# Q & A

Q. I'm trying to run Build, but my screen is all full of junk, and the mouse trails echo all over the screen. Could it be my video card? A. This is the number one problem I've been asked from first time users. You have to copy all of the files from the goodies\build directory of your CD to your main duke3d directory on your hard drive. Build looks in the current directory for the duke3d.grp file... which contains all of the art, sprites, etc. Do not use Windows to copy the files, as it sometimes retains the file attributes (namely read-only), which prevents you from saving any changes.

Q. How do I make Sector Effectors? How to I change their HiTags/LoTags? A. Sector Effectors are just another sprite, with the Sector Effector tile. All of the neat effects with Build are special sprites. The tile set is tile numbers 1 through 9. You've probably seen them a million times, but didn't know what they were for. A Sector Effector is tile number 1. To change its hi/lotag in 3d mode, point at the sprite, hold down the ['] key, and hit the [H] or [T] keys for Hitag/Lotag, respecitvely. To change the hi/lotag in 2d mode, point at the sprite, hold down [ALT], then hit the [H] ot [T] keys for Hitag/Lotag, respectively.

Q. How do I make a sector inside a sector? A. When you draw a sector inside another sector, it starts out with white walls (non-player space.) Press [ALT-S] on the inside sector to change it into valid player space (red walls.)

Q. My subways keep launching rockets at me! Help! A. Take parallaxing off of the ceiling, this is the only known total fix. You can make the rockets not hit you by either "pushing" the SE-6 or SE-14 below the floor by a sizable amount or extend it through the ceiling. This will cause them to hit a void area, but you'll still hear the explosions.

Q. I put a sector within another sector then moved it against the wall... now I get really weird HOM when looking at it. A. To make a "penisula" sector (ie a bookcase extending from the wall) simply split the existing white wall or insert two vertices along it. Then draw a new sector into the inner sector using those points as the starting and consequently ending points of your sector. Build does not like to have sectors moved on top of existing lines or vertices. This wreaks havoc with the engine.

Q. My framerate has made the game unplayable. What can I do to improve it? A. Try the following to bring your frame rate back to Earth:
| 1. Reduce the number of unique sprites within any given area... too many being loaded causes the engine to slow down when loading.
| 2. Don't use groups of sectors to make stairs. Use slopes instead. Too many sectors within any viewable area causes the engine to slowdown when calculating the image Duke sees.
| 3. Avoid very large, expansive sectors. If the engine has to load too many sprites/tiles in any given image, the frame rate drops dramatically.
| 4. Cut down on the number of monsters in one area. Too many actors again will drop the FPS.
| 5. Avoid putting in lots of monsters that fire rockets. RPG really tax the engine.

Q. I've made my water sector, but I die when I either enter the water or try to exit. Both sectors are the same size. A. The SE-7 sprites have to be in the exact same location on both water sectors, and at the same angle.

Q. Okay, my water sectors are identical, the sprites are in the same place, and pointing at the same angle. I can't enter the water or come out of it. A. Make sure the ceilings/floors of both above-water and underwater sections don't have any slope to them. To clear the slope of a ceiling/floor, point at it in 3d mode and hit '/'. Also make sure the SE-7 sprites are placed on the floor. If you've put an island sector within your above water sector, that must be duplicated on the underwater section. Take a look at E1L3, the submarine level, and you'll see what I mean.

Q. I made a sprite with my paint program using the correct Duke palette, and imported it into EditArt. But when I use the sprite in Build, the "clear" space I had colored like the other masking sprites appears pink. A. Load EditArt, find your tile, point at any one of the pixels that represent the color you'd like to make masking, and hit Backspace then 'C'. Backspace turns your drawing color to the masking color, and 'C' will turn any pixel matching the color of the current pixel (the one you have pointed at) to that drawing color.

Q. I've made a ceiling parallaxed, with the tile being Big Orbit. Every time I play the level, and walk into that room, I die. What's up? A. The Big Orbit (and Moonsky) tile is meant to simulate actual space... ie no oxygen. Duke can't live without oxygen, man! You can avoid this dilemma by setting the ceiling palette to 3. Alt-P is the key command in 3d mode to change palettes.

Q.How do I change the palette of sprites/tiles? A.This can be done only in 3d mode. Point at the sprite or tile and hit [ALT]-[P].

Q.I'm trying to slope my floor, but it's sloping at the wrong angle. A.Build slopes to the first wall of a sector, making it the pivot point. To change the first wall property, you can either hit [ALT]-[F] in 2d mode when your cursor is over the sector to rotate the first wall over one, or hit [ALT]-[F] in 3d mode when pointing at the wall you wish to make the new pivot point. Be careful when using that in 3d mode, as you have to be pointing at a wall that is "inside" the sector. Think of it this way... pretend you're in a vertical cylinder, and you can only see the inner walls. Well, the same applies to the [ALT]-[F] key... you can only point at walls that are inside the sector.

Q.How do I copy sectors? A.Check out my tutorial on copying sectors.

Q.Can I copy sectors between maps? A.Yes, you can. The target map has to exist first, however. You cannot copy a sector to a totally new map. To copy between maps, highlight the sector(s) you wish to copy with the right [ALT] key. Hit [ESC] to bring up the file menu. Hit [L] to load in your target map. The highlighted sector(s) will appear in the same spot as they were in your source map, so you may have to zoom out to find them.

Q. How do I make my weapons respawn? A. Weapons respawn by themselves when you're playing a DukeMatch game with Respawning enabled. There is no way to have weapons respawn in Solo play.

Q. I load up EditArt, but all I get is a blank screen. A. Make sure you've done these two things: 1) copy all of the files from the goodies\build directory off of your CD to your Duke directory and 2) extract all of the art files from the .grp file by typing 'kextract duke3d.grp *.art' at the command prompt. If those two don't get you in, try running 'bsetup.exe' at the command prompt and change your video settings to 320x200 Standard VGA. This only affects the Build/EditArt engine, not your normal Duke games. If you can't save settings, try removing any read-only attributes which may be set, using 'attrib *.* -r'.

Q. I've made my first map, now how the heck do I play it? A. There are two methods for playing user maps: 1) type 'duke3d -map mylevel.map' at the command prompt or 2) run 'setup.exe' at the command prompt to bring you into the Duke setup screen. From here, you can select user maps. The command-line option allows you to select difficulty settings as well. If you'd like a copy of the batch file I use to load/play maps, download the batch file and type 'd mylevel' at the command prompt.

Q. I've made a door separating a small room with a larger, taller second room. When I open the door and let it close on my head, the door proceeds to go all the way to the ceiling of the larger room. A. Insert a small sector in between your door and the larger room. Set its floor and ceiling to the same of your smaller sector, so that the door only has a single height to rise to.

Q. How do I make a door open via a switch, and only with that switch? A. A special sprite, SE-32, will allow you to create a door that opens via an activator. Check out the Switch Doors tutorial.

Q. I've made a glass wall. When I play the level, and shoot the glass, the tiles on top get messed up. A. Press [O] on the step tile (not the glass) to align it to the ceiling, instead of the floor. This should fix the problem. If you still have the problem, you can create a "buffer" sector in front of the glass wall so that the above and below tiles don't show.

Q. I've made a Star Trek door, but the darn thing won't open. When it tries, the tiles start to stretch, and nothing happens. A. Make sure the white lines of your inner doors are exactly on the red lines of the tagged sectors. If you've made two parts to the door, they must meet in the middle so that there's no gap.

Q. How do I change the angle of my camera? A. The angle of the camera is set by the shade value of the sprite. Check out my camera tutorial for a more thorough explanation.

Q. I've made an animated sprite set, but it animates way too fast, or slow. How do I change the animation speed? A. Run EditArt, change to the first tile of your animation set, and press the [A] key. The animation sequence should start animating. Use the -/+ keys on the keypad to change the speed of the animation. Once the desired speed is found, hit the [ENTER] key to confirm it. Change to a different tile using PgUp, and say Yes when it asks if you want to save the current tile.

Q. How do I use access cards? How do I change them to red, or yellow? A. The Access Switch (tile #130) is what the Access Cards (sprite #60) are used for. The palettes must match for the Card/Switch combo. The default for both is palette 0, or blue. To change them to yellow, change the palette of both card and switch to 23. To change them to red, change both to 21. To change a palette, use [ALT-P] in 3d mode.

Q. How do I make breakable vents? A. Vents (tile #595) and Fans (tile #407) are blocked sprites, centered over a hole in a wall, and sized to match the opening. Use [B] in either 3d or 2d mode to make the sprite blocking (shows up purple in 2d mode.) To fixate your sprite horizontally, use the [R] key on it in 3d mode.

Q. How do I turn a forcefield on/off with a switch? A. Assign a unique number to your switches' lotag. Change the lotag of your forcefield wall to that same number. The easiest way to change wall tags is in 3d mode with the ['] [T] combination.

Q. What are Wall tags for? A. The most common usage for Wall tags is for exclusion with SE-8 (Up Open Door Light.) Setting a Wall hitag to 1 prevents that Wall from lighting up when its parent sector has an SE-8 in it. Another use for Wall tags is with Activators that move a sector. Say you have an SE-31 or SE-32 within a sector, and you want them to activate when Duke pushes on the wall. You'd set the Wall Hitag to the Activator Lotag, and the two would be linked.

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