When first starting Folk Tale you will be presented with three choices: Play, Create, or Customize. The first option grants access to the existing Tutorial, the second option opens the Location Editor, and the third opens the Character Customization Studio. Once the Location Editor is loaded you will see a blue background with a white square grid.

A Word of Caution

Being in development, it may not always be possible to make Location files designed with earlier patches backwards compatible. That means that when we publish a new patch, there is a chance that any previous map designs will no longer work. For this reason, we strongly recommend you NOT to invest too much time in using the Editor.

Along the top bar are icon buttons that perform the following tasks :-

Icon	Description
	New Location - Opens the new location file dialog
	Open Location - Opens the location file dialog to load an existing file
	Save - Saves the current location file ( may open Save As... file dialog )
	W - Swaps the Transform Gizmo into Move Mode
	E - Swaps the Transform Gizmo into Rotate Mode
	R - Swaps the Transform Gizmo into Scale Mode
	Shows the Paint Tool Texture Selection Dialog
	Delete - Deletes the currently selected object(s)
	Duplicate - Duplicates the selected object(s)
	Group - Creates a group using the selected objects
	Toggle Rotation Pivot Point - Use world or local pivot for rotation
	Lock Terrain Tiles - Prevents selection of terrain tiles; useful when adding props
	Toggle Grid - Toggles the visibility of the grid guide lines
	Toggle Mud - Toggles the visibility of mud sides on tiles
	Align - Aligns selected objects ( deprecated by align gizmo )
	Auto Grass - Randomly distributes waving grass on suitable areas
	Preview Static Batching - combines geometry for rendering performance
	Snap To Grid - Uses the objects snap resolution settings to snap it to the grid
	Stats - Performance stats including frame rate and memory usage
	Toggle Kit List - Toggles dialog visibility
	Toggle Kit Contents - Toggles dialog visibility
	Atmospherics - Control sky colors, fog, and lighting
	Settings - Modify settings used by the Editor
	Toggle Inspector - Toggles dialog visibility

Hovering the mouse cursor over a button icon will show a tooltip after a short delay.

[Added 0.2.1.0] The currently open location file name is displayed to the right of the icons.

Overview

Most window dialogs in the Editor share common functionality allowing you to layout your workspace to best suit the way you design. Any changes you make to the UI layout are saved and restored each time you restart the Editor.

Dragging

Window dialogs can be positioned by moving the mouse cursor over the Window Title, pressing and holding the . Moving the mouse will move the window in that direction. To finalize the window position, release the .

Close

Window dialogs can always be closed and any actions aborted using the large close button found in the top right corner.

Lock

Windows can be locked, preventing them for being accidentally changed during your design session. To modify a window, click the padlock icon to unlock, modify, then lock it again when you are happy.

Resizing Grip

Some windows can be resized to make them bigger or smaller depending on your display resolution. If a window is resizable, a resize grip will appear in the bottom right corner.

To resize a window, press and hold the and then drag the mouse. The window will resize as you move the mouse cursor around the screen. Release to finalize the window size.

Certain window sizes are snapped based on the contents displayed. For example, the Kit Contents dialog will snap to horizontally show whole thumbnails.

Scrolling

When the windows contents extend beyond the height of the window, scrollbars will automatically be added to the right of the dialog.

Docking

Some windows can be 'docked' to the screen edges. Docking a window will expand it's height or window to take up the full height or width of the screen depending on the edge being docked to.

When dragging a window around the screen, when the mouse cursor touches an edge, a flashing orange circle will indicate a docking position. To dock the window, release the .

To undock a window that was previously docked, simply grab and drag the Window Title bar away from the docked edge.

Depth Ordering

Windows are sorted by depth. Sometimes one window will obscure another. To bring a window forward, simply click on the Title Bar of the window you want to bring to the front.

Toggle Grid

The grid provides a useful guide for placing Tiles. Each grid unit is the size of a 1x1 Tile. To toggle grid visibility, press the icon button on the topbar.

Toggle Mud On Tile Sides

In the early stages of designing a Location it's visually useful to have a more substantial visual appearance to Tiles. For this reason Tiles include mud sides and bottoms to give tiles a more solid feel. However this is unnecessary geometry that the Editor has to render, slowing down performance. In the main game, these mud sides and bottoms are hidden and never rendered.

In later stages of design where you have over a thousand tiles, the mud sides may no longer serve a purpose, and can be disabled to achieve a frame rate performance boost.

To toggle mud sides on tiles, press the button icon on the topbar.

Icon	Shortcut	Function
		Toggles the visibility of the grid guide lines
		Toggle Mud On Tile Sides

The Editor includes undo and redo history in the event that you make a mistake.

Icon	Shortcut	Function
	CTRL + Z	Undo last operation
	CTRL + SHIFT + Z	Redo previously undone operation

Moving the camera in the Editor can only be performed whiile holding down the Right-Mouse Button ( ). This is because some of the same keys used for moving the camera are also used to change transform gizmo modes. On Apple Mac computers that don't have a right mouse button, this can be achieved by using trackpad gestures, or by plugging in a two-button mouse.

Key	Function
W +	Move Camera Forward
S +	Move Camera Backwards
A +	Move Camera Left
D +	Move Camera Right
Z +	Move Camera Down
X +	Move Camera Up
Left Shift	Doubles Camera Movement Rate

While most designing is done with the Free Cam camera, it can be useful to get closer to detail by swapping to the Terrain Cam; a first-person camera mode available during gameplay that hugs the terrain. To toggle between Free Cam and Terrain Cam use the C keyboard shortcut.

Icon	Shortcut	Function
	C	Toggle between Free Cam and Terrain Cam

On occasion you may find yourself wanting to view your scene from directly above looking down. The Editor includes an Overhead Cam that you can toggle between using the O keyboar shortcut.

Icon	Shortcut	Function
	O	Toggle between Free/Terrain Cams and Overhead Cam

Objects are selected by clicking once with the left-mouse button ( ). Selecting an object will show it's white wireframe bounding box, a visual aid to show which objects will be modified by transformations. One of the three transform gizmos will also appear ( see next section for details ).



You can select multiple objects by holding down LEFT SHIFT on your keyboard and single-clicking with on other objects, resulting in multiple wireframe bounding boxes on screen:



To add or remove additional objects to a multiple selection, hold down LEFT CTRL on your keyboard and single-click with on the object to add or remove. The bounding box for the deselected objects will be hidden, or shown for newly selected objects.

Added in 0.2.1.0: F now frames the current selection object.

Icon	Shortcut	Function
	F	Frames current selection object

With one or more objects selected ( the bounding box will be visible ), swap the Transform Gizmo's mode using the following keys:

Icon	Shortcut	Function
	W	Position
	E	Rotation
	R	Scale

To move an object around, swap the Transform Gizmo into Position mode by pressing the W key ( make sure isn't pressed down when you are swapping gizmo mode ). The gizmo's visual appearance will change to reflect it's current mode.



Position Mode shows three colored planes, with each plane representing movement along two axis:

Circle Color	Plane
Red	Movement in the YX plane, or Up/Down Left/Right
Green	Movement in the XZ plane, or Left/Right Forward/Back
Blue	Movement in the YZ plane, or Up/Down Forward/Back

Hovering the mouse cursor over a pane will result in the circle representing that plane becoming bigger and brighter. To move the object, first click and hold the , and then move the mouse in the direction you wish to move the object on screen.

After a little practice, you will soon find the gizmo is a fast way to move objects around.

You can also use the following keyboard shortcuts to move selected objects:

Key(s)	Function
Arrow Keys	Movement in the XZ plane, or Left/Right Forward/Back
Keypad +/-	Move up/down
Left Shift + Arrow Keys	Accelerated Move
Left Alt + Arrow Keys	Dampened Move

With one or more objects selected ( the bounding box will be visible ), swap the Transform Gizmo into Rotate Mode by pressing E on your keyboard.

Move the mouse cursor over one of the colored circle-planes of the gizmo. Press and hold the , and then move the mouse cursor in a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction around the plane's circle. An selected objects will rotate. Release the to finalize your rotation.

To rotate objects using the keyboard, use the [ and ] keys. This only rotates objects around the World Y-Axis.

When in Rotate Mode the gizmo can be toggled between using World and Local coordinates using the button on the top bar.

Holding down Left Alt slows the rate of rotation.

Icon	Shortcut	Function
		Toggle between World and Local Coordinate System

With one or more objects selected ( the bounding box will be visible ), swap the Transform Gizmo into Scale Mode by pressing R on the keyboard.

Move the mouse cursor over the yellow cube in the center of the gizmo. Press and hold the , and then move the mouse up and down to adjust scale.

The Editor only supports uniform scaling to avoid the performance hit associated with non-uniform scaling.

With one or more objects selected ( the bounding box will be visible ), press Backspace on your keyboard, or the Delete icon button on the topbar.

Icon	Shortcut	Function
	Backspace	Delete selected object(s)

With one or more objects selected ( the bounding box will be visible ), press CTRL + D on your keyboard, or the Duplicate icon button on the topbar.

The new objects will be selected, and the original objects deselected, allowing you to move the new objects quickly to their new position.

Icon	Shortcut	Function
	CTRL+D	Duplicate selected object(s)

The Location Editor includes a helpful snapping system to make placing Kit Pieces easier.

Tiles are always roughly snapped into position to ensure they do not overlap. This makes lining up Tiles much easier and improves the functioning of the navmesh using in character pathfinding. They also have rotation snapping set to 90 degrees for the same reason.

Decals have no snapping because they require fine control over placement, particularly when you need to make them hover just above a Tile to prevent flicker caused by Z-Sorting. Decals have no rotational snapping.

Buildings are vertically snapped to correspond to Tiles, but have no snapping in the horizontal plane providing free control over placement. Buildings have no rotational snapping in the horizontal plane, but are locked in other planes ensuring they are always perpendicular to flat terrain.

Trees and other Props have no positional or rotational snapping, allowing for free placement.

The Transform Gizmo has a fourth mode for object alignment. To enable Align Mode, holding down G on the keyboard, click and hold the and drag the mouse cursor in any direction.

Pressing Up, Left, Right, Front and Back gizmo arrows will align the bounding boxes of any selected object(s) along the corresponding edge.

Pressing Down will align the pivot points of any selected object(s) to the terrain, especially useful for trees, vegetation and rocks.

Grouping objects can increase your productivity, especially when it comes to duplication.

With multiple object(s) selected, press the button icon on the toolbar or use the CTRL+G keyboard shortcut to create a new group.

Groups are highlighted in the scene using a blue wireframe selection box that encompasses all of the white wireframe bounding boxes. The blue group wireframe is only shown if one or more of the objects within the group are selected.

Selecting a single object within a group will result in all objects in the group being selected.

Grouped objects can be deselected in the same was as other objects by holding down CTRL and clicking the object with the .

Groups can be duplicated in the same was as other objects, except that a new group is created.

Grouping is a handy productivity tool for creating sets of objects. For example you could create a Copse Set consisting of trees, rocks, grass, and decals, and then quickly duplicate and reposition it throughout your scene.

Icon	Shortcut	Function
	CTRL+G	Create a new Group using the current selection of objects
	CTRL+U	Ungroup the current selection of objects

Content is organized into Kits, with each Kit containing a set of compatible Pieces that are designed to work together. We also have smaller Sub-Kits which are content designed to work well with a parent Kit. For example, the Cemetery Sub-Kit is designed to fit well with the Grassland Kit, although there is currently no mandatory enforcement rule.

Sub-Kits are treated exactly the same as Kits, but it is useful to distinguish the different types to help Designers achieve the best aesthetics.

Available Now :-

Name	Kit or Sub-Kit	Description
Construction Kit	Sub-Kit	Individual walls, roofing and wooden props used to construct buildings. This is a temporary kit to assist player-designers in visualizing and sharing their prop ideas. Designed for use with the Grassland Kit.
Human Buildings	Sub-Kit	Previews of buildings Players create during gameplay, or for use in designing other Towns and Villages the Player's adventuring group will meet. Designed for use with the Grassland Kit.
Character Beastman *	Sub-Kit	For spawning Beastmen that stand still. Designed for use with the Grassland Kit and Swamp Kit (not yet available).
Grassland Animals *	Sub-Kit	For spawning bears, boars, warpigs, spiders and wolves that stand still. Designed for use with the Grassland Kit.
Character Human *	Kit	For spawning Human Peasants that stand still.
Character Kobold *	Sub-Kit	For spawning Kobolds that stand still. Designed for use with the Grassland Kit and Swamp Kit (not yet available).
Character Swamp Beast *	Sub-Kit	For spawning Swamp Beasts that stand still. Designed for use with the Swamp Kit (not yet available).
Character Undead *	Sub-Kit	For spawning Necromancers and Skeletons that stand still. Designed for use with the Dungeon Kit (not yet available).
Woodlands *	Sub-Kit	For spawning Giant Snails that stand still. Also contains egg sack props.Designed for use with the Grassland Kit and Swamp Kit (not yet available).
Kobold Props	Sub-Kit	Wooden lookout towers, palisades, crude tents, for low-tech monster settlements. Designed for use with the Grassland Kit and Swamp Kit (not yet available).
Goblin Siege	Sub-Kit	Goblin Warship prop. Designed for use with the Grassland Kit and Swamp Kit (not yet available).
Systems	Kit	Chests and Spawn Points
Cemetery	Sub-Kit	Tombstones, mausoleum, graves
Grassland	Kit	Lush green meadows, rolling hills, rich vegetation, stone walls, fences

* For wandering or player seeking monsters, please use the Spawn Point in the Systems Kit.

Planned :-

Kit Name	Description
Swamp Kit	Stinking swamp, home to goblins and other races.
Snow Kit	Cold snow tundra, home to Yeti and other races.
Lava Kit	Rock and molten lave, home to Dwarven Ghosts and Golems.
Desert Kit	Arid sandy desert, home to Scorpion Kin and Nomadic Tribesmen.
Dungeon Kit	Dank stone walled dungeons, full of undead and other unspeakable horrors.

We'll be adding lots more kits throughout development.

Open the Kit List Dialog by clicking the Kit List icon button on the topbar.



To open a Kit, click the icon to the right of the Kit name.

To insert a Kit Piece into your scene you must have the Kit Contents window dialog open ( press the button icon on the topbar ).

Use the scrollbar in the Kit Piece dialog to find the piece you want, and then double-click the . This will create an instance of the selected piece in your scene as an object approximately 20 metres directly in front of the camera. Newly created objects are automatically selected.

Sometimes objects may be hidden or obscured by other objects in your scene. To help find new objects, look for both the white wireframe bounding box and the Transform Gizmo.

Decals provide a way of adding interest and detail to your scene without having a heavy impact on performance. Decals are Transparent Cutout textures drawn using two triangles.

Decals receive shadows, but do not cast them.

Decals are identifiable in the Kit Contents dialog because they have a checkerboard background and their name begins with 'alpha'. Here is a lilly pads decal:



Most decals are best placed slightly above the terrain. Placing them at the same level as the terrain can result in flicker due to Z-Fighting. By raising them vertically ever so slightly, the issue is prevented.

Other decals - for example cobwebs - can be used in trees to create a spooky haunted feel. In this instance their position doesn't matter.

Decals are rendered as single-sided materials*, meaning that they are only visible from one direction. If you want a decal to be visible from both sides, duplicate the object and rotate it 180 degrees around an axis.

* Please note this may be subject to change with some decals ( e.g. cobwebs ) being changed to double-sided materials.

Props come in all different shapes, sizes and varieties. Unlike decals, they are 3D Objects the majority of which can be freely positioned and rotated in your scene

Props include trees, rocks, vegetation, wagons, logs, and grave stones to name but a few. A single prop can be duplicated and made to look different through rotation and scaling, allowing the same Prop to be used extensively throughout a scene.

Props are identifiable in the Kit Contents dialog by having a transparent background. Here is one of the Oak Tree prop variations:



Props often incorporate multiple levels of detail ( aka LOD ). For example, a tree might have 3 levels of detail. When the camera is close up, the 3D model with the highest detail is shown. As the camera moves further away, the medium detail model is shown instead. At the furthest distance, a camera-aligned 2D billboard imposter may used instead. Providing multiple LOD models in a Prop helps keep frame-rate performance up.*

* In early releases of the Location Editor not all props will have had their LOD versions created. This is an optimization that will continue over time.

Tiles are the terrain that characters navigate through. Tile types include grass, mud, snow, rivers, hills and cliffs.

Each Tile includes a hidden navmesh which lets the AI Pathfinding System know what parts can be walked on. For example a River Tile may allow the banks to be navigable, but not the water. Navmeshes are covered in their own section.

Tiles are identifiable in the Kit Contents dialog by having a cubic appearance. In the background is a height gauge to help distinguish between similar tiles ( for example different height convex hill corners ). The following thumbnail represents a rock cliff who's elevation rises from 1/2 height to full height along one edge.



In the game, the actual tile looks like this:

Terrain Elevations

To avoid Locations looking blocky, the Editor includes three different tile elevations referred to as 1/4, 1/2 and 1/1. Gentle inclines are best achieved using 1/4 elevation tiles. Very steep or unnavigable terrain is best represented with 1/1 tiles. The three different elevations are shown below.

Locking Terrain Tiles

Having finalized your terrain tile placement, it's often useful to lock terrain tiles using the button icon on the topbar to prevent them from being selected and accidentally edited.

Terrain locking can be toggled off by pressing the button icon again. The white padlock will change back to the white directional arrows to show that editing is once again enabled.

Added in 0.2.1.0

In 0.2.1.0 we've removed the separate tile sets for mud, leaves, and cobblestone, and introduced terrain painting. By default all tiles in the Grassland Kit start with grass.

To paint a different texture, click the Paint Tool button icon on the toolbar. This will cause the Texture Selection Dialog to appear:



Click once with on the texture you wish to paint with in the Texture Selection Dialog. Then holding U on the keyboard, click on the terrain. While holding you can also drag the mouse pointer for continuous painting.

Textures are layered in the order they appear in the Texture Selection Dialog. The first texture is the lowest level, with subsequent textures each being one level higher than the previous texture.

You can paint larger areas with each click by increasing the brush size. Use the up and down arrow buttons next to the number on the right hand side of the Texture Selection Dialog to increase the brush size.

By default auto-smoothing is enabled as represented by . Auto-smoothing bleeds paint into adjacent tiles. In some situations where you want a hard texture edge, you don't want auto-smoothing. Clicking the ON icon will disable the feature and the icon will change to .

The Paint Tool is fully integrated into the Undo/Redo system.

Icon	Shortcut	Function
	T	Swap to Paint Mode
	U ( Hold )	Click to paint, or click and drag to drag-paint with the current texture selection
		Toggle auto-smoothing on/off

Known Issues

- Unsupported 3x3 tiles include the diagonal cliff and diagonal river pieces. Support for painting 3x3 tiles will be added in a future patch; - It can be difficult to paint under certain props such as bridges. Simply move the prop, paint, then replace the prop. For exact placement you can directly input positioning using the inspector and the keyboard.

In early releases of the Editor you can place dirt paths using a Spline-Curve system. For the purpose of this guide hereafter we shall refer to all types of tracks, dirt paths and roads simply as Roads.

Roads can only be built on navigable terrain - areas of tiles on which characters can walk. For example you cannot build a road that traverses a vertical cliff. You can however build a road that meanders over sloping grass. When your road goes over terrain that is not traversable, it will turn red in color.

Building Roads Building a road is a four step process.



1. Holding down the P key on the keyboard, click and release the at the Origin Point - the start of your road.

2. Move the mouse cursor to the Destination Point. A live preview of your road will be shown in the Editor.

3. Click and hold the , the move the mouse cursor around to define the curve of the road.

4. Click and release the .

Deleting Road Sections Deleting roads is best done having first locked terrain tiles ( using on the topbar ) to avoid selecting tiles underneath the road section you wish to delete.

Holding down K on the keyboard, click the . This will show the white spline curve running between the Origin and Destination points. Once selected, press Backspace on the keyboard to delete the selected road section.

Connecting Road Sections Having placed the first road section, you can define a section that continues from the end of the last section by holding I on the keyboard and moving the mouse cursor over the Destination Point of the first road section. This will highlight the Destination Point allowing you to use it as the Origin Point of the next road section.

The wall system is currently disabled

To place a wall segment, hold down Left Alt on the keyboard and then click the on a flat piece of terrain.

Placing a wall segment next to an existing wall will automatically connect the two walls.

Gatehouse To convert a wall section into a Gatehouse, hold down G on the keyboard and click on an existing wall segment. If the wall section has a wall to either side, it will be converting into a Gatehouse.

Tower To convert a wall section into a Tower, hold down T on the keyboard and click on an existing wall segment.

Currently walls do not go up slopes or cross rivers.

Do not move walls around. Delete sections and then create new sections instead.

Automated grass placement is a work in progress system. It analyzes the navmesh and randomly distributes waving grass planes across an entire Location. Waving grass is optimized into a single draw-call for rendering performance, and fades away a certain distance from the camera.

To toggle grass on/off, press the button icon on the topbar. It can take a few seconds to calculate before it appears.

This feature is not yet enabled in the Editor.

Spawn points are location markers where monsters and characters appear.

To create a spawn point in your Location map, open the Systems Kit and double left click Spawn Point. The spawn point gizmo will appear in the world.



The Spawnpoint Inspector panel provides the ability to define waves of attackers. An attack Wave is a group of one or more monsters that appear at a specific moment during gameplay. By default new spawn points are created with a single wave named Wave 1, comprising 2 types of monster, Group 1 consisting of 5 Beastmen and Group 2 comprising 2 Boars.

Max Stalk Distance defines the radius beyond which monsters will abandon their pursuit of enemies.
Max Wander Distance defines the radius in which monsters will randomly roam when left idle.

Please be aware that monster positions can change during gameplay, and radius are relative to the monster's current rather than original position.

You can also use the Transform Gizmo in Scale Mode to increase the radius of the initial area in which monsters spawn. To spread monsters out, simply increase the radius indicated by the blue circle.

Waves

To create a new attack wave, click
To delete an existing wave, click
To expand or contract the definition of each wave, click and .

Trigger defines the condition under which the wave will spawn:

Trigger Value	Description
TimeSinceStart	The wave will spawn once the TriggerValue in seconds has elapsed since the start of the game.
TimeSinceLastWave	The wave will spawn once the TriggerValue in seconds has elapsed since the previous wave spawned.
SpawnedAliveLEQ	The wave will spawn once the number of monsters in the previous wave falls to TriggerValue or below.

TimeSinceLastWave and SpawnedAliveLEQ should only be used in Wave 2 or higher, because they are conditional on Wave 1.

Announcement can be ignored for now.

Behavior defines what the monster's brain will tell it to do once it appears in the game world:

Behavior	Description
None	The monster(s) will stand around and not move.
Wander	The monster(s) will wander around within the Max Wander Distance radius.
Seek Player	The monster(s) will seek out the closest player units or buildings to attack.

Formation defines the positions of each monster in the wave relative to each other. The blue dot on each icon represents the first monster spawned in Group 1 and is considered the Wave Captain. The Wave Captain should be the strongest monster of the pack. Every subsequent monster is organised as per the yellow dot indicators.

Groups

Waves consist of one or more Groups of monsters.

To create a new Group, click
To delete an existing Group, click
To expand or contract the definition of each Group, click and .

Creature Type - which creature you want to spawn.

Count - how many creatures of Creature Type you want to spawn.

Health Multiplier - defaults to 1.0. Increases the health of the monsters spawned in this group. 2.0 would double the health. 0.5 would half the health.

Spawn Point - the first spawn point created is by default named Spawnpoint 1. Duplicating the spawn point creates a second spawn point called Spawnpoint 2, but the Wave settings are shared between them. This makes it possible to spawn different groups at different locations on the map, all as part of a single attack Wave.

Repeating/Looping Waves

To set a spawn point to loop through the waves indefinitely, check Repeat. Be careful when implementing looping waves, because it is easy to have a population explosion which will kill game performance.

Example 1
The following example shows how to repeatedly spawn a single wave of 5 kobolds, and wait until they are all dead before spawning a new group.

Wave Number	Settings
Wave 1	An empty wave that doesn't spawn any groups. Set Wave1's trigger to TimeSinceLastWave and set the value to say 30 seconds.
Wave 2	Set the group to spawn 5 kobolds, and set Wave2's trigger to SpawnedAliveLEQ with a value of 0.

The first wave waits for 30 seconds before moving on to evaluate second wave. SpawnedAliveLEQ checks if any kobolds are still alive. If all the kobolds are dead (0 alive), a new wave of 5 kobolds will be spawned.

Example 2
The following example shows how to repeatedly spawn a single deer, and wait until it's dead before spawning another.

Wave Number	Settings
Wave 1	An empty wave that doesn't spawn any groups. Set Wave1's trigger to TimeSinceLastWave and set the value to say 30 seconds.
Wave 2	Set the group to spawn 1 deer, and set Wave2's trigger to SpawnedAliveLEQ with a value of 0.

The first wave waits for 30 seconds before moving on to evaluate second wave. SpawnedAliveLEQ checks if any deer are still alive. If all the deer are dead (0 alive), a new wave of 1 deer will be spawned.

Patch 0.2 includes a pre-built Location Map to help get you started. We've only populated one area of the map, leaving much of it free for you to play around with while you learn how to use the Editor.

To open the pre-built location, click the open button on the top bar. This will open the file browser dialog, from where you select Locations:



Initially only 1 Location file will be listed, "Human Village". In time your own Location files will also appear in this list, but for now double left-click on the Human Village file to load it. Alternatively left-click once on the file name, and then left-click Load.

After a delay the map will load.

The camera will be below the terrain so you'll need to move it up.

You can save your scene by pressing the button icon on the topbar. This will open the File Browser.



To move up to the parent folder, double click with the on the two dots next to "Go up one folder".

To save over an existing file, double click on the Location file, or select it by clicking once with , and then pressing Save.

To save as a new file, using the keyboard enter a new filename in the textfield at the bottom of the dialog, following by pressing Save.

- Light sources (e.g. torches, sconces and braziers) start to get expensive when densely packed. Don't overlap multiple light sources and keep them away from complex geometry where possible.

- Always use the largest floor pieces that fit. A 1x2 is better than a 1x1. A 1x4 is better than a 1x2. And a 2x2 is even better.

- Test your map on a friend's PC that closely matches the minimum spec. While your map may run great on a top end machine, it may be slow on a minimum spec PC.

- Don't over use props just because they look great, especially where the player's village will be. A lot of additional geometry will be created as the village expands. While some of the bushes will be removed to make way for buildings, not all props are cleaned up.

Static Batching is a work in progress system.

WARNING: ENABLING STATIC BATCHING IS A ONE-WAY PROCESS. SAVE YOUR LOCATION BEFORE ENABLING ( ALTHOUGH SAVING AFTER IT IS ENABLED ALSO WORKS ). YOU WILL NEED TO RELOAD THE LOCATION AFTER TESTING SB.

Static Batching is a performance optimization designed to increase the frame rate by reducing the number of draw calls made to the graphics card ( "GPU" ). At run-time, 3D models that share the same material and don't move ( i.e. not animated ) can be 'batched' or combined together into a single piece of geometry and rendered in one draw call rather than being drawn as multiple separate objects.

While static batching can help significantly improve performance ( often doubling frame rate ), the downside is that it consumes more memory because a duplicate of each object gets created.

The Editor includes a destructive preview of static batching to provide you with an indication of the likely performance boost delivered by batching.

To convert a Location to use static batching, press the button icon on the topbar.

To restore your scene for editing, you will need to re-open your Location file using the File Browser.

Low Productivity Positioning Tiles By Hand

In early releases of the Editor it can be time consuming to manually layout your scene. We recognize the need to add productivity tools and we are currently looking into random terrain generation, as well as tile and detail painting.

Moving Wall Pieces Around Causes Them Not To Update

For now, delete unwanted Wall Sections and create new ones rather than moving existing sections.

Groups Not Serialized With Load/Save

Groups currently have a lifespan of a single session and are not saved with Location data.

Paint Tool Does Not Support 2x2 and 3x3 Tiles

2x2 and 3x3 tiles do not currently support the Paint Tool. It's best to replace them with single tiles.

Designing Outside The Location Boundary

We plan to add a dead zone or margin around the grid allowing placement of additional tiles to extend locations into the distance, eventually vanishing into fog. Dead zones won't be accessible by the in-game camera and characters will not be able to walk on tiles in the dead zone. This is purely for aesthetics.

Why Is The Editor Slower Than The Game?

We perform several automated optimizations when the game runs that results in higher frame rates. The Editor does not have these optimizations enabled by default. The Static Batching button icon on the topbar can be used to preview one of the main optimizations ( see Advanced: Static Batching ).