DescentBB

In D3 singleplayer levels, how would I get the player to start on the terrain. I tried moving the player out of the first room onto the terrain, but when I tested the level all I got was a \"hall of mirrors,\" as if I was outside the level.

From memory, you don't ... you have to put the player inside a room.

The room doesn't have to have any visible faces though.

How do you make a face not visible? Or could you script so that at the level start, the player is moved onto the terrain?

I think you put the player in a room on the terrain (or over it), texture it a certain way, then hit the link to external room or some such. Been a while since I played with d3edit though...

One way you could do it is place the starting room on the surface. You morph it so its a flat \"pad\" and make it an \"outside room\".

I've never tried it, but it would only take a couple of minutes to give it a go.

If the room was a flat \"pad\", how would you get the player inside it?

Oh, ok. you build a room inside a room. ..yeah.. i know. that's kinda vague. There are some tuts out there ..or were.. that explained how to build a floating room. Use the same principle outside.

In d3 single player, you start outside ..infact .. there are several levels now that I think about it where you start outside.

Off hand, I would try making it so you can push objects through walls and move the player starting point to the terrain.... hm. I'll have try this when I get home. .

Pushing the player through the walls was the first thing I tried, and when I tested the level, all I got was a \"hall of mirrors\".

You need to use the \"Link room to new external room feature. That's how the Creep Out level did it, or was it the other Halloween level...

what Jake said.

Any time you move an object to another room by pushing, you need to link it to that new room... or the outside.

And after you link the room to the external room, can you move the player out of it?

EDIT: When I try to move a room around on the terrain, I can't tell if it's where I want it because it either appears way above or way below the terrain, depending on how the camera is rotated. A few days ago I tried the \"link room to new external room.\" Whenever I clicked on the option, the \"Rainbow texture\" changed back to whatever it had been before, and the editor told me to select a face.

From what I've seen, the \"Hall of Mirrors\" effect happens when a player is in one room, but they're linked to a different room.

So if you want the player to start outside, you have to link them to the \"outside room\" somehow.

right Foil. iirc, it's in object properties. I haven't done that in so long.. but you are right about the object being linked to the other room. It considers that object outside the level shell. Just like anytime you fly through a hole in the level.

I got the player start outside to work, but the outdoor area looks terrible. Nothing I can't fix though.

Thanks!

Ok, here's my two cents worth:
Make a simple room, a small cube will do. It must be used as the first room in a new level. All faces need to be 'rainbow' texture, it shows in the browser as some colors with 'Outrage Test' on it. Now, mark all faces and, in world view, select 'Link Marked to External Room', and viola, your room vanishes! It is still there, in fact you now have two rooms, one external and one internal. 'Verify' will throw this as an error, telling you that you have a duplicated room, but that's okay. If you move the player start, it must stay in the internal room. You can move the internal room by deleting the external room, moving the internal room, and recreating the external room.

I would not make a platform and link an external room to it, it could be problematic. I would make the platform separately, and 'hover' an invisible, external room slightly above it. Outdoor areas are handled completely different from the indoor areas. Two different engines linked through an external room. To make that transition smooth, 'Link to external Room' seems to work the best, even when it is applied to just one face. Try playing D3 on an older machine with motherboard video and you really see the difference. In particular with doors, you can't just leave off a face and mark the door room as external.