PLUG Tools
PLUG Tools
Cell Tools
The Cell Tools Widget will be your primary tool for creating your individual Cells (Levels).
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It holds all of the submodules necessary to create Cell Blocks, Openings, Doors, and Blocks, as well as the option to adjust the Opening Settings and the Cell Block settings.
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For ease of use, the Lights and Spawners Widgets have been added to this module to aid in your Cell design.
Cell Block Creator
The Cell Block is the centerpiece of PLUG, holding all of the data, connections, and spawners you'll need to procedurally build your dungeons. A single Cell Block is placed in all of the Cells (Levels) you'd like to include in a Dungeon and, when combined with the other processes outlined, will allow the Dungeon Builder to create a new, randomized dungeon with consistent pathing using the Cells you've created. This Widget allows you to create a new Cell Block, or place a preexisting one.
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It can only be accessed when inside of a Level that does not currently contain a Cell Block. Simply have the Cell Tools Widget open after creating a new Level, or open an existing one that does not have a Cell Block, and the Cell Tools Widget will automatically switch to this mode.
The left side of the panel allows you to select a Cell Block that you've already created to place. Once an option is selected the properties below will change to display the measurements of the selected Cell Block. To place, select a Cell Block then click the Place button below.
The right side of the panel allows you to type in the Name for a new Cell Block. Enter this, and then input the measurements you'd like for the Cell Block below. These can be changed later.
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Once finished, click the Create New Cell Block button.
Connector Creator
Once a Cell Block is created, the Cell Tools Widget will automatically switch to the Connector Creator mode. This mode allows you to change the scaling of your Cell Block, as well as adjust the measurements you previously entered.
Its main purpose, however, is to specify which of the Connector Slots will be a Door (or Block) and which will be a Wall.
Connector Creator
Cell Size, Openings and Walls
The Cell Block will default to a 1x1x1 size. This Cell Size is multiplied by the measurements you previously entered (X and Y by Cell Length, Z by Cell Height).
Furthermore, for every 1 length of X and Y a Connector Slot is created, which will later allow you to place a Wall or Opening.
Openings (yellow) allow this Cell to connect to other Cells at this location when building a Dungeon.
Walls (red) prevent any connections from ever happening at this location within this Cell.
Connector Creator
Changing Cell and Base Size
If you'd like to adjust the initial measurements we entered when creating the Cell Block, select the Change Base Size button. Beware, these settings affect EVERY Cell that you've created using this Cell Block, so adjust with intent.
To change the Size of your Cell Block, select the Change Cell Size button at the bottom. Be aware that this will destroy any currently existing Openings and Walls in your Cell, including their settings. You will need to confirm the Destroy to continue. To cancel, click the Refresh button at the top.
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After confirming, you'll be presented with a new set of parameters to adjust. These will adjust the size of your Cell Block in real-time and will also update the Cell Map.
One final note, for every 1 unit of Cell Z a new Floor will be created. You can switch between the Floors you've created using the buttons on the right.
Connector Creator
Creating Openings
Now that we've finalized the size of our Cell Block, we can begin placing our Openings and Walls. It's as easy as clicking the Create Openings button on the left.
But wait! Unless you want all of your Connectors to be Doors (ideal for a high success rate), we'll need to determine which of the Connector Slots will be a Door or Wall. This is also very straightforward. Clicking on the Blue Slot buttons on the Grid Map will toggle between Door and Wall (D and W).
If after creating Openings you decide you'd like to change them, you can simply click the corresponding Grid Map button to toggle it, and then select Create Openings again. This will only replace the slot that was changed, leaving your other settings intact. The changed slot will, however, lose all of its settings and be recreated.
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Creating or Correcting Openings will also automatically rename your Cell Block to the name of your Level.
Connector Creator
Correcting and Destroying Connectors
From time to time an Opening or Wall may be accidentally moved from its intended position or adjusted in some other way. Selecting the Correct Connectors button will reset all Connectors in a Cell to their intended positions.
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The Destroy Connectors button will destroy all Connectors within a Cell.
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Finally, the Add Player Start button at the bottom will allow you to place a Player Start in your Level, which is then assigned to the Cell Block. The Dungeon will utilize this to determine a starting point for the player if spawning into a Dungeon.
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You also have the option of customizing your own Player Start blueprint by creating a child class of the PLUG_PlayerStart class, which can then be selected in the dropdown.
Asset Creator
The Asset Creator has numerous modes. The Door/Block Creator, which allows you to create Doors and Blocks to be placed on your Openings.
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It has two modes, Door and Block, for creating each respective Blueprint, and defaults to Door Mode. You can switch modes by clicking the Door and Block buttons at the top.
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The first step in this process is to create or select a Blueprint, which we can do with the toolbar below the Door and Block buttons. Click the + icon to create a new Blueprint.
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You can also Save a currently loaded Blueprint by clicking the Save button at the top right.
Asset Creator
Assets
Once a Blueprint is selected, you'll be taken to the Assets Menu.
The button at the top will let you switch between Actor and Mesh Selections.
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Below, you will find three slots for Objects to be placed, and Materials as well when using Mesh Selections.
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The Door 1 and Door 2 slots can be animated (more on this later). The Frame slot is static.
When using Mesh Selections, you can select Static Mesh Objects and Materials, which will replace all material slots on the selected Static Mesh, for each of the slots.
When using Actor Selections, you can only select Actor Blueprints for each slot.
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Block Mode offers the same options, but only one slot.
Asset Creator
Settings
The Settings Menu allows you to adjust the Base Transforms for each slot. Let's start with Door Mode.
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The Random Rotation button at the top allows you to enable or disable a 180 degree rotation with a 50% chance. In some situations, this can increase the variety in your Dungeon.
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Each row below corresponds to the matching Assets. The Root row allows you to adjust the Base Transform of all three Assets.
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Clicking any of the named buttons will get the current Relative Transform of the selected Object and copy it to the Base Transform settings. Click the respective button after manually adjusting the transform of one of these objects in the editor, outside of the Widget.
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At the bottom, we have the Box Extents.
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The Spawn Block row controls the size of the box that will prevent objects from spawning when using the PCG Spawner.
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The Door Overlap row controls the size of the box that will trigger the Door Animation when overlapped, if enabled.
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In Block Mode, similar to Assets, you only have access to one row of Transform and Box Extent settings.
Asset Creator
Animations
The Animations Menu is only available in Door Mode.
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In this menu, you can adjust all settings controlling how the door will animate.
At the top, you have a button to enable or disable the animation of the Door.
Below, you have two rows of Animation Transform settings, similar to the Settings menu.
When a Door is Activated/Animated the Door 1 and Door 2 objects will move from their Base Transforms to their Animation Transforms.
The settings below the Animation Transforms specifies how long this transition takes and how the animation is eased. The Time setting is in seconds.
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At the bottom, you have a Test Animation button to preview the settings you've input.
Connector Settings
Once we've created Doors and Blocks, we can place them using the Connector Settings Widget.
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This Widget also has Door and Block Modes, as well as Openings and Walls Modes.
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To toggle between Door and Block Mode, select the corresponding buttons at the top.
To toggle between Openings and Walls Mode, click the button below the Connector Map to the right.
There is also a third set of Mode settings on the bottom right of the Widget.
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Single Mode allows you to select a single Opening to adjust. Clicking an Opening (yellow) on the Map above these buttons will switch you to Single Mode with that Opening as your Selected Opening.
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Floor Mode allows you to adjust every Opening on the current Floor. You can change Floors using the buttons to the right of the Map.
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Global Mode allows you to adjust every Opening in your Cell at once.
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Be sure to select the correct Mode before making adjustments, or these changes will not propagate to the other Openings.
Connector Settings
Door Types
With the Modes out of the way, let's start with the Door Mode Settings.
In Door Mode, you have three different types of Openings you can place.
There is a section for Boss Doors, which can used by the Lock and Key Widget or called manually.
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There is another section for One Way Doors. These can be called by creating a Connected Path in the Dungeon Settings and selecting the One Way option. These Doors only open from the inside, and the Door Overlap Box and Spawn Block Box for your Opening will be adjusted accordingly.
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In Block Mode, you only have one type of Opening to place.
Connector Settings
Selections
The Selections and Settings menus are available for all Connector types: Doors, Blocks, and Walls.
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At the top of the Selections Menu, you can Add and Remove Slots to the current selection.
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For each Slot, there are two settings you can adjust: The selected Blueprint and the Weight of the slot.
Finally, for Blocks, there is a Spawner Settings option at the bottom of the Widget, and is only available when in Block Mode. It will spawn in addition to any selected Block Blueprint.
For Doors there is an Animate Start button, below the Selection Mode buttons on the right, if the currently selected slot has a Door Blueprint selected.
The Opening that will be chosen is determined by the Selection Type at the bottom of this menu.
The Selection Types are:
- None: No Slot will be selected. This allows you to manually set the Box Extents in the Settings Menu.
- Single: The first Slot will be selected.
- Random: A random slot will be selected.
- Random Weighted: A random Slot will be selected, using the weight settings you've set for each Slot.
Connector Settings
Settings
The Settings menu allows you to adjust the Transform Offset for the selected Connector(s). These settings are in addition to the Opening Transform Settings, if an Opening is attached to the Connector Slot.
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The Priority (only available for Doors) is used by the Dungeon Builder when creating a Dungeon. When creating a Path, the Door with a higher number Priority will be selected for the Opening.
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Below the Transform and Priority Settings are the Box Extents for the Connector. These settings are only available if the Selection Type in the Selections Menu is set to None. Otherwise, the Box Extents will be copied from the attached Opening.
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Connector Settings
Walls
The Walls Menu, which can be accessed by clicking the Openings button on the right, is very similar to the options available for Openings, with two exceptions.
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The first, in the Selections Menu, is that you will select between Meshes and Actors (similar to the Asset Creator) for the Selection Slots, instead of Opening Blueprints.
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The second, in the Settings Menu, is that Box Extents are not available for Walls.
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Everything else remains the same.
Cell Block Settings
The Cell Block Settings menu allows you to adjust a number of settings directly on the Cell Block. Settings such as the attached Ground mesh, material, and transform, as well as the Spawners attached to the Cell Block. You can also test your settings using the Debug menu.
Let's start with the Ground Menu.
Cell Block Settings
Ground
At the top of the Ground menu is a Slot Bar, whose functionality should be very familiar at this point.
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Below the Slot Bar is a Weight setting for each individual Slot.
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Below this, there are two settings. One to change the Mesh of the Ground blueprint and the other to change all of the Material Slots on the selected Mesh to the selected Material, set here.
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In the middle, we have the Transform settings for the Ground blueprint. These should also be very familiar at this point, excluding the Z Scale Max. If the Z Scale Max is greater than the Z value for the Ground Transform Scale, a random value will be selected between these two for the Z scale. Otherwise, only the Ground Transform Scale will be used.
At the bottom we have three buttons. The Auto Scale button will automatically stretch the Ground blueprint to the size of the Cell it's attached to. This will only affect the X and Y values, and is based off of the Cell Size Multiplier.
The final two buttons allow you to remove the Ground Blueprint or Refresh it, which will select a new random value for the Z scale, if the Z Scale Max is active.
Cell Block Settings
Debug
The Debug menu is used to test all of the settings you've applied to the Cell Block, as well as to adjust a few of the visual helpers.
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There are 4 buttons at the top. The 3 on the left control visual helpers, allowing you to show or hide the Openings in your Cell Block, the Divider in the Cell Block, and the Cell Block itself. These visuals are only available outside of Game Mode.
The button on the right controls whether or not the Cell Block can be rotated when used by a Dungeon. If Static Rotation is On, the Cell Block will retain the orientation it has in your Level (Cell).
At the bottom we have settings to preview the Cell Block when it's initialized.
Most importantly is the Initialize Cell button, which will simulate the activation of your Cell Block.
The settings above allow you to preview Path Splines along with the Cell Block (more on this on the Dungeon Builder Widget page.
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Below that, you can specify how each Opening will be initialized. Random will randomly select between the other four listed types. Selecting any of the other four will set all Openings to that Opening Type.
Cell Block Settings
Spawners
The Spawners menu allows you to adjust the Multispawners and Solo Spawners attached to your Cell Block. These will automatically spawn when the Cell Block is Initialized.
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The top section is for setting the Multispawners. You can Add Slots using the button at the top, and remove slots using the X buttons on the right of each slot. Within each slot are two settings. a Multispawner Blueprint setting and a setting to Enable or Disable the Slot without removing it.
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The bottom section is for Solo Spawners. A single Multispawner will be created when the Cell Block is initialized, in addition to the Multispawner Slots above, and each of the Solo Spawner blueprints selected here will be spawned through it.
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The Slot functions here should be very familiar, although each Slot also has a set of Marker Tags on the right. If a Slot has Marker Tags added to it, the Multispawner will look for a Marker with these tags to attach the Solo Spawner to.
In the middle are a few settings that will be added in addition to each of the Solo Spawners added. This offers an easy way to globally adjust all of the Solo Spawners attached to the Cell Block.
Cell Block Settings
PCG
The PCG menu is almost identical to the Spawners menu. The only difference is that it uses MultiPCG blueprints for the top section, and Solo PCG blueprints for the bottom.
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There is also no middle section to globally adjust the Solo PCG blueprints.
For both the PCG and the Spawners menu there is a button at the top right that will allow you to select whether or not Blueprint Spawners or PCG Spawners will be loaded in the Cell Block first.
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You can learn more about the Blueprint and PCG Spawners on the Spawners Widget page.
Lights
The Lights Widget is a tool that will spawn a temporary Global Lighting system. At the moment, the system is very rudimentary. This may be further developed in the future.
For the time being, it can still be a great asset while building Cells. For the Dungeon Creator to work properly, you want to make sure there are no global lights in your individual Cells. These should only be in the Level containing your Dungeon. To make building your Cells easier, you can spawn a temporary Global Lighting system using this tool to better visualize how the Cell will look under different lighting conditions. This lighting system will automatically be removed by the Cell Tools Widget, as well as the Dungeon if the Cell Tools Widget fails to remove it.
There are 6 lighting presets, set using the individual buttons. You can manually remove the lighting system by clicking the Destroy button.
Spawners
The Spawners Widget has also been added to Cell Tools, as the best place to test how your Spawners will actually work with the system is by using them in a Cell. This Widget is covered in greater detail on the Spawners Widget page.
