your world using the Multiverse using World Editor.
8. Define mobs, quests, and all the other aspects of your game world using server Python scripts. Multiverse plug-ins provide a wide range of built-in functionality that you can script.
9. Optionally, program additional functionality or extend Multiverse plug-ins with Java or Python. You can then script any objects you create.
10. Customize the Multiverse client with scripts, custom artwork, and user interface widgets (if desired).
11. Run game world locally for testing and further development. Refine game world and add additional assets as desired.

This figure illustrates this workflow:

Multiverse model and animation assets

Multiverse uses a binary file formats based on OGRE for 3D models. Several files define a model:

• .mesh file: a binary file that contains the geometry of the model and refers to the model's .material and .skeleton files.
• .skeleton file (optional): For animated models, this binary file contains the model's bones, the bone hierarchy, and the animations (expressed in terms of the bones).
• .material file: a text file that specifies attributes of the model's appearance, such as lighting and texturing. The .material file can invoke vertex or fragment programs on the GPU. Edit .material files with any text editor.
• .physics file (optional): a text file that defines collision volumes for the model. Collision volumes prevent models from "moving through" each other.

You can reate assets with most standard 3D modeling tools (3ds, Maya, and so on), export to the standard COLLADA format, and then use the Model Conversion Tool to convert to the Multiverse format. Maya, 3ds Max, Blender, and SoftImage XSI have COLLADA exporters. Many other tools, such as Milkshape, can export directly into the OGRE .mesh format, which may be suitable for some uses.

For general guidelines on creating models and information on creating assets in popular tools, see Creating and Exporting Assets.

Sound assets

Multiverse uses the OGG audio file format (.ogg) or .wav file formats for sound.