Notes:
- This page is intended to evolve into a 'how to make a world from start to finish IN GAME' It should promote the use of official tool and methods.
- While won't include step-by-step guides, it will include outlines of the process, links to tools and resources as well as correcting for assumed knowledge.
- The notes and text of this page are intended to contextualize the processes and what is required. As well as giving ideas.
- A lot of this page references Metaverse Academia's public folder and while it an invaluable resource when creating this page it's far from the only one.
Initial world creation
For details on how to create and manage worlds, see: World#creating a world
The two most popular starting points for a new world is either Platform or Grid. Both provide a basic world setup with some ground, a skybox, lighting and core requirements. In both(check) cases the sun can be moved around with the Sun tool. Both worlds put the initial spawn point at [0,0,0]. Their main difference is the ground.
Grid
A Grid World is a great starting point for creating a world 'set on the ground', it is a 1km square plane(quad?) with a grid texture and a 0 thickness collider. You can either use the texture tool to change the ground to be something more interesting or treat it as a 'sound stage' to create on.
Platform
Want to create a space station, floating island or similar, this is for you. It's a flat(0.2m) by 30m cylinder with a matching collider floating in nothing.
Terrain/Landscape
Unless you only want(or need) a large flat plane with a texture, or you plan to only use Fly or NoClip Locomotion Modules (Slot) in your world, you will want something to stand on.
In game the 'ground' is simply something with a Collider(that has the 'CharacterCollider' bool set) between you and 'down, so it can be just about anything. However terrains are typically done in one of three ways:
Displacement maps
This method uses a greyscale texture and creates areas of high and low ground from this. Typically black being low and white high.
It uses the Component:GridMesh and (texture) to create a displacement map, changing the offset the mesh and texture in accordance with the
This can be high performance, one of the most popular, easy to use and and can cover a very large area. But can't be edited in game(yet, a number of community projects are being developed) and you can't create overhangs, internal voids or other complex 3d geometry. You can find many of these types of images online and import them or simply create something with an external drawing tool.
Terrain Editor: resrec:///U-ProbablePrime/R-0776eec6-e4d1-46b0-9996-62428b1310b0
ProbbablePrime's pre-Resonite demonstration of using an in game graphical editor and a texture with Displacement Map to create a Terrain.
2D Mesh
For more complicated Terrains you can use a mesh, this can have performance problems depending on the size and detail but allows for a lot of flexibility. There exists a few in game editors:
Terrain Lab MMC22(rhenium): https://go.resonite.com/world/G-Shared-Project-rheni/R-59aa7484-032f-4068-a468-9e262b0ed814
Notes: Due to the meshes this creates they are not very optimized and use very even geometry, resulting in a 'low poly' look depending on the density. This tool makes great meshes for smaller spaces.
Objects
This is by far the most flexible and fun but also can be the most hard work to cover larger areas and is also what is used on floating islands or spaceships. It's done by spawning in objects, such as rocks, cubes, etc and setting the colliders.
It can also be combined with the other methods to 'landscape' a terrain.
Tools that could come in handy in this context:
- Character Collider Setter Tool This allows an object to become something you can stand or bump into. A floor or wall.
- Grabbable Setter Tool This will allow you to make an object 'Grabbable' so you can move it around or prevent it from being moved when you are done.
- Material Tool This lets you change the texture and material, to make a object into rock or gold or glass.
Some ideas:
- Using the Shape Tool, create basic shapes such as cones, cylinders and cubes and change materials to silver to create a spaceship.
- For an ground bound island, start with a grid world, add a mesh with a water material over it and spawn in some large rocks sticking up through it.
- Randomly stick pieces of building through a mesh covered by the Beans material to create art.
Links to public folders of:
- Textures
- Rocks
- Trees
World lighting/Skyboxes
The default worlds come with a Component:Skybox as other components set(Under Root->Skybox) up that give view of the 'sky' and the world reflections.
The Skybox component puts the viewer in the middle of a spherical bubble with the chosen texture projected on the inside, this effect is best seen on a Platform world where you can look over the edge and a detailed skybox image.
Basic
By default worlds come with a basic Component:ProceduralSkyMaterial that creates a sky with a sun. This can be edited using an inspector to select colour and other details.
It can however also be changed to a static image by loading any 360 degree texture orb into the Material Tool and clicking Primary on the sky. And while this will update the reflections, it won't change the angle of the light from the sun. This may need to be using the dev tool in Root -> Light.
A selection of CC0 Skybox textures can be found in the Metaverse Academia public folder linked at the end. (Direct link will be provided once others are found.)
Dawn Sky
The Resonite Cloud Home comes with a more advanced skybox system called Dawn Sky that includes elements such as night/day, adjustable sun, backgrounds and creatures. While visually impressive it can have some performance penalties compared to a simple procedural or static texture. A lot of this performance can be gained back by removing the elements you don't need.
An installable version is planned, however for now It can be copied from the cloud home by parenting the correct slot in the cloud home to something like a cube, saving it and in the new world re-parenting it into the hierarchy, being sure to press the "Set Active Skybox" button in the Skybox component. This is an Advanced Subject.
Buildings/Structures
Basics
Using shapes and other stuff.
Module
Dawn Modular that uses the Module Snapping Tool
Dusk Modular that is a community addition to.
Kitbash
Kitbash:
resrec:///U-Crusher/R-3B3105CA14110C8E955083F2B1DA5CCFAD786424E7C15A9D5DAF5BDC7C2B9790
Kitbasher world link.
Furnishing/accessories
Softpoint has adorable items like plushies and things that could be used to decorate and make a world fun:
resrec:///G-1StJATqZXay/R-2387820050A6554644FFF4A2EE2A9A536E516300E61945D45F3D0CC305259874 Gearbells' Toyshop! resrec:///G-1StJATqZXay/R-2387820050A6554644FFF4A2EE2A9A536E516300E61945D45F3D0CC305259874
Advanced topics
Indoor/vs outdoor lighting and switching between as you need to turn off the world lighting to have dark indoors with bright outside.
Joshtiger has great particles in his 'creations' folder: resrec:///G-1StJATqZXay/R-2387820050A6554644FFF4A2EE2A9A536E516300E61945D45F3D0CC305259874
Videos
Miss Molly explains how to create, save a world, spawn in objects and use some of the tools, including changing the skybox.
In game resources
| Title | Content | Link | License |
|---|---|---|---|
| Metaverse Academy Public | Many things! | resrec:///G-1StJATqZXay/R-2387820050A6554644FFF4A2EE2A9A536E516300E61945D45F3D0CC305259874 | |
| Creator Jam | world-building resources | resrec:///G-1StJATqZXay/R-2387820050A6554644FFF4A2EE2A9A536E516300E61945D45F3D0CC305259874 | CC-BY |
Team Lagoom has excellent assets in here: resrec:///G-1StJATqZXay/R-2387820050A6554644FFF4A2EE2A9A536E516300E61945D45F3D0CC30525987