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To finish up the tutorial, there are one or two global properties left that didn't fit into the other sections that deserve a mention. Some comments on lighting, camera extents and sounds will follow.

Lighting

Though you can't enable shadows on the stock LWM, it does have a slighly fancier lighting rig than standard SAGE output. The lighting parameters are found in livingworld.ini near the top of the file

              

Code

Ambient = R:0 G:0 B:0 ;Ambient color SunDir    = X:36 Y:26 ;Sun direction SunRGB    = R:115 G:95 B:88 ;Sun color Accent1Dir = X:37 Y:156 Accent1RGB = R:25 G:18 B:10 ;Accent1 color Accent2Dir = X:27 Y:264 Accent2RGB = R:44 G:34 B:21 ;Accent2 color

As can be seen, there are 3 lights available for use. Each has 2 parameters, direction (where it is facing) and Colour. Direction is specified as a vector as far as I can tell. Colour is specified as a standard RGB. Sun is the main light, it controls the majority of the lighting. In general you'll want this to be a white, perhaps with a shade of blue or yellow. Accent1 and Accent2 allow you to tint the lighting slightly. Using this you could generate a warm reddish glow coming from Mordor, for example.

You also have access to an ambient light that will colour everything regardless of direction. It tends to wash any other lighting out though, so use sparingly.

Camera Extents

In defining the standard camera extents, SAGE takes the furthest edges (X and Y) of all objects in livingmap.w3d. Naturally, this can cause problems (if your map has assets off to the side), so the devs have kindly provided us with a means to modify the extents in livingworld.ini
              

Code

Center = X:133 Y:1404         Extent = X:1800 Y:1600

This litte snippet lets you specify an XY coordinate for a center, then lets you specify a rectangle (centered on the Center) that defines the map extents.
              

Code

CameraBoundX = 0.6575            ; POST-CAMPEA-VALUE CameraBoundY = 0.66                ; POST-CAMPEA-VALUE

This code specifies how far inside the map extents the camera can operate, as a percentage of the full map extents. Put together, these can control the camera range quite effectively.

There's one other file that affects the camera, it's livingworld.txt, found in the main directory.

              

Code

40.0        ; pitch 0.2        ; height above ground 0.0        ; 'time' zoomed in (0..1, 0=max) 1.0        ; 'time' zoomed out (0..1, 1=max) 3.0        ; max rot 'angle' in rad, +/- 0.02        ; rotation speed 35.0        ; pitch 0.15        ; height above ground 0.0        ; 'time' zoomed in (0..1, 0=max) 1.0        ; 'time' zoomed out (0..1, 1=max) 3.0        ; max rot 'angle' in rad, +/- 0.03        ; rotation speed 50.0    ; pitch for zooming in to map 0.5        ; height above ground for map zoom 0.01    ; zoom world -> region 0.01    ; zoom out region -> world 0.5    ; zoom in and out of map

This file is really confusing in its effects. I still have no idea how exactly most of the parameters work, but a few are simple:

• Pitch: the default camera pitch (in degrees)
  
• Max rotation angle: this is in radians, and is a plus or minus value. For full rotation therefore set it as pi (3.14).
  

Everything else very much depends on your extents. Suffice to say that basically they control the zoom, at the standard level and the loaded zoom-out level. Another annoying parameter that takes ages to tweak...

Sounds

I'm not really versed in sounds, but I should include a note on them. Sounds are defined in livingworld.ini near the bottom of the file. They look like this:

              

Code

LivingWorldSound SeagullTip     Position    = X:-650 Y:-750 Z:100     Sound        = LivingWorldSeagullLoop     Flags        = VISIBLE ; Just for optimization

This is for a 3D positional sound - you'll only hear it when you're near this location. The sound itself is referenced from the list in soundeffects.ini.

              

Code

LivingWorldSound Wind     Sound        = LivingMapWind     Flags        = VISIBLE ; Just for optimization End

This is a 2D nonpositional sound - it will be heard everywhere, so has no need for position information. Some of these sounds can use flags to provide play-time info, for example the Evil Campaign music:

              

Code

LivingWorldSound Music_Evil     Sound        = LivingWorldMusicEvil     Flags        = VISIBLE ONCE NO_KILL FADE_IN EVIL_CAMPAIGN End

That's about all for sounds.

Thanks for reading, hope it helped your exploration of the BFME1 Living World Campaign Map.