Quickly Blocking Out A Level - How?

Questions & Answers
1

I’d like to use Unity to quickly flesh out game ideas, but one problem is that I am constantly wanting a building laid out for a prototype level. Problem is, doing this using Unity primitives is dull and long-winded.

How do you do it?

Tonight I built a system that creates levels from primitives using int arrays. Here’s a snippet from the highest level:

int[][] array = {
			new int[]{1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1},
			new int[]{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1},
			new int[]{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1},
			new int[]{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1},
			new int[]{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1},
			new int[]{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1},
			new int[]{1,4,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,4,0,0,0,0,0,0,1},
			new int[]{1,1,1,0,0,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,0,1},
			new int[]{1,4,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,4,0,0,0,0,0,0,1},
			new int[]{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1},
			new int[]{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1},
			new int[]{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1},
			new int[]{1,0,0,0,3,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,3,0,2,0,1},
			new int[]{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1},
			new int[]{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1},
			new int[]{1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1},
			new int[]{1,4,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,4,0,0,0,0,0,0,1},
			new int[]{1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1}};
		BuildingGenerator.setPlayerObject(playerObject);
		BuildingGenerator.addFromArray(this, 10, 2, 10, array, 5);

From that I get something like this: http://i.imgur.com/CALNm.png

1 is solid wall, 3 is a block plinth, 2 is the character start, 4 is lights, etc.

Which is fine, but because this is generated at runtime I can’t do fine detail (like adding small game objects, or playing with AI entities) or fiddle with the level pre-running it. Which defeats the object somewhat. Any suggestions?

2

if I am hearing you right basically you would like to be able to save the state of the scene during runtime so you can mess with it in the editor right?

run scene so all objects exist.

Pause scene

select all objects in the hierarchy view, all the temporary objects that exist but will go away. Pretty much take the first object and select it then HOLD SHIFT and click on the last object. That will select everything you can also HOLD CONTROL and click on objects.

holding control allows you to select multiple objects. if your holding it the objects you selected prior are not un-selected.

right click copy

press play again to end the scene

paste into the editor

YAY!!!

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