Introduction

Walls and Holes is a 2D map editor which lets you develop 3D maps for your games. The primary feature for this application is the ease and speed of which you can create a map, and then at the end have a great mesh which can be exported for your own use.

Getting Started

Installing the program

Windows/Mac Installation:

• Windows installer v1.0
• Mac installer v1.0

To view the source code and latest release of the application go: here.

Creating a New Map

When first opening the program you are greeted by the following window:

Main Window of the appilcation

To create a new map go to: File→New Map Ctrl + N

Creating a new map

The New Map dialog looks like this:

New Map Dialog

Here we choose the initial size of the map, whether it’s indoors or outdoors, and whether if the map will have a ceiling or not. After creating the new map you will see a grid of empty sqaures, and now you can draw on the map. To draw on the map you must select a Tool and also a Tile Template, there are two default Tile Templates provided, the Wall, and Ground/Eraser.

Map is created

Saving and Loading a Map

To save the map go to: File→Save Map Ctrl + S and choose the directory which you want the map to be saved in.

Saving a map

Once the map is saved you may load the map into the program at anytime you wish using File→Load Map Ctrl + O, and choose the .wts file you want to load into the program.

To export the map into a .obj file go to: File→Export Map Mesh Ctrl + E and choose the file directory which you want the object file to be saved in.

The Tile Template System

Overview

The Tile Template system is for users to define different tiles which can output differing meshes.

Creating New Tile Template Sets

Tile templates will be stored in Tile Template sets. To create a new Tile Template set press the button in the bottom left-hand corner of the screen, then you will be greeted by the following prompt:

New Tile Template Set Prompt

Enter the desired file directory which the Tile Template Set will be saved, it isrecommended that you save the Tile Template Set and the map files in the same directory.

Once that is done, a new window will pop up on the left-hand side of the screen in the Tile Set View

Press the Add Template button and this will appear in the side toolbar:

You can modify the following properties of a Tile Template:

• Height: Height of the tile
• Thickness: How small or large the tile will be (max: 1.00)
• X Position: The X position within the grid of the mesh
• Y Position: The Y position within the grid of the mesh
• Material: The material which the tile will use

Example of changing the thickness

Left: Tile thickness of .25

Right: Tile thickness of 1.00

Saving and Loading Tile Templates

To save a Tile Template press the button, and you will be prompted to choose the directory which the Tile Template will be saved in.

To load a Tile Template press the button, and you will be prompted to choose the Tile Template which you want to use.

Tools

Tile Map Tools

• Brush Tool B

  • The Brush tool is the main tool which is used. Its radius can be adjusted using the spin box when the tool is selected.

• Fill Tool F

  • The Fill tool is fills in an empty region

• Line Tool L

  • The Line tool creates a line, click and drag to use

• Rect Tool R

  • The Rect tool is used to draw rectangles, click and drag to use

• Ellipse Tool E

  • The ellipse tool draws ellipses, click and drag to use

• Selection Tool S

  • The selection tool is used to select tiles.
  • Single click to select one tile
  • Shift-Click to select multiple tiles
  • Double click to select tiles with same Tile Template which are touching
  • Triple click to select all of one Tile Template

Camera Tools

Mesh View Camera

The Default camera tool is the used to explore your generated 3D mesh. To move the camera around click inside the Mesh View and drag your mouse. To pan the camera Shift-Click the Mesh View and drag your mouse. Use the mousewheel to zoom in and out.

The Mesh View Matcher cameral tool matches the Tile Map and the mesh in a top-down view.

Materials

Every Tile Template can be assigned a custom material and texture.

Adding and Removing Materials

To add a material press the Add Material button in the material view window, after pressing the button this window will appear:

Material View

We are using the Phong reflection model for our shaders for the material

Source

You can change the following properties of a material :

• Ambient: Specifies the minimum brightness of a material
• Diffuse: Diffuse determines the general color of a material when light shines on it
• Specular: How bright the dots in the thrid image are
• Shininess: How large the dots in the third image are

• Texture:

  • The texture of a material is an image specifying how a material looks.
  • To assign a texture click the ... button and select the texture you wish to use.

Assigning Materials to Tile Templates

To assign materials to a Tile Template select the Tile Template which you wish to assign a material to, and click on the ... button

Tile Template View

This window will pop up:

Choosing a Material

Choose the material which you wish to use for the Tile Template

Keyboard Shortcuts

For Mac replace Ctrl with Command

• Ctrl + Mousewheel - Zoom in/out of the Tile Map
• Ctrl + N - Create a new map
• Ctrl + S - Save the map
• Ctrl + Shift + S - Save the map
• Ctrl + O - Load an existing map
• Ctrl + W - Close the map
• Ctrl + E - Export the map mesh
• Ctrl + Z - Undo last action
• Ctrl + Y - Redo last action
• B - Activate the Brush tool
• F - Activate the Fill tool
• L - Activate the Line tool
• R - Activate the Rect tool
• E - Activate the Ellipse tool
• S - Activate the Selection tool