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Population |
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The following section covers the population or placement of objects in the level using Sapien. Tutorials and information cover an overview of the Sapien tool, player spawn point placement and information, scenery object implementation and placement, vehicle and weapon implementation and placement, netgame flags information and placement, and the manipulation and setting of BSP portal data including fog, sounds and weather effects. |
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Sapien Overview | ![]() |
Sapien is used to place objects in the level The placement of objects in a level is sometimes referred to as "population" The objects that are placed in the level include objects for aesthetics and game play (scenery objects such as trees, rocks, bushes, etc...) as well as objects that are required for the level to run and operate properly in the game (netgame flags, netgame equipment, spawn points, etc..). Sapien has a graphical interface that contains a 3D window (the Game Window) that renders the game including the level bsp, models, and vehicles The Game Window also runs other game systems as well and plays sounds and runs physics Sapien does not have any form of "undo" functionality Therefore, it is HIGHLY recommended that the .scenario tag be saved and saved often Saving off sequential versions of the file is also HIGHLY recommended (i.e. tutorial_01.scenario, tutorial_02.scenario, etc...) Halo has a lot of objects that can be used in a level These objects all exist as a data tag To help in the organization of objects or tags for placement in the game level using Sapien, a subset of objects or tags is created for certain object types or groups in the hierarchy This specific set of tags is called a "palette" Objects or tags are then selected from the palette for placement in the level The palette can have items added or removed at any time Removal of an item reference from the palette does NOT remove the item marker from the level, instead the item is set to NONE so that the item will no longer appear in the level This empty item marker should be removed from the level. The images and discussions below will explain the basics of the Sapien Graphical User Interface. |
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Sapien Controls | ![]() |
The table below lists the basic controls and key commands used in Sapien. |
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Sapien Setup and Configuration | ![]() |
Arrange the windows in Sapien in a useful configuration. The images shown in the examples and tutorials below show one window layout that is fairly efficient for multiplayer level design. The window layouts and configuration are saved in the Windows System Registry so that Sapien does not have to be configured every time it is loaded. |
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Object Placement in Sapien | ![]() |
The following sections contain tutorials and examples that will demonstrate the placement of various objects and object types in the level.
Player Spawn Point Placement The following section contains tutorials and examples that will demonstrate the placement of multiplayer spawns in the level. |
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Scenery Object Placement The following section contains tutorials and examples that will demonstrate the creation of a scenery palette and placement of scenery objects in the level. |
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Scenery Object Placement
Sound scenery are just objects that have a sound attached to them and are used to place ambient sounds in the level. Sound scenery objects do not render, they are merely points in the level from which sound originates. The following section contains tutorials and examples that will demonstrate the creation of a sound scenery palette and placement of sound scenery objects in the level. |
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Vehicle Object Placement
The vehicles placed in multiplayer can actually be different than those that are placed or exist in single player. Many attributes may be changed for a .vehicle tag to balance it for multiplayer in terms of game play and performance. The multiplayer version of a vehicle should ALWAYS be used when placing vehicles in a multiplayer level. To see what the proper .vehicle tags are for use in multiplayer, see the Vehicle table in the Vehicles section located under the Vehicles and Stationary Gun List located under the General Reference sections. There are 3 variables that control the placement of a vehicle. The type of vehicle, the number of vehicles placed per game type, and the default vehicles for each game type. The vehicle setup was created this way so that different game modes can have a different number of vehicles per game type, as well as different spawn locations for the vehicles in each game mode. A good example of this would be the multiplayer level Danger Canyon. In game modes which have both team and non-team modes, Ghosts spawn all over the level, where as in the team game Capture the Flag, Ghosts can spawn only at the team bases. The system was also set up this way because the number and types of vehicles (if the level supports that particular vehicle) can be adjusted in the Multiplayer Options. Because of this customizability, default numbers and types of vehicle are set in the level. These settings reflect what the level designer feels is an optimal setup for the level for each game type. Vehicles are placed with the concept of "sides" or teams even though not all game modes are team based. This is done because of how the spawn code works for the vehicles. As with player spawns, vehicles are set to either the Red Team using index 0, or the Blue Team using index 1. Vehicles should be placed in pairs, for every Blue "Side" vehicle there should be a Red "Side" vehicle, even if the vehicles are not being placed at the team areas or bases. The reason for this is that when the vehicle type and number is customized in the Multiplayer Options, the game code tries to balance out the vehicles in the level for each side. It does this by alternating vehicle spawning back and forth between Red vehicles and Blue vehicles until the number that was set is reached. In the case of even numbers this works very well. In the case of odd numbers selected in the Multiplayer Options for the number of vehicles, the results are random with the odd vehicle possibly being on either the Red "side" or the Blue "side". Therefore, it is important the vehicles be placed equally or in such a way as to balance the level with respect to game play. The maximum number of vehicles that can be placed is 8 for each type for each game mode. Any numbers of vehicles for the vehicle type above this for a given game type will never spawn. The number of default vehicles for each type and for each game mode can be up to the maximum number of 8. The default number of vehicles of any given type for a particular game mode should be equal for each side. The following section contains tutorials and examples that will demonstrate the creation of a vehicle object palette and placement of vehicle objects in the level. |
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Netgame Flags Placement
The objects that determine game rules and set objective points in the level are called Netgame Flags. These Netgame Flags are used to define the spot where a flag for CTF is located at, where the Oddballs in Oddball game modes spawn, the Race Points for Race Mode, the Race Vehicle spawn points, and the region or area for the control zone for King of the Hill. In addition, Netgame Flags are used to define the entry and exit points for teleporters. For more information on the rules for Netgame Flags see the Multiplayer Level Design Technical Rules and Guidelines section under the General Level Design Information section located in the General Reference Sections. The following section contains tutorials and examples that will demonstrate the placement of the Netgame Flags that are necessary for the proper operation of the level in a multiplayer game. |
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The following section contains tutorials and examples that will demonstrate the placement of a the Netgame Flags that are necessary for the proper operation of the Oddball game mode in the level for a multiplayer game. |
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The following section contains tutorials and examples that will demonstrate the placement of a the Netgame Flags that are necessary for the proper operation of the Race game mode in the level for a multiplayer game. |
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The following section contains tutorials and examples that will demonstrate the placement of a the Netgame Flags that are necessary for the proper operation of the King of the Hill game mode in the level for a multiplayer game. |
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Teleporters instantaneously moves a player from one point in the level to another. Teleporters only work for players and cannot teleport vehicles or other objects. The following section contains tutorials and examples that will demonstrate the placement of a the Netgame Flags that are necessary to create teleporters in the level. |
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Netgame Equipment Placement The objects that determine the placement of weapons and items (such as power ups) in a mulitplayer level are called Netgame Equipment. Netgame Equipment objects are attached to an "item collection". An item collection is a data tag which can include a single weapon or item or a group of weapons or items. Netgame Equipment objects can be customized per game mode. Therefore, weapons and items can be customized by weapon or item type per game mode. To see what single weapon and item, and weapon and item groups are available for placement, as well as what the .item_collection tag names are, refer to the tables located under the Weapons\Ammo\Items List section located under the General Reference sections. The following section contains tutorials and examples that will demonstrate the placement of the Netgame Equipment objects in a multiplayer level. |
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Manipulation of Portals and BSP Elements | ![]() |
In addition to adding scenery objects and game objects into the level, Sapien can be used to manipulate the properties of the portals or clusters that exist in the .scenario_structure_bsp. These properties include the fog, ambient sounds, environmental audio, and weather effects. For the tutorial level, the "Background sound" (ambient sound to play in the entire cluster or portal), the "Sound environment" (environmental audio effects to use for the portal or cluster), and the "Weather" (for this level, wind values) will all be set. Fog settings for the level will not be applied since there are no fog planes or fog volumes in the tutorial level. Atmospheric fog or "haze" has already been applied to the level due to the fact that these are set in the .sky data tag that is associated with the sky model or sky box for the level. During the creation of a level, the core geometry can often change as well as the creation and modification of the portal geometry. Any changes in the level mesh or portal geometry can cause the assignment of portal properties to be incorrect or reset to NONE. The assignment of portal properties should be one of the last procedures performed on a level or should at least not be performed until the core geometry of the level and portal placement has been completed. The following section contains tutorials and examples that will demonstrate the setup and modification of the portal or cluster data in the .scenario_structure_bsp for a multiplayer level. The following section contains tutorials and examples that will demonstrate the application of Background Sounds to a portal or cluster. |
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The following section contains tutorials and examples that will demonstrate the application of "Sound environments" to a portal or cluster. |
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The following section contains tutorials and examples that will demonstrate the application of "Weather" settings to a portal or cluster. |
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Saving the Level
At this point, the level should be saved. Anytime the objects in the level are touched, the .scenario tag should be saved. The .scenario_structure_bsp data tag only needs to be saved when the data for the portals are modified. In the tutorials and examples above, all aspects of the level were modified, therefore both the .scenario and the .scenario_structure_bsp must be saved. To save the level .scenario do the following: 1) Make sure that none of the portal or cluster groups are selected in the Hierarchy view under the Cluster properties group. The option to save the .scenario tag will not appear if any of these groups are selected. 2) Go to File. 3) Click on Save .scenario 4) A message indicating the successful saving of the .scenario should appear in the Game Window. To save the level .scenario_structure_bsp do the following: 1) Go to the Hierarchy view and select the Cluster properties group and expand the group tree. 2) Select any of the portal or cluster groups. 3) Go to File. 4) Click on Save .scenario_structure_bsp 5) A message indicating the successful saving of the .scenario_structure_bsp should appear in the Game Window. The level data tags are now saved. |
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Conclusion to Population | ![]() |
The level has now has the necessary game objects in it and cluster settings that will allow it to run properly in Halo as a multiplayer level.Completed versions or example versions of the level tags that are created in the tutorial sections can be found under the "Halo\tags\levels\test\tutorial_examples" directory. The completed tags have been provided as a reference to aid in the learning process. Once the user has successfully completed the procedures above they can proceed to the next section Running a Game Level in Halo. |