MaxED2 Quick Reference

File menu

Ctrl+N

New

Ctrl+O

Open...

Close

Ctrl+S

Save

Save As...

Import...

Geometry made with original MaxED (.lvl) can be imported to MaxED2.

Export...

Export the whole document into the game. Uses Level Database-format (ldb). Is not compatible with  MaxED1 and not importable back to MaxED2 or 1.

Export Selection...

Export the selected objects into the game. Offers often much faster way to edit and test a part of the level than exporting and processing the whole (large) level file. The selection should contain at least one room and one jumppoint.

Export Selection Gameplay Critical...

Export the selected objects into the game, but leave out all objects which do not have "Gameplay Critical" flag in their properties set to on. Offers even faster way to test the dynamic functionality of specific parts of the level and to only export dynamic and essential gameplay content. Requires you to mark Gameplay Critical objects in the level.

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

Exit

Quit MaxED. Window positions and preferences are saved upon exit.

Edit menu

Ctrl+Z

Undo

Cancels the previous action. Pressing the Undo again cancels more actions. Undo buffer holds some 8 previous actions. Use carefully, as there is no Redo. Unfortunately a few functions are not undoable, for instance purging the unused textures. Note also that undo buffer does not survive over any Save function (saving manually or autosave). 

Ctrl+X

Cut

Used mostly  in F5 mode, and is unavailable in most other modes. Cut moves the currently selected objects into the clipboard. Can also be used for instance to cut  materials in the material palette. Most text dialogs also offer the possibility to cut text.

Ctrl+C

Copy

Used mostly in F5 mode with objects. Copies the currently selected objects into the clipboard. In F6 mode you can copy lightmaps and in most dialogs text.

Ctrl+V

Paste

Used mostly in F3, F5 and F6 modes. In F5 mode, the objects in the clipboard are pasted their original locations. 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 most dialogs text.

Ctrl+A

Select all

This function is not visible in the menu, as it is F5 mode specific function only. See further details from F5 mode description.

View menu

Hierarchy View

Show/hide hierarchy view.

Material View

Show/hide material view.

Output Window

Show/hide output window. 

Display filter

Show/hide display filter. Most view related commands are now in the Display filter (compared to MaxED1). See Display filter explanation in the tutorials.

Status bar

Show/hide status bar

Tool bar

Show/hide tool bar

Unhide all

Activates all objects in the scene

Display Grid

Toggle grid visibility on/off

Increase Grid Unit

Increase grid unit size with one step. The steps are defined in Document preferences. The current size is visible in the Toolbar.

Decrease Grid Unit

Decrease grid unit size with one step. The steps are defined in Document preferences. The current size is visible in the Toolbar.

Increase Grid Plane Size

Increase grid plane size.

Decrease Grid Plane Size

Decrease grid plane size. 

Increase Movement Speed

Increase camera movement speed in camera mode. The current speed is visible in the Toolbar.

Decrease Movement Speed

Decrease camera movement speed in camera mode. The current speed is visible in the Toolbar.

Diffuse Only

Shows only the diffuse (normal) textures in the scene view.

Lightmap Only

Shows only the lightmaps in the scene view.

Diffuse+Lightmap

Shows both diffuse texturing and lightmaps combined as they are visible in the game.

Light layer Only

This function from MaxED1 was not fully implemented and is made unavailable in the released MaxED2 version.

Unhide all

Unhides all objects in the scene

Modes

Group

Shortcut

Function

More info / tips / description

Space

Camera

Moving around is done in the Camera mode. 

F3

Build

New objects are created in this mode.

F4

Polygon

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

F5

Object

Most of the editing that affects a whole object is done in this mode

F6

Texture

Most of the texture related editing is done in this mode

F7

Portal

Portals are created in this mode

F12

Grid

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

GIS

Send Level

GIS (Global Illumination System) is the lighting model of Max Payne 2. The lighting is calculated by separate executable and the lighting can be calculated by sending the level to gisserver, which will send the level to gisclient(s) and render the level. If you have only one machine, it can run all of these programs (MaxED, server and client). Start the rendering and the server by starting "local render" from the Max Payne tools. After that select Send Level from MaxED and assign the rendering to "localhost". Finished renderings go to C:\GIS folder.

Send Selection

Sends the selection to lighting calculation

Send Level (vol)

You can calculate the volume lighting (the lighting which affects characters and some dynamic objects in the game) after the level has been rendered with GIS. You need to start volumetric calculation server and clients just like the lighting is done. Finished renderings go again under C:\GIS folder.

Send Selection (vol)

You can calculate the volume lighting to selected objects.

Set Lighting Curve

The GIS calculation is done with floating point precision. This command offers the chance to manipulate the GIS solution (lighting) with curves without losing quality. See lighting tutorial for more information. Suggested values are some 15, 128, 180, and 10%.

Tools

Goto Default Keyframes

Reset all dynamic objects to their default keyframes

Refresh All Prefabs

Refreshes all prefabs with the versions found from the original file paths. See level integrity test to verify that all the prefabs are found and the file links to the disk are not broken.

Dump FSM's to XML Document

Asks you a string to search and will open a web browser with all the messages containing that string. Helps you to debug and find possible problematic FSMs

Replace Database Name in FSMs

Lists database categories and allows you to replace objects in them. For example "door_open" sound to "door_metal_open" sound throughout the level.

Level Integrity Test

Analyzes level and reports possible problematic items, like JPG textures (DDS recommended), objects grouped to incorrect rooms or spread over several locations (should be fixed), prefab duplicates etc. Basically the same thing is done to level during export and partially when level is being opened. Note: Havok and other geometry errors are only being analyzed and reported during export.

Change File References

Redundant

Ctrl+P

Document preferences

These preference are part of the document file and will transfer between instances of MaxED.

MaxED Preferences

These are your local preferences and will affect your local MaxED copy.

Modes

Group

Shortcut

Function

More info / tips / description

Space

Camera

Moving around is done in the Camera mode. 

F3

Build

New objects are created in this mode.

F4

Polygon

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

F5

Object

Most of the editing that affects a whole object is done in this mode

F6

Texture

Most of the texture related editing is done in this mode

F7

Portal

Portals are created in this mode

F12

Grid

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

Always available

Main category

Shortcut

Function

More info / tips / description

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

Insert

Toggle select culled

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

Camera Mode

Main category

Shortcut

Function

More info / tips / description

Space

Toggle Camera mode on and off

Pressing Space toggles you between the mode you were in before and camera mode. You can move around only in the camera mode. The cursor indicates the camera mode with a corresponding symbol. You can also press Function keys to directly access other modes or also Esc to return to the mode you were in before.

Ctrl

Spin around geometry

LMB
Ctrl+LMB

Look around

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

In around mode (Ctrl) the camera revolves horizontally around the selected polygon.

RMB
Ctrl+LMB

Zoom

Keep pressed and move the mouse back and forth.

In around mode (Ctrl) revolves the camera vertically around the selected polygon

MMB

Strafe

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

Shift

Strafe

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

Build Mode (F3)

Build mode

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. Note: In MaxED2, you can temporarily enter the look mode to move around. Press space while drawing, move around, press space again and continue the drawing of the mesh in the new location.

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.

Shift+RMB

Create polygon out of mesh shape

Note: Polygons can’t be Booleaned.

Del

N

New entity 

A list of possible keypoints is presented and it will appear to place on the grid that was pointed when the command was initiated.

A

Align grid to edge (projected)

Unlike "normal align" in F4 mode, this align does not change the grid plane, but only moves the origin and possibly rotates the grid plane.

The red (selected) edge shows a white tick mark on the other (closer) end. The origin of the grid is moved to the projection of the tick. The X axis of the grid is turned so that is aligned to the projection of the selected edge.

Shift+A

Align grid to edge (crossing)

Unlike "normal align" in F4 mode, this align does not change the grid plane, but only moves the origin and does not rotate the grid plane.

The origin of the grid is moved so that it crosses the selected edge (if they do not cross, the edge is considered infinitely long)

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.

P

Place Prefab

Reveals the prefab manager where you can see the list of current prefabs in the scene. You can select the prefab that you want to be pasted. Previously placed is already selected.

The prefab manager also allows you to add new prefabs to the scene, remove them from the scene or turn on a locator icon to see where some prefabs are currently used. If you select close, you can exit the prefab manager without placing a new prefab (handy if you only want to locate them). 

Shift+P

Place Prefab Aligned

C

Move Grid to Mouse

Reset Camera

Show Engine Statistics

B

Edit FSM

V

Toggle auto select children

Show selected entity

Polygon Mode (F4)

Group

Shortcut

Function

More info / tips / description

Move/Rotate Polygon:

UC / DC

Move selected face up/down one current grid unit

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) if you think that the face should move still and it does not.

LC / RC

Rotate face around selected edge

Note: the amount of rotation is the current rotation step (use Shift-num+ and num- to change and preferences to set the steps. Tip: Try a smaller grid unit or fix the mesh before rotating a face (F5/F) if you think that the face should rotate still and it does not.

RMB

Skew selected face

Works around the edge marked as red in steps of the current rotation amount (see above).

LMB

Move selected face

Ctrl+F

Flip Normals

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

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 Selected Face

Align grid to selected face. Use Shift-A when possible.

Shift+A

Align Grid To Selected Face in WCS

Align grid to selected face in World Coordinate System. Will place the grid to closest 90 degree angle and the grid plane to closest current grid unit step away from the world origin.

S

Split Active Polygon by Grid

Place the grid so that its plane crosses the polygon from the desired split location, hover over the polygon and press S. Note: Split generates redundant vertices, fixing the object is recommended (F5/F).

J

Join polygons

You can join planar adjacent polygons by pointing polygon1 ­ pressing J ­ clicking polygon2. Note: Join generates redundant vertices, fixing the object is recommended (F5/F).

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 into two objects.

4

Around X-axis

Rotates grid in 90 degree steps around the grid origin.

5

Around Y-axis

6

Around Z-axis

L

Locate polygon

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.

Enter

Portal properties

Select show exits (Portals) from the view menu, point an exit and press return to see Portal polygon properties. Note: Portal is two sided and both sides have separate names.

Shift+C

Copy Portal Name

Select show exits from the view menu, point an exit and press Shift-C to copy the fully qualified name of the portal to the clipboard. Helps you to do FSM scripts and paste the name to the scripting interface.

Reset Camera

Takes the camera to the initial starting point looking at the world origin.

Show Engine Statistics

B

Edit FSM

V

Toggle auto select children

Show selected entity

Object Mode (F5)

Group

Shortcut

Function

More info / tips / description

LMB

Select

Select current object, drop others from selection. If the hierarchy mode is on, all children of the object will be selected too. If hierarchy mode is off, only current object will be selected (Use V to toggle hierarchy on).

Ctrl+LMB

Select many

Add or remove current object from selection. If the hierarchy mode is on, all children of the object will be selected or dropped from selection. If hierarchy mode is off, only current object will be selected/deselected (Use V to toggle hierarchy on/off).

Move Selection:

LMB drag

Move selected object/group along grid

Note: For animated objects MaxEd2 by default moves the whole object. Toggle animate mode on (press N and red framing indicating animate mode will appear) to move only current keyframe.

RMB drag

Move selected object/group up/down

UC / DC / LC / RC

Move selected object/group along grid

PgUp/PgDn

Move selected object/group up/down

1

Around X-axis

Rotates selection around X axis in steps of current angle snap value (use Shift+Num+ and Num- to cycle through angle snap values). By default around the selected vertex, Use "A" to toggle to rotation around pivot point. 

2

Around Y-axis

 See above

3

Around Z-axis

 See above

Shift+1

Around X-axis

Rotates around the center point of the bounding box of the selection, in other ways functionality similar to normal rotation.

Shift+2

Around Y-axis

 See above

Shift+3

Around Z-axis

 See above

4

Around X-axis

Rotates selected objects 90 degrees around X axis of selected vertex (vertex mode) or pivot point (pivot mode).

5

Around Y-axis

 See above

6

Around Z-axis

 See above

H

Hide Selection

Select the items that you want to hide and press H.

Shift+H

Unhide Selection

Whether you have some hidden objects selected or you have picked them from the hierarchy, this will unhide them

Hide Children

Hides the children of the topmost selected item(s).

Unhide Children

Unhides the children of the topmost selected item(s).

Ctrl+H

Inverse hide

Select the items that you do not want to be hidden and press Ctrl+H to hide all the rest.

Ctrl+Shift+H

Unhide last

Grouping:

G

Group Selected

Select child(ren), press G, select parent

Ctrl+G

Lift Children

Select parent and the children will be lift (ungrouped)

Shift+G

Lift This

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

E

Autogroup

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

Ctrl+E

Autogroup All

The same as above, but applies to every room.

Q

Align Objects

C

Scale Selected Objects

A dialog is presented allowing you to do uniform or non-uniform scaling. The scaling reference point is the vertex or the pivot that was active when you pressed "C".

F

Fix Object

Forces a kind of "rethink" or "weld" over the selected objects, which removes redundant vertexes, builds necessary T-vertexes and checks mesh integrity. Many operations that affect geometry do this automatically, but sometimes bad geometry (mainly in terms of the physics engine) is produced and applying this function manually is needed.

P

Set Pivot

Align the grid and move it in F12 mode to get the grid center in to the correct place. Press P to place the Pivot point of the selected object to that place.

T

Texturize Objects

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

Ctrl+T

Texturize Objects in Default Scale

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

Booleans:

U

Union

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). All Boolean operations require that both of the objects have their faces pointing the same way (use F4/Ctrl+F to flip). Unlike MaxED1, the objects are free of hierarchy limitations.

S

Subtract

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

I

Intersect

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

J

Join

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.

Dynamic and FSM:

Tab

Keyframe dialog

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. NOTE: 

Shift+Tab

Animation dialog

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.

Ctrl+F

FSM State Manager

TODO

Shift+K

Set Lightmap Resolution

Sets the resolutions of all the lightmaps on all the selected objects.

Set Lightmap Resolution by normal

Similar to above, but sets the resolutions by polygon normal. First asks the desired resolution for polygons that point UP (floors) and other general parameters. SIDE (walls) the ones pointing DOWN (ceilings) use the same parameters, except you can give the texels per meter for each dirrection. This is a handy feature as often you need more resolution on the floor, a little less on walls and the least on ceilings..

Get Pointlight Colors from Normals.

Redundant

Shift-L

Assign Default Light Source on Polygons

Usually when assigning a light source, you get the dialog asking the color and intensity and also a chance to make those your default values. By selecting objects and pressing Shift-L, you can assign those default values on all of the polygons on selected objects directly.

L

Assign Light Source on Polygons

Every polygon on the selected meshes will be a assigned a light source using the values you define in the dialog. See F6/L for more details about lights in MaxED2 Note: Unlike MaxED1, the light sources are objects and can not be "deleted" by making them black. Delete lights either by removing them from the hierarchy or by pressing Ctrl-L (see below).

Ctrl-L

Remove Light Source from Polygons

Will remove all light sources from all the polygons that have them in the selection.

Add Light Layer on Lightmaps

Redundant

Refresh This

Refreshes the selected prefab with the latest version saved to disk. Lightmaps on refreshed prefabs are lost.

Refresh This Type

Same as above but refreshes all the prefabs of the selected prefabs type with the latest version saved to the disk.. Lightmaps on refreshed prefabs are lost.

Change This

Pops up a list of all the prefabs currently in the level, asks you to choose what prefab the selected prefab should be replaced with.

Change This Type

Same as above, but replaces all the prefabs of the selected prefabs type.

R

Edit Master

Refreshes the prefab from disk and opens it for editing.

Shift-R

Edit This

Same as above but does not refresh the prefab from disk first. If you use same prefabs over several level files, it is usually better to use "Edit Master" command so that older versions of the prefab won't keep coming back.

Ctrl-R

Save and Refresh

Closes the prefab, saves it to disk, and refreshes all prefabs of that type in the level. Lightmaps on refreshed prefabs are lost.

Save As

Closes the prefab and prompts for a new name and location to save in.

Select All of This Type

Selects all the prefabs of the selected prefabs type

Remove Prefab

Removes the prefab parent and makes the selected prefab become normal geometry with no special prefab functionality. You can reach the same goal by turning off the hierarchy mode and deleting the prefab parent of an opened prefab manually. 

Edit Pivot Only Toggle

Redundant

N

Animate Toggle

In MaxED2 by default moving/rotating any objects with keyframes moves and rotates all keyframes. If you need to move/rotate single keyframe, you need to enter the Animate mode which is showed with red frame over the scene view. Be careful: remember always to go to animate mode to animate and to come back to do ordinary editing. 

W

Toggle Local/Grid coordinate rotation

A

Toggle Vertex/Pivot rotation

Rotation works around the selected vertex by default. If you toggle Picot rotation on, the object is rotated around the current object's pivot point. Dynamic objects are mostly and keypoints only rotated around their pivot point.

D

Make Selection Dynamic

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.

Ctrl+D

Make Selection Trigger

You can make meshes into triggers with this. See tutorials for more information.

Shift+D

Make Selection Static

Will make selection static object and lose it's FSM and all messages from or to it.

Del

Delete Selection

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

M

Mirror Selection

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

Export Selection to the Game

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

Goto Node

Will move the camera so that the selection is in the middle of the screen and fit to view.

Ctrl+A

Select all

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

Esc

Clear Selection

Press Esc to clear the selection

Return

Properties

Object Properties. See tutorials for further information about properties.

Shift+C

Copy Entity Name

Will place the full name of the selected object to the clipboard as text. Very handy when doing scripting and picking the objects for it.

Z

Show Selected Entity in Hierarchy

Should reveal the selected entity in hierarchy. Shift-clicking to object in scene view is recommended.

Generate Cubic Reflection Map

Can be used to create cubic reflection maps to metallic and similar reflective objects.

Y

Split Object

The selected object will be split into two with the grid plane. The sliced surfaces will be textured with the current material. This functionality is reached by "scripting" some Boolean operations to the object. All Boolean related issues are present (see tutorials and the actual Boolean operations for more information).

Reset Camera

Takes the camera to the initial starting point looking at the world origin.

Show Engine Statistics

B

Edit FSM

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. See tutorials for more information.

V

Toggle auto select children

Show selected entity

Texture Mode (F6)

Group

Shortcut

Function

More info / tips / description

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

RMB+1

Axis lock U

Lock U axis when moving

RMB+2

Axis lock V

Lock V 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.

Tab+RMB+1

Axis scale lock U

Lock U axis when scaling

Tab+RMB+2

Axis scale lock V

Lock V axis when scaling

Alt+Tab+RMB

Scale texture with aspect ratio

Z+RMB

Rotate texture

Rotate texture freely

Z+Shift+RMB

Rotate texture in angle steps

Rotate texture in current angle steps (use Shift+Num+ and - to cycle through angles)

Ctrl+LMB

Apply texture in default size

Apply active material (texture) to current polygon by using the current default size of the texture. The ticked vertex will stay in place and texture UV's will change in relation to that.

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).

PgUp

Rotate 90 degrees CW

PgDn

Rotate 90 degrees CCW

Shift+K

Set Lightmap Resolution

Sets the resolutions of all the lightmaps on all the selected objects.

Shift+L

Assign Default Light

Usually when assigning a light source, you get the dialog asking the color and intensity and also a chance to make those your default values. By selecting objects and pressing Shift-L, you can assign those default values on all of the polygons on selected objects directly.

L

Assign Light Source

Every polygon on the selected meshes will be a assigned a light source using the values you define in the dialog. See F6/L for more details about lights in MaxED2 Note: Unlike MaxED1, the light sources are objects and can not be "deleted" by making them black. Delete lights either by removing them from the hierarchy or by pressing Ctrl-L (see below).

Ctrl-L

Remove Light Source

Will remove all light sources from all the polygons that have them in the selection.

K

Set Lightmap Resolution

Select polygon, press K to reveal the lightmap dialog. You can set the resolution and see what kind of lightmap will be resulted on the current polygon (lightmaps are always in powers of 2 and the closest value is inserted).

You can select how the reset lightmap will be treated. By default, MaxED rescales the current ones and will render correct ones the next time the scene is rendered. You can also use solid color or classic gray/white checkerboard to indicate unrendered lightmaps. Solid colors can be handy when you want to reach some effect with lightmaps. For instance, setting 128, 128, 128 as the lightmap color will result into unmodified texture colors. If you want to see this in game and survive rendering unchanged, you need to lock the lightmap with object properties or polygroups.

Note: The lightmap is another layer of texturing on most of the polygons in MaxED. These lightmaps have to be rendered. Lightmaps can brighten and darken the texture.

Add Light Layer on Lightmaps

Redundant

U

Scale Texture Numerically

Show numerical texture tiling dialog of the current polygon. You can set the UV tiling in relation to current polygon or define absolute size in meters. If you select "Set as default" the selected tiling will be set as the default size of current material. Selecting "Lock Aspect Ratio" will make the texture maintain its current 

X

Flip U

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

Y

Flip V

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

A

Align Grid to Texture 

The grid is aligned to the polygon and the rotation and placement is taken from the UV of the texture.

T

Texturize 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

Texturize Mesh with Default Scale

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

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 Texture to Edge

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

N

Planar Map Mode Toggle

A polygroup has to be selected in the hierarchy in F6 mode. Press N to enter planar mapping mode. You can now use all normal mapping commands (rotation, moving etc). The reference plane for planar mapping is the normal of the selected polygon and those texture coordinates are cast to all polygons in the polygroup. You can also select several polygroups to map over them simultaneously.

J

Join Polygons

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

Alt+Enter

Material Properties

Sets the material from selected polygon as current material and reveals the material properties window.

Reset Camera

Takes the camera to the initial starting point looking at the world origin.

Show Engine Statistics

B

Edit FSM

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. See tutorials for more information.

V

Toggle auto select children

Show selected entity

Portal Mode (F7)

Group

Shortcut

Function

More info / tips / description

LMB

Draw Portal Polygon

Align grid in F4 mode so that it is placed on the desired "doorway" of the rooms (polygons pointing inwards). Draw exit clockwise pointing the edges that cross the grid plane.

RMB

Accept creation

Del

Enter

Show Portal Properties

Delete Exit

Grid Mode (F12)

Group

Shortcut

Function

More info / tips / description

LMB

Move grid around on it's current plane

RMB

Raise/Lower grid by grid units

LMB+1

Rotate Grid around X

LMB+2

Rotate Grid around Y

LMB+3

Rotate Grid around Z

LC / RC/ UC / DC

Left Right Forward Backward

PgUp/PgDn

Up Down

4 5 6

Around X, Y and Z axis

R

Reset Grid

C

Move Grid to mouse

Material Properties (Atl+Enter)

Function

Name

Texture (bitmap or the diffuse texture) name and path. 

Dualsided

Toggles if the texture will be rendered dualsided.

Adult Content

Toggles adult content flag on for textures that contain material that you want to consider as adult content.

Name

Name and path. If you want to make animated texture, you can select several same sized and format files from the browse dialog

Default width

The current default width

Default height

The current default height

UI Visible Frame

If texture is animated, which frame is shown in the editor

Framerate

Controls the framerate on animated textures

Normal

Texture is considered as normal diffuse texture

Alpha compare

Texture is considered as an alpha texture (alpha compare) and the alpha channel of the DDS will be used as alpha map (Texture must be in DXT3 or DXT5 format).

Edge Blend

If the texture is alpha compare, this will imitate normal alpha blended appearance. If Edge blend is off, the texture will have a sharp one value point where it will turn transparent/opaque (binary alpha).

Reference value

Value 0-255 that controls the alpha compare threshold value.

Alpha Blend

Traditional alpha blend (Texture must be in DXT3 or DXT5 format).

Additive

Enable additive blending (possible alpha channel will be discarded)

With detail texture

The detail texture can only be enabled for normal (non-alpha) textures. It will use selected  detail texture (name and scale adjustable).

Reflection

Will use reflection map (name and path). You can use both regular square textures or cubic reflection maps in DDS format.

Gloss

The reflection strength is controlled by a gloss map (name and path)

Light Layer Texture

Redundant

Material palette

Group

Shortcut

Function

More info / tips / description

Alt+Enter

Properties

Shows the material properties window for selected texture.

View as list

Add a new material category

View as Thumbnails

Add a new material category

Insert Bitmaps

Insert new materials into this file. MaxED can use JPEG (full color), but DDS is strongly recommended.

Insert Materials from File

Import all materials from another LV2 file into this one.

Delete

Delete selected material. If the material is in use, those polygons will get the default material.

Refresh Material

Reloads the material's diffuse bitmaps, if the files can be found from their original paths.

Reset Scalings

Resets the materials UV default scaling

Copy Diffuse to Clipboard

Copy the material's primary diffuse bitmap to the clipboard

Memorize

Memorize this material.

Replace with

If other material has been "memorized", replace this material with that one in the scene. Remeber, that if prefabs contain materials that are replaced, they are opened, materials fixed and closed again to keep in sync with the scene. Lightmaps of the prefabs are lost in this process.

Locate / Remove location aid

Show/Hide location marker for polygons mapped with this material.

Add category

Add a new material category

Move to category

Move the material into another category

Copy to category

Insert a copy of the material into another category

Merge category

Move the materials in the current active category into another.

Remove category

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

Refresh all materials

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

Purge unused materials

Delete all materials not used by any polygons

Hierarchy palette

Group

Shortcut

Function

More info / tips / description

Properties

Displays the property page for the object

B

Edit FSM

Reveal FSM manager for the current object.

Shift+B

Edit Player FSM

Reveal FSM manager for the player object.

H

Hide Selection

Select the items that you want to hide and press H.

Shift+H

Unhide Selection

Whether you have some hidden objects selected or you have picked them from the hierarchy, this will unhide them

Hide Children

Hides the children of the topmost selected item(s).

Unhide Children

Unhides the children of the topmost selected item(s).

Unhide all

Unhides all objects in the scene

Ctrl+H

Inverse hide

Select the items that you do not want to be hidden and press Ctrl+H to hide all the rest.

Goto Node

Will move the camera so that the selection is in the middle of the screen and fit to view.

Rename

Change the objects name

Delete Selection

Delete the current selection

Esc

Clear Selection

Press Esc to clear the selection

Add polygroup

Add a polygroup to the mesh. A polygroup is a method to mark a group of polygons (go to to polygroup properties to adjust different properties). You need polygroups for instance to lock lightmaps 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 blue translucent highlight. Note: a polygroup accepts polygons only from the parent object.

Duplicate Polygroup

Duplicates polygroup

View Local Matrix

Shows the matrix of current objects. Sometimes necessary for debugging purposes and syncing objects with other 3D software.

Object properties

General (Mesh)

Name

Objects name

Hidden

Toggles if the object is currently hidden (F5/H)

Exclude from Game

Toggles if the object will be present in the light calculation, but excluded from the game. Good way to make for instance "dummy lights" that light up the scene but are not visible in the game.

Exclude from Lighting

Toggles if the object will be included in the lighting calculation. For instance, sometimes you might want to leave some objects that you might require later in to the scene, but do not want them to bother normal development. Hiding and excluding the object from lighting and game will make the object virtually go away, yet accessible later.

Enable Export Regrouping

 By default, all objects in MaxEd are grouped where you group them (usually in the rooms that they are in). Sometimes you will have objects (some parts of prefabs for instance) that might be visible in two rooms. For these parts to be drawn correctly in the engine, you may toggle Enable Export Regrouping on, and they will be automatically grouped to correct rooms during the export process. For example, you have constructed a fancy automatic door with opening buttons on both sides of the wall and made this into a prefab. When the door prefab is grouped to the other room, the part of the prefab (the opening button) that is in the other room will not work correctly, unless Enable Export Regrouping is turned on.

Gameplay Critical

Toggles if the object is considered gameplay critical. You can make exporting very fast by selecting only those objects that you want to test as gameplay critical and use the "export gameplay critical" functionality in the file menu. Very handy when testing repeatedly some scripted scenario for instance.

GIS (Mesh)

Cast No Shadows

Toggles if the object will cast any shadows during GIS rendering. Very useful for instance with dynamic objects, which should have lighting on themselves, but should not leave a shadow where they are rendered, as they are about to move around.

Ray Tracing

Toggles different kind of GIS solution on the object. Will use Ray Tracing method, which is somewhat slower than standard rendering, but usually produces less artifacts especially on objects that are not very orthogonal. For instance, you plan to collapse a wall. During rendering it is still standing, but you have cut it into small uneven pieces that will be spread around when it is collapsed. If rendered with traditional GIS, the seams of the pieces are likely to be visible and Ray Tracing is recommended.

Physics (Mesh)

Collisions

Toggles all collisions off. If the selection contains multiple objects or object has children, they may still have some of their collisions on (the collisions below may be in indifferent state).

Bullet Collisions

 Toggles specifically bullet collisions off

Character Collisions

 Toggles specifically character (player, enemies) collisions off.

Generate Bounding Box Hull

If checked, the exporter will generate a bounding box hull to be used as collision geometry.

Visuals (Mesh)

Do Not Render

Toggles if the object will be rendered in the game. If it is not rendered, all other properties of the object will still remain, like collisions and scripting.

Dynamic Objects (Mesh)

Block Explosions

If checked, the DO will block damage from explosions; otherwise the explosion will cause damage to receiver even when the receiver is in cover behind the DO. Should be off for tiny objects and on for objects that are large enough for cover.

Generate Convex Hull

If checked the exporter will generate a convex hull to be used as collision geometry.

Elevator

Turn this on if the DO is used as an elevator. It changes the DO behavior slightly against the collision capsules of the characters when the DO is moving in scripted animation in straight vertical line.

Physical Material

If the DO is released to physics with DO_EnablePhysics, this is what physical properties the object will have (weight, sounds)

Use lightmaps

If turned on, the object will use lightmaps for lighting, otherwise dynamic lighting is used.

Pointlights Affect

Toggles if the pointlights in the scene will affect the object.

No decals

If on, the DO will not receive any decals (bullet hit marks etc)

Continuous update

If on, the object will be updated all the time, meaning it will animate even when the player is on the other side of the map. This should be on for most objects that use scripted animations. The exceptions are objects that animate constantly but wouldn't need to when they aren't visible, like rotating fans and such.

Room

Sound Environment

Selects the acoustic properties (echo etc.) for a room.

Polygon Group

Number of Polygons

The amount of polygons currently in the group.

Smooth Lightmaps

Calculate smooth lighting for the polygons in the group (imitates a round surface). Will use Ray Trace method to achieve this (little slower).

Freeze Lightmaps

The light maps in the polygons will not be affected by GIS any more and their current lighting is "frozen". All events that would affect the lightmaps on these objects are ignored (set lightmap resolution and similar).

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.

Ray Tracing

Toggles different kind of GIS solution on the polygons of the polygroup. Will use Ray Tracing method, which is somewhat slower than standard rendering, but usually produces less artifacts especially on objects that are not very orthogonal.

Max Edge

Controls the maximum edge length of smoothed geometry.

Max Angle

Controls the maximum angle value of smoothed geometry.

Portal

Ignore in GIS lighting

Will make the portal invisible to the GIS lighting. The rendering is done in larger chunks (somewhat slower) but there will be no visible seams caused by the lighting near this portal.

Always Closed

Sometimes it may be necessary to make a Portal for optimization reasons but it will not be ever seen by the player (it is covered by something or not accessible etc.). These portals may be closed permanently to optimize the level to maximum speed.

Dynamic Pointlight entity

Intensity

Intensity of the pointlight

Falloff

Falloff (the distance) where the light affects

Color

The color of the light

Trigger

Radius

The trigger radius

Player

Trigger will react to player touching it

Use

Trigger will react to player using it

Enemy

Trigger will react to enemy touching it

Bullet

Trigger will react to bullet touching it

Look At

Trigger will make player to look at it inside the radius

Visibility

Trigger is activated if it is seen in the player view

Enemy

Group

Which group the enemy belongs to

Skin

The appearance of the enemy (or NPC as well)

Activator's Use Animation

If the player "uses" this entity, what animation will be shown

Level Item

Type

The type of the level item

Prefab parent

Radius

The visual radius of the prefab parent (does only affect the parent's size so it is easier to see or does not cover a small prefab fully).

Flare

Name

The type of the flare.

Volume Lighting Box

Width

The width of the volume lighting box

Height

The height of the volume lighting box

Depth

The depth of the volume lighting box

Resolution

If a volume lighting box is present in a room, the volume lighting is only calculated on its area. This is handy with large spaces, where the player has limited access and it is wise to limit the volumetric lighting to optimize calculation speed and memory consumption. By default, the resolution of volumetric light is 1 meter. If any other resolution is required, this value controls it.

Document Preferences

Renderer

Back plane

Distance of back clipping plane

Front plane

Distance of front clipping plane

FOV

The angle of FOV of the scene view

Connected Rooms

Redundant

Background Color

The color of background (emptiness) in the scene view

Modeling

Angle snap

List of possible values for angle snap (Shift+Num+ and Num-). Values use points for decimal separator and semicolon for separating different values.

Grid Scale Steps

List of possible values for grid scale (Num+ and Num- to change). Values use points for decimal separator and semicolon for separating different values.

Texturing

Default UV Scale

When a new texture is added to the scene, the initial default scale will be calculated from this value. With this value being 128, a 512x512 texture will be 4x4 meters big.

Lightmap res

New geometry will use this value as the default lightmap resolution value

Radiosity

Default Light color

Redundant, use lights property dialog  to control the default light values

Default Light intensity

Redundant, use lights property dialog  to control the default light intensity.

Default Light color

Redundant, use lights property dialog  to control the default light color. 

Average lightmap border

When set, an averaging scheme to calculate lighting for for the edge pixels of lightmaps is used. The calculation is less accurate, but takes also takes less time. This function is less meaningful with MaxEd2 than it was before, as the GIS calculation works differently than the previous lighting model.

Viewport size

The size of the viewport that the GIS lighting calculation will use. Large values take longer time but produce less noise in the lighting result. Values like 512 are good for final quality rendering.

Global lightmap res

To produce quick results you can generally drop the lightmap resolution of the scene lower. Using 50 % as a value here will temporarily halve the lightmap resolution in the level during GIS rendering, 

GIS MaxEnergyPerShoot

Important value that defines how many percent of light energy of a light source is cast per one shoot during GIS calculation. Smaller values produce more quality lighting but take more time. values like 20% are good for previews and some 5% can be used as a final rendering value.

GIS StopAtEnergy

Important value that defines how long the light is bouncing in the lighting calculation before it is considered as nonexisting. Smaller values produce more light in the dark areas and more even light but take longer to render. Values like 1 % are fine for tesing, values like 0.2% are good for final quality.

GIS Ignore Portals

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

Export

LDBExport parameters

Level export uses a separate executable for the actual exporting. Here you can enter some parameters for that executable similar to command line usage of the exporter.

MaxED Preferences

Function

Never Break Portals

When on, MaxED does not allow you to do geometry moving that would break portals.

Autosave interval

The document is autosaved every N minute to the MaxED program folder under Autosave subfolder.

Distance Hiding Offset

Separate objects (furniture and similar) are hidden in the editor when they are further than this value in meters. Defaults to 100 meters but typically you want it to be much bigger, if you are making large scenes.

Edge Thickness

This value is used as the virtual thickness of meshes in Booleans and similar. Should not be changed unless you want a lot of geometry trouble.

Indicate Outside Lightmap Texel

Will use code colors to indicate areas that are outside polygons in unrendered lightmaps. Meaningful mostly in debugging purposes.

Level Directory

The default directory for saving levels

Export Directory

The default directory for exporting

Import Directory

The default directory for importing

Texture Directory

The default directory for importing textures

Prefab Directory

The default directory for saving prefabs

Triangle Mesh Directory

The default directory for importing triangle meshes

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.

Split Tolerance

Value that is used to consider meshes separate if they are further than this distance during split. Do not change.

Texture Increment

Redundant

Font Scale

The scale for font that is used to indicate object names and similar in the scene view.

Flip Faces After Mesh Creation

When on, meshes that are created will by default have their normals pointing outwards (boxlike). If off, they will point inwards (roomlike).

Save Map Statistics

Saves some statistical information

Minimum edge length

No need to change, used for debugging purposes.

Grid Color Major

The color that grid will use for every 10th (major) line

Grid Color Minor

The color that grid will use for basic lines.

Display filter (F1)

Function

Rooms

Flag to toggle room count optimization on, and count for setting the number of hops from the active room

Show BB

To display the bounding boxes of the rooms that are optimized by the above setting

Static Objects

To display static objects

No-Draw materials

To display polygons of static objects that are using a no-draw material (such as "Dummy" or "CharacterCollisionNodraw")

Dynamic Objects

To display dynamic objects

No-Draw materials

To display polygons of dynamic objects that are using a no-draw material. Names and Types control the name and type text visibility.

Non-rendering objects

To display objects with "Do not render" object property set.

Non-character-colliding objects

To display objects without "Character Collisions" object property set

Non-bullet-colliding objects

To display objects without "Bullet Collision" object property set

Non-exporting objects

To display objects with "Exclude from Game" object property set

AI nodes

To display the AI nodes

Keypoints 

To display floating FSMs, Characters, Jumppoints, Waypoints, Level items and Flares. Names and Types control the name and type text visibility. 

Triggers 

To display all types of triggers. Names and Types control the name and type text visibility. Types will basically display what propery flags the triggers have set (Player collision, Use, Enemy collision, Bullet collision, Look At, Visibility)

Pointlights 

To display the pointlights, falloffs will show also the falloff with a wireframe mesh.

Exits 

To display the portals. Names will reveal the names of the portals.

Radiosity Lights

To visualize the radiosity light emitters. Spotlight Visualization will visualize the spotlight cones too.

Volume Lighting Boxes

To display the volume lighting boxes (If there are volume lighting boxes in the rooms, they will get volume lighting calculated only inside the boxes. Otherwise the whole room gets volume lighting. Volume lighting is used to light the characters and selected DOs)

Gameplay-critical objects

To display all the gameplay critical objects. (Gameplay critical objects are all the objects with any dynamic properties, all the rooms, and all the static objects and AI-nodes with with "Gameplay Critical" object property set. Basically this flag is used only when doing "File" -> "Export Selection Gameplay Critical", which means the game doesn't export all the static geometry nor all the AI nodes which aren't necessarily needed when testing some small things the levels, and the user can still include some objects to the gameplay critical export as well)

Non-gameplay-critical objects

To display AI-nodes and static objects without "Gameplay Critical" object property set. This is a handy tool for selecting the critical ones you want to have included in the export.

Prefab Parent Nodes

To display the prefab parent nodes. Prefab parents are also hidden when a prefab is not being edited, but this flag is handy when editing a prefab whose prefab parent node tends to get in the way. Names will display the prefab master names of the visible prefab parent nodes. That is, the name of the prefab as it is in the prefab list, NOT the name the instance has in the level hierarchy.

Make Ungrouped Red

To display all the ungrouped objects with red bounding box.

Grid 

To display the grid

Locator icons

To display locator icons that are used for example when locating prefabs or materials from the level.

Lightmap density

To display the lightmap densities with color codes.

Bounding Box Hulls

To display a red wireframe bounding box for objects with "Generate Bounding Box Hull" object property set. This is used to view the orientation of the bounding box hull, as it is always oriented the same way as the pivot point of the object and may need re-orientation of the pivot point. Bounding Box Hulls can be used to quickly and easily simplify the "character collision" geometry, which is used for ragdolls and physical objects as well as living characters. Thus the object needs to be character colliding before this object property can be used. The bullet collisions are still performed against the exact visual geometry.