VisGroups II:
The New Kid in Town

by SK-Imaginos


Well! Back again for more, I see.

Our subject today is the newly overhauled VisGroups feature in WorldCraft 1.5. For all of you who have looked in vain for visgroups in your older .rmf files - stop looking. They aren't there and won't be. Read the FAQ on the Worldcraft Home Page to see why.

When I first loaded one of my map files in WC 1.5 and found out all the hard work I'd done was gone - I was severely disappointed. The map in question had taken nearly five hours to add visgroups to. After I had time to cool down, I realised that this would be a good oppurtunity to re(un)learn VisGroups.

So, with the whatsnew.txt file in hand, I set sail. Five MINUTES later - the map was done!

Nope - that's not a typo - I said 5 minutes. WC 1.3 took 5 hours - WC 1.5 took five minutes. That's the power of Ben's new VisGroups feature.

Readers of my previous VisGroups tutorial will remember the 'bug' that VisGroups 1.3 caused - i.e. copying multiple items (lights, func_doors, etc.) into a visgroup applied the attributes of some solidclass entities (doors, plats, etc.) to the pointclass entities (lights, playerstarts, ammo, etc.).

This anomaly has disappeared in WC 1.5. So that's one thing you won't have to worry about now. Copy away!

Another powerful feature that I'll be exploring with you here is the new AutoSelect feature that makes creating VisGroups a breeze.

The example map was created without visgroups. I added them later. This (like the new VisGroup feature) was bass-ackwards of the way I told you to do it in WC 1.3.

You'll have two example maps this time - one with visgroups and one without. This way, you can practice your new skills.

The archive should contain:

vgtutmap.map (no visgroups)
vgtutrmf.rmf (visgroups already created)
the vgtut2 html files
the images used in vgtut2
NOTE: I'm placing the example maps in the 'public domain' - that is, you can do anything with them you like. No need to even contact me if you decide to add on to them or use them as a starting point for a new level or make prefabs or anything else. Mi stuffa es su stuffa.

With that out of the way, let's get started!

If you've read my previous tutorial, VisGroups: Worldcraft's Most Misunderstood Feature, some of the following will be redundant. If you haven't, then some of what I'm about to say won't make a whole lotta sense. Best thing to is drop over to QREF and give it a looksee so you can see why the new VisGroups are so much better than the previous version.


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