Corners

In this tutorial I'm going to show you the proper way to make a corner. The corner can be to a wall or a house. Even the peak of a roof is considered to be a corner. There are many way in TrueSpace to make a corner, and I'm going to show you a few. Fig. 9

Fig. 9

In Fig. 9 you see the common mistake a beginner would make in making a corner. Here wall A and B are overlapping where they meet to make the corner. Even though this does make a corner, once in Active Worlds, surface 1 of wall B will show through on surface 2 of all A, and surface 3 of wall A will show through on surface 4 of wall B. This is known as Z buffering. Fig. 10

Fig. 10

In Fig. 10, the end surface of wall B is butt against the inside surface of wall A. This will eliminate Z buffering. However, if you're using a texture with a pattern such as bricks, you'll have a difficult time matching the texture on surface 1 with the texture on surface 2. There are times this configuration is usable such as with a Spanish style building where surface 1 extends beyond surface 2. Fig. 11

Fig. 11

One way to make a good corner is to add a Cube to your screen and set the outside lengths and height you want for your wall. In Fig. 12, I have made a Cube 5 meters square and 2 meters high.

Fig. 12

Now copy this Cube and reduce it's X and Y size by the thickness you want for the wall. For me, I'm going to make the thickness of the wall .5 meters, so I reduce the X and Y sizes by .5 meters. (4.500) Fig. 13

Fig. 13

Now move the copy back on the X and Y Location so that the back surfaces are flush. For me, this would be -.25 meters movement in the X and Y Location. When I reduce the copy by .5 meters, it did so evenly as shown in Fig. 13. This means the wall would have only be .25 meters thick. Since I want a .5 meter thick wall, I have to move the copy on and X and Y Location .25 meters. As to the negative .25 meters, that depends on which way you want your wall facing. Fig. 14

Fig. 14

Now making sure the original Cube is active, click on the Object Subtraction Tool (Fig. 15a) and then click on the copy. Fig. 15b

Fig. 15a                                                Fig.15b

As you see, we now have a wall with a perfect corner which won't give a problem texturing or show Z buffering

You can make an entire room with this method. Again add a Cube to your screen, size it to what you want, copy it and then reduce the copy to the thickness of what you want of the walls. Fig. 16

Fig. 16

For this, I'm making the wall thickness .062 meters thick, so I reduce the copy on the X and Y by .125 meters. (4.875) Again making sure the original is active, click on the Object Subtraction tool and then click on the copy. Fig. 17

Fig. 17

Here I added color so you can see the results better. Now all you need to do is add a door and windows. If you're doing plain texture, you'll have no problem. But if you plaining to UV Map this object, then it will be difficult to unfold.

This next method is the professional way of making a corner and much easier to UV map.

Making my wall .5 meters thick, I start this wall the way a beginner would make the corner of a wall, having the two walls overlapping, but I'm not stopping here. What I'm going to do is move edge 1 of wall A and edge 2 of wall B back so that they meet together where wall A and B make the inside corner. We do this by using the Point Edit: Edge Tool. Fig. 18

Fig. 18

First, make wall A active then, depending on which version TrueSpace you're using, click on the Point Edit: Edge Tool. (Fig. 19a) Now click on edge 1 of wall A to make that edge active. Fig. 19b

Fig. 19

Fig. 20

Now we're going to move edge 1 of wall A back to where it meets at the inside corner. Since I made my walls .5 meters thick, I must move edge 1 back .5 meters. I do this using the Object Info Window. Fig. 21

Fig. 21

Now make wall B active. Then use the Point Edit: Edge Tool to make edge 2 of wall B active. Fig. 22

Fig. 22

This time you move edge 2 of wall B back .5 meters to where meets at the inside corner. Fig. 23

Fig. 23

As you can see, edge 1 and 2 are now meeting together at the inside corner of wall A and B, making a perfect corner for the wall. Using the Delete Face Button, we can remove the faces of wall A and B where they come together. Since we don't see these two faces, we don't need them. By the way, if the bottom of the wall is not visible in Active Worlds, you can delete those faces as well. Fig. 24 (Finished Wall)

Fig. 24

This is the professional way to make the corner of a wall, and this version is much easier to UV Map though you can still use plain texturing with it.

We start with a plain cube at the center of the grid. But before we do anything, we much determine how the textures will look on this cube. If the texture you're using for the top of the roof has a pattern and need to be applied a certain way, we must determined this first. Fig. 25 show the texture I'm going to use.

Fig. 25

Using the Paint Face button, apply the texture to the top of the cube to see how it goes on. Fig. 26

Fig. 26

Now that I have the texture on the top of the cube, I now know how I will need to move my cube later.

First, change the thickness of the cube what you want for the thickness of your roof. For me, I'm making it .100 meters in the Z Size. Now size the length and width of the cube that you want for the roof. For me, I'm making the length 5.000 meters long and the width 3.000 meters wide. Fig. 27

Fig. 27

Now we angle the cube, which can be any angle you want. For me, I'm using a 45 degree angle. Fig. 28

Fig. 28

Now copy the cube and change the angle to the opposite direction. If you had 45 degrees, change it to -45 degrees. Of course, changing the angle now put the texture of the copy in the wrong direction. You'll also need to rotate the cube 180 degrees in the Z axis so the texture is facing the proper direction. Fig. 29

Fig. 29

Now we going to move the two cubes away from the center of the grid to form the peek of the roof. Just move the two cubes a little at a time till their tops almost meet at the center of the grid. Fig. 30

Fig. 30

Notice that I didn't move the two cubes so that they meet perfectly at the center of the grid. This would be almost impossible to do.

Now add and center another cube the screen. Then increase its length so that it's slightly longer then the two cubes for the roof. I increased its length .010 meters. Fig. 31

Fig. 31

Now raise the new cube so that it covers the peek of the roof. Then move it to one side so that its inside edge is at the center of the grid. Since this cube by default is 2.000 meters square, I move it 1.000 meters. Fig. 32

Fig. 32

Now copy this cube and move it in the opposite direction. Fig. 33

Fig. 33

Now make one of the roofs active. Then clicking on the Object Subtraction button, click on the cube opposite of it. Fig. 34

Fig. 34

If you look closely, you'll notice that you've cut the peek of the roof so that it's now has a vertical face. Fig. 35

Fig. 35

Now make the other roof active. Then, clicking again on the Object Subtraction button, click on the opposite cube. Fig. 36

Fig. 36

You should now have a peek that meets together perfectly. At this point, you can delete the faces where the two roofs come together since these faces aren't visible. Fig.37

Fig. 37