Mr.Math on 21/11/2015 at 11:37

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Hi fellow dromeders,

after decade of playing outstanding thief FMs, I said to myself, that I should try to create something myself. I only have experience with Quake engine editors, which work differently, so it goes rather slowly. In Quake, you had to play close attention to make everything on grid, because it may later cause leaks, which may be impossible to locate. I read something similar about dromed. From what I read and tried, there are safe angles you can rotate you brushes to, like 22.5, 45, 90 etc... Also, the dromed alone always snap it to this safe angle, if you try to rotate brush. However I tried to rotate it by changing the number to some non-safe angle...and nothing happened. No crash, no warning.

My question is, what are the possible dangers of rotating off grid (safe angles)? Is it best to always snap the brush on grid after rotating? I remember original Thief maps to have very natural layout (various caves, woods...), which seems impossible to accomplish by having everything on grid. Can anyone with experience explain it a bit?

Thank you

Dev_Anj on 21/11/2015 at 13:21

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There's a number in Dromed called Grid Size. This determines how small the individual grid squares will be, or how densely packed the grid is. A larger number means a looser grid, and this limits how you can align your brushes, so a smaller number will let you position your brushes more freely, but it's not advised to go lower than 13 as it can cause problems while building the level.

Next, there's three types of rotation in Dromed, height, plane and base. They rotate the brush with respect to one axes, and are represented by H, P and B. Enter the angle by which they should be rotated in the box corresponding to the rotation type. You can use all three types of rotation if you wish.

Hope that helps.

Dev_Anj on 21/11/2015 at 15:03

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Yes, objects can be placed and rotated regardless of grid size. The brushes can be rotated to any angle with the right grid size selected, but remember that brushes will be re rotated if you drag it to other places. You can get around this by reentering the rotation values for the fields.

ZylonBane on 21/11/2015 at 19:37

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Any brush type can be used for non-standard angles. Levels like SS2's Body of the Many have barely anything on-grid. Snapping to the grid is most important when you're putting together areas like rooms where you want all the parts to join up correctly.

(http://nothings.org/gamedev/thief_rendering.html) All DromEd'ers should read this.