Posted by Strontium Dog on February 18, 1998 at 20:59:30:
In Reply to: Walls around passages in a room posted by Elanthil01(David Brown) on February 18, 1998 at 19:28:14:
> Hi. I really need some help.
> Ok..I created a default sized sector in JED (tried this in FB too..), then I created a sector HALF the size of the original through all dimensions to serve as a passage to another area.
> I put the two sectors edges together, then did an adjoin to clear the separating walls to allow passage (god I hope that was the way to do it).
> Anyway, now I have a hole with a large black area around it (in the editor 3ds), which becomes a Hall Of Mirrors (HOM) effect.
> What am I not understanding? IF I can understand THIS, I should be able to puzzle out everything else.
> I keep hearing people talk about 'adding vertices', 'cleaving sectors' and 'extruding'...none of which I can figure out how or why to do.
> The tutorials and docs with JED and ForceBuilder just dont explain this stuff, and for someone whos never worked in a 3d environment before, this 'basic' stuff is very important.
> I've gone so far as to pick apart the jkl's for a number of maps with the editors, looking for how folks did what they did, and while I think I see a number of things I can understand, the basic joinings still elude me..
> in 1.jed the wedge shaped tunnel I thought would be a simple one to figure out.
> I deleted everything except the main sector (0) and the first wedge shaped sector attached to it and did some playing with em to see whats what...
> at one point I moved the second sector away from the first so I could isolate it, then I noticed that sector 0 had FOURTEEN vertices rather than 8..I loaded up ForceBuilder(which lets you select individual vertices, as well as using a drag and drop box to tag multiple items...could you do this to JED? :D )to verify this.
> This totally mystified me.
> NEITHER ONE of the editors allows you to add individual vertices, edges, or faces to a sector, so where did they come from?
> Is THIS the concept Ive been missing?
> If you can help me I'd be forever grateful.
> Sincerely, Elanthil01(elanthil@neo.lrun.com)
I have been thinking about JED editing in general lately, and here is my version of the some of the basic concepts. (lecture/rant mode on)
Some basic rules first:
A sector must be convex, which means you can't take chunks out of the middle or it will then be concave (a BIG no no).
All surfaces in this box must be planar (meaning two dimensional, no saddle shapped surfaces).
All surfaces are either adjoined or unadjoined. If adjoined, they are adjoined to a surface of another sector. In order to be adjoined, both surfaces must be exactly the same with all matching vertices (and therefore edges) occupying the same place (colocated). If adjoined, you are able to pass from one sector to another (however, if you desire, there are ways to make this not so).
Concepts:
Think of yourself INSIDE a box. This is the beginning sector-everything outside the box does not exist. Inside is air and the (inside) walls define where your space ends. There are no outside walls. From here you may do a number of things. You can move vertices or lines around, but (in my book) this is not desireable, use only as a last resort.
Well then, what do you do? CLEAVE and Extrude and cleave and delete and cleave and... to your hearts content. The concept is to build your level out from you original sector by extending (extruding) block size chunks of "air" in the rough shape of what you want and then cleave (cut) and delete volumes of this air to create solid surfaces. In other words, you create solids by creating areas where air isn't.
Practical answer:
You can also do as you say by creating another sector and adjoining the two, but extruding is so much easier. You extrude by cutting (cleaving) a surface of your sector first. Do this by going into surface mode, select the desired surface, press "shift s" to align the grid so it will be parallel to the surface, press "c" (which will give you a different cursor shape) and cut (cleave) along the surface. If you want a door (rectangle), you will need to make three cuts (if the floor stays the same). The first cleave will leave you with a line the full length of the ORIGINAL surface. The next one might also, but the last won't. When cleaving a surface, the cut line always extends from one edge of the surface to the other. In the processing of cleaving, you are making additional surfaces. Choose the surface that is shaped like a door (which is what you want) and press "x", extrude. Voila, a new sector (whose cross section is door shaped) extends out from the door shaped surface. In your case, you would need to also create another sector, but keep the door shaped sector, cleave it to the length you want, cleave the surface of the new room sector to the exact shape of the door sector, line up and adjoin ("A").
To cleave a sector, go into sector mode, choose the perspective you want to cut from, align the grid and cleave. Cleaves are always straight through from your viewing angle (with the grid perpindicular to your view).
Hope this hasn't confused you more than it helps......