rarara Level Tools Addon Ideas

Level Tools
What is it?
- A way of being able to quickly construct levels and scenes in Blender, including the ability to quickly make and target assets for the Blender Game Engine or Unity (with the Unity Export Addon that I also want to make).

Walk/Fly Mode (3D View Item)
Activate Fly Mode (Shortcut) - Toggles whether Fly Mode is on, which uses the WSAD keys to fly around the scene, with the mouse controlling the camera orientation.
Activate Walk Mode (Shortcut) - Uses a drop down menu to set what type of collision mesh you’d like to use for the operation.
Generate Collision Meshes - Automatically generates and stores a collision mesh for the objects selected.
Show Collision Meshes - Toggles the ability to view the collision meshes in the scene as a wireframe.


Object Tools (3D View Item)
A series of tools used to identify and mark objects.  Objects will also have different marks in the viewport once used.

Terrain - Define an object to be used as the base ‘world’ terrain, which most surface objects will snap and conform to.
Surface - A texture-tiled, optimised, BSP-like object with automatic mesh collision.  Can use a mesh or ‘vertex area’ as a boolean operation to cut the surface to a specific shape.  Mainly used for surface areas such as room flooring, and other square and irregularly shaped surface areas.  Can also use another surface or terrain object as a basis to snap or conform to, to make alignment and positioning easier.
Surface Curve - Identical to the previous object, apart from the fact that the shape is defined by a curve.  If the Array modifier gets an upgrade, segments in the mesh can be defined.  Surface Curve is identical to the Curve Object from the Array Sketch tools, and utilises those tools.  The surface can also be cut using a vertex string to create irregularities without interfering with it’s edit ability.  Useful for walls, roads, pathways, and other linear, repeatable environment objects
Static/Dynamic Object - Object groups that have collision, determined by Collision Generation tools.  Dynamic Objects are affected by rigid body physics and gravity, whereas Static Objects just have collision.

Position Tools (3D View Item)
Snap to Hook/Curve - A new snapping option in Blender that allows you to snap the hook of one object to the hook of other objects in the scene, or along a curve.  This would enable the quick alignment and perfect positioning of assets that otherwise would be difficult to position, using Hooks or Curves as pre-placed guides.

(Hook) Rotate using Hook Normals - If hooks have normals, this toggle rotates the object being translated to match the opposite of the normal of the hook being snapped to, so in theory the two objects being snapped together will lay flush with each other, despite the angle and rotation, without any extra tinkering.

(Everything here is actually, already inside Blender, although all 3 of these tools are still needed, to ensure that the transform tries to make the surface of one object match against another, without clipping)

Raycast Transform - Translates the object while trying to project its translation using the viewport normal, until it hits a surface.  Uses meshes to make the ray cast.
>>> Mouse Wheel - Control the distance the item is projected from the 3D Viewport
>>> Esc - Cancels any transform
>>> Click Release/Click/Enter - Confirm Transform.
(Raycast) Match Surface Normals - Based on the normal setting, the object’s orientation will match the target surface normal of the Raycast Transform.
(Raycast) Axis Alignment - Chooses what axis to use in matching the target surface normal.

Incremental Snap Shortcut - What it says… :P
Set Increment - Changes the internal unit increment being snapped to.
90/45º Snaps - Snaps rotations at a 90 or 45 degree angle, suitable for particular game assets, as well as positioning using Snap to Hook.


Object Library
(hopefully Project Gooseberry will make this null and void.  PLEASE MAKE IT SO! :C)


Terrain Tools (3D View Item)
Select Terrain Map - Selects the mesh to use as a terrain map

Shrinkwrap Offset - Determines the offset the shrink-wrap modifier performs in relation to the object surface
Shrinkwrap Base Threshold - Determines the zone from the lowest vertexes on the Z axis of the object to be selected as the target for the Shrinkwrap modifier.
Shrinkwrap Object to Terrain - Constrains the base vertexes of the selected objects to the terrain floor, to ensure that no matter how they are modified, the object will always merge into the terrain, avoiding any need to remodel elements if moved.

Auto Update - If any settings are changed while this is active, any selected object will also see the changes.


Collision Tools (3D View Item)
This actually seems well suited to a modifier of its own, which at the bottom of the stack will generate the collision of the mesh based on set criteria.

Set Mesh Generation - Uses a drop down menu to set what type of collision mesh you’d like to use for the operation.
Generate Collision Meshes - Automatically generates and stores a collision mesh for the objects selected.
Show Collision Meshes - Toggles the ability to view the collision meshes in the scene as a wireframe.

+Texture Atlas (Render Panel Item)
Includes that awesome Texture Atlas addon for preparing UVs for multiple objects on one map, but hopefully with bug fixes.

Map Baking (Render Panel Item)
Used to assemble an army of ovens to prepare your baked goods :3

Map Suffixes - Assign the suffixes used to identify each map type.
Map Bake Location - Designated folder path for baking.
Save UVs - Toggle for saving UV Layouts.

Target Maps at Resolution - Renders all maps at a specified resolution despite how they may have been set beforehand.
Resolution X+Y - X and Y axis resolution target.

File Format - Decide the file format to bake and save every texture as.
(File Specific Options) - Brings up any file specific options such as compression.

Bake Maps - Starts baking maps for all objects in the scene, and saves them out to the specific file location, while also creating individual folders for each model whos textures are being baked and saved.
Bake Lightmaps - Bakes all lightmaps, based on Lightmap UV channels and the lighting settings inside Blender.