Skip to content
RED+
Contents

Editor

Saving levels

Levels RED+ saves are Alpine Faction levels. RED+ writes the parts of the level format that Alpine Faction defines exactly as Alpine Faction does, and keeps its own settings in a section of its own that other programs skip. What other editors and older builds do with such a level is on Opening levels from other editors.

Level version

Every level RED+ saves is written as RFL version 305 (Alpine Faction 1.4), or 304 (Alpine Faction 1.3) if you choose that in Preferences. This applies to new levels, to levels you open and to autosaves. RED+ does not save a level in the stock format.

Save, Save As and autosave

RED+ does not write over your level while it saves:

  1. It writes the level to a file beside it, named like the level with .tmp added.
  2. Only when that write has finished does it replace the level with the new file.

If a save fails, the level on disk is left as it was, and the RED+ log has a line containing save failed. If the write finished but the level could not be replaced, the new save is in the .tmp file, and the RED+ log says so.

This applies to Save, Save As, autosaves and the save that Create Level Packfile makes.

The check after every save

After every save, RED+ opens the file it has just written and checks it:

  • The file's sections run exactly to the end of the file, and none runs past it.
  • Every section in Alpine Faction's range is one that Alpine Faction defines.
  • Alpine Faction's level settings section is version 4 or lower.

A good save adds a line to the RED+ log containing saved and verified Alpine 1.4 compatible.

If something is wrong, the line contains SAVED FILE IS NOT ALPINE 1.4 COMPATIBLE, and a warning message appears, once per session. It names the problem and the file, and says that a map site may refuse the level. Report the problem and send the log.

The check covers the file each save writes: the new name after Save As, and the autosave file after an autosave.

The file dialog

RED's browse boxes, such as Open, Save As, Open Dialogue Text and Export as VRML, are the current Windows file dialog, with its navigation pane, address bar and search.

  • For the older box RED shipped with, tick Classic file browse boxes in Preferences, or set classic_file_dialogs=1 in the [editor] section of redplus.ini. It applies from the next start.
  • If the Windows file dialog cannot open, RED+ shows the older box instead and uses it for the rest of the session. The RED+ log has a line containing could not open the Windows file dialog.

What RED+ keeps in its own section

  • the lighting settings from Level Properties, and every Sun
  • Show Emissive Ranges (RF+)
  • Full Dark and Emissive Light settings on faces, and Follow Light links
  • which lights have their follow-light wiring locked
  • Liquid Glow (RED+) settings from Room Effect Properties
  • which placed meshes have Casts shadow unticked
  • where each face with RED+ settings is, so the settings can be put back if another editor renumbers the faces

Light cookies and Caustics (RED+) settings are in sections of their own, written only when the level uses them.

Full Dark, Emissive Light and light cookies are baked into the lightmaps. A program that skips RED+'s sections still shows the baked light. The sections keep your settings so that RED+ can show them and bake them again.

A level with a Sun also carries an ordinary light for each Sun, for the game. See The Sun.

RED+ can write lightmaps larger than stock levels use. The format allows them and Alpine Faction loads them. See Lightmap detail and file size.

Lightmap pages dropped at save

Rebuilding geometry can leave lightmap pages that no surface uses any more. When you save, RED+ leaves those pages out of the file. When it leaves any out, the RED+ log has a line containing page GC at save that says how many pages it kept.

Group files

  • RED+ saves group files (.rfg) with Alpine Faction's objects (meshes, notes, coronas, bags and weather regions) and Alpine Faction's brush settings. A weather region in a group keeps its Blocked by geometry and Column Width.
  • None of RED+'s own section travels in a group file. A group leaves out, for example, a face's Emissive Light Width, Length, Angle and Color and its Follow Light link, light cookies, Liquid Glow (RED+) settings, and a mesh's unticked Casts shadow.