AssaultCube Documentation :: Map editing - Interface & controls

AssaultCube Documentation
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## Map editing - Interface & controls

Learning and understanding the interface and controls are the first step to map editing...

### The interface

| The cube grid This is shown as a white grid of squares drawn where ever you point. Each of these small squares is a single cube. The cubes in AssaultCube are known as "geometry". The bigger blue squares, indicate a selection of 8x8 cubes (to help make map editing easier).
| Heightfield cubes These are the light green cubes in the grid. These cubes indicate heightfields, which will be explained later here.
| Cube selector This appears as a small white box with a red mini-square in the corner. It will appear in the middle of the screen and you can use it to select geometry, a bit like a crosshair. The red mini-square indicates which corner of a cube you are manipulating if you're using heightfields, or where your entity will be placed if you're creating an entity.

Entity sparklies

These are shown as coloured sparkly dots. They are known as "entities", which will be explained later here. Each entity is colour coded:

- The nearest entity will be blue.
- Light entities will be white.
- Item pickups will be red (for weapons) or yellow (for armour/health/akimbo).
- Spawn points will be green.
- Mapmodels and map sounds will be magenta.
- CTF flags will be turquoise.
- Clip boxes and ladders will be grey.

| "Closest entity" text This is the white writing along the bottom. It will tell you the location of the closest entity and its properties. Note: the sparkly of the closest entity will show up blue.
| Yellow clip box These boxes will be shown where clip entities are used and depict the total size of the clip. These clip boxes stop players and grenades passing through. See the clips section on the entities page for more information.
| Purple clip box These boxes will be shown where clip entities are used and depict the total size of the clip. These clip boxes stop players passing through, however, still allow grenades to pass. See the clips section on the entities page for more information.
| Playerstart arrows These arrows show up for any entity that is a "playerstart". This is to help you judge the correct direction for each player to face when they spawn.

To get a feel for editmode, press E and float around. Try clicking and dragging the small white box at your crosshair over some cubes (you will see a red box over what you are selecting). This is how you select geometry.

### Map editing controls

Below are the controls that get used in map-editing, you will use most of these controls when creating a map, so it's good to learn them. Note: these controls can ONLY be used in map editing mode.

#### Changing geometry

Control | Function |  | Control | Function
Left-click | Allows you to select cubes. Hold CTRL for multiple selections. | Scrolling | Scrolling will move cubes up/down, depending on the direction you look.
[ | Moves cubes in the floor downwards. | ] | Moves cubes in the floor upwards.
O | Moves cubes in the ceiling downwards. | P | Moves cubes in the ceiling upwards.
F | Makes selected cubes a solid. | G | Makes selected cubes a space/non-heightfield.
H | Makes the floor a heightfield. | I | Makes the ceiling a heightfield.
Hold Q and scroll | This will manipulate the corner of a cube where the red dot is positioned up/down. Only works if the cube is a heightfield. | K | Makes selected cubes a corner.
8 | Manipulates downwards the corner of a cube where the red mini-square is positioned. This only works if the cube is a heightfield. | 9 | Manipulates upwards the corner of a cube where the red mini-square is positioned. This only works if the cube is a heightfield.
, | Equalizes the floor. | . | Equalizes the ceiling.
C | Copies selected cubes. | V | Pastes copied cubes. Note: it pastes from the upper corner of the red mini-square.
U | Undoes the last action (only applies to geometry). | R | Redoes undone operations.

#### Changing textures

Control | Function |  | Control | Function
Home | Browses forward through wall textures. | End | Browses backward through wall textures.
7 | Browses forward through upper-wall textures. | 4 | Browses backward through upper-wall textures.
Insert | Browses forward through floor textures. | Delete | Browses backward through floor textures.
Page Up | Browses forward through ceiling textures. | Page Down | Browses backward through ceiling textures.
Hold X and scroll | Scrolls forward/backwards through textures on the wall/upper-wall, depending on the direction you look. | Hold Z and scroll | Scrolls forward/backwards through textures on the floor/ceiling, depending on the direction you look.

#### Changing entities

Control | Function |  | Control | Function
Backspace | Deletes nearest entity. | Left Ctrl + Backspace | Undeletes the last deleted entity.
Left Shift + Backspace | Shows "Deleted entities" menu. | - | Copies nearest entity into memory.
= | Pastes nearest entity out of memory. | ; | Edits entity
Middle-click | Pin/unpin closest entity. | Hold M and scroll | Moves the closest entity in the axis of the direction you look.
Hold 1 and scroll | Changes the first attribute value of the closest entity. | Hold 2 and scroll | Changes the second attribute value of the closest entity.
Hold 3 and scroll | Changes the third attribute value of the closest entity. | Hold 4 and scroll | Changes the fourth attribute value of the closest entity.
Hold 5 and scroll | Changes the fifth attribute value of the closest entity. | Hold 6 and scroll | Changes the sixth attribute value of the closest entity.
Hold 7 and scroll | Changes the seventh attribute value of the closest entity. |  |

Note: pressing editmeta (first modifier key - left Ctrl by default) speeds up the scrolling, and pressing editmeta2 (second modifier key - left Shift by default) enables unscaled editing of entity attributes.

#### Misc

Control | Function |  | Control | Function |  | Control | Function
E | Toggle edit mode. | Right-click | Show the editing menu. | L | Shows the lighting menu.
Left Ctrl | First modifier key | Left Shift | Second modifier key | F5 | Toggle occlusion on/off.
F6 | Toggle showmip on/off. | F7 | Toggle fullbright on/off. | F8 | Toggle cube details on/off.

#### Tag clips

Control | Function |  | Control | Function |  | Control | Function
1 | Removes tag clip. | 2 | Creates tag 'playerclip'. | 3 | Creates tag 'clip'.
B | Shows tag clip volume. |  |  |  |

#### The next step? Go to Map editing: Begin! →

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