Installating and running ehed

Installing ehed

On unix, decompress and untar the ehed source distribution:

gzip -d -c ehed.tar.gz | tar xvf -

On Windows95 or NT systems:

unzip -d ehed.zip

The ehed distribution includes the JDK1.1.5 compiled .class files for ehed and supporting libraries, so you shouldn't have to recompile anything unless you're using an earlier version of the JDK. In the ehed root directory, there is an initialization file, .ehedrc, that needs to be set up before running ehed. It contains the following lines:

ehwtrcLocation C:\Program Files\eh\ehwt\ ehwtHomeLocation C:\Program Files\eh\ehwt\home\

These should match the corresponding ehwt directories:

ehwtrcLocation should point to the directory containing ehwt's .ehwtrc file
ehwtHomeLocation should point to ehwt's world cache directory

NOTE: the directories specified should end with a directory separator (\ or /)

Running ehed

In the ehed root directory (or from elsewhere, if the ehed directory is in your CLASSPATH), simply type:

java ehed

This should result in ehed's main window being displayed:

ehed_start.gif (13735 bytes)
The left pane of the main window displays a list of the worlds found in the world cache. The right pane displays an overhead view of the world currently being edited i.e. the world selected in the left pane. The bottom pane displays a scrollable list of error, warning, and informational messages. When ehed starts up, it reads the contents of the world cache directory and creates a row in the left pane for each world (subdirectory) it finds. It then reads the contents of the .ehwtrc file and looks for any addworld entries, which point to information specifying DNS host/port and character/password info for the corresponding world. If there is no addworld entry for a world found in the world cache, the host/port and character/password values can be specified for the world by double-clicking the row in the left pane and filling in the dialog.

NOTE: this information is not saved between editing sessions. DNS host/port and character/password info must be specified in order to submit editing changes to the corresponding world.

To edit a world, click on the world name in the left pane. The world will be loaded the first time it is chosen, and displayed in the right pane for editing. Rooms, exits (tunnels between rooms), and portals (regions leading to other worlds) can be added to and removed from a world. Rooms can be moved (which causes attached exits and portals to be automatically moved along) and any room, exit, or portal can have its properties edited (by double-clicking and entering values in the resulting dialog).

NOTE: Currently only rooms, exits and portals can be added; nothing can be removed; also there is no undo.

ehed, as a fundamentally 2-D editing tool, is designed to allow the addition of rooms to a world only by importing structures previously created outside ehed (in VRML or eh's native format), on the theory that 3rd party tools are better at creating and editing 3-D objects than any 2-D tool, including ehed. Once a room is imported, it can be moved and connected to other rooms or linked to other worlds by creating portals. Note that connections between rooms (exits) and portals can be created only via ehed - there is no capability or need to import these structures. Currently, rooms can be imported in VRML and ehwt formats. (See the documentation for vrml2eh for details on what constitutes a valid VRML structure for eh) Once a change or set of changes to a world is made, those changes can be submitted to the world server.

NOTE: Currently, to submit changes, you need to first connect to the world using Edit|Connect, then submit the changes using Edit|Submit.

New rooms and exits are first created on the world server, then any drawing information or other data associated with the new items are attached to the objects created there.

Examples

Adding a VRML room and connecting it to an existing room

Here's a snapshot of what the room we'll be adding a new room and connecting exit to looks like before we start:

ehwt_start.gif (24323 bytes)

Load and display the world you want to edit by clicking on the world name in the left pane. (eh-west_11111 in this case)

Import the room you want to add into the selected world:

	select the Edit\|Import VRML Room menu item in the dialog box, choose the VRML world file to import (angled.vrml in this case):
	A dialog box allowing you to edit the properties of the imported room is displayed. At minimum, you need to enter a name for the new room, needed in order to create the corresponding room object on the MOO.

The new room will most likely be initially positioned somewhere other than where you really want it. To move the room, drag it while pressing the 'r' key. (You can move the world by holding down the 'w' key and dragging any part of the world.)
after_import.gif (12700 bytes)

Now connect the new room to an existing room:

	To connect two rooms together, you'll be selecting a wall from each room, each of which will have a doorway carved into it leading to the other room via a tunnel (exit) that will be generated by the editor.
	Select a wall from the first room. Create a vertex on the wall marking one side of the doorway by pressing the ALT key while clicking on the point of the wall you wish to create the vertex at. A dialog box asking for a name for the vertex will pop up. Enter a name for the vertex (vertex1 in this case).
	Create a second vertex marking the other side of the doorway (vertex2 in this case).
	Now repeat using a wall on the other room (you can use the same vertex names for the other room; the only requirement is that you don't use the same name more than once for a particular room).
	Now click somewhere where there is nothing in order to make sure there is nothing currently selected
	Holding down the Shift key, select the four vertices you just created, making sure nothing else is selected
	Now select the Edit\|Add Exit menu item to bring up the Exit properties dialog. The wall heights shown in the dialog are calculated to give you the maximum possible height for the new tunnel taking into account the floor and ceiling levels of the rooms you're going to connect. You can change these if you want, but if you choose a ceiling height higher than the lower ceiling height of the two rooms or if you choose a floor height lower than the highest floor height of the two rooms, your exit won't display correctly when rendered by ehwt. Likewise, ehed will make a texture choice for you for the floor, ceiling and wall textures of the new tunnel, based on the connecting rooms, so you don't need to change these either, unless you want to. You do need to specify both exit specifiers, however, and the Browse... button next to each of these fields will show you a list of common choices. These will be the commands you type in the MOO to travel between the rooms, and are necessary for exit creation on the MOO.
	Press OK, and the exit will be created and will show up in the editing pane, if all went well.

You're now ready to submit your changes:

First, open up an connection to the MOO by selecting Edit|Connect. This should cause some activity in ehed's message pane.

Now, submit the changes by selecting Edit|Submit. This should also cause activity in the message pane. You may want to have a text connection to the world you're editing open in addition, so you can see any messages generated by the editing session e.g. room xxx created, exit xxx created, etc. At this point, the rooms and exits you created in the editor should have corresponding objects present in the MOO, complete with drawing information.
text_output.gif (3480 bytes)

The final step in making your newly created rooms and exits available to an ehwt client is to set up the adjacent rooms list for the room you added as well as the room you connected it to.

	In order for a room to be rendered by the ehwt client, all rooms within line of sight of any point in that room must be downloaded along with that room. Usually this means rooms directly connected to it, but may also include rooms further away (some rooms that might not appear to be visible from any point in the room may actually be, and if not present, can cause rendering problems, so it's better to be safe). So, each room that was modified as part of adding an exit needs to have its adjacent rooms property set to the list of rooms conceivably adjacent to it.
	This is done by double-clicking on each affected room and setting its adjacent rooms list. The rooms available in the world are listed on the left-hand listbox in the bottom of the room properties dialog. The rooms you want to include in the adjacent rooms list appear in the right-hand listbox, and you move rooms between the two lists using the selection buttons between the lists.
	If you don't remember which rooms correspond to which room numbers, toggle the View\|Show Names menu item in ehed's main frame.

Once you've set up the adjacent rooms list, you can again submit the changes to the world server. The room name and description can also be set in the room properties dialog.

The reason you want to leave setting the adjacent rooms list until after you've created your rooms and exits is that the room ids used in the adjacent rooms list aren't available until after the rooms and exits are created.

You should now be able to connect to the world server and see your new rooms and exits!

Here's a snapshot of the same room after the new room and exit are added. Walking through the new exit gets you to the new room:

ehwt_after_new_room.gif (24179 bytes)

Adding a portal to an existing room

A portal is simply a doorway to another world. When your avatar enters the region surrounding the door, it is transported to that world. To build a portal, you need to specify the DNS name or IP address and port of the world you'll be transported to, the room number within that world of the room you'll be entering, and the name of the door within that room that you'll be entering. ehed will supply you with the worlds, rooms, and doors it knows about, but you can also specify these manually if they don't exist in your cache or if they don't exist yet.

Here's a snapshot of what the room we'll be adding a new portal to looks like before we start:

ehwt_before_portal.gif (25250 bytes)

Create the 4 vertices that will make up the boundaries of the portal:

Select a wall of the room you want to create a portal in. Create a vertex on the wall marking one side of the doorway by pressing the ALT key while clicking on the point of the wall you wish to create the vertex at. A dialog box asking for a name for the vertex will pop up. Enter a name for the vertex (vertex1 in this case).

Create a second vertex marking the other side of the doorway (vertex2 in this case).

Now create two vertices on the side of the chosen wall outside the room. Press the ALT key while clicking to create these (these vertices don't need names)

Now click somewhere where there is nothing in order to make sure there is nothing currently selected

Holding down the Shift key, select the four vertices you just created, making sure nothing else is selected

Now select the Edit|Add Portal menu item to bring up the Portal properties dialog:
portal_properties.gif (10281 bytes)

The bottom and top heights shown in the dialog are calculated to give you the maximum possible height for the new portal taking into account the floor and ceiling levels of the room. You should probably change the top height to something less than the maximum, so the resulting doorway doesn't take up the entire height of the wall. ehed will make a texture choice for you for the floor, ceiling and wall textures of the new portal, based on the connecting rooms, so you don't need to change these either, unless you want to.

The new portal you're creating will have a door on the far end, which you should give a descriptive name. This is the name you'll give if you create a portal in another world and want to connect it to this room and door in this world.

In the To World: field, specify the name of the world you want to connect the portal to. The Browse... button will show you a list of the worlds ehed knows about. Choose one of those if applicable. If the world you want to connect to isn't in that list, use the Specify Host... button to specify the DNS name or IP address and port of the world you want to connect to. NOTE: don't directly enter the world name in the text box - use the dialog boxes, which will guarantee well-formed names.

In the To Room: field, specify the room within the chosen world to connect to. If the world you're connecting to is known to ehed, a list of available rooms is shown in the Browse... dialog; otherwise, just enter the room directly.

In the To Door: field, specify the name of the door within the chosen world and room you want to be placed at when you enter that world through the new portal. If the world and room you're connecting to is known to ehed, a list of available doors is shown in the Browse... dialog; otherwise, just enter the door name directly.

NOTE: In this case, the world I specified isn't actually a remote world, but the home world on my local machine, which I previously created a portal in (using the File|Save options). The home world's only room is defined to be 0. When I enter the new portal, it simply returns me to my home world.

Press Enter. You should now have a new portal in your chosen room:
after_portal.gif (14575 bytes)

If you need to change the host and port the portal connects to, or the door texture, just double-click on the door and change the fields in the dialog that appears:
edit_door.gif (35847 bytes)

You're now ready to submit your changes:

	First, open up an connection to the MOO by selecting Edit\|Connect. This should cause some activity in ehed's message pane.
	Now, submit the changes by selecting Edit\|Submit. This should also cause activity in the message pane.

Here's a snapshot of the room after the new portal was added. Walking through the portal gets you to the specified world.
ehwt_after_portal.gif (25225 bytes)