Thomas, 2008-06-18, "Character version 2.0"

[WindexGlow]

Hehe, HPL2 (the engine) hasn't even been finished, or anywhere close to it yet. The level editor isn't even finished by any means yet!

HPL1 (the engine Energetic, 2006 Tech Demo, Overture, Black Plague, and Requirem uses) is what powers the penumbra games. There is no level editor for it, instead you must use a Modeling Program (such as 3dmax or Maya) however both of those are rather expensive. The problem is, I don't know if there are any free-ware programs that support Collada, a plugin that lets you export your scenes as DAE which HPL1 will read. (Btw, collada .86 is the version the devs used with Maya 7.0)

The level editor will probably be released several months after Lux Tenebras (their up-coming codenamed game, to be released in 2009 or an unlikely 2010) is released. This seems to follow their current style of releasing modding tools after the game has been released. *cough overture cough*


HPL1 does have some tools though, but they won't do anything you couldnt do in notepad.
HPLhelper.exe is a nice little tool, that does 5 things.
1: Adds folders so HPL1 knows where files might be. If the folder isn't added, than penumbra won't check there, freeing up resources.
2: Scene Viewer: Will view the scene with HPL rendering, including sounds and physics. The script will not run in this state though.
3: Model Viewer: This will view invidual models, applying both sound and physics to it. As an added bonus, you can play with the model (thing of your mouse having an elastic string attached to it and the model. It's rather fun, especially with bodies!)
4: Material Editor: I haven't messed with this, but I believe it will determine what sounds are played when an object hits it, when you walk on it, and so fourth.
5: Sound Editor: I haven't played with this either, but will determine the various properties of sounds. Does it loop, does it go through blocked objects, and so fourth.
PlarticleEditor.exe allows you to create particles (fire, as an example). It is very straight forward, filled with a few bugs, but overall very easy. It even has a primitive particle-collision, however it is not recommended to use this.

One of the things the HPLhelper doensn't help you with is model-properties. How much it weights, what the bones do and their limitation, and so fourth.


Hopefully we're given the same (if not improved) tools in the Level Editor in HPL2. Until than,w e can only spam the forum in a hope it will do something constructive.