Plan Shape

a 3D Shape Generator for Quake Map Format

Documentation

1. Using the Command Console

Main Menu

Here you can choose one of the 4 geometric objects that Plan Shape can generate.
When loading a template file that specifies a different shape, you need to come back here to choose the wanted shape again. The loaded settings from the template file will stay.

Sub Menu

After choosing a shape you will open the sub menu. Here you also get some basic informations about the current object and settings.

(l) Load Settings from Template File

Type in the full path and filename+extension here, to load predefined settings from a template file.
You can also type in the filename+extension only, when the template file lies in the same directory as the PlanShape executable.

Note: If you haven't changed any settings, you can always still generate a shape. The program will use the default settings then.

(a) Automatically enlarge Model

Coordinate before: 78.5
Coordinate after: 157 (model size was doubled, scale factor for editor is 0.5)
When a model is generated with a high resolution and a >relative< small size, the generated coordinates will probably contain decimal places.
When opening a map file that contains brushes with such coordinates, Hammer won't be able to correctly calculate the corresponding planes and vertices. When you save a brush like this again as a map-file and look at the map file in a text editor, you will realize the coordinates are completey messed up:

Loading floating point coordinates into Hammer

Original:

After loading and saving:

This behaviour occurs in spite of using floating point patches like the one by vluzacn. This issue can't be adressed, so it is neccessary to enlarge said objects, before opening them in Hammer.

By sticking to the RMF format after that, you probably won't run into trouble again.

Mesh Properties Menu

(1-2) Resolution

Resolutions start from 12 and are then being doubled (24, 48, 96, 192,...).
Like stated before, high resolutions are either not implemented or not tested and will probably lead to faulty results. This depends on the choosen shape, too.

(3-5) Radius

To avoid floating point coordinates, it is absolutely recommended, that you use numbers that are at least divisible by 16, 32 or even 64.

(s) Symmetry Lines

Adding symmetry lines will actually add 4 more brushes to the given object, or in other words: it will split the 4 axis-brushes into halves.

This feature doesn't work on Cylinder, Torus and Sphere at all or only on certain axes, since the body sections of these shapes consist of single large brushes instead of many small ones.

(d) Limit Brush Export

Here you can specify which part(s) of the generated object you actually want to export. This can be useful when using high resolutions, which will produce a high amount of brushes.

(t) Triangulize

This works for the Arch shape only at the moment. It will do exactely this. Be aware that this will double the amount of brushes.

Export Rules Menu

(1) Export Rule

The export rules apply to any shape individually. While an arch always consists of one section and e.g. 12 segments/brushes, a Torus has possibly 12 brushes/sections altogether, and only 1 segment per section/brush. This depends on how a specific shape is being constucted.

[0] (All Brushes – DEFAULT)
[1] (Brush Range)
[2] (Section/Segment Range)

(2) Additional Export Rule
[1] (Random)
[2] (Draw n-th Brush only)

The additional rule #2-4 uses this number to draw (export) only the nth (2nd, 3rd, 5th, ...) element of the generated shape.

Drawing every 3rd Brush of an Arch

[3] (Draw n-th Section only)

Drawing every 2nd Section of a Torus or Htorus

[4] (Draw n-th Segment only)

Drawing every 3rd Segment of a Hollow Torus

(3) Toggle Number/Percent

The given numbers will be interpreted as percentage values.

(4-7) Start/End Brush/Section/Segment

You can specify the start and end positions for the correspondent element (brush, section, segment) as integer number ranging from first to last element (e.g. 1-12 or 1-16 when symmetry is activated) or percentage value (0-100).

(8) Set N

"N" is the number used of some of the additional export rules, where only the N-th (e.g. 2nd, fourth or twelfth) element of a region (brush, section, segment) is being drawn.

N will not be interpreted as percentage value!

Textures Menu

(1-4) Modify Texture

There are 1 to 3 texture regions, depending on the shape you're using. 1 and 2 are usually the outer and inner sides of a shape, while region 3 is always the "floor" texture.
Floor textures have a slightly different behaviour, but act more or less the same as the body textures and use the same commands.

The Null texture region could be another region to be modified by the user, but I have not included that possibility yet. This might be the case for a future update.

Texture Properties Menu

(a) Set Outer/Inner/Floor Texture

Use the texture name from the WAD file here. This can be a string of any

(b) Set Texture Size X/Y

The texture pixel width and height from the WAD Bmp file. Always an integer number.

(c) Set Texture Scale X/Y

The basic Texture Scale can be an integer or floting point number.

(d) Toggle Alternative Scale Source

This in not fully implemented yet and might not always work. It defines an alternative source for the Y OR X axis scale (depends on the texture region you're using it on) and will thus override the basic scale. The difference is, that the alternative scale is already adjusted to the model size and thus will give you a better result, without additional work. A good choice would be "[1] Match X".
Example: Instead of having 2 different axis scales, let's say 2.05X and 2.65Y, the Y scale will match the X scale, so both axis will have a scale of 2.05.

(e) Set Texture Shift X/Y

This is the shift, that will be added on top of the final shift, when everything is done. With this you can fix little differences between texture regions or just compensate a missing symmetry line.

(f) Switch Texture Rotation

This rotation is added to a texture region, when everything else is done. You can only use 0, 90, 180 and 270, any other value will be ignored.

(g) Toggle Texture Alignment

This will toggle between world and face align for a texture region, which does exactely the same as in any Quakemap-editor. The 2 texture vectors are being aligned by using the face itself as the source.


Texture Align of a Torus Face

(h) Enable Texture Shear

One of the most interesting features of PlanShape is the texture "Shearing". This method will align the texture vectors at the respective face edges. Currently these edges are fixed, so you won't be able to choose between the left or the right one.
Shearing or "Mesh Align" will produce much better results on Torus, Sphere and any floor textures, where normal face align would lead to cropped details.


Texture Align of a Torus Face

(i/l) Toggle V/H Texture Wrapping

This will lead to the texture of a region to be wrapped around it, based on the current scales and bmp-sizes. Unless "Seamless" is also activated, the resulting Scales will be "clean" and there will be a gap at the beginning/end point, where the texture meets itself again.

(j/m) Toggle V/H Seamless Texture Wrapping

While Wrapping AND Seamless are activated, this will lead to a seamless result on the respective axis.

(k/n) Set V/H Wrapping Amount

Any integer value greater than Zero will cause the texture to be wrapped around the shape exactely this many times.
Usually you want to leave this at "0", but sometimes you want to have more control over how many times the texture is being wrapped around the shape. This will of course override any of the set scales and also depends on "seamless" being activated.
Zero means it will be wrapped seamless automatically, based on the current scales and sizes. This is the easiest solution for quick results, when the amount doesn't matter.

(o) Set H-Range Source-Face

One of the latest additions to the program gives you the ability to choose the edge (or face), where the horizontal (X) shift of all faces of a texture region of a Torus, Sphere or Hollow Torus is being copied from, to allow for a clean, seamless wrapping result.
This is neccessary, when you want a specific part of the shape to be more "seamless" than the others, maybe for displaying text or other details.

2. Using template files

Basics

*.PST Files

PST (Plan Shape Template) are simple text files. You can open end edit them with any text editor. You can also bind them to the PlanShape EXE to compile them instantly even easier.

Comments

Comments can be added by using "//" at the end of a line or in front of it. This way commands can be commented out and will thus be ignored at the import process.

Placeholders

Placeholders should be spaces or tabulators.

Value Types

Only use the allowed data types for the respective commands.

Duplicates

The same command can be pasted multiple times, but will only be detected once!

Command Reference