RED

The information in this article pertains to Red Faction 1 only.

The splash screen of RED 1.2.

RED is the Red Faction Level Editor. RED is usually assumed to mean "Red EDitor".

Levels in Red Faction are comprised of BSP brushes and meshes exported from 3D Studio Max 4.2 or 5.0.

Purpose

RED is used to produce levels (maps) for the PC and Playstation 2 game Red Faction. It should be noted however that while all maps for the PS2 version of the game were originally developed using RED, there is currently no known way to play custom RED levels on the PS2 version of the game.

RED can also be used to test various edits when developing mods for the PC version of the game.

Functionality

Brush Mode

BSP Brushes make up the bulk of a Red Faction level. They define rooms and objects within those rooms. Brushes are often used in custom levels as a substitute for static meshes because RED does not support adding additional meshes without developing a seperate mod. Brushes can be edited in several ways. The 2 most useful ways are vertex editing and face editing. Brush sizing is measured in realistic meters, while player models such as Parker are roughly 1.90 meters tall.

• Shapes:

• Box
• Cone
• Cylinder
• Face
• Mesh
• Sphere
• Wedge

Texture Mode

Textures are what you see on the polygons (faces) in a level. Textures are applied to all surfaces of a polygon in RED editor. When calculating/adding lightmaps, another texture map (called a lightmap) is added to each surface of your level (except for "Full Bright" faces). This is done by baked grayscale images which tells the surfaces how illuminated they should be. RED supports "Smoothing Groups" for the lightmaps to make lighting appear seamless on rounded surfaces.

• Tools:

• UV Unwrap (TODO)

Object Mode

When in Object Mode you can create, place, and perform operators on objects in your level. Objects are defined as anything that is not world geometry (terrain). Things such as lights, triggers, player start, events, power-ups, crates, special effects (fire, smoke, etc.) can all be found in Object Mode. Objects can be place by double-clicking the left mouse button or by right-clicking in one of the orthographic views and selecting "Place object here" from the pop-up menu.

Selecting Objects

• Objects can be selected in many ways. The most common way it to left-click when your mouse pointer is over an object. it will then highlight to show that it was selected. The editor also allows you to select many objects at once. To select multiple objects, hold down the CTRL key while left clicking on objects. Those objects selected will highlight.
• You may also box-select objects. This entails drawing out a virtual box that will select any objects that are inside this box. To box-select, you must left-click in an open area (one that has no objects under the mouse pointer). Then, while continuing to hold down the left mouse button, you move the mouse pointer. This starts to create your virtual box. Once again, any objects that are contained within this box will be selected.
• To delete selected objects, use the delete key.
• Selected objects can also use the Cut, Copy, Paste functions. When you copy/paste an object, it will appear in the same spot and rotation as the original object and will become your newly selected object. You may then move it's position to the desired location. Another way to paste objects after a copy would be right-clicking in one of the orthographic views and selecting "Paste object here" from the pop-up menu.

• There are many objects available to be used inside of RED. All objects in RED can be classified into the following categories:

• Regions
• Clutter
• Events
• Triggers
• Entities
• Effects
• Items
• Decals
• Emitters
• Points
• Lights
• Cutscene Objects
• Navpoints/Waypoints
• Movers/Keyframes

Group Mode

What is a group?

A group is a collection of one or more brushes and/or objects. A brush and/or object can exist in more than one group. A group is defined by a group name. There are 3 basic types of groups. Master groups (which are predefined), user groups and mover groups. Groups are used to make handling multiple brushes and/or objects easier and more efficient. You can save and reload single groups and multiple groups.

Group Mode Functions

• Create: Creates group from all selected brushes and objects.
• Dissolve: Removes the selected group from the group list. Does not delete the actual brushes and/or objects from the level.
• Add To: Adds the selected brush(es) and/or object(s) to the group currently highlighted in the group list.
• Remove: Removes the selected brush(es) and/or object(s) from the the group currently highlighted in the group list.
• Save: Allows you to save a group or you can save multiple groups as one group (and still retain the individual groups. More on this later).
• Load: Allows you to load a saved group.
• Rename: Allows you to rename the currently selected group.
• Lock: Allows you to lock the brush(es) of the currently selected group.
• Unlock: Allows you to unlock the brush(es) of the currently selected group.
• Duplicate: Similar to copy and paste. Allows you to select a group (or groups), copy them and still maintain the group relationship for the copy.
• Keyframe: Turns the selected group into a mover group.
• Reconnect: If you move a translating mover group, you have to press this after you have moved it. It reconnects the selected mover group's keyframes to the mover groups geometry.

User Friendliness

RED drew on elements from all the other level editors and 3D applications that Volition's level designers had used in the past. They had RED designed the way they wanted.

Template:Quotation

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Customization

• REDPF - Bundled with Pure Faction since version 3.0 comes REDPF. REDPF is an upgraded version of the stock editor. It features new and useful buttons added just to the top of the viewport area, new options added to the trigger properties window (for new trigger features introduced in Pure Faction), and the addition of very useful help strings.

• RED-Optimized - A few years ago, community member RED-FROG released his own custom modified version of RED, called RED-Optimized. This version saw enlarged important buttons, removed help strings and removal of the splash screen.

RED Command Line Parameters

• See RED Command Line Parameters

Related Pages

• RED v2