Click right onto a block or a group, then select Properties for displaying this dialog. The following options are available:
| Group | Assigns a name to a group. |
| Texture Lock | Textures stay aligned while moving the group. If this flag is unchecked, the texture stays aligned to the level origin, but not to the block. |
| Single Mesh | A7 The group is rendered as a single mesh when compiled with Create Meshes activated. This increases the frame rate in levels that consist of complex block geometry, like cities. Most 3D cards achieve the best performance when rendering meshes of about 1000 polygons. Sub-groups can be excluded from the mesh by unchecking this flag. |
| Block | Assigns a name to a block. |
| Texture Lock | Textures stay aligned while moving the block. If this flag is unchecked, the texture stays aligned to the level origin, but not to the block. |
| Passable | Obsolete flag for water map entities. Makes the block penetrable and its surfaces visible from the inside. For new projects, use a passable terrain for water. |
| Invisible | Flag for invisible blocks. Invisible blocks are also not detected by the OBB collision detection and by AABB trace functions. If this is not desired, use the None surface flag instead (see below), or set the Invisible = None flag in the map compiler dialogue. |
| Detail | Detail blocks don't increase the portal count of the level, as normal blocks do. They can be used for small details in the level, like small pillars, ornaments, rounded arcs or other elements which would otherwise increase the portal count and building time. Because Detail Blocks do not suppress the rendering of the scene behind them, they should not be used for objects that hide much of the level - otherwise they will reduce the frame rate. Do not try using Detail Blocks as level boundaries, and don't let them touch or intersect other blocks. They are ignored by the collision detection and can slow down lighting calculations. Standard level building rules still apply (e.g. don´t create a block smaller than 2 quants in any direction). |
| Concave | A7 Non-convex block. Set this flag (if it is not set automatically) for all blocks that you import from ASE, FBX, or MDL files and that are not convex, i.e. have 'holes' or 'gaps'. Levels consisting of non-convex blocks can't be compiled in BSP Mode, but can be compiled in Simple Mode. |
| Material | A7 Material or shader with which the block will be rendered when compiled with Create Meshes activated; must be defined in the script. Alternatively, the d3d_automaterial feature can be used for assigning materials or shaders to blocks. |
| Surfaces flags | A7 Allows setting surface flags (see below) for all faces of the block. |
| Surface | Allows you to apply a different texture
to individual faces of the selected block object, and to set the surface
parameters. Use the >> and the << buttons
to cycle through the faces of the block. The selected face is outlined
in yellow in the current view. To assign a different texture to this face,
select a new texture in the textures window, right click, and select Apply.
Use the X/Y offset, and X/Y
scale adjustments to align a texture along the edges of the face,
if necessary. You can observe the result in the 3D view. Use the Angle adjustment
to rotate the orientation of the texture on the face. The Flags panel
allows selecting the attributes of the surface. !! Moving, scaling, or rotating requires an unlocked texture. Make texture modifications first, and lock the texture afterwards. Manipulating a previously locked texture causes a conversion between volumetric and UV texture coordinates with usually unwanted distortions. For avoiding this, unlock the texture, reset it with the [Reset] button, manipulate the texture and then lock it again. |
| Alignment |
Block and surface textures can be automatically aligned with the following buttons
|
| Ambient | Darkens or lightens the texture, -100..+100 (default 0). |
| Albedo/Fog | Sun reflectance (10..100, default 50), mirror reflectance or fog color (1..4). |
| Shaded | Tesselated surface with shadow map for static and dynamic lights. |
| Flat | Surface without shadow map. Flat shaded according to the angle to the sun. |
| Sky | Multilayer sky surface, necessary for the sky box surrounding the level. Default if the texture name begins with 'sky'. |
| Turbulence | Obsolete flag for defining a liquid, warping texture for water or lava. Default if the texture name begins with '*'. For new projects, use a water terrain with a water material from the mtlFX template. |
| None |
Surface won't be rendered, but is still an obstacle for the collision
detection. |
| Flag1..7 | General purpose flags for use in scripts. |
| Smooth | C P Softens static shadow edges and gives the impression of a round object - useful for columns. |
| Mirror | P Obsolete flag for defining a map entity as horizontal mirror. For new projects, use a mirror material from the mtlFX template. |
| Position | Allows to numerically move, rotate, and scale the block. Rotate and scale values can be entered, but they are not stored. |
| Object | Displays the local (within a group) and world positions of the block. |