Design Yu ME Manual
YuME%20Manual
YuME%20Manual
YuME%20Manual
YuME%20Manual
YuME%20Manual
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YuME: Yuponic Map Editor Version: 1.04: ▪ Prefab Sampler o o ▪ A tool to allow you to select a series of objects in a scene and generate a prefab Created prefabs can be easily converted into YuME tiles Bug fix for the append name on the converter not being applied. Previous version change list Version: 1.03 ▪ Selective layer freezing o o ▪ Layers can be set to be frozen or dynamic Unfrozen tiles can be set static or dynamic Flexible grid canvas: o o The grid canvas can now be moved to anywhere in your scene A default position for the grid can be set in the editor config Version: 1.02 ▪ Updates to the converter, including: o o o o o ▪ Full conversion of the source prefab, including lights etc. Added a reimport option for adding new tiles to a tileset without losing transform values Removed the options for collision, shadows, and static setting to increase compatibility Bug Fix: Incorrect append name was being use Bug Fix: Incorrect custom brush folder was being used Updates to the Freeze Map function, including: o o o Freezing now copies any lights that were part of prefabs into the frozen map All frozen map objects are set to static Bug: Incorrect material was something being applied Version: 1.01 ▪ Added global scale setting ▪ Added an invert mouse wheel for moving the grid ▪ Bug fix for Converting tiles with no collision Version 1.0 ▪ Initial release 1. YuME: Yuponic Map Editor 1.1. Introduction The Yuponic Map Editor (YuME) is a Unity Editor Extension created to allow level designer to rapidly prototype game levels and environments using 3D Tiles, or blocks. YuME allows you to create your own tilesets and import them in an intuitive way for use in the tool and your game. You can also convert existing tile-based assets for use in the tool. 1.1.1. Why did we create this tool? Unity is a fantastic game engine that allows amateurs and pro’s alike to create the game of their dreams. However, in catering for all possible game types, from MMOs to Flappy Birds, the editor needs to function is a genre neutral way. Building game levels in Unity can be time consuming and fiddly due to limited grid snapping and the time-consuming placement of prefabs. YuME allows designers to build levels in a more natural way by using a set of prefab brushes and painting them directly into a grid snapped scene. This approach will be very familiar to 2D game creators, and with YuME I wanted to bring the speed and flexibly of a 2D Tile Mapper to 3D games. 1.1.2. A little history 3D Tiles form a large part of my history in the games industry. I’ve been fortunate enough to have making games professionally for over 23 years, and throughout that time the techniques and tools for game creation have changed dramatically, but in other ways have also come full circle. I first worked with a 3D tile based editor on the game Vortex for the Super Nintendo. Back then the maps were built in D-Paint (an industry standard bitmap editor). We had a limit palette which represented game objects and dropping a color on a 64x64 bitmap to place an object in the scene. A few years later I started working on a concept for a 3D Platform Game that became Croc: Legend of the Gobbos. Realizing we needed a tool to build the levels we ended up creating CrocEd, which used 3D tiles that were placed within a cube grid to build the world. Although the CrocEd was ultimately limited by what we could create on the Playstation, the tool allowed the design team to be incredibly creative and iterate quickly on levels for the game. The CrocEd and engine went on a power a bunch of different games, from Disney’s Aladdin to Harry Potter. 2/21 Yuponic Ltd. As the trend to realism kicked in throughout the PS2/PS3 years, tile based games fell out of favor. That is until recently. As the market broadened I started to see a lot more games go back to using techniques we developed for Croc. Even Nintendo moved over to a more tilebased approach with games like Super Mario 3D World and Captain Toad Treasure Tracker. These days it’s an artistic choice rather than a limitation of technology. And for me, it’s a fast and creative way to try out ideas without having to build geometry and hand place it in the scene. 1.1.3. Suitability YuME is the perfect tool for creating focused, level based games. These can be strategy games, platform games, arena based FPS games, etc. It’s probably better to focus on games YuME isn’t so suited to. If you’re looking to create a vast open world game with a naturalistic environment, be it a mystic forest or the streets a cyber-Singapore then YuME isn’t going to get you to your end goal. There are tools and techniques better suited to creating those kind of games, and I probably owe you a refund ☺ 1.2. Use Cases There are a few use cases where I can see YuME being the most useful: ▪ ▪ ▪ Tile Based Games: Where game environments are designed around the concept of tile prefabs. Suggested games to look at include Captain Toad Treasure Tracker, Atlas Reactor, and the latest batch of Pokémon games for the 3DS. Level Prototypes: Where a level designer wants to quickly build out the structure of the level with an eye to an art team taking the basic structure and doing an art pass. Game Jams and Prototypes: Where you quickly want to try out ideas and mechanics and make rapid progress. For some games, YuME will be the only tool you use to build levels. For others, it will be the start of the tool chain to help you get up and running quickly and efficiently. 1.3. Feature requests and Bugs We’re always looking for suggests on how to improve YuME, and we’re also keen to squash any bug you discover. If you have any suggestions or bugs to report, either drop by the forums at https://www.facebook.com/groups/723432771140117 or drop me an email on info@yuponic.com 3/21 Yuponic Ltd. 2. Getting Started 2.1. Importing YuME Once purchased from the Unity Asset Store you’ll be prompted to import two key folders, one name Yuponic and the other Gizmos. The Yuponic folder is the home of YuME and the source for the editor and prototype tileset. The Gizmos folder contains a single image which is used as a guide to where tiles are located in the scene. YuME has been designed so that folders are not hard-coded. This means that after import you can move the Yuponic folder into a sub-folder of you wish. For example, I like to move my 3rd party assets into a specific folder to keep the root of the project tidy. 2.1.1. A note on Gizmos Publishing to the Unity Asset store means that all files and assets need to be within a specific folder, for example our Yuponic folder. However, this means that any scene gizmos cannot be included because the Gizmos folder still needs to be in the root of the project. We’ve included a Gizmos folder inside Yuponic/YuME. Please copy this folder to the root of the project. 2.2. Opening the Map Editor Once imported the window drop down will have a new entry named Yuponic. Instead the Yuponic drop down you’ll see three items and a sub-folder. Selecting ‘YuME: Map Editor’ opens the map editor. The map editor window can be docked or left floating if based on your preference. 2.3. Adding YuME to a Scene YuME needs to add a couple of game objects to your scene. One object handles the grid and is not active in play mode. The other acts as a container for the tiles you’ll be dropping into the scene. To add these objects to the scene, click on the ‘Add YuME Map Editor Objects’ button in the map editor window. 4/21 Yuponic Ltd. The scene will now have two new objects: ▪ ▪ YuME_MapEditorObject YuME_MapData 2.4. Enabling YuME Once the scene as the necessary files added to the scene the main map editor interface is displayed. To start using YuME, click the ‘Enable YuME’. The YuME grid and tool bars will appear in the scene view and you are ready to start building your level. 2.5. Building Levels By default, the Paint Tool (3D cube icon) is active. Using this tool, you can paint the currently selected tile onto the grid. If this is the first time you’ve used YuME, the prototype tileset will be set as the current tileset. 5/21 Yuponic Ltd. As you cursor over the scene you’ll see a highlighted copy of the currently selected tile move across grid. To begin painting tiles in the scene simply press or hold the left mouse button. To change the tile that forms the brush simply select a tile from the palette in the map editor window. The palette window is a great way to preview the content you can build your levels with. However, if you want to quickly scroll through the available tiles, hold SHIFT and CONTROL and scroll the Mouse Wheel. With every scroll of the mouse wheel the brush cursor updates allowing you to stay focused on the scene view as you create your levels. To build on different levels you can move the grid up and down. This can be done by either clicking on the grid icons or by holding SHIFT and scrolling the Mouse Wheel. Often, you’ll want to rotate tiles that are none symmetrical. To rotate the tile, you can either click on the rotate icon or use the Z and X key to rotate clockwise and counter-clockwise. 6/21 Yuponic Ltd. Tiles can also be flipped, allowing for the maximum reuse of the minimum about of tiles. To flip a tile horizontally or vertically simply click on the flip icons. If you want to paint more than one tile at a time you can adjust the brush size. There are a couple of different ways to do this. To simply 2D scale up the brush, use the [ and ] keys. You can also independently scale the brush on all axis. Cursor Left/Right scales the brush on the X axis. Cursor Up/Down scales the brush on the Z axis. Shift and cursor Up/Down scales the brush on the Y axis. Scaling on the X and Y always scales to odd numbers (for example 1,3,5,7) to keep the brush centered on the grid. Scaling on the Y is purely incremental. To reset the brush press Enter/Return. 7/21 Yuponic Ltd. 3. Tools Overview 3.1. Primary Tool Bar Standard Tools: Defaults back to the standard unity tools. Tool shortcut: ESC Paint Tool: Paint Tiles into the scene. LMB to Paint the current brush. Tool shortcut: A Pick Tool: Pick a tile in the scene and make it the current brush. LMB to pick tile. Tool shortcut: S Erase Tool: Erase the tile under the brush. LMB to erase the tile. Tool shortcut: D Select Tool: Select the tile under the brush. LMB to select the tile. ALT + LMB to deselect. 3.2. Secondary Tool Bar Info Tool: Show a helper gizmo that identifies the tile pivot. If tiles are selected, additional information about their layer, name, and grid level is shown. Isolate Grid Tool: Hides all tiles not on the current gird level. Grid Up Tool: Move the grid up 1 position. ALT + click moves the grid 0.25. Tool shortcut: = or SHIFT + Mouse Wheel Up Grid Down Tool: Move the grid down 1 position. ALT + click moves the grid 0.25. Tool shortcut: - or SHIFT + Mouse Wheel Down Rotate Tool: Rotate the current brush 90 degrees. Tool shortcut: Z / X to rotate clockwise / counter-clockwise Flip Z Tool: Flips the brush in the Z axis. Flip X Tool: Flips the brush in the X axis. 8/21 Yuponic Ltd. 3.3. Select Toolbar The select toolbar is only active when a tile is selected. To select tiles, use the Select Tool or the standard unity tools. Copy Brush Tool: Copies the currently selected tiles and makes them the active brush. Cut Brush Tool: Cuts the currently selected tiles and makes them the active brush. Custom Brush Tool: Creates a saved copy of the selected tile and stores them in the custom brush tab and folder. Erase Selected Tiles Tool: Deletes the selected tiles from the scene. Important. When selecting with the default unity tools you should always use the erase tool to prevent additional game objects from being delete. 3.4. Layer Toolbar Layer Isolate Tool: Hide all tiles that are not on the current layer. Layer Select Tool: Use the arrows to select the current layer. Note: Layer names can be edited in the settings window. 9/21 Yuponic Ltd. 4. Map Editor Window Enable YuME: Activates the editor in scene. In an off state, all standard Unity functionality is restored Open Settings: Opens the settings window. Grid Dimensions: Change the size of the YuME grid. Scene Info: Current grid height and brush size. Choose Tileset: Pick the active tileset dropdown. Reload Tilesets: Refreshes the available tileset. Used after import. Brush Types: Choose standard tiles or custom brushes Brush Palette: Previews of all the current tiles in a tileset. Click select to make a tile the active brush. Preview Columns: Change the width of the palette to suit your editor setup. Freeze Map: Consolidate the map into a single, un-editable mesh. 10/21 Yuponic Ltd. 5. Custom Brushes 5.1. Creating a custom brush Often, you’ll find yourself repeating specific tile configurations. To save time in level building you can save a selection of tiles and store them as a custom brush. Select the tiles you want to store either using the Select Tool of the standard unity selection tools. Once selected click on the Custom Brush icon. The custom brush will now be available in the custom brush tab of the main YuME editor window. To use the custom brush simply select. Custom brushes can be rotated and flipped just like standard tiles. If the brush is no longer needed it can be delete in the editor window. 11/21 Yuponic Ltd. 5.1.1. Note on Custom Brushes from multiple tilesets In YuME you can build your map from multiple tilesets at the same time. However, there is an issue concerning custom bushes and tiles from different tilesets. If you create a custom brush, when it comes to painting it back into the scene it will only draw tiles from the current tileset. This is a limitation of Unity. At the moment Unity does not allow nested prefabs. This means a custom brush is stored as a template, not a complete copy of all the prefabs that make up the brush. When you paste the custom brush, YuME looks for prefabs in the current tileset to drop into the scene. If it can’t find them it will simply not paint them. We will look into alternative ways of handling custom brushes in a future update. 6. Non-standard Tiles 6.1. Considerations for non-standard tiles YuME is designed to work with tiles built around a 1x1x1 cube. However, tiles of different sizes can be used in YuME with some minor caveats. In the example above we have a 3x1x3 tile. If you look closely at the cursor you can see it’s pivot is the right-side corner. If you wish to delete or pick the tile, then this corner position is the only selectable point on the tile. To make it easier to see where the pivot point on a placed tile is location you can use the information tool. 12/21 Yuponic Ltd. Turning on the information places a unity gizmo at the pivot point of each tile in the scene. Where possible it’s best practice to build larger blocks as custom brushes. However, there are obviously cases where this is inefficient or impractical. 13/21 Yuponic Ltd. 7. Freezing a Map 7.1. Using Freeze Map in production At the bottom of main editor window there is a button named Freeze Map. Clicking this takes all the tiles in a level and combines them into a single, un-editable, mesh. This is useful in several different situations. While static batching is set as default when importing a new tileset through the Tile Importer tool, maps built in YuME can contain thousands if individual prefabs which could have an effect on performance. Another reason to freeze a map is if you want to bake Ambient Occlusion into the vertex colors using a tool such as Mesh Materializer or Vertex Dirt. These tools can bake AO into a mesh instead of using a post process effect and is ideal for mobile development. You can switch back and forth between active and frozen maps at any time by simply unfreezing the map. 7.2. Selective Freezing You can choose which layers get frozen and which are left dynamic. Opening the editor config allows you set the dynamic state of each layer. Unticking the freeze option will make retain the tiles as individual objects. Unticking static will set the tiles as dynamic so that they can be moved during gameplay. 14/21 Yuponic Ltd. 8. Swapping Tilesets 8.1. Move your map over to a new set of tiles As part of your production process you might want to build all your levels using a generic set of tiles, such as the prototype tileset included with YuME. If you had to rebuild your level once a level specific tileset was available, that would be bad – right? In YuME you can swap out tilesets using a tool location in the Windows menu under Yuponic/Utils. This simple tool allows you to select a tileset that has previously been imported into YuME and replace any tiles in the map with tiles in the new tileset that match their name. 15/21 Yuponic Ltd. 9. YuME Settings 9.1. Changing the editor settings Various aspects of YuME can be customized in the Editor Config window. The window can be accessed by clicking on the config button next the ‘Enable YuME’ button. Once the editor config is open you can select colors for the brush cursor, the editor icon size, and the grid colors and opacity. Grid offset allows you to fine tune the offset of the grid. This is useful for certain tilesets that either sit under or over the normal grid position. You can rename the YuME’s layers. This can be very useful for projects where specific tiles need to be dropped on set layers. New in v1.01 is the option to change the global scale (see notes on global scale below), as well as invert the mouse wheel scroll when changing the grid height. 9.1.1. Global Scale In the config window, you can change the global scale. This allows you to set a base scale of YuME to better match your existing assets. For example, a global scale setting if 2.5 makes YuME play nice with UFPS. The global scale should be set at the start of your project. Loading up a map built on a different scale will result in editing issues, such as not being able to select tiles that have already been placed. It’s worth experimenting with the global scale to find a value that suits your project before getting too deep into map building. 9.1.2. Grid Spawn Position Grid Spawn Position allows you to set where you wish YuME to create the grid when you add it to the scene. The spawn position will snap to the nearest 0.5. This means that a value of 100.5, 0, 51.5 is valid. However, a value of 100.25, 0.125, 12.95 is not valid. 16/21 Yuponic Ltd. 10. YuME Tile Importer The YuME Tile Importer is found under Window/Yuponic. This tool allows you to import your own artwork and tiles into YuME. Once you have created your tileset, drag it into the Source Tile Object. To assign a material to the tileset you can either drag in the texture you want to use or a predefined material. If you simply add the texture a standard shader will be created in the destination folder of the tileset. Once you have your assets in place you can change various import option such setting the tiles as static, their shadow and collision settings. The importer allows you to setup a custom collision mesh in your source file. This will be named the same as the object you are building collision for with an added extension, such as _collision (the default). If you wish to use a different collision extension name you can customize it here. The importer automatically moves all objects to the origin. If you have an object that needs to be offset from the origin you can create a custom bounds object in your source file. In the same way collision is setup, the bounds need to be named the same as the source object with the extension _bounds (default). If you wish to append a name to the imported tileset you can add one in the Append to Tile Name. Finally, you need to setup the destination for the tile prefabs as well as the destination the new meshes that the importer creates. Once you are happy with the settings simply press the Import Tileset button to create your YuME tiles. 17/21 Yuponic Ltd. 11. Creating Tilesets Tilesets in YuME are created from a single scene file that contains multiple objects. This process for creation is useful because when creating modular tilesets you often want to reference existing tiles to make sure they line up perfectly. When creating your first tilesets it’s useful to use the Prototype Tiles that come with YuME as a reference. The source .obj file is found in the folder Yuponic/YuME/Models. 18/21 Yuponic Ltd. 12. YuME Tile Convertor Often, you’ll have pre-existing assets that you want to use in YuME. To bring these assets into YuME you can use the Tile Convertor. It needs to be said that the Tile Convertor is not a magic bullet that automatically converts any type of object into a usable tile. Assets need to be tile based, so built to be modular and placed on a grid. Also, some tiles that look like they should be suitable are built with little regard for pivots and grid snapping. We’ll keep on updating the converter to try and deal with difficult tilesets. To begin converting a tileset you first need to tell the converter where the source files are located. Secondly, we need to set a destination folder for the created tiles. Finally, you can assign a unique name that will be referenced by the main map editor. The next set of options allow you to adjust the scale and offset values for the created tiles. Often, you’ll find the overall scale of converted tiles to be too larger. You can change the scale value until they fit perfectly on the YuME grid. You may also find that tiles are offset from the grid. You can change the offset values to make the tile align with the grid. If you want to append a name to the tiles you can add it here. Once you’re happy with the settings, click on the Convert Tileset button to bring the tiles into the editor. It might take a few attempts to get the settings just right so keep tuning the conversion until you’re happy. If you decide to add new prefabs to the tileset but want to keep all the setting for the originally imported tiles, use the Reimport Tileset button instead of the Convert button. This will only affect any new tiles the Converter finds. 19/21 Yuponic Ltd. 13. Prefab Sampler In 1.04 we introduced a new tool that allows you to select objects in a scene and create a new prefab from them so they can later be converted into YuME tiles. An example of how this tool can be used with YuME can be found on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3xYoNdMzWc Note: This video uses an Alpha version on the tool. The Prefab Sampler is found under Window/Yuponic/YuME: Prefab Sampler. The default window looks like this: On first use we recommend clicking on the config button to customize how the tool works. The first option is a set a folder where the sampled prefabs will be saved. The current folder is shown below the button. Second you can set where you want the Y pivot. Options are: ▪ Zero Y: Pivot it always a 0 ▪ Selection Ground: Pivot is set to the bottom of the selected objects ▪ Selection Middle: Pivot is set to the middle of the selected objects Finally, you can append a custom name to the prefab. With the settings complete you can now use the tool to sample objects in a scene and create prefabs. Simply select the objects and then click on the SAMPLE PREFAB button. By default, the prefabs are named the same as the first selected object (plus any append name you have added). These prefabs can be renamed in Unity once created. 20/21 Yuponic Ltd. 14. Shortcuts Select Tool: Paint Tool: Pick Tool: Erase Tool: Cycle through Tiles: Grid Up/Down: Grid Up/Down 0.25: Brush Size 2D: Brush Size +X: Brush Size -X: Brush Size +Z: Brush Size -Z: Brush Size +Y: Brush Size -Y: Reset Brush: 21/21 ESC key A S or Paint Tool + CONTROL D or Paint Tool + SHIFT SHIFT + CONTROL + Mouse Wheel = - or SHIFT + Mouse Wheel SHIFT + ALT + Mouse Wheel [] Cursor Right Cursor Left Cursor Up Cursor Down SHIFT + Cursor Up SHIFT + Cursor Down Enter/Return Yuponic Ltd.
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