Illusion HS2 Studio - How to manage Environments and Scenes?

[GentlemanCorpse]

Hi,

I just try to get something done and fiddled a little around with HS2 Studio. At least when it is launching at all.. lol

1. my own maps?
I think it is best to build your own "maps" with items, but how to save those as maps or items?
Can you save you own "map" as item? I think the disadvantage is that maps cannot be edited but if I save it as Item, you can still edit all the items inside, is this correct?
But how to save it actually?

2. can I clip items to walls or other items or do I really have to move then manually exactly to its position?

3. I saw just one single "Save" button in the settings menu, you cannot even name your save, I am not really sure if I understand the workflow.
Does anybody know a tutorial or guide?

I could not find answers elsewhere...

Thanks

 

[7inn]

Hey buddy,

I have the same problems as you, which is why I am wondering if you have already found the answers to the questions?
I've been ready to get started for weeks, but I lack the knowledge about maps/environments.
Personally I find it hard to get any information regarding HS2 Stuido.

Cheers

7inn

 

[artistx]

I've been playing around with the idea of using HS2 to build a game and while I'm still relatively new I've learned a few things...

1. It's possible to build your own "scenes" with items but you can't save them as maps(loaded under the add map button) as far as I know...
Here's a really good example of "scene" made with various items

You must be registered to see the links

might be a good idea to download and dissect it.

1.5. You can edit maps with "[Mikke] AI_MapController" the degree of control depends on the map itself but for most you can hide and move elements. It can be tricky since a lot of elements are grouped together. If you have [Screw this Noise] better Repack then "[Mikke] AI_MapController" should be in your [OPTIONAL] Mods folder and you just need to copy it to your game root.

2. As far as I know it's all manual movement.. but there are multiple ways of moving stuff.

3. You can rename the save file/scene png but yeah the saving is really limited.

Some people are freaking wizards with HS2 Studio... it baffles the mind how much they can accomplish... I'm still learning.

This guy has some decent tutorials:

You must be registered to see the links

most are focused on characters and lighting/shading but you can probably learn some other stuff there too.

 

[drowsy]

In my experience the way to build custom maps is, as the previous poster commented, to create scenes.

The issue is:
StudioNeo's scene save/load interface is not user friendly, since it saves a new file/png with every ctrl+S. You can't order the file structure properly using StudioNeo's interface alone (I haven't seen a mod for this), so in order to make a scene you can easily return to, you have to create folders. Go to your file browser, browse to where you installed HS2, UserData, Scene - this is where your scene files save. Create a new folder, call it the name of your map, My Map Name.

But, in StudioNeo, when you save the scene it will autosave to the base Scene folder. So, in your file browser again, just move the last saved file to your My Map Name folder. Now, whenever you update your scene and save it, you replace that file in the My Map Name folder with the new file (or you can do backups, just don't let it get too crowded). In StudioNeo, in the future, you can easily load the correct scene since the interface lets you browse subfolders.

My recommendation is to create a pretty specific folder system. So, if you have a map, maybe you have an overall folder for the map but some sub-folders for different stages of the map (containing scene files with e.g. different lighting conditions or characters). That way you can easily return to the correct scene/map.