Introduction

In this document, you will learn how to mount objects to each other via the Level Builder. This tutorial covers all the basics of mounting and is intended for complete beginners to TGB. Have fun!

New Assets

Before we continue, we are going to need some additional images and particles. If you have not already done so in a past tutorial, click here for instructions on adding the additional assets.click here for instructions on adding the additional assets.

Opening a Project

Figure 1

Now you should see an empty screen with the default TGB loaded content as shown on the next page in Figure 2:

Figure 2

The scene view background colors might change in the tutorials' figures to provide optimal contrast. You can configure the color to your liking as well under Edit > Preferences... in the Level Editor tab. With that out of the way, let's create a simple example!

Make it Rain

From the static sprites rollout, drag the cloudsImageMap  into the scene view and inside the thick dark blue-lined rectangle overlayed on the grid. This rectangle is called the camera view (as shown in Figure 3).

Figure 3

Increase the size of the image slightly. After that, scroll down in the Create Tab to the particle effects rollout. Find the rain.eff effect and drag that into the scene view as well. Increase the horizontal size of the rain so it matches the length of the large cloud. In the quick access button list that appears above a selected object when the mouse is over it, find the mount button (next page, as shown in Figure 4).

Figure 4

After you click the button, the particle effect's midpoint is now attached to the cursor. Left click on the lower portion of the cloud to complete the mounting operation (as shown in Figure 5). Yes, it's that easy!

Figure 5

If you wish to check if the particle effect is truly mounted, select the cloud. In the quick edit tab, press the “Edit this objects link points” button (as shown in Figure 6). You should now see a small block with the number 0 where you originally clicked to mount the particle effect (as shown in Figure 7). If you do not know how to use the Linkpoint Editor, click here.If you do not know how to use the Linkpoint Editor, click here.

Figure 6

Figure 7

Click save in the Linkpoint Editor to continue (shown in Figure 8)

Figure 8

Now drag the cloud over to the top right corner of the camera view. As you can see, the rain followed as well. Click on the Edit Tab and find the Physics rollout. When you've found it, change the Velocity in X to -10 (as shown in Figure 9).

Figure 9

Save your level with whatever name you wish. If you do not know how to save your level, click here.If you do not know how to save your level, click here.

Now press the play button in the toolbar (click here if you do not know where the play button is)(click here if you do not know where the play button is). The cloud and rain, which is mounted to the cloud, are moving across the screen! With object mounting it is easy to have multiple, now connected objects share similar properties, like velocity values (as shown in Figure 10).

Figure 10

The Next Level

Good job, we have the basics now covered. Ready to learn some more advanced mounting techniques? Start off by creating a new level. If you are unsure of how to do this, click here.If you are unsure of how to do this, click here.

Now you have a fresh, new level to work in (all within the same project of course). Scroll down to the rollout called Other in the Create Tab. The first object of the three shown (as shown in Figure 11) is called a SceneObject. A t2dSceneObject is the base class from which all objects, like static sprites, are derived. Drag the SceneObject into the middle of the screen, preferably at location (0,0).

Figure 11

After you have done that, you should see a bordered square.

Figure 12

A Different Way to Mount

The following will be a slightly different way to mount objects than shown at the beginning of this tutorial. We don't want you to get bored after all. In the quick access button list, select the edit link points button.

Figure 13

Figure 14

Click in the center of the square to add a link point. You add a link point by simply clicking anywhere on this object, the link point will be added automatically. This will be given the number 1 as seen in figure 15. Click on the selection tool or hit Enter to return to the Level Builder. Now, drag the particlebeam.eff, found in the Particle Effects rollout, and place it next to your SceneObject.

Figure 15

In the particle beam's quick access button list, click on the mount button (as shown in Figure 16). When the particle is mounted to your cursor for placement, notice the yellow crosshairs where we placed our link point in the SceneObject! (next page, as shown in Figure 16)

Figure 16

When you bring the cursor close to the crosshairs, it will snap to those coordinates. Click again with your mouse to complete the mounting operation.

Working the Edit Tab

Let's learn a bit more about how to modify mounted objects using the Level Builder. Click on the SceneObject. If it is hard to select from the scene view, you can always select the Object from the Project Tab, under the Object Tree. Once you have the SceneObject selected, click on the Edit Tab and open up the Mounting rollout. Inside there will be two editable fields (Figure 17).

Figure 17

The first field, Rotation, will rotate the mounted object or mount system. An important point: the SceneObject will not be rotated, only the particle effect that is mounted to it (Figure 18).

Figure 18

The next field, Auto Rotation, sets the degrees per second rotation of the particle effect (as shown in Figure 19). Try it out, you can see it rotate within the scene view. Leave it rotating for the next part.

Figure 19

Figure 20

Now that we have seen what we can edit from the SceneObject, let's look at the options in the Mounting rollout for the particle itself. Select the particle effect and go to the Edit Tab again. Under this particular Mounting rollout (as shown in Figure 21), we have a few more options.

Rotation and Auto Rotation will not do anything if modified because these fields only apply to the object that we mounted to, not the object that is mounted.

Mount Force is the force constantly applied to the object allowing it to 'chase' the specified mount point. A force of 0 indicates that the mount is rigid and will track the mount-point perfectly every frame.

The Track Rotation checkbox specifies that this object should always track the target's rotation when checked. If you uncheck this box, you can see that the particle effect stops rotating. Check it again and it will continue to rotate.

Owned By Mount, when checked, indicates whether the object is to be owned by the object it's mounting to. What this means is that when the object that we’re mounting to is deleted, this object is automatically deleted. This is extremely useful for objects that are mounted that you don’t want to explicitly track.

If you check Inherit Attributes, this indicates whether the object inherits attributes from the object being mounted to. At the moment, the following attributes are inherited: Enabled, Visible, Paused and Flip.

Conclusion

Hopefully you have a better understanding now of mounts and the TGB mounting system. As a final note for this tutorial, in our last example we rotated an object at the center of the square SceneObject box. This is also known as it's pivot point. Any mounted object, regardless of where the mount point is, will rotate around this pivot point. This means, if you mounted the particle effect towards the edge of the square and set it to rotate, it does not rotate around the mount point where you clicked, but instead around the pivot point in the center of the square (as shown in Figure 21). This is an intended feature of TGB and not a bug.

Figure 21

Thanks for reading!