My First Map

OK. If you've reached this stage successfully then you've found the system folder and started the application successfully. Well done. From hereon, the fun begins. We are now going to:

1. Make a box map (or prison cell)
2. Subtract objects
3. Apply and align textures
4. Apply ambient lighting
5. Add a player start
And
6. Play the map

1. Hold your mouse over the cube on the left side vertical tool bar. The help text will appear under the icon to tell you if you're on the correct icon (it looks like it should be for the cylinder but it's not - the mouse cursor is on the cube but it disappears with 'Print Screen).

Right click on the cube and the CubeBuilder will appear. Change the width and breadth to 512 and click Build and then Close.

In your main editor window you will see a red square in the Top window and a red rectangle in the Front and Side window.

We now want to see the cube in the 3D window. To do this you will need to lea how to move around in the 3D window environment using the mouse and left/right click buttons. There are 4 basic movements. I hope I've got them right.

(Tuing around on the spot)

Holding the left or right mouse button (not both together) while moving the mouse left and right will rotate your view left and right while still on a fixed 'horizontal' plane.

(Moving forwards and backwards)
Holding the left mouse button while moving the mouse forwards and backwards will move you forwards and backwards while still on a fixed 'horizontal' plane.

(Looking up and down)
Holding the right mouse button while moving the mouse forwards and backwards will move your view up and down.

(Flying and falling)
Holding both the left and right mouse button while moving the mouse forwards and backwards will move raise and lower you.

Now go to the 3D environment window and play around with these movement commands. Locate the box. If it's not bright red then click on it to select it.

2. Now it's time to subtract. This will 'carve' or take out this box from the whole level so we can make changes to this and nothing else. On the left hand side you will see a thin blue slither that scrolls the tool bar up and down.

and left click it. The box will now appear with a texture surrounding it.

3. We can now apply a texture by opening the Texture Browser located at the top of the editor window just under the drop down menus. It's the far left icon.

Click on the icon to bring up the Textures pop up window (if it isn't there already). The default should look like this.

From the drop down menu select Muliplayer_Textures and Kamino. We will use the textures in here for the floor, walls, and ceiling.

Move inside your box, click on a wall, and click on a texture. The texture will be added. I'm using TEXTURE KAM_AA_DIFFUSE for the walls, SHADER GLASSSTUFF for the ceiling and TEXTURE MP_KAMBLACK for the floor. Apply texture to all four walls, the ceiling, and the floor.

At this stage you may be thinking that the texture you selected doesn't look like the texture being displayed. And you're right. We now have to align the textures correctly so they fit snugly to the surface. Right click on one of the walls, go to Alignment, and then Box. Do this for all of the surfaces.
Notice the difference between the unaligned left wall and the center and right wall.

4. It's time to add some light to the box. If we play the map now then we'll need a flashlight. Let's apply light using Ambient Lighting. This kind of lighting is the most basic and will be applied evenly over the whole map.

Go to the top drop down menu bar and select View > Level Properties. Now maximize the Zone Light menu and change AmbientBrightness to 100.

Now we can build the level and put our additions together. Go to the top drop down menu and select Build > Build All.

5. We have a box, textures, and lighting. We now need a player. Right click in the middle of your map ceiling in the TOP window or click on the floor and then right click and select Add Player Start Here.

Now you will need to Build > Build All again. A map check pop up will appear but you can close this.
And most importantly of all SAVE in the Republic Commando map folder.
I'll save this one as DM_banana
In a game like Unreal Touament 2004 you can simply select Build > Play Level to test your map. In the Republic Commando Unreal editor this function has been disabled. :(
Thanks to Deth Metal at the Lucas Arts forums for pointing that out.

6. To play the map you need to follow Deth Metal's advice

'The "Play Map" function does not work. It was never set up. So, instead you have to open RC, start a multiplayer game or load a single player level then open up the console.

("`" on the Standard American Keyboard) and type "open " without the quotes, and where is, of course, the name of your map.'

Your map will automatically load and you can run around in circles shooting randomly and throwing grenades. FUN.

In addition you can also edit your in-game map list file. To lea how to do this read here.

DELETING BOXES
At some point, if you haven't already, you'll need to delete a Subtracted room. To do this you need to select it in the Top, Side, or Front wire frame window and hit your Delete key. The room will disappear from this window but will still appear in the 3D window. To see that the room has been deleted from the 3D window you need to Build All or Build Geometry and it'll be gone.

I hope you are successful up to here and would like to continue.