Dungeon Architect User Guide

100 Pages·2016·14.43 MB·English

Dungeon Architect User Guide
for Unity 5
1 Introduc(cid:415)on
DungeonArchitectisapluginforUnitythathelpsinstreamliningthelevelcrea(cid:415)onpro-
cess. It allows you to quickly create levels procedurally (or manually) by blocking out
volumesandhavingthepluginbuildtheenvironmentautoma(cid:415)callyaroundit. Thisdoc-
umentintroducesyoutothevariousfeaturesofDungeonArchitect
2 Genera(cid:415)on Overview
Adungeonisgeneratedintwophases
• LayoutGenera(cid:415)on
• VisualGenera(cid:415)on
2.1 LayoutGenera(cid:415)on
In this phase, only the layout of the dungeon is generated in memory. No meshes or
actorsareactuallyspawned.
Next,thelevelispopulatedwithinvisiblepointscalledMarkersaroundthegenerated
layout. Amarkerhasonlyanameandatransforma(cid:415)oninthe3Dspace.
Intheaboveimage,a(cid:332)erthelayouthasbeenbuilt,thedungeonbuilderhaspopulated
thelevelwithmarkerpointsaroundthelayoutofthedungeon
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Figure1: Architecture
2.2 VisualGenera(cid:415)on
This phase spawns the actors in your scene. It takes all the marker points inserted in
thepreviousphaseandreplacesthemwithactors(meshes,lights,blueprintsetc)that
youhavemappedinyourthemefiles
ThethemingengineisexecutedforeachmarkerinsertedintheLayoutgenera(cid:415)onphase.
Intheaboveexample,whenaGroundmarkerisencountered,itwouldlookforaGround
markermappinginyourthemefileandreplacethemarkerwiththemeshesyouhave
mappedtoit
The advantage of this data driven theme based approach is that theme files can be
swapped to give your dungeon a completly different look. Theme files can also be
sharedacrossmulitpleprojects/teams
Mul(cid:415)plethemescanalsobeusedwithinthesamedungeontocreatevaria(cid:415)ons
3 Dungeon Prefab
A dungeon prefab is used to build your dungeons. Drop the dungeon prefab into the
sceneandresetit’stransform
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Figure2: Layoutofthedungeoninmemory
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Figure3: Markerspopulatedforasampleroom
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Figure4: Actorsspawnedbyathememapping
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Figure5: SampleThemeMapping
Figure6: Resulta(cid:332)erthememapping
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Figure7: DungeonPrefab
Thedungeongameobjectgenerateaprocedurallayoutforyourdungeonbasedonthe
variousconfigura(cid:415)onparamters.
A(cid:332)erthelayouthasbeengenerated,itspawnsmeshes,lights,blueprintsetc,basedon
themappingsyouhavedefinedintheThemefile. Thiswayyoucandefinewhatmeshes
needstobea(cid:425)achedtothefloors,walls,ceilings,etc
3.1 Proper(cid:415)es
TheDungeongameobjectletsyouperformvariousac(cid:415)onsonyourproceduraldungeon.
SelecttheDungeongameobjectandhavealookattheconfigura(cid:415)onintheInspector
window
Figure8: DungeonActorProper(cid:415)es
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Build Dungeon: Builds a procedural dungeon. You need to define atleast one theme
beforeyoubuild
Destroy Dungeon: Destroys an exis(cid:415)ng dungeon owned by this actor. If you want to
rebuildadungeona(cid:332)ermodifyingthetheme,thereisnoneedtodestroyfirstandyou
candirectlyclickbuild
Themes: A theme file lets you design the look and feel of your dungeon. The theme
editorletsyouinterac(cid:415)velydesignyourownthemes. Youneedtospecifyatleastone
theme file before you can build yourdungeon(sample contentcomes with many pre-
createdthemestogetyoustarted)
DebugDraw: Drawsdebuginforma(cid:415)oninthesceneview
3.2 ConfigParameters
SelecttheDungeonActorandnavigatetotheInspectorwindow
Thevariousconfigparametersdeterminehowthelayoutofthedungeonisgenerated
procedurally. Thedefaultlayoutgeneratoralgorithmisimplementedbasedontheex-
cellentwriteupbyTinyKeep’sauthorPhiDinh
Thevariousparametersare:
• Seed: Changingthisnumberwouldcompletelychangethelayoutofthedungeon.
Thisisthebaserandomnumberseedthatisusedtobuildthedungeon. Thereis
aconveniencefunc(cid:415)ontorandomizethisvalue(bu(cid:425)onlabeledR)
• NumCells: Thenumberofcellstousewhilebuildingthedungeon. Youwillnot
seethesecellsinthefinalresult. Alargernumberwouldcreateabiggerandmore
complexdungeon. Anumberof100-150buildsamediumtolargesizeddungeon.
Experimentwithdifferentranges
• GridCellSize: Thedungeongeneratorworksonagridbasedsystemandrequired
modular mesh assets to be placed on each cell (floors, walls, doors etc). This
importantfieldspecifiesthesizeofthecelltouse. Thissizeisdeterminedbythe
art asset used in the dungeon theme designed by the ar(cid:415)st. In the demo, we
haveafloormeshthatis400x400. Theheightofafloorischosentobe200units
asthe stairmeshis 200 units high. Hencethe defaultsaresetto400x400x200.
Youshouldchangethistothedimensionofthemodularassetyourdesignerhas
createdforthedungeon
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Figure9: DungeonConfigParameters
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• Min/MaxCellSize: Thisishowbigorsmallacellsizecanbe. Whilegenera(cid:415)on,
acelliseitherconvertedtoaroom,corridororisdiscardedcompletely. TheCell
width/heightisrandomlychosenwithinthisrange
• RoomAreaThreshold: Ifacellsizeexceedspastthislimit,itisconvertedintoa
room. A(cid:332)ercellsarepromotedtorooms,allroomsareconnectedtoeachother
throughcorridors(eitherdirectlyorindirectly. Seespanningtreelater)
• RoomAspectDelta: Theaspectra(cid:415)oofthecells(widthtoheightra(cid:415)o). Keeping
thisvaluenear0wouldcreatesquarerooms. Bringingthiscloseto1wouldcreate
elongated/stretchedroomswithahighwidthtoheightra(cid:415)o
• CorridorPadding: Theextrawidthtoapplytoonesideofacorridor
• CorridorPaddingDoubleSided: Flagtoapplythepaddingonbothsidesofthe
corridor
• Height Varia(cid:415)on Probability: Tweak this value to increase / reduce the height
varia(cid:415)ons (and stairs) in your dungeon. A value close to 0 reduces the height
varia(cid:415)onandincreasesasyouapproach1. Increasingthisvaluetoahigherlevel
might create dungeons with no place for proper stair placement since there is
toomuchheightvaria(cid:415)on. Avalueof0.2to0.4seemsgood
• MaxAllowedStairHeight: Thenumberoflogicalfloorunitsthedungeonheight
can vary. This determines how high the dungeon’s height can vary (e.g. max 2
floorshigh). Setthisvaluedependingonthestairmeshesyoudesignerhascre-
ated. Inthesampledemo,therearetwostairmeshes,one200unitshigh(1floor)
andanother400unitshigh(2floors). Sothedefaultissetto2
• SpanningTreeLoop: Determineshowmanyloopsyouwouldliketohaveinyour
dungeon. Avaluenear0willcreatefewerloopscrea(cid:415)nglineardungeons. Avalue
near1wouldcreatelotsofloops,whichwouldlookunoriginal. Itsgoodtoallow
afewloopssoavalueclosetozero(like0.2shouldbegood)
• Stair Connec(cid:415)on Tolerance: The generator would add stairs to make different
areasofthedungeonaccessible. However,wedonotwanttoomanystairs. For
e.g.,beforeaddingastairinapar(cid:415)cularelevatedarea,thegeneratorwouldcheck
ifthisareaisalreadyaccessiblefromanearbystair. Ifso,itwouldnotaddit. This
toleranceparameterdetermineshowfartolookforanexis(cid:415)ngpathbeforewe
canaddastair. Playwiththisparameterifyouseetoomanystairsclosetoeach
other,ortoofew
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