General tips for beginners
I create this thread because I would like to share some very basic and some not so basic tips with the beginner of the REDkit , it may not be so useful to some of you, but to the people who are just starting to use REDkit it may seem overwhelming the amount of info there is about it.This tips may help you.
Please if you have any tips & tricks you think will be useful for anyone, not just beginners, post it here, but keep them short, if they are to advanced just provide a link to the thread.
I think I'm the almost perfect guy to give tips for beginner with no experience in any tool like this since I was like that before, although I still have a long, very long way to go. I'm too "noobish" like to make a tutorial series or any wiki entry, but I'm experienced enough to give you this tips for making new adventures (no coding, I'm no coder) :
This are all my tips for now, but I may add more later. I know I'm no REDkit/modding Genius, thus I wish to ask the more experienced part of the community for its opinion on this tips, and please add any extra tips you have.
Nice places to get some more info:
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqESarjoqhM labautermann's video series on modding with REDkit.
-http://www.youtube.com/user/Benzenzimmern/videos Benzezimmern channel, here are some tutorials and great vids of his work.
-http://wiki.cdprojektred.com/redkit/tiki-listpages.php REDkit wiki
I create this thread because I would like to share some very basic and some not so basic tips with the beginner of the REDkit , it may not be so useful to some of you, but to the people who are just starting to use REDkit it may seem overwhelming the amount of info there is about it.This tips may help you.
Please if you have any tips & tricks you think will be useful for anyone, not just beginners, post it here, but keep them short, if they are to advanced just provide a link to the thread.
I think I'm the almost perfect guy to give tips for beginner with no experience in any tool like this since I was like that before, although I still have a long, very long way to go. I'm too "noobish" like to make a tutorial series or any wiki entry, but I'm experienced enough to give you this tips for making new adventures (no coding, I'm no coder) :
- If its your first time with this kind of tools. Start with a very small project, don't think about it much, in fact the less you feel attached to it the better ( to a certain point) because later on you may notice that you made a lot of mistakes that will take a lot of time to correct and you may need to start again another project. Make something simple like an small village in the coast with a drowner problem and a bit more of quests, kind of like a training level.
- When you start, make clear groups and layers for each area of the level or for each global things, ie: lighting- for areas environments, vegetation- for foliage templates you'll use with the vegetation tool, cliff village- put layers for trees,rocks,buildings,decorations,etc. in here. This will be helpful when you start to optimize your level.
- This is more of a personal preference, but I prefer placing trees with the gardener tool rather than with the vegetation tool, since I can rotate them, move them and they are more easily placed, but I prefer the veg. tool for grass, weeds,bushes and details such as small branches or small rocks.
- Always think, Optimization, when you create new layers, place new meshes, create groups, think on how you will load them and use them properly in order to achieve a nice frame rate.
- Create a general sketch of both your landscape and your story before starting. You may do this in your mind or actually writing it down/ drawing, this will help you when you are making new areas, new scenes, its nice to have an overall goal you wish to achieve to help you in your path and prevent derailments( not sure if thats a word).
- This is more of an overall tip for almost everthing. When you think you have just nailed something, weather an area or a new mesh, leave it for a couple of days, forget it completely and get to work on something else, and then later on go back to it, now two things may happen, either you still think you nailed it which may be because you did nailed it or because you didn't left it enough time. Or you may get to see some errors, big or small, that you couldn't see before, why? because you just got a fresh perspective of the matter. You could also ask someone who isn't afraid of telling you the truth to tell you his/her opinion.
- Ooops! forgot the most important one!....... I present to you, your new best friend!!! ................ Ctrl + S !!!!!!!!!!!!!
ALWAYS! ALWAYS! ALWAYS!! save, no matter how small the change, if its big enough for you to not want to do it again, SAVE!!!
And create backups as well of your whole level at C:/ whatever you installed witcher 2 in/Withcher2/data/levels, there you should find your level along some others. copy the folder of your level and put it somewhere else, or create a zip, why? because some bug or some accidental click on remove world layer ( oops! ) may destroy all your work.
This are all my tips for now, but I may add more later. I know I'm no REDkit/modding Genius, thus I wish to ask the more experienced part of the community for its opinion on this tips, and please add any extra tips you have.
Nice places to get some more info:
-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqESarjoqhM labautermann's video series on modding with REDkit.
-http://www.youtube.com/user/Benzenzimmern/videos Benzezimmern channel, here are some tutorials and great vids of his work.
-http://wiki.cdprojektred.com/redkit/tiki-listpages.php REDkit wiki
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