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Now that we've covered Solid Entities, it's time we learn about the other entity type, Point Entities.
Point entities are any entities not constructed from brush work. These are things like player spawn points, enemies, lights, ambient sounds, and more. If it's not created through brush work, it's a point entity.
NOTE: Any Node Class can be generated by Qodot as a point entity. This includes both non-positional classes like AudioStreamPlayer and CanvasLayer as well as 2D and Control classes like Sprite2D and SubViewportContainer!
Point entities that have a position property will use their origin key value pair by Qodot to position them in Godot. 3D entities use all 3 origin vector components divided by a user defined inverse scale factor, while 2D entities will only use the raw X and Y components. When placing 2D entities, make sure to arrange them from the top down view in TrenchBroom. Non-positional entities will still have an origin in TrenchBroom but it will go unused in Godot.
Like their solid counterparts, point entities can also benefit from thoughtful naming patterns. They additionally have a few more meta options built into TrenchBroom that we can take advantage of if we use some more of the same design patterns found in Quake. We'll go over those in a bit. For now, let's just set up a couple things.
Qodot has two ways of generating point entities: by specifying a Node Class with an optional Script Class (just like we did with our func_geo) or through instantiating a PackedScene. We'll make a point entity using the method we're already familiar with first.
I'm a big fan of base classes. I hope you are, too, because we're creating another one! By now you've probably got the process down. Go ahead and create mangle_base.tres in our res://tb/fgd/base/ folder. Give it the Classname Mangle. We'll only be adding one Class Property: mangle, with a Vector3 value. Leave the default value 0 0 0. In the Class Property Descriptions we'll add our mangle entry and give it the description Entity rotation in degrees..
Why "mangle"? In Quake 1, the mangle property was used for specific entities, most commonly light entities (to turn them into spotlights). Why didn't they just use angle? Well angle was already being used for the spotlight's field of view cone. The other entity that primarily used mangle was info_intermission, the intermission camera after the end of each level.
Yes, this is where our Game Manager's demangler function comes into play.
In order to perceive a 3D scene, we need a Camera3D node. Normally we'd probably just add it to our Player Character but we don't have one in our project right now. Or maybe you do, but I don't.
We need a camera. We could just add one to our scene, but we're trying to learn how to design our maps entirely in TrenchBroom so let's come up with an entity based solution.
First we'll create a new GDScript in our res://entities/ folder and call it intermission_camera.gd.
@tool
extends Camera3D
@export var properties: Dictionary :
set(value):
properties = value
if !Engine.is_editor_hint():
return
rotation_degrees = GameManager.demangler(properties, 2)
get:
return propertiesIt's time to make our first point entity! Create a new QodotFGDPointClass resource in our res://tb/fgd/point/ folder and call it info_intermission.tres.
Wait. Info intermission?
Yep. I mentioned earlier that TrenchBroom has some built in mechanics to handle certain naming patterns and conventions. One of those is info_intermission, where mangle rotations get handled slightly differently. In TrenchBroom, your point entity's orientation is indicated by an arrow offset a little bit outside the center of your entity's origin.
Technically you don't have to use the info_intermission classname hook. Mangle still affects other entity types too. But if you come from a Quake mapping background and feel more comfortable with this type of mangle handling, it's an option. For the purposes of this tutorial, we will be taking advantage of this.
Let's take a look at our new Point Class resource! I wonder what's different...
This one's even simpler than QodotFGDSolidClass. The only new property is Scene File. As you might've already guessed, this is where we put a PackedScene if we want Qodot to instantiate it for this point entity.
Instead let's just set our Script Class to our new intermission_camera.gd we just made. Let's make our Classname info_intermission and a simple description of Intermission camera.. For our Base Classes array, let's toss in appearance_base.tres, target_base.tres, and our new mangle_base.tres. Even with the Script Class we'll still need to tell Qodot what type of Node Class to generate so put in Camera3D.
NOTE: Node Class strings are case sensitive. Make sure to type the class name in exactly as it is in the engine.
Voila! Our very first Point Entity! That wasn't too bad. But there's still a bit more to learn about point entities. Let's do another!
You should know the drill by now; create sound_base.tres in our res://tb/fgd/base/ folder. Give it the Classname Sound. Add the appearance_base.tres and target_base.tres to its Base Classes array.
We're not done yet though! We're going to add 2 new Class Properties to our Sound base class: sound, which will be a String type, and volume, a Float type with a default value of 1.
We'll also add some Class Property Descriptions to help remind us and other mappers about what these properties do. Add sound and give it the description File path to sound file, relative to sounds folder.. Then add volume and with the description Linear volume. Converted to DB on map build..
Finally, in our Meta Properties we'll change our color value to a nice magenta. Our new Sound base class should look something like this now:
That's right! We're making a positional sound entity! Let's start by creating a new GDScript called sound_3d.gd in our res://entities folder.
@tool
extends AudioStreamPlayer3D
class_name Sound3D
@export var properties: Dictionary :
set(value):
properties = value
if !Engine.is_editor_hint():
return
stream = GameManager.update_sound(properties["sound"] as String)
volume_db = linear_to_db(properties["volume"] as float)
autoplay = true
get:
return properties
func _on_finished():
GAME.use_targets(self)
func _ready():
if Engine.is_editor_hint():
return
if GAME.appearance_check(properties["appearance_flags"] as int):
queue_free()
return
GAME.set_targetname(self, properties["targetname"])
connect("finished", _on_finished)A lot of cool things going on in here: we set the stream to the sound property we wrote to in TrenchBroom, convert our volume property to decibels, and when the node is ready at runtime we check the game's difficulty and filter the entity; if it survives then we apply its targetname and connect the playback so that we can make use of the targeting systems. All very cool stuff.
NOTE: Don't forget that the difficulty is currently set to Normal (1) in the GameManager autoload. Do with this knowledge what you wish when the time is right.
Create a new QodotFGDPointClass resource and call it sound_3d.tres.
The Classname should also be sound_3d. For the description, Positional sound. works well enough. Drop our sound_base.tres into our Base Class array. In our Meta Properties we'll just remove both entries so we can use the Sound base class' Meta Properties. Lastly we'll set the Node Class to AudioStreamPlayer3D. Make sure to input it exactly like that, with the correct capitalization too.
When you've finished your point class resource should look like this:
Another one down, and we haven't even broken a sweat. While we could do this as long as Steve Rogers, it's time to take our point entities to the next level.
Home | What IS Qodot? | Setting Up Your Project | The Game Manager Autoload | What's an Entity? | Base Classes and Property Definitions | Solid Entities | Point Entities, Part 1 | Point Entities, Part 2 | Game Configuration | Forge Game Data | Textures! | Finally. TrenchBroom. | Building the QodotMap | Helpful Resources | Frequently Asked Qodots