System Editor Guide

Is there any community guide on here or does anyone have any sort of videos out there to explain the new system editor mechanics? I'd like to learn how to use it and make a half decent symmetrical map but it's awfully vague and confusing. I haven't really touched it since today so I'm brain dead on the topic. Help.

The CSG part of the system editor is still pretty new, buggy, and mostly undocumented. The part with the sliders has been around for a long time and is actually more powerful than you might expect. I will try to call up the people that I know have figured out some tricks.

@totalannihilation @Tripax @guest1 @reptarking @mot9001

If you can use pte you will have a much easier time. Learn all the hotkeys in the settings> keyboard> terrain editor

Is the mex and CSG placement broken right now? I can't seem to get it to work. Maybe I'm doing something wrong.

Not that I know of, it was working yesterday when I tried it. =o

I could write a detailed guide right now detailing how I edit planets, but I think most people would be turned off by the idea of constantly exporting / importing .pas files and editing them externally, not to mention all the hoops you have to jump through to get the editor to work properly.

My current plan is to put together a mod for the system editor that will make direct editing of CSG parameters possible in-engine, then write a detailed guide centered around this mod. Might have a prototype slapped together within a week, but no promises.

I'm interested.

For the time being the other responses in the thread are spot-on, though - learn (and rebind) hotkeys, use the newest PTE since it's had some bugfixes, and test things out with frequent saves. If you're more adventurous you can look at the exported system files, but that gets more complicated.

Well, I have made some maps using mostly the in-game UI. I only use the .pas files in the notepad to add CSG brushes that I do not have any similar yet, since that there is no interface to add brushes that aren't already in the planet (you can only copy the ones that are already there)

About the CSG and metal not working, here is a short guide to make it work:

1. Click Generate planet first (selecting Edit CSG before generating planet will reset planet to default);
2. The CSG will become transparent with some edges lines, the blue color means the CSG is "Add", red means "Subtract" and white means "selected";
3. Do the desired modifications using the hotkeys showed at the end of this post;
4. Click Edit CSG again to close the editor. The game will generate all modifications;
5. Save the system. (Do not save the system before closing the CSG editor, or else all changes will not be saved)

here are some useful hotkeys:
m = add a metal spot where the mouse is pointing
b = remove the metal spot (and any other too close to it) where the mouse is pointing
(I might write something wrong because I changed the default keys as they were conflicting with the WASD camera)
ctrl+g =move the selected CSG to where the cursor is (click to fix it's location)
ctrl+c = copy the selected CSG to the clipboard
ctrl+v = paste the selected CSG to where the mouse is pointing
delete = removes the selected CSG
q = rotate selected CSG counter clockwise (must hold button down)
e = rotate selected CSG clockwise (must hold button down)
a = increase selected CSG size (must hold button down)
d = decrease selected CSG size (must hold button down)
w = move the selected CSG upwards (will not work if ctrl+g is active)
s = move the selected CSG downwards (will not work if ctrl+g is active)

I hope it can help you start out with some basics maps

In current pte there Is a csg palete. And custom spawn points. Also saving is so far 100 % for me. Metal does not stick sometimes but csgs disappearing is no more. They push pte to stable tomorrow I believe and when it goes live editing will be 100% more user friendly instead of tedious stuff

Thanks for the info dudes.

Are you able to edit landing zones?

Is there also a way to save the planet after you've edited the CSG? I can't figure out how to. Everytime I exit the CSG editing it just resets. I even pressed "save in my planets."

Yep, should be in the hotkeys. If you're using the most recent editor version you may need to select Advanced Edit in the dropdown and enable landing zone editing before you can add and remove them.

Weird. If you delete every brush on a planet it will reset to default generation, but otherwise you should be able to just exit CSG edit mode and save the planet normally.

There were some strange issues with saving in prior versions, but it seems a lot of them have been fixed in the new PTE/stable build.

Do you know where I can find the hotkeys?

You can find those in [SETTINGS] -> [KEYBOARD] -> [TERRAIN EDITOR]. Have fun!

Uber should really make a guide for the system editor. @jables

Note : this should be in mapping and stuff area.

On topic: making a guide for one thing that keeps changing every other week Is really hard since by the time you have a quality guide it's obsolete

Moved to mapping sub-forum.

Is anybody else getting a kind of ghost prop that is unselectable and undeletable?

Because on one planet I was working on, I couldn't get rid of a volcano, also the ability to deselect a prop that you selected to place would be nice.