MaxED Quick Reference

This is an updated version of the document that was shipped with Max Payne game CD. It contains a complete list of all menu, mouse and keyboard functions with brief explanation of the use and necessary additional information.

1.    Menu items and keyboard shortcuts

Main category

Shortcut

Function

More info / tips / description

Mode switches

     
 

Space

Look mode, toggle normal / around polygon

Moving around in level is done in the move mode

 

F2

Render mode, toggle Wireframe/Textured

Most of the editing happens in textured render mode. Sometimes it may be faster or easier to use WF though

 

F3

Build mode

New entities/key points/meshes are created in this mode.

 

F4

Polygon edit mode

Most of the polygon related editing is done in this mode.

 

F5

Move mode

Most of the editing that affects the whole entity/mesh, hierarchy or dynamic/FSM is done in this mode

 

F6

Texture mode

Most of the texture related editing is done in this mode

 

F7

Exit mode

Exits are created in this mode

 

F12

Grid mode

Most of the grid functions are available always, but some additional grid manipulation is done in this mode

Mode independent

    Always available
 

Num +/-

Grid scale

Grid up/down scale. By default MaxEd uses "old grid units", which are in steps of half/double of one meter.

 

Alt+Num +/-

Grid size

This changes the size of the grid plane to some extent (does not affect the grid unit).

 

Ctrl+Num +/-

Camera movement speed

The speed that the camera moves in the Look mode

 

Num *

Toggle grid on/off

 
 

Num /

Cycle trough texture display modes

In texture rendering mode (F2 toggle) you can select between only primary texture / only light map / only light layer / both light map and primary texture rendering. This can be selected also in preferences.

 

F9

Toggle material palette

Show / hide material and hierarchy palette

   

Toggle triangles

You can toggle the triangles visualization on/off in wireframe mode

   

Toggle backface culling

You can toggle the backface culling visualization on/off in wireframe mode

 

Ctrl+S

Quick save

Quick save level LVL 

 

Ctrl+O

Open level

Open old level LVL file. Note: several level files can be open simultaneously, but only one at a time can have texture rendering on.

 

Ctrl+P

Preferences

Show preferences dialog. See preferences section for additional description.

 

Insert

Toggle select culled

Toggle on/off the ability to select the polygons from their  "backside" (culled).

 

AltGr+H

Hold

See File menu section for more information

 

AltGr+F

Fetch

See File menu section for more information

Look mode

Space   Moving around
 

LMB

Look around

Keep pressed and move the mouse to look around (turn the camera). 

In around mode (Space to toggle) the camera revolves horizontally around the selected polygon.

 

RMB

Zoom

Keep pressed and move the mouse back and forth.

In around mode (Space to toggle) revolves the camera vertically around the selected polygon

 

Shift

Strafe

Keep shift pressed to move around on the view plane i.e. "strafe"

 

S

Save screenshot

 
 

C

Display document statistics

Presents a dialog with texture, polygon and other statistics.

 

R

Render all

Render radiosity for the whole document. Choice between "full" and preview algorithms is prompted for. Preview algorithm only calculates direct illumination and doesn't handle transparencies.

 

Space

Toggle look around and look around an object

See explanation above
   

XML dump

Dumps a XML document containing all dynamic meshes and all of the FSM messages that they send.

Build mode

F3  

Creating new entities

 

LMB

Draw polygon shape on grid, add a new vertex

Note: If the object is intersecting with itself, a new vertex can not be placed

 

RMB

Extrude mesh (accept creation)

The current polygon is extruded to a mesh, thickness is one current grid unit and the texture used is the current material.

 

N

Create a new entity (keypoint) to selected point on the grid

A list of possible keypoints is presented

 

Del

Delete last vertex placement (during polygon shape draw)

 
 

A

Align grid to edge

The edge (of another object) that you point has to cross with the current grid plane

 

UC / DC / LC / RC

Move the camera around on the view plain

Note: UC = Up Cursor, DC = Down Cursor etc.

 

Ctrl - UC / DC

Move the camera forward and backward

 
 

Shift+RMB

Create polygon out of mesh shape

Note: Polygons can’t be Booleaned.

 

Space

Abort mesh build

 
 

Ctrl-V

Paste to

Clipboard contents are pasted to the selected point on the grid. Note: the pivot point of the object is the point that is used as a reference. Use F5/P to set the pivot point before copy/paste if necessary.

Polygon edit mode

F4  

Single polygon related operations

Moving:

UC / DC

Move selected face up/down by grid units

Note: Faces of a triangular mesh can’t be moved. The mesh can’t go "through itself". Tip: Try a smaller grid unit or fix the mesh before moving a face (F5/F)

 

LC / RC

Rotate face around selected edge

Note: the rotation step amount is set in preferences (Ctrl-P)

 

RMB

Skew selected face

Works around the edge marked as red

 

LMB

Move selected face

The selected face moves in steps of a current grid unit, see above
 

PgUp/PgDn

Move the grid up/down

 
       

General:

Del

Delete active polygon

Note: Deleting polygons should occur rarely and the objects can’t be Booleaned if some of its polygons are deleted.

 

Ctrl+Del

Delete all but active polygon

 
 

A

Align Grid to polygon

Commonly used

 

Shift-A

Align to selected face in world coordinates

Commonly used

 

S

Split active poly by grid

Place the grid so that its plane crosses the polygon from the desired split location. Note: Joining of the polygons is done in F6 mode, see F6/J subsection for more information

 

G

Align objects

Rarely used

 

P

Separate mesh

MaxED checks the mesh and if it finds that it is not fully connected (some parts do not share vertexes), the object is separated

 

Enter

Rename exit

Select show exits from the view menu and you can select the exit mesh to rename it. Note: exit is two sided and both sides have separate names.

 

L

Locate polygon

Rarely used. You can locate a polygon by its index number. Type the number to the dialog and MaxED shows a circle on that polygon. Type -1 to get the location off. Tip: Sometimes MaxED can inform you that some polygon is illegal geometry (usually after a complex Boolean operation). Try to fix the mesh (F5/F) or then locate the polygon and try if splitting (F4/S) helps.

 

Ctrl+F

Flip object normals

A common operation. Point one face, press Ctrl+F and the whole mesh will be flipped. Usually rooms should have their polygons pointing inwards and everything else outwards.

Object edit/move mode

F5  

For all object related

Booleans:

U

Boolean Unify objects

Select first object, press U, select second. The result is the union of the objects (the volumes are combined) and the unneeded polygons are removed.

Note: Boolean operations work only between meshes that are defining a volume (only closed forms with no deleted faces)

Note: All Boolean operations require that both of the objects have their faces pointing the same way (use F4/Ctrl+F to flip).

Note: Objects have be on the same hierarchy level, use grouping/ungrouping to get the objects on the same hierarchy level.

 

S

Boolean Subtract objects

Select first object, press S, select second. If the objects overlap, the second object volume is removed from the first object

 

I

Boolean Intersect objects

Select first object, press I, select second object. The result is the intersection of the objects (they must overlap).

 

J

Join objects

This function joins objects to a single mesh (combine meshes, but do not Boolean). Even if the meshes overlap, no polygon removal is done. In most cases, you can use F4/P to separate meshes again.

Grouping:

G

Group objects

Select child, press G, select parent

 

Ctrl+G

Ungroup group parent's children

Select parent and the children will be lift (ungrouped)

 

Shift+G

Lift selected child from a group

A single child will be lift (moving up in the hierarchy)

 

E

Group objects to room

Often used. Keep mouse over room mesh, press E to auto-group all objects in its volume to the room.

 

Ctrl+E

Auto-group all

The same as above, but ungrouped children all around are grouped to rooms which they are in.

 

H

Hide selected

Select the items that you want to hide

 

Ctrl+H

Inverse hide

Select the items that you do not want to be hidden

 

Ctrl+Shift+H

Unhide last

 
 

Q

Align objects faces to another object

 
 

C

Scale object or a group

A dialog is presented. The scaling reference point is the vertex that is selected when you press "C".

 

Shift+C

Center rooms

You may sometimes want to set rooms pivot point to their centers.

 

P

Set pivot to grid center

Align the grid and move it in F12 mode to get the grid center in to the correct place.

 

F

Fix vertices

A good operation after Boolean operations. Forces a kind of "rethink" over the selected objects, which removes redundant vertexes, builds necessary T-vertexes and checks mesh integrity.

 

D

Make object dynamic / static

When a mesh is created, it is originally always static geometry. When the object is toggled as dynamic, it gets a FSM (can send and receive messages and has a state). It also can have keyframes and animations. Check the object properties to get dynamic objects suitable for each need. Keypoints are always dynamic in nature and can’t be turned as static.

 

N

Kill floating faces

Rarely used.

 

T

Texturize object/selection with current material

Similar to F6/T, except affects all polygons on all selected meshes.

 

Ctrl+T

Texturize object/selection with current material in default scale

Similar to F6/Ctrl+T, except affects all polygons on all selected meshes.

 

O

Optimize, remove redundant vertices

Rarely used, usually use fixing instead (F5/F).

Dynamic:

Tab

Keyframe manager for selected object

After making a mesh dynamic, it gets a single keyframe. More keyframes can be added from the KF manager. Select the keyframe in the manager and move/rotate the object around to get the keyframe position where you want.

 

Shift+Tab

Animation manager for selected object

After creating keyframes, animations can be created. Select the two keyframes that you want to animate between (can be the same keyframe too), the name, duration of the animation, rotation and position graphs can be adjusted. Use messages button to adjust the messages that the object sends. Note: the object always animates in relation to its pivot point. Use F5/P to set the pivot.

 

4

FSM manager for selected object

FSM manager and "Finite State Machine" system is the key to create any dynamic content. You can add new states, create custom "message sets" and overall manage the behavior of the object. Tip: use Tab key to "complete" hierarchy and commands in Unix-fashion.

Moving:

LMB

Move selected object/group along grid

Note: This and the following move/rotate commands work for both static/dynamic objects, but if the object is dynamic, only current keyframe is affected

 

RMB

Move selected object/group up/down

 
 

UC / DC / LC / RC

Move selected object/group along grid

 
 

PgUp/PgDn

Move selected object/group up/down

 
 

LMB+1/2/3

rotate object or group along X/Y/Z axis

Keep the key pressed and rotate by pressing LMB. By default, the object rotates around the selected vertex in world coordinates. Toggle pivot/world coordinates and vertex/pivot rotation on and off as needed,

 

Shift+1/2/3

Rotate object or group by geometry center

Rarely used

 

Ctrl + all move and rotate functions

Move or rotate selected dynamic object/group so that all the keyframes move the same way

All of the previous move/rotate commands (except around geometry center) work so that also all of the keyframes are moved/rotated. Without, only the selected keyframe is affected.

   

Enable room moving

If you toggle this on, MaxED allows you to move rooms even if the exits get affected. Note: You can always move multiple rooms even w/o this setting on, as long as no exits get affected (separated)

General:

Esc

Clear selection / abort Xform

Pressing Esc happens often, mainly when you want to clear the selection

 

Del

Delete selected object

Only the object that is active (under mouse cursor) gets deleted. The possible children get lifted

 

Ctrl+Del

Delete selected objects

All selected objects and their children get deleted

 

A

Toggle Vertex/Pivot rotation

Rotation works around the selected vertex by default. Dynamic objects are mostly and keypoints only rotated around their pivot

 

W

Toggle World / Local coordinate rotation

 
 

R

Render selection

 
   

Export selection

Select a set of rooms objects and export them to framework. Note: there has to be at least one jumppoint for player placement.

 

M

Mirror selected

Affects selected object or group and uses current grid plane as the mirror

   

Set selected spotilights to default

Sets selected spotlights to those settings that are defined in F6/spotlight properties

 

Return

Edit object properties

Very important. View separate explanation.

Remember also:

Ctrl+X

Cut

See "Edit menu" section.

 

Ctrl+C

Copy

See "Edit menu" section.

 

Ctrl+V

Paste

The items will be placed in their original coordinates unless "apply paste displacement" is selected in the preferences. Tip: The copied object/group is selected after the paste. Use cursor keys to move it easily without loosing the selection. Note: Consider also using "Paste to" for easily pasting objects to certain locations.

 

Ctrl+A

Select all

Select all visible objects. Hidden rooms/objects are not selected.

Texture Edit mode

F6  

For texturing

General:

R

Render polygon

Single pass radiosity is calculated to the current polygon (final rendering)

 

U

Numerical tiling

Show numerical texture tiling dialog of the current polygon. You can set the UV tiling by defining the absolute size in meters or the tiling in relation to the current polygon. If you select "Set as default" the selected tiling will be set as the default size of current material.

Note: Changing the other value also changes proportionally the other value (not visible). Only if a tick mark is visible next to the value, that value is explicitly defined.

Tip: If you change the other value and want to keep the other value the same, "touch" it quickly just by writing a space after the value.

 

V

Numerical tiling

Same as above

 

X

Flip texture along x-axis

The edge which is closest to the cursor is used as a reference

 

Y

Flip texture along z-axis

The edge which is closest to the cursor is used as a reference

 

T

Apply texture to whole mesh

Texturizes the whole mesh with current material. Note: The effect is limited to continuous polygons (a mesh). In F5 mode, the same affects all the selected objects/group.

 

Ctrl+T

Apply texture to whole mesh in default size

Similar to above, but uses the default size

   

Get default tiling

Checks what material selected polygon uses and sets its default UV tiling to the values which are in that polygon

 

L

Assign light source to polygon

You can set the current polygon to emit light during rendering. Select the desired color from the palette. Make the polygon normal again by setting the emission color to full black. Note: the texture affects the color/brightness.

 

Shift-L

Assign default light source to polygon

You can use the preferences to define the default light color and then just quickly press shift-L to set this light color on selected polygon.

 

I

Adjust light source intensity

You may need to lower the intensity of a light source polygon pretty often. Default (maximum) value is 1.0, on very large sources values like 0.05 are not uncommon. Note: in radiosity calculation, light brightness depends very much on the emitting polygon's size.

 

K

Set single polygon lightmap resolution

Select polygon, press K and enter the desired value. By default, MaxED uses gray/white checkerboard to indicate unrendered light maps. Some other colors may also be visible for debugging purposes.

Note: The light map is another layer of texturing on most of the polygons in MaxED. These light maps have to be rendered. Light maps can only darken the texture (similar to multiply operation in many GFX programs). The light map resolution is set by texels/meter, but it only "jumps" in powers of 2 and the maximum size for a light map on a single polygon is 128x128. Light map resolution greatly affects the data size and the rendering times of the levels (esp. with final quality rendering). Values over 8 per meter are rarely needed and pretty often 4 texels per meter brings very good quality.

 

Shift+K

Set lightmap resolution for objects

Similar to above, but sets the resolutions of all the light maps on all the selected objects. Go to F5 mode to select object/rooms, come back to F6 mode to set the resolution for all of them. If nothing is selected in F5 mode, the whole level gets new light map resolution.

   

Set lmres by normal

Similar to above, but sets the resolutions by polygon normal. First asks the desired resolution for polygons that point upwards (floors), then sideways (walls) and finally the ones pointing down (ceilings). This is a handy feature as most people desire resolution on the floor, a little less on walls and mostly ignore the looks of the ceilings. Selections work the same way as with the Shift+K.

   

Colorize lightmaps

Uses code coloring to indicate light map size. Points easily the problematic or too large light maps, which require very much rendering time (final quality rendering). Blue is good, green is OK, yellow and red are bad. Split polygons or lower the resolution to render more quickly (on final quality rendering). Selections work the same way as with the Shift+K.

   

Add light layer

Separate light layer texturing can be added to materials if desired (material palette). This mapping is separately editable (UV mapping, size etc.) in light layer display mode (use preferences to toggle). After rendering the actual light maps, this layer can be "added" to the light maps which modifies them: 50% gray in light layer means no change, lighter than that turns light map brighter and darker more dark. Selections work the same way as with the Shift+K so select the objects/rooms which have light layers in F5 mode, go to F6 mode and point one polygon which has light layer and select this function. The light layer is added to all polygons on all selected objects that have light layer set.

   

Set light colors from lightmaps

You can use objects to approximate the right point light color. Select objects and this function. Then make a point light and select "set light color"

   

Spotlight properties

If a polygon is a light source and there is "export lights" tick on in it's properties, MaxED has placed a matching spotlight to that polygon. Edit spotlight properties by pointing the polygon in F6 mode and choosing this function.

 

J

Join polygons/exits

You can join planar adjacent polygons by pointing polygon1 ­ pressing J ­ clicking polygon2.

 

C

Copy mapping coordinates

Hover the mouse over a polygon1 - press C ­ click polygon2. Note: Works only from adjacent poly to another. Tip: if you do not click another time LMB (apply mapping), only texture coordinates are copied and the material stays the same. Sometimes this can be very handy.

 

G

Get material from polygon

Very handy function which you can use to change the current material by pointing a polygon in level and pressing G

 

F

Align map's X dimension to active edge

Aligns textures U direction to the active edge, set the scale to default.

 

Shift+T

Create T-vertexes

Rarely used, use F5/F to fix objects and get the same results.

 

Ctrl+C

Copy lightmap to clipboard

 
 

Ctrl+V

Paste lightmap from clipboard

 

Blending:

A

Set polygon additive

Additive polygons send light in MaxED. Black is fully transparent and white is fully opaque, only lightens.

 

M

Set polygon multiplicative

Black is fully opaque and white is fully transparent, only darkens.

 

S

Set polygon normal (solid)

Standard solid polygons. Note that if you make a polygon additive or multiplicative and then again solid, the possible light map of that polygon may need to be re-rendered.

 

N

Enter/leave planar mapping mode

A poly group has to be selected. Use all normal mapping commands (rotation, moving etc). The reference plane for planar mapping is the normal of the selected polygon.

   

Display debug information

 

General:

LMB

Apply texture

Apply active material (texture) to current polygon without changing the UV scale.

 

RMB

Move texture

Move texture location w/o affecting the UV scale

 

UC/DC/RC/LC

Move texture

Use cursor keys to move texture precisely. The movement happens in steps of the current grid unit (use numpad +/- to change).

 

Ctrl+RMB

Axis lock while moving

Lock axis when moving

 

Tab+RMB

Scale texture

Note: The ticked vertex is used as a reference (closest to the cursor when the scaling begins). If you keep the tab pressed the tick stays in the original vertex and you can gain more precision by moving away from the vertex.

 

Alt+Tab+RMB

Scale texture with aspect ratio

 
 

PgUp

Rotate 90 degrees CW

 
 

PgDn

Rotate 90 degrees CCW

 
 

Z+LMB Drag

Rotate texture

Rotate texture freely

Exit mode

F7  

For creating exits

 

LMB

Draw mesh shape on "descending" vertexes

Exit will be created where the grid and doorways "depth" edges cross

 

RMB

Accept creation

 
 

UC / DC / LC / RC

Move the camera around on the view plain

 
 

Ctrl- UC / DC

Move the camera back and forth

 
 

N

Align grid

 
 

Del

Delete last vertex placement

 

Grid mode

F12  

For grid related

 

LMB

Move grid around on it's current plane

 
 

RMB

Raise/Lower grid by grid units

 
 

UC / DC / LC / RC

Move grid around on it's current plane

 
 

PgUp/PgDn

Raise/Lower grid by grid units

 
 

C

Center grid to view

 
 

R

Reset grid and camera to default

 
 

1 2 3

Turn grid X Y Z in world coordinates

 

File menu

     
 

Ctrl+N

New

 
 

Ctrl+O

Open document...

 
   

Close

 
   

Insert document...

Another document is inserted to current document to its original location in world coordinates. All materials are checked for duplicates and only new materials/categories are inserted

   

Export X_levelDB

Export level fully to Max Payne database to be used in game.

 

Ctrl+S

Save

 
   

Save As...

 
 

Crtl+Alt+H

Hold

"Manual undo", current status is saved in a temp file

 

Crtl+Alt+F

Fetch

The previous hold is fetched (careful, you can not go back). If you have older holds, pressing this again fetches the earlier one.

   

Revert

Revert to last saved

   

Exit

Quit MaxED

Edit menu

     
 

Ctrl-X

Cut

Cut moves the currently selected objects onto the clipboard. Works in F5 mode only. This feature is available only if the "Edit->cut available" local preference is set to "yes".

 

Ctrl-C

Copy

Copies the currently selected objects into the clipboard. Works in F5 mode with objects. In F6 mode you can copy lightmaps and in FSM message dialog FSM commands / text

 

Ctrl-V

Paste

Works in F3, F5 and F6 modes. In F5 mode, the objects in the clipboard are pasted their original locations, with a possible paste offset applied (preferences). In F3 mode, the pasted objects' pivots are placed on the grid where the mouse is pointing. In F6 mode you can paste light maps and in FSM message dialog FSM commands / text.

 

Ctrl-A

Select all

Works in F5 mode only.

View menu

     
   

Status bar

Show/hide status bar

   

Display grid

(See section Mode independent)

   

Display exits

Toggle exit polygons' visibility. When on, the exits are drawn in translucent turquoise.

   

Display keypoints

Show/hide non-mesh objects (jump points, waypoints, etc.)

   

Keypoint text modes

Control the text drawn with keypoints.

   

Dynamic object text modes

Control the text drawn with dynamic objects

   

Display non-exporting meshes and noDraw-polygons

Show/hide meshes with the "Export geometry" flag off and polygons with materials having the "drawpolygons" ­flag (in the shared database) off

   

Show nodraw-materials in dynamic objects

Override the "Display non-exporting meshes and noDraw-polygons" setting for dynamic objects; keep the nodraw-polygons visible regardless of its value

   

Visualize lights

Show/hide cones visualizing point- and spotlights

   

Locate additive/multiplicative polygons

Draw material location markers to all polygons set to additive or multiplicative blend

   

Unhide all

Activates all objects in the scene

Mode menu

     
   

See section "Mode switches" for mode descriptions

 
   

Render triangles

Works only in wireframe rendering mode. Displays the triangles making up the polygons.

   

Backface culling

Works only in wireframe rendering mode. Enable/disable backface culling.

 

F2

Wireframe

See section "Mode switches"

 

Ins

Select culled polygons

Constantly used. When enabled, backface culled polygons will be selectable in F4 and F5 modes

Aides menu

     
   

See section "Mode independent"

 

Material menu

     
   

Add category

Add a new material category

   

Remove category

Remove an existing material category. The category must be empty.

   

Edit category name

Change the name of a material category. If MaxED has a database available, uses material categories defined in materials.txt

   

Merge category into..

Move the materials in the current active category into another. The destination is prompted for.

   

Purge unused materials

Delete all materials not used by any polygons

   

Refresh all materials

Find the source textures for all materials and update them if found

   

Insert materials from file...

Insert all materials from another LVL file into this one

   

Insert bitmaps...

Insert new materials into this file. MaxED can use at least JPEG (full color), TGA (full color) and PCX (8-bit) formats.

Lighting menu

     
   

Set light colors...

Works only in F5 mode. Set all polygons in the selection to emit light

   

Cycle texture display mode

See section "Mode independent"

Network menu

     
   

Start render server

Starts a Netrender server.

   

Start a slave renderer

Connect this machine to a Netrender server

   

Send radiosity job...

Send current document to a netrender server for lighting

Options menu

     
   

Preferences...

Display document-specific preferences

   

Local preferences...

Display user-specific preferences

   

Goto default keyframes

Reset all dynamic objects to their default keyframes

Material right-click menu

     
   

Insert bitmaps...

See section "Material menu"

   

Append from file...

See section "Material menu", subsection "Insert materials from file..."

   

Insert copy to another category..

Insert a copy of the material into another category

   

Move to another category...

Move the material into another category

   

Change bitmap...

Fetch a new bitmap for the material

   

Refresh bitmap

Reload the material's images, if the files can be found

   

Add alpha layer.. / Remove alpha

Add/remove an alpha channel to the material

   

Add light layer... / Remove light layer

Add a light layer texture to the material

   

Dualsided

Enable/disable dual sided drawing for the material

   

Alpha test

Enable/disable alpha test for materials with an alpha channel

   

Adult content

Set/clear adult content flag

   

Locate / Remove location aid

Draw/disable location markers for polygons mapped with the active material

   

Reset scaling

Resets the material's UV default scaling

   

Copy to clipboard

Copy the material's primary texture to the clipboard

   

Replace with

If a material has been "memorized", replace the memorized material with the current material

   

Memorize

Memorize this material, see "Replace with" above

   

Delete

Delete the material. The material must not be used by any polygons.

Hierarchy tree right click menu, all objects

     
   

Kill

Remove the object and all its children

   

Remove, save children

Remove the object, but keep its children. The children are lifted one step up in the hierarchy.

   

Remove children

Removes the object's children, but leaves the object itself untouched

  H

Hidden

Hide/unhide the object and its children

   

Hide children

 
   

Unhide children

 
  4

Edit FSM...

Edit the object's FSM, if it has one

  Return

Properties

Displays the property page for the object

Hierarchy tree right click menu, meshes

     
   

Add polygroup

Add a polygroup to the mesh. A polygroup is a method to mark a group of polygons. You need polygroups with functions mentioned below and in F6/planar mapping. Select polygroup name from the hierarchy list and keep shift pressed when selecting/ unselecting polygons to the group. MaxED shows selected polygons of the group with green translucent highlight. Note: a polygroup accepts polygons only from the object that it is parented or the objects that are also below the parent in hierarchy (other children or their children).

Hierarchy tree right click menu, polygroups

     
   

Rename

Change the polygroup's name

   

Duplicate

Insert another polygroup with the same polygons into the parent mesh

   

Smooth light maps

Calculate smooth lighting for the polygons in the group. Works best on rectangular polygons.

   

Smooth geometry

Marks the polygons to be tessellated by a subdivision surface algorithm in the game engine. Doesn't affect the polygons' appearance or tessellation in MaxED.

   

Freeze light maps

The light maps in the polygons will not be affected by any light map-changing action. When rendering radiosity, they will contribute normally to the solution, but their appearance won't change.

2.    Preferences

Document-specific Preferences

 

Back clip plane

Distance of textured display mode back clipping plane

Front clip plane

Distance of textured display mode front clipping plane

Exit acceleration

Use exits to accelerate drawing in textured mode

Render to window

Render textured view to the document window, if 3D hardware supports windowed rendering

Kbd tilt angle

Number of degrees LC and RC tilt polygons in F4 mode

Select culled polygons

See "Mode menu"

Clear render screen on F2 switch

Redundant

Flip faces after mesh creation

When set, the polygons of any object created in F3 will be flipped

Save/load triangle data

When set, triangulation information is stored in the LVL file. Strongly recommended to keep this on.

Vertex ticks

Draw small boxes around vertices in wireframe mode

Apply Paste displacement

When set, pasting objects (Ctrl-V) in F5 mode will apply a small offset to each object pasted. Try copying an object and pasting it multiple times in F5 mode.

Average lightmap borders

When set, an averaging scheme to calculate lighting for light map texels outside is used. Otherwise the calculation is more accurate, but takes more time. 

Average works best rectangular polygons. If lightmaps (and polygons) are triangular or non-orthogonal in shape, keeping average on may produce dark areas to lightmaps.

New grid units

Switch between old and new grid units

Hide other objects (selrend)

When set, and rendering radiosity for the selection, objects not selected will be hidden

Use exits in radiosity calc

When set, the radiosity calculator will use exits to optimize performance. Strongly recommended to be on especially with large levels

Texture display

See section "Mode independent", subsection "Num /"

Display exits

See section "View menu"

Display keypoints

See section "View menu"

Display non-visible rooms' BBs

When set, the rooms not seen through an exit sequence are rendered as translucent gray bounding boxes. Only has effect if "Exit acceleration" is set.

Display statistics

Display engine statistics. Only has effect in textured mode when "Exit acceleration" is set.

Radiosity viewport size

Controls the hemicube size for radiosity calculation. Bigger sizes give better results, but result in longer rendering times.

Radiosity passes

Set number of reflections traced by the radiosity solver. 1 means direct illumination only.

Radiosity boost

General "Intensity" for direct illumination

Radiosity backplane

Backplane distance for radiosity solver

Connected rooms

Number of rooms to keep active when the camera is outside all rooms. Only has effect if "Exit acceleration" is set.

Global lightmap res

Light map resolution scale for local machine lighting

UV scale m/UVU

Redundant

Angle snap

Granularity for rotating textures in F6 mode. Value in degrees. Value 1 means granularities are not enforced.

Texture increment

Number of UV units (texture lengths) to move when translating textures by the arrow keys in F6 mode. Redundant, texture movement is one grid unit.

Lightmap res txl/m

Default light map resolution for new objects

Set default light

Specify Default light color, which can be applied by Shift-L in F6 mode

Most important Local Preferences

 

AlphaTestReference

Used by materials with the alphatest ­flag on.

Autosave interval

Number of minutes between auto saves. ­1 means no auto saves.

Default animation length

Default length or animations created in the animation dialog

DefaultSpotFalloffAngle

Spotlight creation defaults

DefaultSpotFalloffRange

 

DefaultSpotHotspotAngle

 

DefaultSpotIntensity

 

DistanceHidingOffset

Objects further away than this number are hidden in textured mode

ExportDirectory

Default directory where to export LDB files

Level directory

Directory, where the "Open..." dialog will start in

SharedDBPath

Path to Max Payne's shared database. Point to your Max Payne root folder, e.g. "C:\Program Files\Max Payne”. Paths with white space in the names need to be enclosed in double quotes.

Texture directory

Default search location for "Insert bitmaps..."

WireframeBBDist

Distance, after which objects will be drawn as bounding boxes in wireframe mode

WireframeHideChildrenDist

Distance, after which objects' children will not be drawn in wireframe mode

XMLStyleSheet

Override the XML style sheet used by the FSM XML dump. "." means use default.