PlanetDeusEx | Deus Ex | Help | Editing | Making Your First Map
Making Your First Map

Let's not beat around the bush... making your first room is just a very tiny step in your journey through creating a Deus Ex mission. It is a very important step, though, so let's take a look.

Assuming you've read the basics in order to understand some of the terminology (and assuming you've gotten your tools to install correctly), start up UnrealEd. Over in the upper right-hand corner is an area labeled Browse, with a pull-down menu immediatly to the right. Click on the down arrow and select Textures.



Having done this, some pictures will appear in the right-hand box. Go down to the lower right-hand corner where you'll see buttons like Edit, New, Apply, etc. Click on the Load button, and a window will pop up to let you Load Texture Package.



Select one of the texture packages (the extension .utx indicates texture packs) and open it up. I chose Catacombs for this example. Doing this step will open up a bunch of textures on the right-hand side of the screen. Click on one of them to select what your room will look like. Here I've chosen the Cath_Stonebloc texture.



Now right-click on this button , and a window will pop up.



This dialog will allow you to set the properties of a square carving brush (remember, the game world you start out with is like a big solid, and you create your brushes and carve out playing space). Just go ahead and use whatever settings are in the boxes already (should be as shown). Now go up and click this button and in the 3D view you'll see your room appear, covered with the texture you selected above.

Next up, you have to add a Player Start (which tells the game where you will be standing when the level loads) and a light so you can see your badass self. Once again, go up to the upper right-hand corner and click where it says Browse, and select Classes. In the long window below will be a bunch of text... click the minus sign by NavigationPoint, and then go down and click *PlayerStart.



Add the PlayerStart to the map by holding down the A key and left-clicking inside one of the 2D views. You'll see a little green joystick icon appear. Check all 2D views to make sure, no matter where you are looking at the map, that your player start is inside the room you hollowed out and preferably near the floor. You can move it by holding down the Control Key on your keyboard and your left-mouse button at the same time, and dragging the icon. Add a light by holding down the L key and left-clicking inside your 2D view. Move the light as above in order to make sure it's inside your room.



Now compile the map! Hit F8 and then the Rebuild Geometry button...



Save your map, and you're done! Click Control and P and UnrealEd will launch Deus Ex and play your map. Congrats.



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