I advise regular use of this save function ... particularly before using any of the special functions.
Before saving the level, Devil will check many diverse things; for an explanation of these, along with potential error messages, see Section 0.
See Section 7.2.3.1
Translators Note:
If you find that you need to adjust the default parameters for this load of Descent, check the DESCENTSTART .BAT file specified in the CFG.BAT file in the Devil CONFIG directory. This file should be present in the DESCENTPATH directory.
Windows users may find it easier to load both Devil and Descent in separate windows and use the Alt-Tab function to jump between the two tasks. This avoids the overhead of loading Descent every time. You may find that the displays are not restored correctly when you return, so ensure that you save your level before jumping. It is adviseable to leave the Descent display at one of the menus and not in a level.
The x-axis is an imaginary line drawn horizontally from the left of the screen to the right.
The y-axis is an imaginary line drawn vertically from the top of the screen to the bottom.
The z-axis is an imaginary line drawn from yourself to the screen.
The points in a level are stored in a 3 dimensional co-ordinate system (x,y,z) called Vertices.
These co-ordinates represent distance from an origin (0,0,0) in either positive or negative directions. For example, (20,0,-20) is 20 units "right" parallel to the x-axis in the positive direction and 20 units parallel to the z-axis in the negative direction (i.e., "towards you").
See Section 3.2.5 for aligning to the co-ordinate system.
See Section 7.6.1 for a description of the co-ordinate axis display.
* Right mouse button only: Move yourself forward/backward and spin yourself around the z-axis (i.e. the direction of view).
* Shift+right mouse-button: Slide left/right/up/down.
* Left+right mouse-button: Turn around the x/y-axis.
* Shift+left+right mouse-button: Only makes any sense in double view: Turn around the point which bisects both z-axes in the left and right views.
* Ctrl+right mouse-button: Fly forward.
While it is evident here that every mouse-button is used multiple times and the concept may not be dreadfully simple, a similar layout applies to the movement of things and the movement of textures. This is, therefore, the standard Devil mouse paradigm.
Translators Note:
It is easier to maintain symmetry and regular shapes when objects move parallel to the co-ordinate axes. Regularity is often desired, but of course not absolutely necessary. Alignment gives you rounder numbers for co-ordinates without requiring (snap to) grid to be turned on and aligning yourself to an axis means that when you move yourself in or out, you will stay on an axis. Points and sides moved from this position will also tend to stay aligned to the grid ... just try it. Another benefit of aligning to an axis is repeatability. If you are used to looking down on your level along the negative y-axis, you can quickly return to a previous position and orientation.
Example: Assume that you prefer to work in "plan" (like looking at a house plan, from "above"). To view a cube side, you might zoom to a point on the side, align yourself to the negative y-axis, and then back up to view the point and surrounding features from above. If you then move the point, it will slide along the x, y or z-axis nicely. If you had not aligned to an axis, the point would probably move in a direction not parallel to any axis.
You can save view positions with Ctrl+F1 - F10 and restore these again with Shift+F1 - -F10. With Ctrl+F11 you may attain an overview of the level (hereby simply being moved backwards against the view direction as far as is required for you to see the whole level), and with Shift+F11 return again to the position you were before you pressed Ctrl+F11. Ctrl/Shift+F12 applies when making corridors with the corridor-generator (see Section 7.1.7).
* Cubes are indicated by a circle through their mid-point and lines from the mid-point to their corners.
* Sides are indicated by a circle in their mid-point and lines from the mid-point to their corners. If the side is joined, the circle is displaced a little toward the inside (i.e. in the direction of the cube mid-point) so that you can differentiate one side from the other.
* Edges are indicated by a circle which is displaced in the direction of the mid-point of the side. Furthermore, three lines are drawn from the circle: a short one to the indicated edge and two longer ones to both neighboring edges on the same side of this edge.
* Points are simply indicated by a circle.
* Walls are indicated by a circle around the intersection of the two wall-marker lines.
Things are indicated by a circle around the intersection of their lines or by a circle around the midpoint of the imaginary line between the two bottom points of the Thing.
With `Move->change to sidecube' you can select the cube next to the current cube, which is joined to the current cube via the current side. This can be quite useful if you want to move through a corridor on one go.
If you set the `Movemode' switch to `Select Cube', then you can select the current Side using the left mouse-button and can change the current Cube using the right mouse-button by clicking on the large arrow-key pointing in the desired direction.
* Right mouse-button only: Move forward/backwards and turn around the z-axis (i.e. the direction of view).
* Shift+right mouse-button: Slide left/right/up/down (i.e. in the x/y-plane).
* left+right mouse-button: Turn around the x/y-axis.
The layout is the same layout you use when moving yourself. (if this makes sense)
If you press Ctrl before you the press the right mouse-button and keep it pressed, the white circle turns blue and you can move all tagged objects. (All objects affected by this move will turn brown.)
An example: To move the one side of a room made up of four cubes, select one of the Sides and then click on `Tag flat sides' to tag the other three sides. Press the left mouse-button for scan mode, hold it down and press Ctrl as well (the scan circle turns blue). Move the mouse until you have one of the tagged sides indicated in green then press the right mouse-button as well (all affected sides will turn brown). At this point you may release the Ctrl key ... as long as you hold either the left or the right mouse-button down movement affects all four sides as a unit. You can alternate between the left and right mouse-buttons to turn , twist and move backwards and forwards. Press shift to move them up and down.
To activate this mode, select the side as normal using the left mouse-button and while holding it down, press Alt as well and then click the right mouse-button once. As long as you continue to keep at least one of the mouse buttons pressed, you can release the Alt key.
The following combinations apply :-
* Left mouse-button only: Rotate texture.
* Left+right mouse-button: Rotate texture.
* Right mouse-button only: Enlarge/Reduce and rotate texture.
* Shift+either mouse-button: Shift texture left/right/up/down.
It must be pointed out at this stage that the moving of points/cubes/sides causes the texture alignment on the affected sides to be re-calculated, so that a laboriously hand-fitted texture would need to be re-aligned. In order to prevent this you must lock the side (see Section 4.3).
How you move the object depends on the type of the object being moved:
Things/Sides/Cubes/Points are moved if you press the right mouse button and you have some of them tagged.
* Cubes: Cubes can be moved in all three spatial directions with the right mouse button. The movement is relative to the viewer, i.e. if you click on the left upper key with the right mouse button then the cube is moved towards you. Cubes are rotated relative to the center of the current side. All tagged cubes and the current cube are rotated with the left and right upper keys, only all tagged cubes are rotated with the left and right lower keys. The first function can be undone by simply clicking the opposite key, the second only if the current cube has not been changed. The second function is more useful if you want to build curved or spiral corridors. With both the center keys cubes can be rotated in an arc about a point perpendicular to the current side.
Translators Note: With the left mouse-button, all tagged cubes and the current cube are rotated according to the keys, but the bottom-left and bottom-right keys only affect the tagged cubes. The right mouse-button only works on tagged cubes
Regarding rotation ... the green edge indicated by the yellow and purple lines becomes the axis, if that makes any sense at all. In fact the axis lies in the middle of the current side.
* Sides: Sides move just as with cubes but cannot be rotated at all.
* Point: Points also move just as cubes move and can naturally also not be rotated. With Points there is the possibility of specifying the co-ordinates directly in the provided window, see Section 4 about this.
* Walls/Edges: Walls/Edges can neither be moved nor rotated (except naturally together with the side upon which they find themselves).
* Things: Things without special orientation (such as those represented by 3D-Crosses) move as Points do - relative to the viewer and they cannot be rotated. Things with orientation (Robots, Player-starts and also Hostages) can be moved and rotated as the user can, as if it were you turning and moving. So a tagged object can travel `forwards' (i.e. in the direction of the large arrow-point) if you use the right mouse-button on the key top-right and in the upward direction (i.e. in the direction the short arrow-point) with the key top-center.
Translator's Note: The complete paradigm for mouse-mode editing is as follows :
* Click on the menu bar for the object you want to edit (Cube, Side, Thing or Point)
* Click in the level window with the left mouse-button and keep it pressed while you highlight the object you wish to edit (within the white scan circle)
* Still keeping the left mouse-button pressed, click the right mouse-button once. (Any lines connected to the object in question will be turned brown.)
* Now move the mouse to shift the object
* Releasing the left mouse-button takes you out of point edit mode.
* For Point mode editing, which is very useful when making major or minor adjustments to cubes or sides, you will need to press the Shift key to enable editing mode.
If you need to move a Thing a long way, i.e., into another cube, the easiest way to do it is to make it the current Thing, make the destination cube current and then select `Move->move thing to cube', which will center the Thing in the current cube.
* Pressing the spacebar tags the current object of the current mode. Shift-spacebar tags (or untags) all the objects of the current mode.
* Using the `special tags' as discussed in Section 7.3
* As when selecting, you press the left mouse-button and keep it pressed. If you then also press `Ctrl', the object identified at the time by the green marker will be tagged.
* By using the button in the appropriate element windows, see Section 4.1.
Multiple objects can be tagged simultaneously by drawing a rectangle with the mouse in the level window. For this you firstly press `Ctrl' and keep it pressed, then click the left mouse-button in the level window, hold the button pressed and enclose in the rectangle all objects that should be tagged. Only objects of the current mode within the current visibility-depth will be tagged and then only if they lie completely within the box. Using the right button you can add more objects to those already tagged.