readme.txt

3D游戏场景编辑器

Welcome to the Genesis3D - Classic level editor, "GenEdit-Classic."

The editor is not yet complete, and there are still a few major features that will be added. We are interested in feedback and suggestions about the user-interface, features, and design decisions. We also hope that you find the latest enhancements useful.  

Features new to version 0.55 (01-10-01):

o QuickViewer
QuickViewer now supports D3D, Glide and Software rendering. QuickViewer will manage the Glide and D3D drivers for you so you won't have to fiddle with renaming your drivers in order to get them to work. The driver selection method used by QuickViewer consists of swapping out driver *.dlls from the editor's root directory. This is a very stable and effective method for the time-being. Please place your video drivers files in directories according to the following instructions:

GenEdit-Classic Root Directory - SoftDrv.dll and softdrv2.dll files go here.
The Drivers subdirectory under the GenEdit Root Directory - D3DDrv.dll and GlideDrv.dll files go here.

An example directory tree looks like this:

GenEdit
  GenEdit.exe
  SoftDrv.dll
  softdrv2.dll
  other files
GenEdit\Drivers
  D3DDrv.dll
  GlideDrv.dll	


We have evaluated recent and more involved workarounds for the driver selection problem and have decided in favor of the current simple system. So please don't ask... Software rendering will occur in the QuickViewer window. You may stretch the window to any size you want prior to viewing and QuickViewer will fill it with your rendered level. You will also be able to specify the starting position of your camera. This is especially helpful in cases when your camera normally starts out inside a solid block from which you cannot escape. We have placed slider controls on the QuickViewer dialog that will let you quickly set a custom starting position.

o Texture Browser
Textures now are alphabetically displayed in the texture browser.

o Texture Eye Dropper (Pipette?)
While in Brush mode or Template mode, you may quickly find the individual textures used by your world's brushes. Press the <Shift> while moving your mouse cursor is in the Textured view. An Eye Dropper cursor will appear. Shift-leftClick while over any world brush and its texture will appear on the Texture tab.

o Brush Naming
You may give individual brushes unique names (as you could in ver 0.5). Type in the new name for your selected brush in the Brush Attributes dialog box on the Properties panel. Remember to hit the <Apply> button for your new name to 'Take'. Brush names and Entity names now appear on the status bar as your mouse cursor passes over them in all three ortho views. This works in Brush mode while no tools are selected.

o Texture Scaling
You may now scale textures in tenths between the values of - 1.0 and 1.0 in addition to values beyond this range. Remember to  choose Face Adjust mode while your brush is selected, in order to bring up the Face Attributes dialog box.

o Texture Locking
As far as we can tell, texture locking works.

o Entity Rotation
You may now rotate all your selected entities along with your selected brushes. That is, these world elements will no rotate together as a bloc. This means you no longer will have to re-position your entities after rotating brushes.

o Adjust Sky
The Adjust Sky dialog is a little easier to use. When you pick the 'Adjust Sky' button on the Templates Tab, the Adjust Sky dialog box opens as before. But NOW the Command Panel shifts to show the Textures tab. Still not the best system, but now you may freely scroll through your available textures using the texture browser, find the ones you want, then you can go to the open Adjust Sky dialog and spec them by name using the sky dialog's combo boxes (as before). What is new here is that NOW you don't have to remember the names of the sky textures you want. You will be able to see them.

o Texture Path
You now may manually type in the path to your *.txl file, in the Project, Level Options dialog box.


Features new to version 0.5 (12-15-00):
 
 o Redesigned User Interface
 o New Command Panel holds controls for Templates, Textures, Groups and Models
 o New Properties Panel holds attributes controls for Brushes, Faces, and Entities
 o Redesigned Texture Browser for faster texture selection
 o Mousewheel Zoom and Pan in all views and all modes
 o New Sky Editor for easier and faster sky design
 o New QuickViewer for viewing any Genesis3D *.bsp file during your 
      GenEdit - Classic session. View any level fullscreen using the Genesis3D
      rendering engine. Great for checking the progress of your level design. 
      Fly through your world and see how it's going.
 o Plugin feature demonstration. Future versions of the editor will fully
   support 3rd party plugin components to further extend and expand the editor.
 o New Color Selection facilities for assigning colors to viewports and groups
 o New MSDevStudio-style Header Browser to make finding your entities easier than ever
 o Right-click Context Menu while working in the viewports 
      (Ctrl-right-click while in textured viewport)
 o New Progress Bar for reporting the occurrence and status of Quick Rebuilds
 o Redesigned Console Panel with copy / load support for Windows Notepad.

Please direct your comments, suggestions for improvement, and bug reports to our forum accessible via www.Genesis3d.com.

Also, please remember that this is an early release and the file format may still change - so you may not be able to read levels created with this release with the final version of GenEdit-Classic.  

Enjoy!