Geo Editing
What is Geo?
You build levels in The Last Exterminator out of meshes, known in this engine as Geo. They are the basic building blocks everything from world geometry, to doors, windows and moving structures. If you are familiar with classic Quake and Goldsource era level design, they are comparable to brush primitives, only using a versatile and modern static mesh workflow .
Geo Shapes
You create a new piece of Geo by clicking the Create Geo button up on the toolbar, and then selecting the shape from the drop-down.
Currently there are three types: Geo (Box), Plane and Cylinder.
All Geo shapes are actually scripted, and can be modified with options relative to the chosen shape. Once a Geo shape is selected look at the Inspector Panel for more options on what you are about to draw.
Geo
Draws a six-sided box shape. Dragging out the shape draws the bottom plane (relative to whatever viewport you start drawing in), and then you drag out the volume (height or width depending on the viewport) next.
| Inverse: | Draws the box with the face normals reversed, the same as clicking Flip Normal in the Face Subobject Mode. |
Geo Plane
Draws a flat one-sided plane only, essentially just the first part of drawing out the regular box Geo.
| Surface Offset: | Draw the plane with the chosen offset from the grid or surface plane it's drawn over (default: 0). |
| Double-Sided: | Draws the plane with double-sided, the same as checking the Double-Sided flag in the Face Subobject Mode. |
| Fit Texture: | Draws the plane it with the currently selected texture auto-scaled to the draw size. |
Geo Cylinder
Draws a configurable cylinder. Like the default Geo, the bottom plane will be drawn first, then the cylinder's volume will be dragged out.
| Segments: | The number of sides the cylinder will have. The more sides, the smoother it looks. |
| Inverse: | Draws the cylinder with the face normals reversed, the same as clicking Flip Normal in the Face Subobject Mode. |
| Material Caps: | Allows you to set a different material for the end caps of the cylinder. This can always be done after creation. |
Shared Options
There are two options in the Inspector Panel common to all Geo shapes.
Parent
This is a drop-down panel to select where the Geo should be placed in the Scene Tree. The default selection, Selected Group, is useful in most circumstances, but you have the following choices:
| Scene: | The new Geo will be created at the bottom of the Scene Tree. |
| Clicked Geo: | The new Geo will be created as a child of any Geo first clicked on (in the 3D view) when dragging out the new shape. Clicking on no Geo will create it at the bottom of the Scene Tree. |
| Clicked Group: | The new Geo will be created in the same Group as any Geo first clicked on (in the 3D view) when dragging out the new shape. Clicking on no Geo will create it at the bottom of the Scene Tree. |
| Selected Geo: | The new Geo will be created as a child of whatever Geo is currently selected in the Scene Tree. If nothing is selected it will create it at the bottom of the Scene Tree. |
| Selected Group: | The new Geo will be created as a child of whatever Group is currently selected in the scene tree, or the same group a selected Geo belongs to. If nothing is selected it will create it at the bottom of the Scene Tree. This is the default selection. |
Orient To Surface
This option aligns the chosen Geo to the surface it's drawn on, useful for building off slopes or odd surfaces.
Once you have selected a shape and your options, simply drawing on one of the 4 viewports will begin creating the Geo. You can do this on both the 2D and 3D viewports. Next let's learn about Subobject Modes.
Subobject Modes
When a piece of Geo is selected, the Inspector Panel will display some new options relevant to building out your geometry. The most important here are the Subobject Modes. Clicking any one of these will toggle the mode, as well as revealing new Inspector Panel actions. These are covered in more detail in Geo Editing (Advanced).
You can also enter these modes with the 1 (Vertex), 2 (Edge), 3 (Face) and 4 (Texture) hotkeys.
Vertex Subobject Mode
The Vertex Subobject Mode allows you to select and modify the vertices of your selected Geo. Once selected you can modify one or more vertices with the Move, Rotate and Scale manipulators in the Toolbar.
Holding Shift and dragging a vertex will duplicate it, creating a new, orphaned vertex.
The Vertex Subobject Mode has a number of advanced actions on the Inspector Panel, covered here.
Edge Subobject Mode
The Edge Subobject Mode allows you to select and modify the edges of your selected Geo. Once selected you can modify one or more edges with the Move, Rotate and Scale manipulators in the Toolbar.
Holding Shift and dragging a edge will extrude a new edge and face out, to rapidly build new Geo.
The Edge Subobject Mode has a number of advanced actions on the Inspector Panel, covered here.
Face Subobject Mode
The Face Subobject Mode allows you to select and modify the faces of your selected Geo. Once selected you can modify one or more faces with the Move, Rotate and Scale manipulators in the Toolbar.
Holding Shift and dragging a face will duplicate it, creating a new, orphaned face.
The Face Subobject Mode has a number of advanced actions on the Inspector Panel, covered here.
Texture Subobject Mode
This Subobject Mode is not relevant to sculpting geometry. It is a local version of the Texture Manipulator for working purely on one piece of Geo. It is covered in more detail in the Geo Texturing page.