NovaLogic has designed a new editor for Joint Operations called the NovaLogic Interactive Level Editor (NILE). So far, the beta version has been released and frequent updates will follow. The information in this guide may be outdated but the basic concept of creating a map should still apply. This guide will teach some workflow tips and the outline of an Advance and Secure (AAS) map.
Interface
This is a typical layout of the NILE interface. It can be customized if it does not suit your needs. Take note of the hotkeys for any functions. They can greatly speed up workflow.
1 – These buttons are for changing the speed of camera movement in the viewport. The rabbit is fast movement and the turtle is slow movement. The third button will use acceleration for the camera’s movement.
Hotkeys: F5, F6, F7
2 – These buttons will change the viewport between 2D and 3D.
Hotkeys: F2, F3
3 – These buttons may come in handy. Starting from the left: String Table Resource Editor, Waypoint List, Center View On Object, Tie Camera Views and Default Tool. The String Table Resource Editor and Waypoint List are not used when creating an AAS map. Center View On Object is useful when selecting objects using the palette instead of the viewport. Tie Camera Views can link viewports (when Zoom View is unchecked), so that when the camera is moved in one view, the camera will also move in the linked views. Viewport movement may be choppy and slow when this feature is used. The Default Tool is the tool that is selected as default in the External Tools settings. No default tool is selected when NILE is installed. Other external tools can be added such as the Joint Operations executable.
4 – These are the tool buttons. They modify the mouse functions. Starting on the left: Select, Move, Rotate, Group Select, Zoom, and Pan. Select must be used when selecting objects in the viewport. When another tool is selected, objects can not be selected through the viewport. Move will work in 2D and 3D but will not allow elevation adjustments. Rotate will rotate the object left and right (Theta). Holding Shift will tilt the object left and right (Omega). Control will tilt the object forward and backward (Phi). Group Select, Zoom and Pan are only available in 2D view. Zoom can also be done by using the mouse wheel. Pan can also be done by holding the spacebar.
Hotkeys: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (not numpad)
5 – Grid Spacing and Grid Snaps can only be used in 2D view. Grid Spacing can define grids on the 2D views. Setting a value of zero for X or Z will turn grids off. Grid Snaps will snap an object, while using Move, to where lines intersect.
6 – These buttons are for manipulating tiles. They are accessible when the Tile Palette is in use and the selected view is in 2D. Starting from the left: Tile Layer Down, Tile Layer Up, Rotate Counter-Clockwise, Rotate Clockwise, Flip Horizontally, and Flip Vertically.
The viewport can be customized to show four, two or one view. Right-click in the viewport to access various settings. Turning on Zoom View will enlarge the currently selected view. Experiment to find a comfortable setup. Try using Picture-In-Picture (PIP). Set up one view in 2D then turn on PIP. Turn the viewport back to 3D. Now, the PIP window acts like a mini-map. Try out four views with camera ties. Set one view as 2D and another as 3D then tie the viewports together.
The editor is in beta status and NovaLogic is continually working on the editor, therefore, there will be many updates. Be sure to update your editor once it is installed. It may be wise to create a backup of the editor directory before performing an update in case the update does more harm than good. To perform an update, run the updater from within NILE.
Help -> Update
Or, you can run the update executable in the NILE installation directory. Also, save your work regularly (Ctrl+ S) because the program may crash unexpectedly.
Starting a Map
The first action to start a new map is to set the terrain variables. The Terrain Variables is where you can customize the environment. Access it by:
Mission -> Terrain Variables...
The
Terrain File and
Environment File settings are the most important to starting a map. The former is a list of all maps that come with Joint Operations. There may be a way to import your own heightmaps but this is not the guide’s focus. The latter setting is important to set a skybox (a texture for the sky) and fills in the rest of the variables. A simple procedure is to set a viewport to 3D and then go to the
Terrain Variables. Set a
Terrain File and
Environment File then click OK. Once the terrain is loaded, go back and tweak the remainder variables. As variables are altered, the viewport will update.
Sky Height – Sets how high the ceiling is for the map. Mainly affects helicopters.
Sky Speed – Sets how fast clouds move.
Time of Day – The time is in 24h format.
Time Rate – The speed at which the day cycles.
Fog Distance – The distance in meters at which fog begins.
Fog Type – This can be used to change the way fog appears. Exponential will be a little foggy close to the player and gradually become very foggy. Linear will be much clearer closer to the player. The 25% and 50% variants will be even clearer closer to the player.
Water Level – The height in meters where the water surface begins. Creative use of this setting will dramatically change the look of a map.
Water Color – This is the color of the water and does not affect the clarity of it.
Water Murk – This will change the clarity of the water. A higher number will be murkier water.
Once the terrain variables have been set, the level properties have to be set. Access it by:
Mission -> Level Properties...
The only setting of importance is the game type. Set this to
Advance & Secure. The other properties do not apply to AAS. The mission name has not been implemented and will not show during the map loading screen.
Grids and Snapping
Grids are useful for precisely aligning objects or estimating distances. Grid snapping is the main reason for using grids. Grids are only available in 2D mode. When constructing custom buildings, it is often necessary to turn on grids and snapping. To turn on grids, click on the Grid Setup button while the current view is in 2D mode. Enter a number for X and Z. Most objects are in whole meter increment sizes so 1 is recommended. Now, click on the Grid Snap To button. This will enable snapping for tiles and objects when in Move mode. Snapping cannot be used when inserting tiles and objects.
Palettes
The Objects tab is a nice way of looking at all the objects, especially in tree view. However, once a lot of objects are placed, it becomes difficult to sift through the list of objects. Be sure to assign objects to groups to alleviate this problem. Do this by right-clicking on an object in the list then click
Group... A dialog will pop up with the option of choosing a group or you can create new groups. Try grouping objects by location or at least by team so that selecting objects is easier.
Note: Grouping objects in version .49 seems to crash NILE. It has been fixed in version .50.
Play Profiling will come in handy for play-testing. It allows games to be recorded and played back in NILE. Visit the NovaWorld forums for information on how to use this feature. The other tabs are not necessary to create an AAS map.
Placing Tiles and Objects
The Tile Palette can be used to change the map a bit more to your liking. Choose a tile set and tiles will be available for placement. Clicking on Zoom will display fewer tiles at a time but they will be larger. To place a tile, click on it to select it then click on Insert to be able to place tiles on the map. You may have noticed that activating the Tile Palette switched the current view to 2D. It is much easier to place tiles in 2D but you may switch the view back to 3D to place tiles. However, it is not possible to edit tiles, in 3D view, that have already been placed. After a tile has been placed, it can be rotated, flipped, or moved on top or under other tiles. Tiles are selected the same way as objects and can be snapped to grids while moving.
Note: When placing a tile, it seems to insert 1m south of the expected position. Placing a tile then switching to a different tile will show the previous tile. This is a cosmetic bug and the correct tile will be placed. Sometimes placed tiles will have grass showing through. The majority of tiles, such as concrete, will not show grass in game despite what is seen in NILE. Also, exiting Insert mode will sometimes leave an extra tile on the map. It is not really there and will disappear when switching to another palette.
The Object Palette is where you can pick objects to place on the map. When an object is selected in the list, a preview will be shown in the bottom. Objects can be placed in either the 2D or 3D view. Objects are in one of eight categories:
Building – Almost every building is in this category including armories. Notable exceptions are the spawn bunkers.
Decoration – These are essentially miscellaneous objects. Some of them can be used to build custom structures. An object to note is Armory Version #3. This is the box of weapons that are commonly placed in base bunkers.
Foliage – All sorts of plants and trees.
Marker – These are not objects seen by players. The spawn points for various game types are here. There are also ambient sounds such as birds, insects and urban noise.
Object – Some of these objects can be used for mission objectives. The notable objects are the ones with spawn volumes. These must be used when creating a capturable base. There are also armed emplacements such as .50 Cal MG and Mk 19 bunkers.
Person – Various characters ranging from civilians to Indonesian rebels to Joint Operations soldiers.
Powerup – Ammo and med pack powerups.
Vehicle – These are all the vehicles. All vehicles can be used by players. All vehicles that should come with weapons, such as a BTR or Mk 19 jeep, will come with them. Do not be confused by the stand-alone weapons in the Object category.
Editing Objects
Once an object has been placed, its attributes may be edited. The following will be examples of editing vehicles and base spawns. Most other objects have similar attributes or will not be used for an AAS map.
The first example is editing a vehicle. You may want to change the name to something related to where the vehicle is located. However, grouping the object may suffice. The following descriptions are attributes that will be most often used. These attributes are common to all objects.
X - North/South
Y - Elevation
Z - East/West
Phi - Pitch
Theta - Heading
Omega - Roll
Terrain Align – This button can be used to quickly snap the object to the terrain. It may require fine tuning afterward.
Hotkeys: * (snap to water), / (snap to terrain)
AIP – This setting is very important for vehicles to behave properly. Version .48 and up automatically set the AIP correctly for vehicles. If the AIP is not set correctly, the vehicle will behave oddly (e.g. Helicopter may not require spin up and has no sound).
Team – This attribute is not necessary but is nice to set so that, unoccupied, they show as friendly units on map. They will also be indestructible if Friendly-Fire is off.
Team Budget – This may be set so that later in the game the vehicle will not respawn.
Color – Clicking on the color box under the Terrain Align button will bring up a color palette. This will be the color of the object’s wire frame in the editor. This can be helpful to distinguish between different types of objects (e.g. trees and buildings).
This is a common concrete bunker but is a spawn base because of the
Change Team & Spawn Volume property. These are the objects found in the Object category. The attributes set here will determine the direction of base capture, which bases are assigned to which team and the size of the capture zone.
LFP Group – LFP (Linear Focus Point) groups start at numbering at 1 and go as high as required. The first capturable JO base should be set to 1. The next base in succession should be 2 and so forth until you reach the last Rebel base. If you want several bases to be held before the next can be taken, give those bases the same LFP number.
Team – 0 is neutral, 1 is JO, 2 is Rebel.
Radius – This is size of the capture zone in meters. The viewport updates as the value is edited.
Object Population
Object Population is a plug-in for NILE and allows mappers to randomly insert object(s). This is useful for inserting foliage, rocks or even people. It is found under:
Extensions -> Object Population
The following parameter descriptions are the most commonly used to randomly place objects.
Object Palette – Select an object for random population. More than one object can be selected.
Object Count – The number of objects, not of each selected, that will be placed. When more than one object is selected, it will still place the same number of objects but they will be randomly selected.
Note: Versions prior .50 will have Object Count as the # per 10 square meters. In this case, always use 1. A higher number seems to be too much processing and crashes NILE.
Object Yaw, Pitch & Roll – Yaw is the same as the object’s heading. A random value between the Min and Max will be set for the object.
Select Area – This will hide the dialog so you can specify an area for object population. Click and drag a rectangle.
Populate – Clicking this button will populate the selected area with the parameters specified. If no area is selected, the entire map is considered the selected area.
AAS Checklist
To sum it all up, the requirements for an AAS map are:
• Bases with spawn volumes
• Advance & Secure selected as game type
• LFP groupings
• Default spawn
LFP Groupings may be confusing at first so here is a chart to help explain the correct usage.
NovaLogic has created a very simple to use editor. Once the basic navigation skills are learned, it is quite simple to make a map.
