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RED+
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Editor

Viewports and rendering

RED+ draws RED's viewports through Direct3D 11, in 32-bit colour, and makes several things look in the editor the way they look in the game.

The renderer

  • RED+ draws the viewports through d3d8to11.dll, the Direct3D 11 renderer in the RED+ folder.
  • If d3d8to11.dll cannot be loaded, RED+ loads its fallback renderer, d3d8to9.dll, instead. The RED+ log then has a line containing d3d8to11.dll failed to load; falling back to d3d8to9.dll.
  • Antialiasing (MSAA): and Texture filtering: are set in Preferences. They apply from the next start, with the Direct3D 11 renderer only.

32-bit colour

The viewports draw in 32-bit colour, as the game does.

  • Textures with 24 or 32 bits per pixel, and paletted textures, are shown with 8 bits per channel. 16-bit textures are shown as they are.
  • Lightmaps are shown with 8 bits per channel, so dark gradients stay smooth.
  • A lightmap looks the same after you reopen the level as it did straight after the bake: RED+ does not brighten dark lightmaps when a level loads.

The lightmap data and the saved level are the same either way. Only the display changes.

View mode when a level opens

The editor opens in Render Using Portals (Like in-game), as RED does. That mode needs portals to walk through, so RED+ counts the portal faces in the level's built geometry each time a level loads:

  • Fewer than four portal faces: RED+ switches the view to Render Everything, because the portal renderer would draw almost none of the level. The RED+ log has a line containing set to 1 (Render Everything).
  • Four or more: RED+ leaves the mode alone. If RED+ had switched to Render Everything for an earlier level and you have not changed the mode since, RED+ puts your previous mode back. The RED+ log has a line containing view scope RESTORED.
  • No built geometry, as in a new, empty level: RED+ leaves the mode alone.

You can change the mode from the View menu at any time. RED+ decides again only when the next level loads.

To turn this off, untick Render Everything if a level has no portals in Preferences and restart RED+. RED+ then always leaves the view mode as RED has it.

The sky

View, Draw Sky (Like in-game) is on when RED+ starts, and RED+ remembers your choice for the next start.

With it on, the Free Look view draws the sky room behind Show Sky faces in Render Everything too, not only in the portal modes.

Gas regions in Free Look

The Free Look view draws the level's gas regions the way Alpine Faction 1.4 draws them in the game, with each region's colour and density.

  • A gas region you hide in the editor is not drawn. The game still draws it. The RED+ log has a line containing hidden in the editor are not drawn here.
  • RED+ draws the first 32 gas regions in the level, as the game does.
  • If RED+ saves levels below RFL version 304, which Preferences does not offer, it draws no gas regions: the game reads gas regions only from version 304 on.
  • Gas regions need the Direct3D 11 renderer. The fallback renderer draws none.

To turn gas regions off, untick Show gas regions in Free Look, as in the game in Preferences. It applies at once.

As in the game

  • Water waves move at the game's speed, whatever the editor's frame rate.
  • Meshes switch to their lower-detail models at the same distances as in the game.
  • Ambient sounds: the outer range sphere shows the distance the game plays the sound to.
  • Texture movers: a face with a texture mover does not scroll in the editor. RED+ leaves its texture coordinates as you set them, so the level saves them unchanged.
  • Placed meshes are lit with a preview taken from the baked lightmap under them.

The selection colour

Selected brush color: in Preferences sets the colour of the selection. It colours selected brushes, the icons of selected objects, the bounding shape of a selected mesh object, and selected meshes, bags, notes, coronas, Suns and weather regions.

Decals

Decals do not flicker against the face under them as you move.

Face Properties in Render Using Portals

Render Using Portals (Like in-game) draws the built copy of each face, not the brush face you edit. When you click OK in Face Properties, RED+ copies the settings you changed, for example Show Sky, Mirrored, Full Bright, Full Dark, Emits Light or the smoothing groups, to every built copy of that face.

The change shows at once, on detail brushes too. You do not need to rebuild geometry first.

Spot lights

A spot light whose field of view is over 180 degrees has a drawing of its own. See Spot lights.

What is drawn, and when

  • In Render Current Room Only and Render Using Portals, the Free Look view leaves out placed meshes and objects that stand only in rooms the camera cannot reach through portals. Something that is in no room is always drawn. The other views draw everything.
  • While Light Properties or Ambient Sound Properties is open, the viewports redraw when you change a value in the dialog, and otherwise once a second.
  • While another program is in front of the editor, the editor draws at most four frames a second. RED+'s own windows in front do not count. The RED+ log has a line containing editor in the background: frames limited to 4 per second when this starts, and one containing editor in front again when it stops.
  • While you fly the Free Look view, the other views are redrawn about twice a second. They catch up within a quarter of a second after the camera stops.
  • When a level opens, RED+ loads all its placed meshes before the viewports draw, so the meshes appear together.

Good to know

  • RED+ switches to the fallback renderer only when d3d8to11.dll itself cannot be loaded.
  • Command-line switches bring back RED's own behaviour for several of these. See Command-line switches.