NGLE Features
Last updating: 4h April 2007 (v.1.0.9.11)


Overview about Next Generation
          Remark about some new features
          Backward Compatibility
          New Tom2Pc tool
New (Hidden) Features
          Mesh and vertex memory
          Change Light Values
          New Room Infos
          Scrolling Texture Map
          Removing Spin Effect
          Removed bug about sound map
          Hidden keyboard commands
New Buttons           
          Room Type button
          DMG button
          Cold button
          Move Lara Here button
          V2d Map button
                    How select hidden rooms in Vertical Map
                    Behavior of [+] [-] Room buttons in Vertical Map
                    Cardinal Points button
          Exit & Play Button
          Hide Objects button
          Advanced Search button
          Last Projects button           
          Backup Project button
          Big Textures button
                    Map Converter
          Rotate Object button
          Go Back Old Room button
          Go button
          Settings button
          New Up button
                    Creation of bridgefoots and doors
          New Down button
          New Tunnel Room button
                    Vertical Tunnels
                    Horizontal Tunnels
                    Tips & Tricks about Tunnels
                              Ceiling Alignment of Tunnels
                              Flipped Tunnel Rooms
Texture Menu
          Load Tga
          Create Floor Triangular Tex
          Create Ceiling Triangular Tex
          Load Palette
          Save Palette
          Remove Unused Tail Infos
          Clear Room
          Clear Floor Selected Textures
          Clear Ceiling Selected Textures
          Check Integrity Textures
Screenshots menu
Shapes menu
          Shape Properties
          Pyramids
                    Peaked Pyramids
                    Stepped Pyramids
          Slopes
          Grid Walls
          Bending Shapes
                    Sample: Building an inclineated rounded tunnel
                    Progressive Bending
          Dome Shape
                    Partial Domes
                    Textured Domes
                    Sphere Room
          Ground Simulation
                    Setting Random Smooth Paramaters
                    Tips & Tricks for 3d Terrain Generation
          Remove Editing from Selection

Help menu
New Windows
          Select Object Window
          Select Room Window
          Animation Range Window
          Sound Texture Window
          Settings Window
          Edit External Programs window
          Sound Effect Window
          Object IDs Window
New Keyboard Commands
          




Overview about Next Generation

The Next Generation evolution is based on patcher library Tomb_NextGeneration.dll created by Paolone (dolce_paolo@tiscali.it)
This library enhances the features of WinRoomEdit, Tom2Pc and tomb4 programs.
It's advisabe to locate this library in same folder of tomb raider tools, avoiding to copy it in c:\windows\system.
To have ng features is necessary also to use specific next generation executables supplied with tomb_nextgeneration.dll.

Remark about some new features

Currently tomb4 next generation is not yet ready. For this reason some new features of Next generation room editor will have no effect using common tomb4.exe. Anyway no trouble should happen to have set these features.

These are the NGLE (Next Generation Level Editor) features non-working using a common tomb4.exe:

I'll try to release the next generation tomb4 executable in short times (some month) to support above new features.
This choice to release NGLE when NG Tomb4 is not yet ready could seem debatable, anyway I thought that NGLE has many interesting features already usable (building shapes, crash removing, big textures) and for this reason I chose to anticipate the releasing of NGLE.
I hope the level editing comunity may be agreed with this choice.

Backward Compatibility

Next Generation Level Editor reads and writes common project files (.prj).
Currently, there are no additional field in project files generated by NGLE but only some new flag in status room field to support new room kinds like "snow", "rain" ect.
Above additional flags will be simply ignored by old room editor.




NG Tom2Pc tool



New Next Generation Tom2pc is very alike than old tom2pc in its layout. The differences are whitin the program.
Now you can convert huge levels with huge wad files.
Remark: when you use a v50 project (i.e. a project with default size of textues by 128 x 128 pixels) you should always use ng tom2pc, because old tom2pc is not able to support the size of new texture map.

About two new controls, the [Statistics] button should be clicked only at end of conversion to see all log mexages you se in right white frame and some statistics about memory usage.
The option [Crypt tr4] is not yet active. It will be useful only at exit of ng tomb4 and in that moment you'll can use "crypt tr4" to protect your job from thiefs of objects and textures.




New (Hidden) Features

Many new features have a button or menu item to invoke them but there are other features "hidden".
In this chapter we'll see these interesting features.

Mesh and vertex memory

Next Generation WinRoomEdit has a memory for meshes and vertices four times bigger than old winroomedit. Thanks to this large zones the risk to crash in preview mode in wide spaces it's very remote.
Anyway for this same reason NG winroomedit requires many much memory to work correctly, about 256 MB ram it's necessary to work fine in preview mode.

Change Light Values

Sometimes it's boring changing value for light because the standard buttons permit only a little increment for hit.
If you wish set new value for lights (colors, intensity, out, in ect.) you can perform a click with left mouse button over the numeric zone of that field and you'll be prompted to type new value for that light field.




New Room Infos

Really this feature is not own "hidden" but pheraps it's better remember its existence to explain the meaning of different new entries.


There are changes in Room Infos for following entries:



Scrolling Texture Map

Now you can use the mouse wheel to scroll texture map.
On some notebooks the touchpad's wheel simultation is not recognized but you can try to change touchpad setting to solve this problem.
In some circustances WinRoomEdit could lose the link with mouse wheel, to solve this problem just you hit SHIFT or ARROW keys, or you can click with left mouse button in 3d panel.

Removing Spin Effect

On modern and fast computers sometimes winroomedit zooms and spins too fastly. To remove this problem has been changed input sincronization and it has been added new slow down function activable with (left) SHIFT key.
To use SHIFT slow down you have to keep down the left shift key while you are hitting arrows or PgUp/PgDown keys.
You can change the slow down factor using a combination of SHIFT + 1 - 9 keys.
I.e.:
SHIFT 1 : not very slow
SHIFT 2 : more slow
....
SHIFT 9 : Max slow down factor
Remarks:
* You have to use generic numeric keys and not digit of numeric pad.
* The factor you chose will be saved also for next job sessions.
* The default value for slow down factor is 3.

Removed bug about sound texture map

Old room editor had a boring bug in preserving sound texture map. Pratically you had to save sound map (with "Save Texture Snds" button) and reload it before performing an output wad (with "Load Texture Snds" button) because sometimes the sound texture map was "lost" for misterious reasons.
Now that bug should be not ever present. Surely I removed that bug when you use [Load Tga] button. If you find newly this losing of sound texture, say me, please! (dolce_paolo@tiscali.it)

Hidden keyboard commands


See full list of New Keyboard Commands



New Buttons

Room Type button

Room Type button is a multi-state button. Clicking more times its value change in circular way showing following setting for current room:


Remark: above functions will be available in game when it will be released next generation tomb4 engine.

DMG button

Damage button. Lara will lose her vitality when she is in Damage room.

Remark: above function will be available in game when it will be released next generation tomb4 engine.

Cold button

Cold button works in different way in according with RoomType button. If current room is a Water room lara will can resist only short time in water and the she'll lose vitality. In ground rooms her breath will be visibile.

Remark: above function will be available in game when it will be released next generation tomb4 engine.

Move Lara Here button

Remove Lara from previous positio and put her in current room in first selected square.
Before using this button you have to select a square in current room to choose her target position.
Move Lara Here button

V2d Map button

V2d Map will show your level in vertical growth.
When this button and default 2d Map button are pressed the background of 3d panel will become yellow and you'll see the vertical map of level.
In v2d mode you can move selected room to link rooms and create portals.
If selected room (in red color) has doors you can move whole room group using right mouse button and dragging the group in new position.

If you perform a single click with right mouse button the rooms between current room and view point will become transparent (it remains only black frame to see them). In this situation you can select a room (using left mouse button) behind transparent rooms. (see following paragraph)

How select hidden rooms in Vertical Map



Look the current selected room (red color in figure A). We suppose to want select little room at left of current room. Currently that room is not visible, so we click with right mouse button in yellow (empty) zone of 3d panel. Now forward rooms become transparents (Figure B). Now just click with left mouse button over little room at left of red room to select it (figure C).

Behavior of [+] [-] Room buttons in Vertical Map

When you work with vertical 2d map (yellow background in 3d panel) the behavior of [+]/[-] room buttons is different.
Before explaining new behavior let's see the old behavior.




If you click on [-] room button and current room is linked with other room whereby a door (Figure A), we'll get a "step" between two rooms because only current room moved down (Figure B).
In some circustances this behavior could be useful, anyway it's boring when you want move all rooms linked by door up or down.
In NGLE you can use [+][-] room buttons to move a group of linked room, just you click on +/- room buttons when it's showed the vertical 2d map.

Cardinal Points button

At right of [V2d Map] button you find the button to change cardinal view point of vertical 2d map.
The cardinal points refered as in below picture.


Note above picture shows the common horizontal 2d map.
Cadinal points button is a multi-state button, you can select "South", "West", "North" or "East". To understand how it will be showed your level just you think there is a camera in cardinal point of above picture.
For example the four cadinal views of above horizontal map will be following:



Exit & Play Button

This button performs automatically a very common sequence of operations:

If you perform often above operations you can save time using this button, in fact, the execution of above operations will not require ever your presence (you'll be not prompeted with input requests). When operations will be completed you'll hear the tomb raider music of title level.

Hide Objects button

With Hide Object button you can remove temporanely all items (moveables, statics and effects) from current room. The reason could be to set new textures avoiding the "bother" of items laying on floor. When you want have newly your items click newly this button to release it.

Remarks:
This operation is a bit delicate because item will be really removed from map. To avoid troubles you should take care to don't:

Pratically you should only add/change textures or change squares moving up/down sectors.
You can also applicate some Shape effects, for example to create hills using new Random smooth floor, however, if you try to move up /down floor sectors using [+][-] floor buttons, the sectors where there were objects will be frozen. Differently using the commands of Shape menu all sectors will be changed how it is necessary and object overt those sectors, will be moved up/down in according current floor sector.

Advanced Search button

Clicking on Advanced Search button will be showed the Search window.


You may search "items" of different categories. Select in "Search for" combo list box the wished category and then select one specific item to search in big list box.

Last Projects button

Find First button

If you want start the search (or re-start) from beginning of project you can use "Find First" button.

Previous (<) button

Search previous hinstance of current item in the project

Following (>) button

Search following hinstance of current item in the project

Last Projects button

It shows window with list of last edited project file.
Project files will be sorted in chronologic order but if you may also enable alphabetic sorting.
This feature is very confortable to locate fastly last projects. You can use CTRL L as shortcut for this feature.


Backup Project button

You can create fastly a backup of current project with automatic progressive name. Project file will be saved in same folder of current project folder.
Remark: differently by other projects, the backup projects created with this button will be not inserted in Last Projects list. For this reason it's not advisable to use this button to save "main" project file but only to have many frequent backups.


Big Textures button
Now you can use bigger textures, upto 256x256 pixel. To select a big texture in texture panel you must click on [Big Texture] button.
When [Big Texture] button is highlighted (with yellow or red color) you can select in texture panel big textures using right mouse button to select the wished area.
Remember that the area where you select the texture is ideally organized in grids of 256 x 256 pixels. This is the reason because in some position you cann't expand the selection to cover an area of 256 x 256 pixel. Pratically you should see your texture map divided as you see in left picture.
If you watch the green boxes you can understand because you can not select a texture in position showed by red frame.
About this speech of organization of map it's important to have an tga original map with width of 256 pixel.
Really ng WinRoomEdit works fine also with tga maps width 512 pixels, but if you have a 512 pixel wide tga map, you'll have some troubles to add big texture in the map since the original map will be remapped to became 256 pixel wide when you load it in WinRoomEdit. In this circustance the texture rows will be interleaved in different way respect the original tga file.
To avoid this trouble you can reorganize your map to force a 256 pixel wide also in original tga image. You can get this target using the MapConverter utility. See following paragraph.


Map Converter



Map converter is able to reorganize the texture map working directly on supplied project file.
You can use mapconverter to reach two different targets:



Change only size of tga file

If you want change only the width of .tga file you have to select as Texture Alignment in Target data frame, the value "64 x 64" exactly the same than Source alignment field. In this way the textures will remain with original size (64 x 64 pixel or less) but the tga file will be forced to 256 pixel width.

Resize all textures to 128 x 128 size

To resize all textures you set 64x64 pixel as source and 128x128 as target.
After this remapping your project will become a v50 project (version 50).
In v50 projects the default size for texture is 128 x 128 pixels and it's possibile to have animated texture and sound texture with this size and only this size, 128 x 128 pixel.

Remarks


Rotate Object button

It permits to rotate current selected object in the map.
Sometimes with very little objects is difficultous hit many times with mouse pointer the object, using this button you can rotate object in easy way. You can use also shortcut CTRL F to rotate object.

Go Back Old Room button

In NGLE there is a new method to fast navigation between rooms.
Everytime you edit a room, the index of that room will be saved in a circular list like it was a checkmark.
To go to previous edited room in circular list just you click this button (or use shortcut 'g').
Last 10 edited rooms will be stored.
Other keys to handle this feature are:


Go button

Go button permits to launch the external program currently selected in left combo list. You can also use shortcut (SHIFT + ...) to launch a specific program, the shortcut keys will be showed at left of external program name.
To set the program list you have to click on Settings button (see below)

Settings button

InvokeSettings Window to set all parameters of ngle. You can use also shortcut SHIFT F2 to call Settings Window

New Up button

New Up button creates a new room with same size of current room and put it over current room.
By default this command will create also a vertical portal (door) to link current room with upstairs new room.
You can disable the creation of portal, typing a negative value for hight of new room.

Creation of bridgefoots and doors

Anyway it’s very useful the automatic portal creation because you can use it to create fastly footbridge or particular door grids.


If you want create footbridges in a big environment you can use New Up button to create footbridges simply moving down the ceiling sectors where you want the footbridge.
For example in above figure c1 we have selected a strip on ceiling and clicked on [-] ceiling to move down the strip.
Now just click on [New Up] button to get anohter new room upstairs of current room with a footbridge in intermediate position between two rooms (figure c2).

We can use automatic portals also to create particular doors in wished position.


To set the sectors you want transform in door, just move up those sectors.
You select the sectors and click on [+] ceiling (figure n1) and then click on [New Up] to create new upstairs room with wished doors (figure n2)

New Down button

New Down button create new room and put it belove current room.
As above command New Up button the new room will be linked to current room with vertical portal, anyway take care to understand the difference about moving floor up/down to get footbridges or doors.
The movements will regard the floor (because the new room will be downstairs current room) and movements will be inverted respect that of [New Up] command.



To create footbridges with [New Down] button, we have to select floor sector where we want footbridges and move up it using [+] floor button (Figure a1)
Then to have created new downstairs room with [New Down] button, we’ll get the footbridge (figure a2)



When you want create doors with [New Down] command, just you select sectors where you want the door and move down them with button [-] floor
(figure b1).
Then with [New Down] button we’ll get the new room with door in wished position (figure b2).

New Tunnel Room button

This button permits to create new rooms linked with current room whereby vertical or horizontal doors.
It works in similar way than [New Up] and [New Down] button but it's able to create any room with any size and in any door position.

[New Tunnel Room] button creates new rooms in according with current selected sector/s in current room.

Vertical Tunnels

To create a vertical tunnel in specified position of current room, just select wished floor sector/s and then click on [New Tunnel Room].


Ngle requires the height of new (tunnel) room. For vertical rooms the length is in clicks. Remember that one sector = four clicks.
About vertical tunnels, the sign, of number used to set the height, set the direction of tunnel:


For example to set a vertical tunnel from ceiling just you set a positive number as height. See belove picture.



Horizontal Tunnels

In horizontal tunnels you have to give more infos: length of tunnel and its height in clicks. See belove picture.



Tips & Tricks about Tunnels

By default the floor of tunnel matches with floor of current room, anyway you can set a different starting vertical point for tunnel.


Floor of new tunnel will be aligned with floor line on selected wall.
The "floor" line is that grid line you get selecting a wall and clicking on [+] floor button.
In above figure d1 the floor line on the wall is 6 clicks over room floor. In figure d2 you can see how the tunnel starts from position where the floor line was set.

If the floor line is very high the door on the wall will be aligned (as "top" value) with current ceiling, anyway you can create a tunnel higher than ceiling and you'll get a new tunnel room like in belove figure e2.



Ceiling Alignment of Tunnels

If you want get a result like figure e2 but for floor (in inverse position, of course), it's a bit more difficultous because you have to create the new tunnel aligning it with "ceiling" line of wall and not floor line.


As we saw, by default ngle create new horizontal tunnels forcing the floor of new tunnel with "floor line" on the selected wall.
If you want use as alignment line the "ceiling" line on the wall, you have to perform following operations (see above F figures )


You can use ceiling alignment also for more common targets.


For example if you want have a tunnel with same ceiling of ceiling of current room, just you get a down arrow on selected sector and create a tunnel without move any ceiling line on the wall. (See above image)

About floor or ceiling line on the wall, we could ask what happen if you select two or more walls having different position of floor line. See belove image.


Ngle read floor/ceiling line only from first sector of selection. Pratically it checks for floor/ceiling line in top left selected sectore, ignoring other selected sectores.
Remember that the top left sector is based on top view as you see in 2d panel.

You can use tunnel button also to create another room with same size of current room, like in stacked rooms created by [New Up] and [New Down] buttons.


If you select all wall sectors of a room side (figure H1) you'll get a new room linked with full portal (figure H2)

Flipped Tunnel Rooms

When you are working on flipped room (background is black) you can use [New Tunnel Room] as for normal rooms. See belove figure.


The [New Tunnel Room] works in same way as exaplained in above samples, anyway in this case you should remember that ngle will create two rooms: the main room and the flipped room of new room, in fact, to link a flipped room to another new room it's necessary that also new room was flipped.




Texture Menu

In this chapter will be described commands of Texture Menu.
Note that Texture Menu existed also in original TRLE, but some commands have been added.

Load Tga

Same command of original level editor. It permits to load a texture file in tga format.

Create Floor Triangular Tex

This command permits to have an automatic texturizing in selected zone where there are not texturized triangles.
This operation works only if the square with untexturized triangle was texturized before splitting the square in two triangles.
Let doing a little sample to understand this speech


If we have a texturized floor (figure A) and then we apply some editing, for example moving up a corner (figure B).

We'll have an untexturized (new) triangle, and also other texturized triangle has a wrong orientation of texture.



To solve this problem we can select that square (figure D) and apply command "Create Floor Triangular Tex" (SHIFT F3), getting new correct triangular textuers and correct rotation (figure E).



Create Ceiling Triangular Tex

This command has same target and working mode of Create Floor Triangular Tex command. You'll use this command when the triangles to correct are on the ceiling.

Remark.
In some circustance the restored textured could have wrong orientation. This happen when you apply two editings to same sector before call above commands.

Load Palette

This is old command "Load Depth Cue", the name has been changed only to get it more understandable.
The palette is a sequence of 256 colors, each color has 24 bits (RGB). This palette is copied also in tom file and then in tr4 file and it should be used when the game works to 256 colors.

Save Palette

This is old command "Save Depth Cue", the name has been changed only to get it more understandable.

Remove Unused Tail Infos

Tail Infos are records keep information about origin and size of each texture you apply to face of rooms.
The max number of room tail infos is 1024. This value is enough high, anyway there is a bad management of tail infos in original level editor that causes the waste of many tail info records. Pratically the problem happens when you apply a texture (partial textures because this speech doesn't regard standard default size textures 64 pixel in v49 project or 128 pixel in v50 projects) and then you remove it with clear room command, or applying over those textures other different textures. In this situation the old tail infos will be not removed and for this reason the number of used tail infos (you can see in room panel info) is always growing.
This command permits to remove those old and not used tail infos to get more new free tail infos to apply in future.
Remark: this command perform a very complex operation and you should take some cautions when you use it.
You should save project before starting this command.
Then apply the command and save the project with a new different name.
Now check everything: you can use command "Check integrity textures" but you should also perform an "Find untextured" and an "output wad" operation.
Only when you are sure that all works fine you can go on to edit the changed level.

Clear Room

This command is an old command of original level editor. It remove all textures from current room. Note this command has no undo capability.


Clear Floor Selected Textures

This command works in similar way of original command "Textures->Clear Room" but with this new command you can remove textures only from specific selection.
This command performs different operations in according with current selection arrows. Really it's no important the specific direction of arrows but only the "kind" of arrow, to set three different working modes. (See following table)

Working Mode for Clear Textures
Arrows Working Mode
No arrow in selection.
If selection has no arrow, the command will remove textures only from upper face while the side faces will be keeped.
You should use this mode when you want clear floor textures in sectors contiguous to walls preserving the wall textures.
Horizontal arrows in selection. If selection has horizzontal arrows this command will clear textures from upper faces and also from side faces.
You could use this mode when you want remove textures from an irregular floor (like that you get with "hills" or "mountains" effects)
Diagonal Arrows in selection. With diagonal arrows this command will not change upper surface but only the side faces. Useful to clear textures only from walls


Important Note:
Internal format of room editor to keep data about textures is a bit chaotic and you have to understand this format to use this command in correct way.
When you select (for example) a single square like that in following picture, you cann't remove all textures with a single Clear Texture command. The reason for this situation is because a single sector keeps informations only for upper face and two (not four) side faces: the west side face and north side face.


This limitation gets you cann't remove all side faces in above "cube" because side faces at south and east will be ignored.
To clear also east texture you'll have to select sector at east of our cube, because this square ( marked as "B" in above picture) has at west the side face we want clear.
Same speech for south texture of our cube, we'll can clear the side south face only selecting the square at south of cube (marked as "A" in above picture), since this "A" square has at north the side face of our cube.
We can solve these doubts simply selecting all floor, of course, anyway it's important understand this limitation in some situations where we want clear some textures and keep other in contiguous sectors.
For example if we want clear texture from wall, preserving contiguos floor textures, we should use different methods in according with cardinal position of wall to clear.
Following picture sequence show the squares to select and the kind of selection to use to clear the four walls of a room, in according with cardinal position of walls, preserving the floor and ceiling textures.




When you have to clear north and west walls, you must select NOT really the wall (you'll get nothing) but the square strip near to wall with diagonal selection to work ONLY on side faces preserving upper face.
Note that for north and west walls in some circustances (when the wall contains a grid with different faces) you should also perform two different command: Clear Floor (ALT F9) and Clear Ceiling (ALT F10).

Differently, it's more easy clear texture from East and South walls. In this case you must select own the wall with a "no-arrows" selection. For these walls you have no need to perform two commands, and it's indifferent to use Clear Floor or Clear Ceiling.

Clear Ceiling Selected Textures

Clear texture from selected ceiling squares.
This command works in similar way of above command Clear Floor Selected Textures the only difference is instead of "upper face" of floor it works on down face of ceiling.

Check Integrity Textures

Current command perform an analyse to verify if texture tail infos are corrects.
You should use this commmand after using "Remove Unused Tail Infos" anyway you can use it also to remove some hidden textures, overhall in sectors where you had set some texture and then you converted it in portal.
When it will be found some irregular tail info the face where there is this wrong tail info will be cleared from texture.
The list of all cleared wrong tail infos will be showed in a log file created at end of this command.




Screenshots Menu

From Screenshots menu you can choose different zone to capture from NGLE screen.
Screenshots will be saved in RLE8 (*) format, this is a bitmap format very compact, in many circustances the bmp files will be more little of jpg files.
The only case where quality of this bmp format could be poor is when you capture the preview zone, for this reason there is also a "Preview Zone RGB". The RGB bitmap has big size but color quality will be perfect.
Using RLE8 bitmaps you can use directly the screenshots to post them on forums or websites.
All screenshots in this html page have been created with screenshots menu.

(*) RLE8: 256 palette colors, 8 bit non-losing compression.




Shapes Menu


In Next Generation WinRoomEdit has been added a Shapes menu with many commands to create in easy and fast way the most common shapes used in level building.
All shape effect support the "undo" command.

Shape Properties

Shape Properties

Shapes could be "incremental" effects, i.e. everytime you apply this effect this will increase its height.
Other shapes could be "cumulative" effects, i.e. they add to current floor (or ceiling) their effect. Differently the non cumulative shape effects, remove fully the previous editing in selected floor (or ceiling).
Shape Type Incremental Cumulative
Slope Shape YES YES
Pyramid Shape YES YES
Smooth Random Effects YES YES
Bending Effects YES NO
Dome Shape YES NO




Pyramids

You can create pyramids on the floor or on the ceiling, in direct or inverse direction.
Pyramids use a progressive building mode: each hit of command to do grow the pyramid by 1 click. In this way you can choose easily the wished height.


Peaked Pyramids
From 1.0.9.6 version of NGLE, you can set in Settings window the [Peaked Pyramids] option to get a pyramid with peaked corners. See belove figure.


In above picture you can see the difference between common pyramid (at left) and peaked pyramid (at right in red color).
Note: Peaked pyramids work only on floor because for ceiling the split triangle function (to get the peaked borders, is not available, unfortunately.

Stepped Pyramids
By default all pyramids are smooth, anyway you can use a trick to create "stepped" (don't smooth) pyramids.
If you want get a stepped pyramid just you prepare selection with white arrows, it's not important the direction of arrows.
Then, when you'll applicate the common pyramid effect, the pyramid will be "stepped".


Slopes



Slope is the most common building. You can create stepped or smooth slopes on the floor or ceiling.
Slope requires white arrows to signal the growing direction. Remember that the floor slope go up in arrow direction, while ceiling slope go down in arrow direction.

Grid Walls



The "grids" are new sections create over walls to have more faces to texturize. It's useful create this grid to avoid stretiching effect on texture you should have when you put a squared texture over an high wall.
You can create grids over a specific selected wall, or over all walls of the room. If you have create doors it's better to use command "Created grid in selected wall squares" (F11), while if you have just created a new room, you can use command "Create Grids in all wall squares" (F12).
The grid will be created in according with current room height. If you want remove the grids you can use command "Remove all editing from selection" (CTRL F11). If you apply this command to floor/ceiling squares all changes (up/down blocks, corner inclinations) will be removed.

Bending Shapes



Most difficultous and long operation in level building is the bending of floor or ceiling.
Next Generation WinRoomEdit permits to create easily many bend structures.
Differently by slopes and pyramids, the bend effects are not incremental, this means you get a prefixed bending in according with current wide of selection.

Sample: Building an inclineated rounded tunnel

Now we'll do a sample about mixing different shape effects.
We'll try to create this complex building.


It's a tunnel with circular base, moving upward and with smooth floor and ceiling.
Remark: following method is not necessarly the best way to build above tunnel, but surely it is most easy way. :-)

1) Create an empty room with size of 18 x 4 sectors



2) Select all ceiling and move up ceiling ([+] Ceiling) upto get a room with ceiling 40


Please, note the line between light green and dark green on the wall. That line will be our "separator line" that we'll use as reference for next operations.

3) Now, select all floor and to do appear white arrows (see below picture).



4) Apply "Inverse Bend Floor" effect from "Shapes" menu, and now click on selected floor to move white arrows in following direction



5) Now we can apply a "Smooth slope floor" (CTRL F1). You have to move up the tunnel until the max height is a click below our "separator line". (Note: if you pass over that limit, you can use "Undo" command to go back to previous height)



6) Well, now we'll perform same specular operations for ceiling.
Apply a "Bend Ceiling" effect and then move white arrows in this mode



7) Use a "Smooth Slope Ceiling" (CTRL F3) and move down ceiling until the bottom ceiling is a click above our "separator line"



8) Our tunnel is complete, however we could resize the height of tunnel to get more rounded shape.
Select ceiling, removing white arrows, and now click on [-] Ceiling until to get wished shape.



Progressive Bending

From version 1.0.8 NGLE permits to have progressive bending.
For “progressive” we mean an effect you can add to surface, hit after hit.
In belove image you can see the old fixed bending (g1) and two examples of progressive bending (g2).


Advantage of fixed bending is to have a fast (just one hit) bending pre-builded to have a good layout. Using progressive bending you have the adavantage to may choose the degree of bending to adapt it to your targets.

In settings window you can change the method used for bending effect.
You can choose between fixed bending and two progressive bending: based on circle function and on parabola function.
In belove image you can see the difference between two progressive bending.


Above circle bending it has the limit of hemicicle because you can not “extrude” more than half circle from floor.
When you reach the half of circle (h1 in above image) the further CTRL 1 (bending command) will be ignored and you’ll hear a “beep” to signal the reached limit.

Using parabola function (h2 in above image) you have not this problem because parabolas may grow in infinite way.

Remark: progressive bending works (a bit) better when the bending side has an even number of sectors, by other hand, when the side has an odd number of sectors you can be sure that lara will be able to walk above the top of this bended surface.

Dome Shape

Domes are hemispheres you can extrude (or intrude) in floor or ceiling.
When you want a full dome you have always to start from a perfect selected square (same size for x and y side of selection).


Dome is a progressive effect, so you can move up the top of dome performing different times the dome command (CTRL 5 for floor dome)
You can extrude only hemisphere and not more, when you try to perform another dome command this it will be ignored and it will be played the “beep” sound to advise you.

Remark: the dome effect works better when the side of selection has an even number of sectors.


Partial Domes

You can get partial domes using arrows in selected area.
When you use arrows you can select zones different than squared. In this case the longest side will be used as diameter of sphere.
The direction of arrows will indicate the base of partial dome. See belove picture.



Using partial domes you can get original shapes.
In belove picture have been used two partial domes mixed with a circle bending effect.



When the direction of arrows follows the longest side of selection you’ll get the central portion of dome. (See belove picture)


In this case the result remembers the bending effect, anyway there is a difference: the dome effect has many axis of inclination to follow sphere surface, while common bending work only in a single direction.

When you select diagonal arrows you get a corner of dome and the diameter of ideal sphere will be the longest side of selection multiplicated by 2.
See belove picture.



Textured Domes



Ngle to create a dome must deform floor in according with sphere function.
Looking above image a1 you can see that many sectors are divided in triangles. The creation of new triangles it is necessary to get a round shape like a dome. Anyway this irregular floor could be a problem when you want apply textures in particular way if the textures have a meaningful image (not solid color or irregular patterns) .
To avoid above troubles the better method is to texturize the floor when its is yet "flat" (all squares and no triangles), and only after this operation, to apply the dome effect.
Ngle in this circtustance is able to rebuild all textures for new triangles in correct way. (See belove image)


So, you should remember always this tip: when you use command that alterates the floor creating triangles, like dome and smooth random floor, you should first texturize floor and then apply the effect.
In this way you'll save a lot of time.

Sphere Room

We speaked about most common dome effect, to extrude from floor an hemisphere, anyway you can use dome shape also to intrude dome in floor or to extrude or intrude domes in ceiling.
Linking toghether some of above domes you can get nice rooms, for example you can get a whole sphere room.


An easy method to get a sphere room is to apply Inverse Dome Floor (ctrl 6) at whole floor (figure a1) and Ceiling Dome (ctrl 7) over whole ceiling (figure a2).
Now it will just move down the ceiling to get a perfeect sphere (figure a3).
Lara will be able to enter or exit from sphere room, just you add some tunnels in hortogonal diameter position to link this sphere room with other rooms.
About the chance to get visible from outside the sphere shape, you should use "double side" textures in your shpere room, and to use transparent texture for wall of outside rooms near to sphere room.
Pheraps the best result you'll get using for sphere room "double side" and (partial) "transparent" textures, to permit from outside to see not only the sphere shape of room, but also its content.



Ground Simulation

You have many shapes (see above) to build street, palaces or houses but when you have to build outside natural spaces above shapes are not very useful.
Lucky, Next Generation WinRoomEdit has also some features to create realistic outside environments in easy way.
In Shape Menu you find commands to create hills and mountains terrains: Random Smooth floor and ceiling.
Above commands work following some parameter you can set using command "Set Random Smooth Parameter" (SHIFT F2)

Best improvements of Random Smooth Floor respect to old Random Floor are:

To understand better the difference with old methods we could do this sample.
If we have a texured foor like following:



When we apply the old "random floor up" effect, this is the ugly result we'll get:




While using "Random Smooth Floor" (with setting "Hills"), we'll have this good result:




Setting Random Smooth Paramaters

You can set random smooth parameters in Settings Window



Tips & Tricks for 3d Terrain Generation


Random smooth commands check optional white arrows in selection to perform a bigger increment in that direction. In left picture I used a mountain effect. How you can see the increment is not really "regular" because the mountain generation is random, anyway we get most height in left side of zone effect zone.


If you want a more regular increment it's better don'use white arrows but to mix two different shape effects. You can prepare the zone creating a smooth slope and then to apply over the slope a random smooth floor effect (set with hills in above picture)


If you want a mountain in central position of room, you can mix a smooth pyramid floor with a mountain effect. In above picture, at end, I applied also a "hills" effect to smooth angle of our little mountain.


Hills effect works fine also alone, but if you want have a really moved floor, like desert dunes, you could prepare the zone putting alternate direct and inverse pyramids (only few clicks of height), and then to apply the hills effect with "few changes for hit". Above picture doesn't permit to understand the view of lara in game, it's very nice.


If you want limit access a lara in some direction you can use an effect with "Mountains" + "Limit max height to room height" + "Many changes for hit" (value = 7). In this way you can have an high natural wall to stop lara in that direction.

Remove Editing from Selection

This command remove all editing from selected zone. (CTRL F11)
Results you get are very alike than old "Average Floor" of "Features" menu but there are two differences:





Help menu

Some help files (NGLE and revised help) will be automatically downloaded if you don't own them when you select the corrispective menu item.
When download is complete, you should decompress the zip file directly in TRLE folder and this operation will create the sub-folder HELP with all help files, ready to be opened by NGLE menu commands.
Other specific help file Help Menu contains also other informative documents or procedures.

Info About Project

With Info About Project you can see the full path of current texture file and wad object file.
You can invoke this command also using shortcut SHIFT F1

Keyboard Commands

It shows a text file with all keyboard commands specific of NGLE.

Object IDs for TREP

If you are a TREP users, you can find useful this comand.
Some trep effects require the index of moveables but to get this index is a bit problematic because the number you see in level map (in NGLE) is different than real index in tr4 file for that item.
Using this command you'll can see an object IDs conversion table to discover easily the real tr4 index for each object in the map.
For more infos see Object IDs Window

Check for Updates

Using this command you can visit official home page of Next Generation to check if there updating for NGLE or important announces about release of NG tomb4 engine.

About NGLE

Shows infos about current version of NGLE and author's infos.

Default Level Editor Help

It opens the standard help file in .pdf format you should have in folder "TRLE\MANUAL\" with name MANUAL.PDF

NGLE Help

It shows help file about features of Next Generation tools. (This document)

Revised Level Editor Help

It shows a revised version of original level editor help. This version is in html format and for this reason is more easy update it.
More, revised help show many discoveries of all level editor comunity.
In revised help there is also the whole image collection of objects from all defaul wads of level editor and the last revelation.
See in below picture a screenshot of this huge archive.






New windows

In NGLE program some old windows have been replaced with new windows to get same target but containing more informations.

Select Object Window



Descriptions of columns:

Hot Keys



Select Room Window



Description of columns:

Hot Keys



Animation Range Window



You can select an animation range in same way used with old room editor:
Use right mouse button to select an animation range, keeping down right button drag the selection to cover all wished textures
Use left mouse button to select an animation range already creted previously.

Buttons


nUV Ranges

You can set the number of animated ranges used for UV rotate.
UV rotate animates the texture in different way, it scrolls image texture like in waterfall textures.
About this chance to animate room textures with UV rotate we could say that is a bit difficultous because some information are yet missing about correct method.
Surely you have to put a waterfall object in your wad file to get some result with UV animation.
The number of UV ranges starts from begin, this means if you set "2" as nUV ranges, first two animated range will be reserved for UV ranges and only the remaining ranges will be used for common "frame" animation.
If you are not interested to use UV animation it's important you remember to set at "0" the number of UV ranges.
Normally you'll be able to animate with UV animation first range while you could have trouble to animate following ranges with UV because there are particular operation to set in placing animated texture in the project.
Currently I'm not able to give more informations about this topic.

Frame Rates

You can set different frame rate for each animation range.
Default frame rate in tomb raider is 30 fps. fps means "Frame per Second", for example with 30 fps in one second will be showed 30 different textures .
This default frame rate is very high, it's good only to have short animations, anyway now using lower frame rate you can use few textures to get more meaningful animations.
Just thinking about animated gifs with a lot of nice animations. Usually these gifs have a frame rate very low, 5 or 10 fps.
Other to "fps" setting you can use also "SPF" setting. SPF means "Seconds per Frame, i.e. the number of seconds necessary to pass to next texture.
For example if you set "3 SPF" the texture will be changed each 3 seconds.

Sound Texture Window



In this window you can associate sounds and bump effects to specific texture. Differenlty by old room editor now you can select a a wide group of textures and then assign to whole group a specific sound or bump map effect.
Remarks:
- You can set sound and bump map effects only at first 256 textures. For this reason, the textures following the 256st will be showed with a red cross.

R button

"R" means "Reset". You can reset all sound textures restoring default sound: "stone"
This button remove also all bump map settings from textures.

Assign Sound button

To assign a sound you have to click on Assign Sound button when there is a texture (or a texture group) selected.

Test button

You can play the sound sequence for current texture clicking on Test button.
You can also select in combo box new sound and hit Test button to hear it. This operation doesn't change any assignation on current texture.
Remark: the sound you hear with Test button is not exaclty the same you'll hear in game. Some changes on pitch sound will be not performed with Test button. More, the seuqence of sounds in game will be overlapped while with Test button it will be played a common sound sequence.
When you select a sound type in combo box in info row will be showed the specific (sound/samples) names used for current sound type.

Assign Bump button

Assign current bump map effect to selected texture/s



Settings Window


Settings for Spinning and Zoom



In this frame you can set parameters to get better spinning speed in your computer. Since results are very different in speed or slow computer I suggest to perform some tests to get better results in your computer.

Input Time

Values in row "TIME: Input interval.." are delays in microseconds for each cycle. This delay will be applyed ONLY if you keep continuosly down the left SHIFT key while you spin or zoom the room.

Step of Movements

This setting is a bit more complex. You can choose different couple of values: first (left) value is starting step in 3d orientation, while second (at right) value is the max step.
Spinning uses an acceleration method to pass from little step to max step in few seconds (but this time depends by [Input time] value of above field)
If you choose little values (at top of list) you'll have a very smooth movement but also a slow movement (it depends even by power of your computer and size of current level, of course).
Differently when you select big couple of values, you'll have a very fast movement but also a low frame rate with steps very high.
Theorically you should choose some little value if you have a very fast computer, while you should choose big values if your computer is not very fast.

Remark:
Since speed change in according with view mode you are using in ngle (draw door mode is more slow than "no draw door", face edit mode is more slow than it is disabled, ect) you should work in following way to set better settings:

In first phase you should work only on STEP field and test it only with expensive (in time) viewing mode. When you get correct speed you can pass to change other field "INPUT TIME". In this second case you should test the speed with faster viewing mode, like "no face edit" and "no draw door". It's very probable that in this situation you'll have a too fast spinning but it's now that enter in game the SHIFT key to enable the slowdown you set in "TIME: input " field.
So, you'll use SHIFT only to stop too fast spinning, while the STEP field will have to work fine with complex scenes to show.

Settings for Random Smooth Floor/Ceiling



Effect Type

You can choose Hills or Mountains.
Mountains effect create more height and sharped shape. Normally you'll use Mountains for zones where it's not foreseen lara will can walk.

Differently, Hills effect will create a very smooth ground where lara will can walk without troubles.

Limit Height

By default, random effect will do grow floor with no limits. This means the floor could pass over the ceiling. In rooms linked with vertical portals this in not a problem, anyway for ohter rooms you could wish to limit the max height of random effect to current room height.

See Ground Simulation to watch result you can get with hills or mountain effects.

Changes for Hit

The alghoritm to generate hills or mountain is based on a serie of single change to floor (or ceiling). You can let default number of changes, or to increase this quantity choosing "More Changes" or to reduce it choosing "Less Changes".

Remove smooth filter

In spite of smoothing is the best feature of new random floor functions, in some cirustances you could wish to have a very fragmented terrain. To remove the smooth effect you can check "Remove smooth filter" setting.

Settings for Mouse Wheel



In NGLE you can scroll texture panel using mouse wheel. Anyway on some computer it's necessary customize some parameter to get this feature works correctly.

Lowest Step

You set in this field the min movement you wish in texture scrolling.

Highest Step

The highest step is the max vertical movement of textures, anyway this setting may work in different way in according with Acceleration and Sensitivity.
If Acceleration is enabled the highest step will be the max used movement when you move fastly the wheel, while the Lowest Step will be applyed when you move slowly the wheel.
If Acceleration is disabled the step of movement will be always the same and it will be computed in following way:
(Lowest Step + Highest Step) / 2

Sensitivity field

When you work to set your mouse wheel, you should work on this field for first, because a wrong value of sensitivity could get unpredictable results changing other field.
The suggested value is 5 or 6, anyway if the scrolling doesn't work with these values you should to try lowest values, like 3 or 4.
As general rule if you select a little value as sensitivity you'll get bigger movements in scrolling, while with higher values you'll get less movements or no movement if you exaggerate to choose big numbers.

Disable Acceleration

Theorically acceleration function is a good feature because it allows you to choose if move of a little step texture or scrolling an huge block of texture in short time, simply working on the speed you apply to mouse wheel.
Anyway, if you are not able to get controlled movements with acceleration is enabled you can try to disable it cheking this field.

Global Settings



Save Image Map after output wad

Checking this field the image of 2d map you get immediatly after an output wad operation will be saved in a bitmal compressed file with name like "Last_2dMap_#LevelName#.bmp" for example if you perform an output wad of catacomb, the map will be saved in "Last_2dMap_catacomb.bmp" in trle folder.
This map is important because it shows more informations (flipped rooms, doors and inside walls) than common 2d map .
See below picture to compare the default 2d map (at left) with the "special" 2d map (at right) get after an output wad command.


Remove 'autosave.prj' with normal exit

Original level editor created a backup of current project giving it the name 'autosave.prj' before performing an [output wad] or [preview] command. This was a safety misure because in some circustance it could happen a crash in these commands.
Since this 'autosave.prj' was used only thinking to crashes when you exit from room editor that file went deleted and so it remained only when program had a crash.
Anyway for a bug when you used to close the program a click on [X] icon (in top-right corner) the program forgot to remove the autosave.prj. That was a bug, however some level builders used that method to let autosave.prj in trle folder.
By default ngle keeps same behavior but if you want that bug was removed you can enabled this option (remove autosave.prj). When this option is checked the autosave.prj will be removed if you exit with menu->quit or clicking on [X] icon, while it will remain if program aborts for a crash.

Reload last project at start

If you want that ngle loads automatically last project at start, you check this option.
Remark: if at start ngle finds an autosave.prj in trle folder, it asks to you if you want load autosave.prj, if you answer NO then it will load the last project, otherwise it load autosave.prj.

Maximize NGLE window at start

NGLE requires to work with a screen size of at least 1024x768 pixles. If your screen is exactly 1024x768 a zone at bottom of ngle window will be not visible. To avoit this trouble it's common to use keyboard command ALT + ENTER to force ngle window to cover all screen.
Checking this option you get automatically this function at start of the program.

Disable Crash Resume System

NGLE from version 1.0.5 uses a CRS (Crash Resume System) to avoid many causes of crash.
This method is very useful to avoid "stupid" causes of crash overall in showing 3d operations.
Anyway in some circustances you could want disable CRS to have information about a crash, in fact, when a crash occurs, ngle is able to create a short text file with information about the crash. The author of ngle (it's me ;-) studying that file will can correct further bugs to grant better performances of ngle.
Pratically you should disable CRS when you find strange behaviors of ngle.
In this case you can:

Now you can: close ngle, take the crash_report and post it on forum: Bug Reports about NGLE
If this link doesn't work you can send the crash_report file directly to me: dolce_paolo@tiscali.it
Remark: other to give the crash_report it's useful also to say what operation you were doing when the crash occured.

Disable Memory Extender Patch

By default, NGLE uses an internal memory to host vertices four times bigger than originale LE. Thanks to this memory expansion you can work with bigger levels with no crash.
The only reason to disable memory extender patch is if you have a computer with few ram memory. In this cirucstance NGLE could run very slowly because Windows will have to swap ram memory to disk (virtual memory) to give all memory required by NGLE. If you are in this situation you can try to disable memory extender to see if speed has an improvement.
Note: when you change this option, it's necessary to close the program and the re-start it too see applyed the change.

Disable New Stand-by System

Originale level editor handled in worse way the stand-by mode. For stand-by mode I mean that situation when a program is not performing any operations and it should let the CPU (processor) free to use for other programs.
To understand better you could perform following experiment:
Under WindowsXP you hit CTRL+ALT+CANC (only once, otherwise you get a reset), now the Windows Task Manager window will be showed.
In "Processes" label you can see all processes working on your computer in that moment and their cpu usage (in column named "CPU").
If you to do run original level editor you'll see that winroomedit.exe will have always 99 % of usage cpu, also when it is not used.
Differently, thanks to NSS (New Stand-by System), NGLE will have always 0 % of cpu usage when it's not performing any operation.
This is a technical speech, anyway the difference with NSS is very easy to understand: now you can use also other programs while NGLE is opened, while with old level editor you'll have a terrible slow-dow with all other programs while winroomedit was running.
About this option, I don't see reasons to disable NSS, so it's better you don't check above option. I added this option to Settings Window only because I was not yet sure that NSS had no collateral effect, but now, then different tests, it seems that NSS works fine.

Don't show tips for hide objects button

Hide Objects button permit to remove temporanely all object in current room. This could be useful to enhance the speed in room spinning, or to apply new textures without having the noise of many statics placed on the floor.
Everytime you click on Hide Objects button it will be showed a message box to advise about some operationw to don't perform while you are in "Hiding objects" phase.
Anyway, since you now already kwnow that warning you can check this option to avoid that boring mexage everytime you click on that button.

Show extra infos in room info panel

Checking this option you can get more descriprive infos in Room Info panel.
Currently the extra infos regard only the selected sector and number of changes in editing phase.



Peaked Pyramids

When this option is enabled the Pyramid Shape will be with peaked borders. See Peaked Pyramids image.

Preview Screen

With NGLE, from version 1.0.6, you can change the size of preview zone.
You have four different settings to choose:
Remark: to have better results in full screen preview you should maximize the ngle window with ALT+ENTER keys or setting option "Maximize NGLE at start"
If NGLE window is not maximized the preview will cover only the client area (excluding title bar and borders) of NGLE window.

Bend Type

Bending effects work in according with this setting.
You can choose three kinds of bending:


To have more infos about bending types see Progressive Bending topic.

Auto-Backup

If you are an absend-minded guy, you could forget to use [Backup Project] button to save your project during your long editing job.
To avoid the risk that a crash destroy all your job you can set in [Auto-Backup] field the number of changes after that ngle will perform byself a silent progressive backup to your project.
A reasonable value is enclosed between 30 and 60 changes.
If you set [Never] the auto-backup function will be disabled.

Remark.
When Auto-Backup is enabled, ngle will save for you the current project when the number of changes will reach the value you set.
Anyway, for technical reasons, the backup operation will happen only when following circustances are true:

If when the change number is reached but some of above condition is not true, NGLEwill wait the first good opportunity to save the backup, for example when you exit from flipmap mode or preview phase.
When the backup will be performed you'll hear a "beep" and a text will be showed in info room panel, anyway this mexage of backup will remain only for few seconds.

Settings for launch of external programs

NGLE from version 1.0.6 permits to host a program list you can use to launch fastly other external LE tools (strpix, trviewer ect.)
Clicking on this button will be showed the Edit External Programs window (see below)



Edit External Programs window


Add New Program button

Click this button to select the executable file of new program to add in launch list.

Change Name button

When you added new program, at start will be assigned to it as name the executable name less the .exe extension.
Sometimes it could be good to understand what is the program, anyway if the program has as .exe name only "psp.exe" you can set another meangiful name using this button.
The name you assign will be showed in drop down list in main window of NGLE.

Change File to Open

You can "say" to NGLE what file you want was opened with a specific program.
For example if you set TGA like file to open, NGLE when it will launch your external program, it will add to command line the path of texture .tga file.
If all works fine when you program will be opened (for example Paint Shop or Photoshop) it will have already loaded the tga file of current level.
You can set different file types:
When you type the extension of file to open you can add at left of extension name also the special character: #
This character used to inform NGLE that it should copy path file to open in clipboard instead to put it over command line of program to launch.
This option is very important because, unfortunately, many unofficial level editor tools (alost all) doesn't accept the file to open in command line, so if you try to set simply "TR4" to open with triviewer the tr4 file, you'll get an error mexage from trviewe because it don't understan what is all that stuff over command line. :-/
Differently, if you put at start of extension the # character, no path file will be put in command line.
In this situation you can anyway take advantage from open file option, because you'll can paste the path file simply using CTRL+V keys or with popup menu (right mouse button) and select "Paste" command.
For example if you want launch StrPix program and pass to it current .wad file, you can set as "file to open" the word: "#WAD" (look the "#" first character )
Then when you launch StrPix program it will be empty but to load correct .wad file just you invoke "Load file window" with "File->Open" or F3 shortcut, and now simply you hit CTRL+V and the path of wad file will be pasted in open file window. Now you can hit ENTER to load the file.

Lucky at least for Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop programs it's not necessary to use this method because both these programs are able to read path file to open from command line.

Remove Program button

Remove selected program from the list.

Don't minimize NGLE window at start...

By default, NGLE will minimize its window before launching external program. Usually this is useful to improve speed of new external program and to underatand that external program is coming (sometimes could happen that new program remains below ngle window)
Anyway if you want you can disable the minimizing operation setting a checkmark on this option.

Pass to program short path name

To understand this option you have to understand what is "short" and "long" path name.
Long name is the most common way to describe a path file.
For example this is a long path name:

C:\PROGRAM FILES\CORE DESIGN\TRLE\GRAPHICS\WADS\KARNAK.WAD

All normal, ok. Anyway some old programs and many program that read a path file on command line could have trouble to read this path file because it contains blank characters (spaces, like that between "PROGRAM" and "FILES" words, or between "CORE" and "DESIGN" names)

To solve these troubles there is another format for path file and it's named "short path" or also "ms-dos path format"
For example above long path name becomes in this way in short path format:

C:\PROGR~1\COREDE~2\TRLE\GRAPH~1\WADS\KARNAK.WAD

It's ugly to see but at least threre is no space character in above path.
Since many program use space character like "separator" for options in command line, they work better with short path names because all path file will be a single work after splitting using space character as separator.

Remark:
Really the path of file will be always in short format, above settings affects only the name part, i.e. if your .wad or .tga file is "MyTexture.tga", using short path it will become "MYTEX~1.TGA" while disabling "short path" it will be "MyTexture.tga".
Differently the path (i.e. the folder sequences) will be always in short format.




Sound Effect Window


You get this window using menu command "Effects->Sound", used to add a local sound in current room.

Columns



Play button

You can hear a preview of selected sound clicking "Play" button.
Play feature works in different way in according with number of file names linked with current sound effect:
If the sound effect has only one file, the play will play the sound in a infinite loop and you'll can stop the sound clicking newly the "Play" button to release it.
Differently, when the current sound effect has two or more files, the play preview will perform once time the whole sound sequence and then the play button will be released, stopping the play preview.



Object IDs Window


Current window shows the new indices for items (movables, lights, cameras) in tr4 file.
These informations are useful for TREP users to write correct index in some trep effects.
Remark:
Above window will be available only after you performed an output wad comand because the object id informations will be created own in output wad phase.

Field Descriptions


Example

We can do an easy example about how use this table.
We suppose to wish find the tr4_id for object showed in belove picture:


As first step you have to read the info about above item in yellow box: "Animating3 (376)"
Then, to find the Tr4_Id of this item, just you scroll the Object IDs window until you see the number "376" in Map_Id column, and you'll find belove row:


Room                 Item                  Sector  Map_Id  Tr4_Id  (library.TOM)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Room45               ANIMATING3            ( 6,7 )  376     73

In this case the index to use in trep to work on Animating3 item, will the value "73"



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