The D'Jinni Adventure Editor
Important notice
First you'll learn the most important things to create a complete small module, and sometimes I'll explain a few tricks you can use with this toolset. But make sure to never forget the most important thing: Save always and ever! Every time you have changed a single file, save! Every time you have placed three or four different placeables in your area, save! And don't open more than three or four areas or dialogs or other windows at once, or the D'Jinni will crash. Especially when you're working with the dialogs or within the cutscene editor, save at least every minute and after every bit you've done!
The Beginning...
New Module and New Area
Start the D'Jinni Adventure Editor. First you have to make a new module with an area in it. In the menubar click on "Module", then on "New Module (.adv)". Now make sure you have some important windows open. In the menubar click on "View", then on "Utility Windows" and place a checkmark on the following entries (Picture 1): Aurora Log, Game Object Inspector, Module Explorer, Properties and Resources Explorer.
Now open the properties for your module. Click on the "Module Explorer"-window on the left side of your screen, if you can't see it, click the little black arrow near the bar and pick the correct window. There is not much in yet, you should see a very small tree with three entries. Now doubleclick on the entry "Module Properties", on the right side of your screen opens a window now. Here you have to make several entries for your module (Picture 1):
Name - type in a name for your module
Tag - type in an unique tag for your module, i.e. "my_module_1"
Description - the description for your module, i.e. "What is wrong in Ban Glean? So wrong, that even an experienced witcher...", that's what the player will see when chosing your adventure in the game's adventure list.
Comment - you can type in a comment if you want, i.e. "Made by..."
Quest Database list - not necessary
Quest List - here you have to add all your quests later
Story NPC list - all your NPC's have to be added here later
Spawnset list - here you have to add all the spawnsets later
Cached NSS scripts - not necessary
Entry area, Entry position X, Entry position Y and Entry position Z - you don't have to fill in something here, that happens automatically when a startpoint for the player is set later
Minimum weather intensity, Maximum weather intensity - here you type in a percentage of your chosen weather, i.e. "10" for minimum and "80" for maximum means the rain, snow or whatever has an intensity between 10% and 80%
Chance of rain - type in if it shall rain extremely all the time ("100") or if it shall never rain ("0"), means the chance of rain can lay between 0% and 100%
Chance of snow - same as for the rain, type in a number between 0 and 100
Minutes per hour - type in a number that indicates how many minutes one hour in the game should last, i.e. you want one hour realtime to last one hour in game, then type in 60, if you want the time flow faster so that 4 minutes realtime shall be one hour in the game, then type in 4
Start day - type in the starting day, normally it is set to 1 (the game will begin at day 1)
Start hour - type in the time of the day when the game shall begin, i.e. you want Geralt to begin the game in the late afternoon, then type in 17 (that is 5 pm, one day = 24 hours)
Start month, Start year - same as the starting tag, enter a month or a year in which the player shall begin the game
Dawn hour, Dusk hour - fill in the time when the sun shall rise or go down, e.g. the sun shall rise at 7:00 in the morning and go down at 20:00 in the evening
Scripts Sektion - here you'll need only one or two entries later when you'll write your initialization script, I will describe this section later
If you have finished your entries here so far go to the menu bar and click on "File", then on "Save Module Properties".
Now you have to fill in similiar entries into the area properties. Which area? Well, that new area that you'll first have to create within your module now. In the Module Explorer on the left side of the screen rightclick first on the entry "Areas", then click on "New Area", in the opening window now open the folders "Meshes" and then "Locations", here you'll find several folders with names like "g01, g02, g03...etc.", choose one of them and open it, in my example I've used the Area "g01", choose the file within the folder (g01.set) and click on open, now enter a name for your new area or use the shown name (you can also change this later), then click on "OK".
The area "g01" was added to your module, now open the folder tree and doubleclick on "Area Properties", a window for the area properties will open on the right side. It's similiar to the module properties window (Picture 2):
Name - type in a name for this area
Comment - add whatever you want or leave it blank
Tag - add an unique tag for your area, i.e. "old_tavern_01"
Last SET update by, Last SET update date - you don't have to add something here
Tileset - you don't have to change something here
Persistant scene - not necessary, the default entry is FALSE
Regions bitmap override, Regions 2da override - not necessary
Worldmap region - default entry is NO_REGION_SET, you can change this into the possible entries if you want your area shown on the game's worldmap later, i.e. if your area is the village then change this to the "village"-entry, if your area is Vizima change it into the "wyzimrich" or "wyzimpoor"-entry, if you have a tavern in your module that is located in the area of Vizima, change the entry to the "wyzimrich" or "wyzimpoor"-entry
Period Settings - [Pictures 3 and 4] this section is not so easy to explain, I'll make an extra section for this later... this normally is only used for Exterior Areas.
Wind Power - the power of the wind in this area, i.e. you can set it to a light "Breeze" or to a "Heavy" storm
Day/Night Cycle - shall your area have a day/night cycle then set it to TRUE
Is Night - shall it be night the whole time in this area then set it to TRUE, normally it is set to FALSE
Glow intensity - the intensity of the glow in this area, i.e. enter 1 here and the sun is glowing with an intensity of 1, the higher the number the stronger the sun is glowing, set this to "1" that's enough
Glow threshold - the distance where the glow starts (from player's point of view), enter "0.2" here
Descriptive properties - here you can check three possible entries, "Interior", "Underground" or "Natural", for a house chose "Interior", for a field or village chose "Natural" and for a cave chose "Underground"
Loading Screen - here you chose the loading screen that is shown in the game during the loading times, chose "Random" or chose the one for your area, in my example I used the one for g01
No Resting Allowed - here you can chose if the player is allowed to rest or not, i.e. if you want the player to NOT rest in this area then set it to TRUE, the default entry is FALSE which means the player is allowed to rest here
Save during day, safe during night - if you want this area to be save during day/night then set the entries to TRUE, if it shall not be save then set it to FALSE
Environmental Audio (EAX room) - here you can add a specific type of echo- or resonance-effects, there is a long list with different entries, i.e. if you have a natural environment like the village-area chose "OUTDOORS_VALLEY", if you have an interior area like a house chose "ROOM" or "LIVINGROOM"
Battle music - here you can chose the music that is played during battles
Music during day, Music during night - you can chose the music that is played during the day or the night here
Music delay - the delay of the music, i.e. if the player enters a house the music starts with a delay of 10 seconds when you enter the number 10 here
Scripts section - not really necessary except for very special purposes of experienced modders
When you have finished your entries here, go to the menubar and click "File" and then "Save Area Properties". Maybe it's wise to save the complete module now, depending on how many things you have done on your module, you should always save the complete module after a few minutes to make sure, that none of your saved files are lost, if the D'Jinni crashes. So go to the menubar and click on "Module", then on "Save Module", type in a name for your module and save. This name will be the name of the .adv-file, it must not have more than 16 letters together with it's ending (so the name must only have 12 letters at maximum).
Note: when clicking on "File" and "Save...(filename)" you only save the single files, such like the properties, but you have to save the complete module to not loose something when D'Jinni will crash. And it will crash, so save the complete module often.
Well, that was the funny stuff, now comes the boring stuff. ;)
Decoration of the Module
Area Decoration
Now it's time to place a few decorations in your area. First open your area by doubleclicking on "Edit Area", in the opening window click on "Entire Geometry", the D'Jinni will add the doors automatically to your area when it is opened the first time, simply click "OK" again. To see something more within your area go to the menubar and click "Render", then on "Ambient" and "Max Ambient" (Picture 5).
In the middle of the screen you see now the opened area. Here you can move with your mouse and with the number-block on your keyboard:
right mousebutton - turn the area around,
left mousebutton - pick all the placeables and stuff within your area,
numbers 4 & 5 - move left & right,
8 - move forward,
2 - move backward,
9- move up,
3 - move down.
Now let's create some placeables in your area, on the symbolbar above the opened area-window choose the fourth symbol from the left side, it's called "Create Placeable". Click on it and then click on "Select New Placeable Template", in the opening window select "Light_Sources" and doubleclick on the "m0_fireplace01" (Picture 5). You now catched it on your mousepointer, place one fireplace in your area. You'll see that this fireplace-template is still hanging on your mousepointer, if you have to place many bushes, stones or similiar things, you can click several times somewhere in your area and easily add a handfull of them.
Items as decoration: You can also add items as decoration into your area, which can later be picked up by the player. (This doesn't work with all items, but at least it works with most weapons and armors.) In the symbolbar of your opened area pick the fifth symbol from right (Picture 5), click on the small black arrow and then "Select New Item Template", you'll see a similiar window as for the placeables, choose "Weapons_and_Armor" and place a small axe (m0_it_saxe05) somewhere in your area.
Placeables, Layer and Objects
Layer
Within the "Module Explorer"-window you can see now, that the area-tree contains a layer named "Default", here are the doors placed and also your fireplace under the branch "Placeables". To make things easier to find in a full module you now should add some more layers (Picture 6).
Rightclick on your area name "g01", click on "Add New Layer", the new layer will be created and you have to rename it now, call this one "decorations", hit enter or click somewhere with your mouse. Now add two more layers and label them "characters" and "monsters". Fine, now move your fireplace to the layer called "decoration", open the branch "Placeables" within the layer "Default" and rightclick on the "Bonfire(campfire)" which is your fireplace, now chose "Move To Layer" and click on "decoration", the whole "Placeables"-branch is now moved to your "decorations"-layer (Picture 6).
But attention: the active layer is still the "Default"-layer, so you have to tell the D'Jinni, on which layer you want to place your next placeables!
Rightclick on the "decoration"-layer and click on "Activate Layer", now the "decoration"-layer is the active one and all placeables you add now are stored in this layer.
Usable Objects
Now add some more placeables to your area. If you add things like a chest or a barrel which the player can open later and collect the contents, then you have to name it and make it an usable placeable. Add a barrel to your area, then doubleclick on it and the properties for this barrel are shown in the right window. Here fill in "Name", "Tag", "Description", in the Attributes-section fill in if this barrel is "Usable" (TRUE), if it's "Usable when empty" (pick FALSE or TRUE) and pick a "Sound Type". Now lets give this barrel some inventory, "Has Inventory" must be set to TRUE. Under "Items" is a small 2da-icon, click on it and another window will open. (Picture 7)
The list on the right side of this window shows all items that are available. Now pick one and "drag and drop" the item into one of the three areas on the left side. As you can see in the picture (7), the D'Jinni shows you where you can drop it and where not. The first three rows are for potions or food, the next three rows are for herbs (only in the Enhanced Edition, Version 1.4), and the rest is for all other things that do not fit in one of the other two areas. When you have finished putting your desired inventory into the barrel, just click on OK and the window will close, the inventory is now shown in the small line under "Items". Now I recommand to add one more layer for "treasures" and add your filled barrel to this layer, only to make sure that you will find it later more easily.
Move and turn Placeables
Now let's move the decorations in the correct place and turn them a bit around to make your area look a bit better. To move an object within your area, have a look at the symbolbar at the top of that opened area. The second symbol from the left is for moving placeables in any direction. Click on your object you want to move and then click on the symbol. Three coloured lines appear on the placeable, the green and red ones are for dragging the object left, right, forward or backward, the blue line is for up and down. Simply click on one line and hold the mouse while dragging the object in a direction you want.
Turning an object around is as simple as moving it, select your object and click on the third symbol from left, three coloured circles appear on the object. These indicates the X-, Y- and Z-achsis. While clicking on one of those circles and holding the mousebutton you can turn the object in any direction you want. The work on our area is done for now, let's make some characters yet to bring a bit life into it.
Go on with part 2 »»» The Witcher - D'Jinni Toolset Part 2
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