UnrealSP.org4. Mapping world geometry in blender
index
4.A: Important hotkeys
4.B: Adding some starting geometry inside our map
4.C: Examples of editing our geometry (Optional)
This part will actually cover creating and editing geometry, and also include a legend of important hotkeys for both Edit mode and Object mode when handling geometry and more. We will start getting practical experience on creating our own worlds and creations in this program and referencing the hotkeys to figure out how to do that.
This process will be split between both Object and Edit mode as BSP would be considered rather low poly. Object mode allows us to manage the positioning of Objects in our scene, such as where they are located and other transformations. Before exporting any brushes as .t3d, we must make sure all those objects have their transformations applied, (the same thing as Transform Permanently in UnrealEd). While Edit mode will allow us to edit the geometry of a specific object, giving us operational abilities such as moving, rotating, extruding, bevelling, spinning (like revolve in UEd), insetting, filling, subdividing, joining, splitting, merging, separating, grid snapping etc selected 3d items (verts, edges and polygons etc). Edit mode will also allow us to UV unwrap (precise texture alignments) and then UV edit the faces we've selected. The amount of control we have from these operations sum total is much greater, faster and more precise than UEd would ever permit.
You can switch between modes (such as Object or Edit mode) up here:
(4.A)
Important hotkeys
The best resource for all of the hotkeys and edit mode operations at Blender's disposal would be it's official documentation https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/latest/ . The documentation seems to only support the latest version, but most hotkeys should remain the same.
Selecting is done with your mouse button of choice which you earlier configured in the Keymap tab of the Preferences window.
Hotkeys
CTRL+Z = Undo.
CTRL+SHIFT+Z = Redo.
NUMPAD 5 = Toggles between PERSPECTIVE and ORTHOGRAPHIC view.
NUMPAD 7 = Switches to TOP view (holding CTRL while pressing the hotkey inverses the direction).
NUMPAD 1 = Switches to FRONT view (holding CTRL while pressing the hotkey inverses the direction).
NUMPAD 3 = Switches to SIDE view (holding CTRL while pressing the hotkey inverses the direction).
CTRL+D = Duplicates and moves the duplicate to a new location using the mouse. Works in Object mode and Edit mode (among others)
TAB = Toggles edit mode on the fly (will switch back to the previous mode you were in if the hotkey is pressed again).
G = Moves selected items around in conjunction with moving the mouse, works in Object mode and Edit mode. To confirm the move, press your primary mouse button and once doing so will display an expandable dialog at the bottom left of the 3d view. Pressing X, Y or Z while moving restricts the movement along that axis.
R = Rotates the selected items in conjunction with moving the mouse, works in Object mode and Edit mode. To confirm rotation, press your primary mouse button and once doing so will display an expandable dialog at the bottom left of the 3d view giving you some more specific options. Pressing X, Y or Z while rotating restricts the rotation along that axis (or the axis will default to the camera angle). Your 3D cursor (pivot point), Median Point, Active Element, Individual Origins or Bounding Box center can all be chosen to conjunct with this operation:
S = Scales the selected items in conjunction with moving the mouse, works in Object mode or Edit mode. To confirm the scale operation, press your primary mouse button and once doing so will display an expandable dialog at the bottom left of the 3d view giving you some more specific options. Pressing X, Y or Z while scaling restricts the scale operation along that axis. Your 3D cursor (pivot point), Median Point, Active Element, Individual Origins or Bounding Box center can all be chosen to conjunct with this operation:
E = Extrudes (then moves) the selected items in conjunction with moving the mouse. Works only in Edit mode. To confirm the extrusion, press your primary mouse button and once doing so will display an expandable dialog at the bottom left of the 3d view giving you some more specific options. Pressing X, Y or Z while extruding restricts the extrude-moving operation along that axis.
SHIFT+S = Opens the Snap Menu and affects the selected vertexes or objects depending on whether you're in Object mode or Edit mode. The Snap Menu gives you the choice to Snap selected (verts or objects) to grid which we will make use of a lot, including other options. Refer to the image below for all the options this operation provides:
I = Insets the selected items in conjunction with moving the mouse. Works only in Edit mode. To confirm the inset, press your primary mouse button and once doing so will display an expandable dialog at the bottom left of the 3d view giving you some more specific options. Thickness value defines the amount of the inset, while Depth value (which can be positive or negative) will either elevate or deepen the result of the inset face:
CTRL+V = Opens the 'Vertex context menu' with a list of operations that only affect selected vertexes. Works only in Edit mode.
CTRL+E = Opens the 'Edge context menu' with a list of operations that only affect selected edges. Works only in Edit mode.
CTRL+F = Opens the 'Face context menu' with a list of operations that only affect selected faces (polygons). Works only in Edit mode.
ALT+N = Opens the 'Normals context menu', the important item on this menu is 'Flip' that toggles the direction of a selected face. Works only in Edit mode.
F = Fills in a new face if 3 or more vertexes are selected, while if only 2 (unconnected) vertexes are selected, this will fill in an edge between those vertexes. Avoid doing this when the two vertexes are already connected over the same polygon. Works only in Edit mode.
J = Joins two selected vertexes if they are already connected over a polygon. This is very useful to manually triangulate. Only works in Edit mode.
L = Selects linked geometry region of whatever the mouse is hovering over. Works only in Edit mode.
CTRL+L = Selects linked geometry of which connect to whatever item(s) are selected. Works only in Edit mode.
CTRL+Primary MB = Selects items on connected geometry on the closest path, and works with vertexes, edges or polygons. Works only in Edit mode. Good for speed selecting.
ALT+Primary MB = Selects a loop cut (a straight line on quad based geometry). Works only in Edit mode.
A = Select all. Works in both Object and Edit modes.
ALT+A = Deselect all. Works in both Object and Edit modes.
DELETE = Deletes the selected objects or geometry depending on which mode we're in. In Edit mode, attempting to delete something will open a delete menu with options of what to delete.
M = Opens the Merge menu of which it's options affect whichever (multiple) vertexes are selected already. Works only in Edit mode.
At First = Finishes the merge at the location of the first vertex that was selected.
At Last = Finishes the merge at the location of the last vertex that was selected
At Center = Finishes the merge in the median point of the selected vertexes, which most likely will place the result off grid, requiring you to snap it back onto grid.
At Cursor = Finishes the vertex merge result at the 3d cursor location, which will place the merged vertex off of the grid if the cursor already is
CTRL+R = Starts a loop cut (a straight line along quads) based on where the mouse is situated while hovering over geometry. Works only in Edit mode. To confirm the loop cut, press your primary mouse button once, then you should be able to slide the loop cut across that surface. Pressing primary mouse again will display an expandable dialog at the bottom left of the 3d view giving you some more specific options.
Y = Splits off selected geometry but keeps it in the same blender object. Works only in Edit mode.
P = Separates geometry off into a new object. Pressing will bring up the Separate menu where you can choose what elements to separate. Works only in Edit mode. I mostly use selection, which separates the selected geometry into a new object:
H = Hides selected geometric items in Edit mode, and in Object mode hides entire objects.
ALT+H = Unhides everything associated to the object in Edit mode, and in Object mode unhides all objects in your .blend scene.
Operations without direct default hotkeys
Bevel Edges = Bevels selected edges of geometry in conjunction with moving the mouse in Edit mode. Clicking the primary mouse button during this operation will confirm it and bring up more detailed options (at the bottom left of the 3d view). This operation can be accessed with the edge context menu (CTRL+E). The most notable values here are the Width value that defines the extent of the bevel and the Segments value that controls how many faces the bevel has, by default the created bevel will be quadratic:
Subdivide = Cuts the selected edges/polys into multiple divisions in Edit mode. Selecting the operation will immediately bring up more detailed options (at the bottom left of the 3d view). This operation can be accessed with the edge context menu (CTRL+E). The most notable value here is the Number of Cuts value that defines the quantity of subdivisions:
Mark Seam and Clear Seam = Marks or clears the selected edges as a seam. Seams are important for numerous things when dealing with BSP geometry but mainly they are used to separate the UV islands on the UV map during Edit mode. This operation can be accessed with the edge context menu (CTRL+E). Seams are also useful for separating regions of connected geometry if we were to Select Linked with face selection activated (Hover mouse + L).
Triangulate faces = Changes all selected geometry into triangulated polygons during Edit mode, which all of our imported geometry into UEd will end up being (Colin Basnetts exporter should automatically triangulate everything anyway). This operation can be accessed with the face context menu (CTRL+F).
Tris to Quads = Changes all selected triangulated polygons into quads (surfaces with 4 vertexes and 4 edges) during Edit mode. This operation can be accessed with the face context menu (CTRL+F).
Poke Faces = Joins the vertexes on any selected face directly to a single vertex into the middle during Edit mode. This operation can be accessed with the face context menu (CTRL+F).
Solidify faces = Adds depth on the back face of selected polygons during Edit mode. Triggering the operation will instantly bring up more detailed options (at the bottom left of the 3d view). This operation can be accessed with the face context menu (CTRL+F). In the detailed options, the thickness value defines the amount in units of depth added, the result may put newly created vertexes off of the grid so you will probably have to snap them back to the grid.
Bevel Vertices = Bevels selected vertexes during Edit mode. Performs mostly the same operation as Bevel Edges but applies the effect to vertexes instead. This operation can be accessed with the vertex context menu (CTRL+V).
Flip = Flips the selected normals during Edit mode (swaps the facing direction of a polygon). This operation can be accessed with the normals context menu (ALT+N).
(4.B)
Adding some starting geometry inside our map
After going over some crucial hotkeys that can be referred back to at any time, now is the time we'll be acquiring some practical experience even though it will remain simple. The best and most powerful example that we'll be using is creating an outdoor area that should be mostly your creation. If we think of vertex editing in UEd, that's what we'll mostly be doing here by selecting vertexes and other geometric elements then pressing G to move those selected items around which I think will be the best way to start. Since we're making a purely additive world, we'll need to make sure when we're ready to finalize the environment that there are no holes or leaks for the player to fall through (referring to actual gaps between geometry rather than Unreal's BSP holes, where if we perform certain parts methodically we shouldn't be getting any BSP holes at all).
To begin, we'll create some starting geometry to work with; we will be in object mode for this (and our geometry should be separate from the bounding box).
Add a plane by clicking Add > Mesh > Plane on the top left of the 3d view.
... and then make it something sizeable and familiar like 8192 (the size is entered at the bottom left of the 3d view once the plane is added).
Now with the newly created plane selected, we will enter Edit mode to edit this specific object (the mode can be switched at the top left of the 3d view). Once we enter Edit mode we'll also get some new useful options in the same menu in which we can change the grid scaling.
Enable Edge Length in this drop down menu, it will tell us the length of selected edges. You may also want to turn off 'Floor' which is above the grid scale, that will remove the visual grid floor (this might get in the way for you depending on your preference).
Now we can start manipulating our plane, which we may wish to subdivide; To subdivide, select all the geometry of your plane with A, then open the edge context menu with CTRL+E and select Subdivide.
Increase the Number of cuts to 15 for now, which will give us 16 rows and 16 columns (the cuts counts the edges made in between), if we ever need more detail to work with we can make other operations later on.
If we glance carefully though, we'll notice that the length of edges is 512 units (same as uu) as we enabled the Edge Length Overlay earlier, this may be a little small to start working with, but this is very easy to change.
If the 3d Cursor has not moved from it's original position, and the geometry also hasn't moved from it's original position, it should be safe for us to scale this subdivided plane up by a factor of 2. If we check the top of the 3d view we'll see where we can set our pivot point, by default it's on median point which refers to the median location of the selected geometry to perform certain transformations, but because we want to have to snap things back to the grid as less as possible we might want to change the pivot point to the 3d Cursor for this next step:
Scale the geometry up (assuming everything is still selected) with S and then control the scale amount with the mouse. As we told Blender to snap when scaling as well as rotating earlier on this tutorial, moving the mouse during this process should dynamically scale it up (the opposite way would have the opposite affect) with snapping applied. If you're comfortable with scaling it up with the mouse to reach a factor of 2 you can, but if you want to precisely specify the amount, if you confirm the scale and look to the bottom left of the 3d view we should see some specific options.
As our geometry was snapped to grid earlier, if we make sure the scale is exactly 2.000 we can guarantee that it will still remain on the grid, but if you want to be *sure* you can snap selected to grid with SHIFT+S and then choosing 'Selection to Grid', which when working with BSP we'll need to do methodically, especially prior to exporting brush objects.
At this point, we can deselect all geometry (ALT+A), then we can start selecting elements of the geometry (Vertexes, edges or polys) and move them around with G to move.
We need to know how we can change which elements of the geometry we select however, those buttons are found directly right of where you selected 'Edit mode':
From here, there are multiple things you can do. I'd like to make it more up to you what you want to create to start feeling ownership over your experience. The next parts of this section are optional and will feature some examples of how some of the operations listed above can be used in a basic example map, I have a feeling though you may already have started playing around with the tools at hand (which is good, but if not that's not an issue either).
(4.C)
Examples of editing our geometry (Optional)
Joining:
We can also control the means of triangulation by selecting two vertices across a face and pressing J, as controlling our triangulation is also a means of structuring our geo:
Moving:
We can move any selected elements around with G, that includes vertices, edges or faces.
Moving stuff in TOP orthographic view
With a fairly sized grid of polygons set up, we can begin by moving some of the vertices on the grid around (G) while in the top orthographic view (NUMPAD 7). Moving things with G in Top Orthographic view will avoid changing the Z (height) position of the vertices:
Moving, joining, extruding and deleting
Combining joining (J) and moving (G) we can start to plan and structure our geometry. I then selected these faces (after switching to face select) by first selecting a single one, then fast selecting the rest on shortest path (holding CTRL while selecting) which are currently on the ground. I then extrude the selection (E and then moving the mouse) upwards.
I deselect my currently active selection (ALT+A) then select the faces that I don't need, again using CTRL while selecting to select by shortest path (if this ends up selecting unintended areas you can chain the selection one by one by holding SHIFT while selecting):
More detailed Moving tips:
I move some of the vertices on the top of the cliff wall around by switching to Vertex selection selecting those vertices and pressing G again. I can also choose to move (G) on a single axis (pressing X, Y or Z while moving), I restricted certain vertices to move on vertically.
Marking temporary seams as a way of controlling our selections:
Another trick we can do if wanting to select a large area without needing to select each element one by one, we can go into edge select mode and select some edges to use as a border between selections, then go into the Edge context menu (CTRL+E) and select Mark seam, highlighting the edges as red to tell us that it's a seam.
From doing this, we can switch to face selection mode then select everything behind the red line (the seam) by hovering the mouse over the area and pressing L.
Don't forget to save your progress every now and then!
Scale reference:
As we manipulate our geometry more, adding cliffs and environmental facets, we might want to know how large our environment scales up in comparison to a player or other character. Feel free to use an .obj of any exported Unreal character, otherwise we can import the one we acquired from this tutorial earlier. We'll need to be back in object mode for this (TAB toggles in and out of Edit mode), then we'll reach up to the menu at the top of the interface, and click File > Import > Wavefront (.obj) and then navigate to the .obj file that we need (depending where you saved it). Make sure to not split the verts, we should keep vertex order.
Extruding vertices and filling gaps:
We also have the option to extrude an individual vertex to extend out an edge (E), once we do, the new vertex will be floating and not attached to any polys. By selecting 3 or more verts and pressing F we can fill in a new face, this is useful for attaching floating edges/verts to actual geometry.
Merging:
Another way which we can eliminate a few extra vertices is using Merging. Selecting more than 1 vertex then pressing M will open the Merge Menu. Merge options include At Center (merges to the median point of the selection), At Cursor (merges selected vertices to the 3d cursor location), Collapse, At First (Merges to the location of the first selected vertex in your selection chain), At Last (Merges to the location of the last selected vertex in your selection chain).
Subdividing + Loop Cut & slide:
After a while of continuing to manipulate our geometry, we may start to have something more cohesive, one thing i haven't yet covered though is loop cutting. We might try to add some detail onto the walls of our cliffs, which we can do with selecting all the vertical edges on the cliff walls and then using the edge context menu (CTRL+E). Or if the geometry we intend to subdivide is made mostly out of quads, we can use Loop Cut and Slide (CTRL+R) which will target a row of edges to subdivide without needing to select each edge individually.
Grid snapping:
All of our vertices of our brush geometry should be on the grid before we export the objects as .t3d. I can select all of my object's geometry (A) and then snap the selection to grid (SHIFT+S then select 'Selection to Grid')
Separating select geo into a separate object and UV Unwrapping:
To prevent us from having to select every face manually in UEd to apply a texture, we should make it a habit to separate different parts of the geometry that will use a different texture, that will make it a separate brush and we will have the option in UEd to select faces by matching brush. We most likely want to give our ground an appropriate texture like grass or mud, therefore we can mark a seam around the edges of our ground by selecting those edges, pressing CTRL+E and then Mark seam, then switch to face select, hover over the ground and press L to select by linked, then we can separate our selection by pressing P to open the separate menu, then we choose 'Selection'.
Now press TAB to exit editing of our main object for a moment which will bring us back to Object Mode then select our new ground which is a separate object and enter Edit mode on this. In edit mode, i'll select all (A) and then unwrap the geometry by opening the unwrap menu (U and then Unwrap). This gives our geometry a UV map, though if we wanted, we could also align the ground with 'Align to Floor/ceiling' in UnrealEd.
To view the UV map of selected geometry, feel free to change one of the windows of the interface that we're not using, like the Outliner or the Animation Timeline. I would say the animation timeline would be best to sacrifice as it serves no use when dealing with BSP
Don't forget to save!