Layer tool

From Titan Quest Mod Wiki

1 Layers
2 Fog and Lighting layer
3 Name layer
4 Sound layer
5 Boss layer
6 Day/Night Cycle layer
7 Bloom layer

Layers

To create a new layer, you must choose the layer type and name the layer. Then the layer can be simply painted onto the landscape. It will be visible as a coloured checkerboard pattern while the layer tool is active.

Just a hint:

Adding a layer to a grid is best done via CRTL left mouse click

There are four types of layers that can be added to your level with this tool:

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Fog and Lighting layer

Whenever the player is inside the bounds of a fog/lighting layer, the ambience of the whole display will be changed according to the fog/lighting layer settings.

You do not get the fog or lighting effect where you paint the layer. The effect always affects the whole display. The effect is toggled on, when the player enters the layer you painted, it is toggled off when the player leaves the layer.

You get a preview of the effect in the editor by panning the camera. The player is represented by a small black wiremesh ball exactly in the center of the camera view. The fog or lighting effect will be toggled by moving that ball over the border of your layer.

There are six settings you can adjust for your fog or lighting effect. (If your monitor is set to low resolution, perhaps you can't see all of them. Click into the headline of 'Sector Paint Options' (the topmost window to the right) to collapse it.)

Depth Fog. This is a haze that obscures objects in the distance while nearer objects can still be discerned. You can choose at what distance the fog will begin to veil objects, and at what distance maximum opacity will be reached. The higher those values, the thinner the fog. You can also choose the density of the fog. Mark that distances are not measured from the player character, but from the camera.
Height Fog. This is a horizontal layer of fog, thinning towards the top. At heights above the top height of the fog, the air is clear. At the bottom height, the fog is very dense. For instance, if you set bottom to 0 (or your level's elevation), and top to 1 (or your level's elevation 1), the player character's feet will be in the fog, the head above it. Agaín, you can choose the density. Depth fog and height fog may be combined.
Fog Color. The colour of the fog particles, represented by RGB values. You can change the white standard fog into a noxious green fume, a fiery red haze or a deep brown murk.
Light Color. The colour of the light illuminating the scene. This is used for terrains. Note that in-game the light colour also changes with the day/night cycle.
Sky Ambient Color and
Ground Ambient Color affect the lighting of the scene in grids. They can be imagined as part of the lighting reflected from ceiling or ground. So, in an ice cave where the ground is bluish ice, the 'Ground Ambient Color' would be light blue.

The blue and green sliders for Sky Ambient Color are exchanged and incorrectly labeled!

Some Examples:

Fog and Lighting

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Name layer

Name layers represent the regions of the map the player will be traveling through. The name of the region will be displayed in the compass and in the middle of the screen on the player's entering the layer. That name must be a text string in your modstrings.txt file. Enter the corresponding tag in the 'Localization Tag' field.

The name will not be erased on the player's leaving the layer. To do this, he must enter another name layer. If you will not be using teleports, it is therefore not necessary to paint the whole region with the layer. Instead, paint only those parts where the player will be able to enter the region.

As with the fog layer, you can preview the effect by panning the camera.

An example:

Red loops, from top to bottom:

Name Layer chosen as the type of layer, BahirDarCity entered as the name ('Style Name') of the layer.
Cinematic Display, with fade in/fade out, activated for the display.
Display Once chosen: when the player returns to that region, the name will not be displayed again, only shown in the compass.
andro_ZONE01_Name is a tag. The full string to be displayed is linked to it in modstrings.txt.

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Sound layer

Creating a sound layer and painting is done as usual.

After you create such a layer you have 3 options to reference sound *.dbr files. These files are found in the dbr folder Sound records and have to be imported with the Art Manager. The .dbr files only appear in the World Editor if you have imported them and built the mod.

The three options are:

Ambient Music
Ambient
Event Music

An Ambient Music is played after a while when you walk within the soundlayer. It has a base theme (the drone) and random melodies.

Ambient is played constantly if you enter the sector.

Event Music is played if you enter a sector for the first time. After that the music is only played again, if you restart the game.

Ambient Music or Event Music are also played within the World Editor. The event music is played instantly and the ambient music needs a while until it starts.

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