Using Composer

Composer is the main world-building application for MV3D. Composer is where terrain is edited, objects are placed, and music and ambient sound effects are added. Composer connects directly to Sim Servers and can modify the game world even when other players are connected. It allows for cooperative editing between multiple environment artists or designers. There's no locked assets to worry about, and the changes are visible immediately in the world for easy testing.

Starting Composer

Composer is a plugin for Composer (we're in the process of renaming it so it doesn't share the same name as the master tool). With Windows binary installs, it can be accessed from the start menu. For source releases, open a command line window and navigate to the trunk folder (the base of the MV3D source tree where the mv3d folder is) and run

python mv3d/tools/composer/composer2.py

For setuptools installations, make sure Python's scripts directory is in your path and just run composer2.

Getting Started

This is the list of modes for Composer. From left to right, they are: Select, Add, Scatter, Move, Rotate, Scale, Drag Terrain, Raise Terrain, Lower Terrain, Flatten Terrain, Rougher Terrain, Paint Terrain Textures, Add Vegetation, Remove Vegetation, and Paint Vegetation.

The brush pane of Composer contains options for controlling the brush based on the current mode. For editing terrain, the brush shape can be selected. Below that in the controls pane are toggle buttons for locking the X, Y, or Z axes. In addition, the chain button is for linking the selected axes during scaling operations. The final button under controls is the snap to ground button. This mainly affects creating new objects. When it is selected, newly added objects will be put on a horizontal surface nearest where you clicked in the preview pane.

The other options for the brush are under the properties pane. These include setting the size which affects terrain editing and scattering objects. The amount also affects those modes. Under amount is a color selection for painting grass. Then there's scale min and scale max. Those define the min and max scale for scatter objects.

Below that, there's rotation and rotation variation. These are also for scatter objects and define the rotation of the placed objects along with the variation when placing them.

On the right side of the window is a tab frame with the General tab. This shows some information about the currently selected item. At the top is the ID which isn't editable. Under that is the name and asset. The asset can be set by selecting an asset in the asset pane and clicking the << button. Different types of items use assets in different ways, but generally, it specifies the representation as created with Builder or Solid.

The type of an item is not editable, however, when creating new items, changing the selection here allows you to create different types of items. Below the type are the position, rotation, and scale of the item which can be edited directly or by using the mouse with the appropriate mode selected.

Tutorial

Note this page is currently more of a tutorial than a manual. It will be expanded soon.

1. Open up Composer and conenct to your server.
2. Under Areas, select your realm and then double click your area.
3. Under Assets, select your asset group and your builder asset.
4. Click the + Icon under tools to add new objects.
5. Click somewhere on the screen, and a new object will come up.
6. Mouse picking is sort of wonky right now since it uses Ogre and not ODE, so the best way to select something is to highlight it in the Objects pane and turn on the Lock button which will keep your selection locked.
7. Switch to move mode (the arrows, 4th button in) and move your item around. Next to move is rotate, then scale.
8. Changes are automatically saved on the server. There's currently no undo. If you are logged in as the client, you should see the changes in real time.
9. The tools buttons from left to right are: Select, Add, Spray Paint (new objects), Move, Rotate, Scale, Grab Terrain, Raise Terrain, Lower Terrain, Flatten Terrain, Roughen Terrain, Paint Terrain textures (see the Terrain tab on the Right), Add Vegetation, Remove Vegetation, Paint Vegetation.

You can also use Composer to create new realms/areas.