Worlds Adrift Island Creator Hints

Some hints for the prospective island builder who likes this game so much that an intention appeared to give many hours to the addicting adventure of island building. You have been warned.

THANKS

I used various sources and infos. BIG thanks go to the Worlds Adrift Island Creator team.
My special thanks (in the order I got their info) go to Synovus, Lexhy, CATman4L, Areima, Sethodine, Cailco, quick, Double Chocolate Chip Node, Ryuujin, frutpunchsamuria, Fenix, Sevenless, bossaMalford, Eternz, Jerodar, UgLY, Node a la mode, Lord Smooze, Bastion, NovaAzrael, Cloud, DivineEvil, Warlord2150, Wolkenreiter, MisterFizz, Teras, Node, Bossa Julia, Davemane42, Panzercult, coolwearm, Cora, NoodleBean, wolfinabox, Spacebar Jazz, Silentium, MonocleKitteh, Jaxcalop, Cooked Bacon, aga00, and others whose nyms I don't remember at the moment.

INTRODUCTION

NOTE: these hints are partly based on older Island Creator versions. They strive to be relevant to the current version 1.84.

This is my personal view. The Island Creator has many aspects - surely I cannot cover them all here. So there will be things missing. Constructive feedback (suggestions, hints, corrections &c) to improve this text is welcome as long as I play this game.

ABBREVIATONS

WA Worlds Adrift
IC Worlds Adrift Island Creator
LMB left mouse button
LMC left mouse-click
MMB middle mouse button
RMB right mouse button
RMC right mouse-click
WIP work in progress

USEFUL KEYS

generally:
Alt+LMB held rotates the view
Alt+MMB pans the view
Alt+RMB zooms out and in
F2 toggles the user interface - great for screenshots
How to use arrows for changing the time of day while in F2 for screenshots, see section TIPS & TRICKS 2.

in terrain mode:
Ctrl + D duplicate the selected generator

in sculpt mode:
Ctrl + LMB held together switches between the modes carve and add
in terrain flatten mode:
shift click (LMB) sets the flatten plane to the Y value of the surface you click
ctrl click (LMB) sets the flatten plane tangential to a surface

in material mode:
Ctrl + LMB held together and moved erases the color that is selected to paint

A and D cycle through the Material and Edit modes. Very useful for adjusting directly after placing an object: A ("adjust"), select the just placed object and adjust, then D ("directly") to the next one to place and so on ...

in edit mode:
RMC move mouse to middle of screen
LMC select object
Shift-LMC add object to selected group
Ctrl-LMC deselect object from selected group
Ctrl-D Duplicate the selected object(s)
Ctrl-Z (Z alone also works) Undo (be sure to set the UNDO BUFFER to maximum in the
Options under Sound & System)
Ctrl-X (X alone also works) Redo (what was undone before)
W switches to move object
E switches to rotate object
R switches to resize object
when in rotate mode: hold LMB in the middle of the ellipses to rotate all axes by moving the mouse
F brings the selected object into focus (most of the time) so that you can rotate around it with Alt-LMB. If nothing is selected, the view zooms out and shows the whole island
To move the camera, hold down RMB and use WASD for horizontal movements forward, left, back, and right, also E and Q for up and down, respectively. With shift held down, the speed is higher,
M cycles through the the magnets (see section Magnets)
holding RMB you can move the camera (useful in tight spots!):
Q down, E up, W forward, S back, A left, D right (velocity is higher when holding shift simultaneously)
in edit paint mode, space bar toggles between options visible / hidden.
space bar toggles visibility of options

in player mode:
F1 toggles the controls (some functions not documented here)
F2 toggle the help display (you can't use I when the UI is hidden by F2)
F5 toggle the grapple trick display (move the mouse when flying in-between two grapples)
WASD move forward, left, back, right
WD, SD, SA, or WA held together move diagonally
Shift-W run forward
Alt-WASD slowly walk
ctrl-WASD crouch
W, then ctrl-W roll forward
C gesture menu
F toggles the light
G fall down and stand up again
I toggles the health bar when the UI is visible
Q goes to climb mode (WASD applies in this mode, too)
R return to start point - useful e.g. as rescue from falling
V toggles view between 1st and 3rd person view (doesn't work in IC 1.84)
X toggles between standing and sitting
Spacebar jump
_ (underline) dance (on a German keyboard you need to use the left shift button)
Esc leave player mode
RMC grapple / un-grapple
with grapple rope on:
hold Shift to reel in rope
hold Ctrl to give rope
How to move the grappling direction (i.e. right arm of the avatar) without moving the camera direction:
1) hold down the shift button
2) hold down RMB, choose direction
3) release RMB to grapple

in spectator camera mode:
WASD move forward, left, back, right
WD, SD, SA, or WA held together move diagonally
Spacebar pan up
Ctrl pan down
X tap once or more to move faster
Z tap once or more to move slower

BE CLEAR

Some people make a sketch on paper, some jot down keywords what the new island shall have, and some have it all perfectly in their mind or do something else altogether.

Whatever creative type you are: be clear what you want (and don't want).

- What idea, feeling, concept, experience or whatever do you want to convey to the player?
- One single island, a handful, an archipelago?
- One single or several different zone types? (style, e.g. foliage, ground, types of buildings ...)
- Balance of foliage and buildings
- Few ( and thus probably very rewarding loots) or many (each less rewarding)?
- Create your own objects and/or mix in objects by others? (see below)

RESEARCH

If you want to create something specific, the internet can be a big help.
I like to browse images a lot. Or you might like to read stories, play games, or view videos.
Even if you already know all you want to do, some minutes of research might enhance your inspiration.
Or just browse the workshop. Search for keywords, islands with names similar to the one you want to create. Look at islands that you like. What specifically do you like about these? What are the tricks of the creators?
Brian Eno's Oblilque Strategies were originally conceived for music, but they also can be an aid in 'island composition' http://www.rtqe.net/ObliqueStrategies/
Here is what others find memorable http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/browse/?appid=271920&browsesort=trend&section=collections

DESIGN

Read the main menu points from left to right and you have the typical sequence of how to build an island (except that I recommend to do post processing before sculpting):
1. Build Terrain
2. Post Process
3. Sculpt
4. Material (paint surface texture)
5. Place Objects
6. Test with Play Mode

However, in practice you will use steps 3, 4, 5, and 6 out of order when you are doing detailed work.

A detailed guide for cave building https://www.worldsadrift.com/forums/topic/island-creator-artistic-guides-tips-and-tricks-collaborative-project/

In case you have not seen the video by the WA creators, have a look below.
The video is very compressed, all in only 6 minutes. I had to watch it several times to get the most of it. There are also many community created videos on the net.

https://www.youtube.com/watchv=XJ4Sxqj4h08

If you'd like a longer good video, this one about version 1.29 by Lexhy is circa 75 minutes long. It covers the major aspects in more detail:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2Ckx92ItTY

PLAN AHEAD

For a quick try, a plan is not necessary because you have the red bar in the top row that tells you how much of your polygon allotment you have already used.

If you have hit 50%, consider if you can still accomplish what you wanted. Maybe you want to reconsider your design and go back some steps.

From my experience, totally unplanned work leads to common results. These islands may also be good for the game, but not so interesting to visit.

But even an unplanned work can be refined. Let it alone for some days. Then look at it with fresh eyes, a new idea may arise or an old idea become clearer. Some islands are done in a day, some islands need weeks (real time, not edit time) - it depends.

If you have a grand idea, it is advisable to plan your polygon use approximately.

There are at least 1.6 million polygons available for one island. But I generally calculate with a million and leave the rest as safety margin.

Every object in your inventory has a tiny polygon count number below its name in the list - that's how expensive they are to use.

For example, a Big Bush 1 or a Straight Green Tree are cheap. But a Saborian Large Building 14 is very expensive: a single one of it already gobbles up about 12% of your polygon space!

object polygons
Mural Block 08 192
Big Bush 01 252
Loot Container 02 906
Loot Ruin Pile 24 1048
Straight Green Tree 2778
Small Building 1 11740
Large Building 14 190081

How I found out how many polygons are 100% (version 1.51). Allow 2% for the default random island. 1566708 polygons from 26 Large Building 06 (60258 polygons each) plus 20414 polygons from 1 Large Building 12 plus 29888 polygons from 8 Small Building 3 (3736 polygons each) = 100% or 1617010 polygons. Future versions of the IC may allow more polygons as this has been altered before.

I normally do not do many calculations but I have a general idea of the balance between greenery and ruins that I want to achieve. I test the objects by placing them. If the complexity bar advances too much too fast, I reconsider my design.

For example, let's consider you have three islands in a little archipelago. You have begun with island one and already have hit 50% complexity. If the other two islands shall have as many objects as island one, you should reduce island one's polygon count to at least 30% or better 25% to keep some maneuvering space (10-25%) for changes (and last-minute improvement ideas :-) when all three islands are done.

I reduce less important things for the ones that I want. E.g., if I want to build a big building, I cut on less important objects, foliage, trees, and grass patches (and use grass paint instead).

TERRAIN

An initial size of 2-4 % complexity (land and paint only) is sufficient for most projects. Unless you want something really vast ...

The space for the island is limited.
Try to push the initial half ellipsoid in one direction - you will hit "boundaries" that show up in red at +500 and -500 in X and Z (red and blue arrows), and at +400 and -400 in Y (up and down, green arrow).

It is advisable not to create near these "boundaries" (see below under Objects and Groups).

The sun rises in the east (-Z, blue), goes through the zenith (+Y, green), and sets in the west (+Z, blue). The moons always stand approximately in the south (-X, red). Hence the moon shadow points almost northward (+X, red). Mnemonic: RGB = XYZ.

NOTE: The compass readings in WA are different: A compass in WA will show the sun rising in the south and setting in the north. The nightly WA moon is always in the west. If your island is dependent on orientation to the sun, direction of shadows etc, don't worry about directions. The sun in the IC and the sun in the official WA game is in the same place. Islands that are loaded into the game are oriented in the same direction. It's just the WA compass that is different from our familiar compass.

The mass painting is switched off by default during terrain generation because switching on the mass painting (i.e. automatic material assignment) will slow down your experimentation with terrain creation.

If your mass paintig is on, uncheck 'use in mass-paint' for all layers except the base layer. The program will still do mass painting, but only one layer. Saves unnecessary waiting time.

Conveniently, you can save material settings. I have a set "Fast Experimentation" that has only the base rock layer in it: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=933468838

Try to chain generators with different parameters. Like cutting a completely smooth dome out of a rocky island base:
Each generator has a checkbox to 'ignore noise'

In terrain generation the additive (+) and subtractive (-) generators are executed from top to bottom of the list. For example, you have a base (+b) on which you set another generator (+) from which you subtract with a third generator (-). The order is +b + -. The - subtracts from both previous generators. But then you decide that the base should not be affected by the -. Now you can change the order from +b + - to + - +b in this way: use delete (by the waste bin) on the +b. Confirm with OK. Then use Ctrl-Z.
In this manner you can put any generator from the list at the end.

If there is a voxel that is visible from one side but invisible from the other, FIX SEAMS NOW (under post-process). Then save and reload the island. Carve away unwanted terrain. Repeat as necessary. However, if you are near 100% complexity this might not work :-( Information in this paragraph is based on IC version 1.40)

Water

Water in the IC 1.84 (released 2019-03-15) means standing water (ponds, lakes, canals, &c)
It does not mean flowing water or falling water. So, no rivers or waterfalls.

You can adjust the water level in 4 meter steps only, not finer. This is a hard limit that is caused by the voxel size. So water level height must be a multiple of four, for example -112, -16, 0, 28 meter in Y position coordinate.

If going for a special design, this quantization in water level forces one to design water first.
There is a limit to the size a single water volume can be, but the IC will tell you when you get to it, so do experiment. You can have four different water volumes at maximum.

POST PROCESS

I recommend to do FIX SEAMS NOW only at the beginning, directly after terrain creation.
You can fix chasms that might appear later by the sculpting ADD tool.

In case of reappearing voxels that are only visible from one side, repeatedly eliminating these with the sculpt tool CARVE helped me (cycle: carve away, save, reload). (Information in this paragraph is based on IC version 1.40)

Do use SMOOTH ALL only once after terrain creation. Do not use SMOOTH ALL later.

I recommend this because smoothing later can mess up alignment of placed objects with the ground, cut off narrow tunnels, change essential hand-crafted land forms and who knows what else ...

My taste is to set REMOVE ORPHANS to maximum voxels. But you might just want to have all this litte "rocks" floating around - then do not use this at all.

SCULPT

You can carve, add, and flatten.

Flatten is useful for creating smooth horizontal planes that are good to build on.

The flatten option SELECT FLATTEN PLANE is especially useful if you want a slightly terraced slope. You can handle the plane like an object in edit mode - rotate (E) and move (W) will work.

Move the camera down under the flatten plane and it'll flatten from below (e.g. a cave ceiling). You can also shift LMC to set the flatten plane to the Y value of the surface you click. Or use ctrl LMC to set the flatten plane tangential to a surface.

MATERIAL

Material in the IC sense is painting a texture on the surface of the island.

Counterintuitively, Layer 1 is the base layer. The base layer is really the layer that lies at the bottom, below all other layers. Layers 2, 3, etc are painted above the base layer.

Experiment with the layer settings (tool sign on the right of the layer name) and see what happens to a layer that is already painted on the island.

Try this: Paint a piece of land with all layers. See what happens if you use the erase tool. Remember that the erase tool is erasing only the selected layer. By changing the settings of one layer you can change all surfaces painted with it.

Setting material (i.e. painting) of smooth planes that were created with the flatten tool may be difficult at times. In that case, use the scuplt tool: do a little carve and/or add to make the ground less level. Then the colored texture (material) will be accepted more readily.

Material sets can be saved and shared. This comes in handy when you want to mass-paint a newly created island in your or your friend's style.

Note that only layers 2, 3,and 4 support dynamic grass.

OBJECTS & GROUPS

After you select several objects in edit mode with Shift-LMC or with a frame (hold and drag with LMB), the option convert to group appears. After LMC on that, you can save the new group under a new name. The group will appear in your custom group folder. Before you save, choose a visual angle of the group that will look good as the icon that will be generated from it.

Be careful when using the frame to select. Objects that are hidden from view might not be included. Or worse, you might include far away objects (e.g. trees) that you do not want in the group. I rarely use the frame and select "by hand" most of the time,

Beware: When using groups near the space boundary, you might push objects outside of the boundaries. Then they are stuck there forever! (Information in this paragraph is based on IC version 1.40)

When operating much with groups (e.g. duplicating), be not surprised when groups or parts of them disappear. (Information in this paragraph is based on IC version 1.40)

Always choose a place and view position where there is no chance of including something else, when using the blue selection rectangle (e.g. foliage or rocks in the background).

To mirror an object, use the scale widget (R key, then hold LMB and move the mouse left) and make the object implode and come out flipped. This will then show a negative scale factor that can be adjusted with mouse movements. Rotate the object into upward position.

Saving big (40000 polygons and more) groups that were made partly or completely from mirrored groups and/or objects, I learned the following: If I used that saved group later, all the parts that were mirrored came out un-mirrored. I now follow this workaround: after grouping, ungroup. This dissolves all sub-groups. Then deselect, group again and save. This has worked so far... (Information in this paragraph is based on IC version 1.66)

CUSTOM GROUPS

Your combinations of standard objects are called custom groups. These are collected in the folder of the same name.

There are objects of other players that you can use for your island. Use the steam menu on the top right for Sharing (see below).

A great collection of custom groups subdivided by category (IC 1.66): http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1302105462

The following is kept for technical insight and to honor the pioneers. This is how it was done before IC 1.40:

The guide by CATman4L:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=870330440
Objects can be downloaded here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B9UiupV70-9EaUFFejQ4MnBHOEE

The Object Groups that you create by the "CONVERT TO GROUP" and "SAVE TO DISK" are saved to your hard disk (and, if activated, to the Steam cloud. However, the cloud may cause trouble - more on that below).

Object groups created by you reside in the folder
C:\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\LocalLow\Bossa Studios\Worlds Adrift _ Island Creator\GroupData

Each object group is a directory that gets the name you gave it when you created it. So be careful not to create the same name twice. That can cause trouble.

For example you have an object group "Arc Stone".
Then the directory Arc Stone must contain exactly two files:
- group.json
- thumbnail.png

group.json contains all the polygon data and the name "Arc Stone" at the beginning.

thumbnail.png is the image you see in the object list (in the blue folder Custom Groups).

If the Steam cloud is activated, the GroupData directory is saved to the cloud. Errors can occur
- when you save object groups too fast one after another. If your internet connection is slow, this may cause errors in the cloud database (that's what I assume from my own experience).
- when you save object groups under the same name. If I want to use the same name, I take care to first delete the old group, even though IC will ask to allow overwrite of an already existing group.

You know that there is trouble if IC doesn't start or hangs during startup. What was always the cause in my experience was a "bad" object group. There is a directory in GroupData, but it is empty or contains only one file.

My problem with the activated Steam cloud was that I did not find out how to correct the cloud data. In other words, I deleted the wrong directory in GroupData on my harddisk, but the Steam cloud happily wrote the wrong directory again on my harddisk so that I could not start IC.

The solution was to switch the Steam cloud off permanently.

Now I have empty directories in GroupData very seldom, and can correct them. Of course I regularly save my GroupData, IslandData, and MaterialData elsewhere.


Custom group list for upload VERY slow to appear: I saw a list with lots of 'Object Preset' in it - like in the image. The IC on my machine needed to run about 30 minutes, then the list appeared correctly.
With IC off, I went through the last created group directories in
"C:\Users\[YourName]\AppData\LocalLow\Bossa Studios\Worlds Adrift _ Island Creator\GroupData" and I found an empty directory. I could not delete that one, but I could copy the whole GroupData directory. Conveniently the copy did leave out the empty directory :-) Then I renamed the faulty GroupData directory to something else, and the directory copy to GroupData.
Another quick fix to this problem (worked 2019-09-11): copy the files group.json and thumbnail.png from a non-empty directory to the empty directory.

In the IC, it looks like the image below.
The blue dot shows your saved object groups
The green dot shows your subscribed groups from other people on the workshop
The black dots show the default objects included in the IC, regardless of selected culture.

If you don't see Subscribed Groups and you have subscribed to other's object groups from the workshop, you need to restart your client

TIPS & TRICKS

Add free horizontal terrains for shipyards, respawn chambers and other game props that may be added by the developers. Add trees (minimum: about 10) to be felled by the players for building material.

Don't put props hanging off of trees. When they inevitably get chopped down, it will leave the other props hanging in the air. Trees more than about 50% bigger than default can cause physics issues in-game when chopped down!

If you are going for precision, be aware that there can be rounding errors when copying and moving groups.

Do not group loot - place each one singly. Otherwise, the loot group may appear somewhere else in the WA game (WA version 2017-06-18).

Put loot in "intuitive" locations. Take into account that in WA loot is dependent on the size of the island, which means: putting down 5 databanks on a small island, still will only spawn 1. This info relates to WA alpha (before 2017-05-24)

If stairs are too awkward, use ramps. Players can use ramps of up to 45 degrees without sliding. Over 45 degrees they will slide downwards.

You can avoid the flickering on overlapping planes (it's called z-fighting) by slightly offsetting the XYZ-postion of the assets. Generally, an offset of 0.001 to 0.004 is enough. It happens when there are two pieces of geometry in exactly the same place and the rendering doesn't know what to show the player.

An asset can look different after reload of the island if you selected an asset group when placing the asset (e.g. brick, statue, sarcophagus, ...) Probaby only the asset group name is stored in the island file. On reload the IC selects randomly from the asset group.
However, if an asset of the group is selected, it remains the same on reload.

Scaling up "Loot Ruins" to big building-sized objects can be a creative challenge for you. They offer some interesting shapes that are otherwise difficult to do (particularly the round objects) and their peculiar asymmetry lets you find several useful parts from any single Loot Ruin. Dressing them up with windows, doors and decorative metal can make them look even more like genuine structures.

For large structures, voxels are generally cheaper in polygon count but the edges are less well defined.

Creating an island and setting the temperature down doesn't save that setting with the island data, they are for previewing the larger environment. All the sliders (time, wind, clouds, and temperature) are used to control things inside the creator that will exist in the game but won't be in your control.

An idea for rock and plant placement: look at real world images that are similar to the landscape you have in mind - get a feel for sizes, distances, forms, (self-) similarities.
Here another trick is told: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=920859450

At 10:45 AM the sun is in zenith. Since then the light comes straight down, this is useful for horizontal aligning by shadow.
The day length in the IC can be changed by the time speed slider in the environment menu on the right. The choices are from stop on the left to 15 seconds on the right. In the middle position the IC day is about 4 minutes real time































If you got this problem : when you create lights everything is visible but when you dig/add something half of it goes completely dark and hard to see, clear Lighting before doing terrain deformation.

It's worth noting that the lighting used in the island creator isn't quite as thorough as when bossa actually export the islands. So the quality is higher when the islands get into the game.

What helped me (before IC version 1.51):

If you ever get a "swarm of black soot", switch clouds on and off.

Blue terrain generating form visible on start, even though in object, material, post process, and spectator camera mode are on - click on sculpt.

TIPS & TRICKS 2

WARNING! Save your work before you do lighting.Two people reported IC 1.40 to freeze when writing lighting data.

If you see green numbers appearing you may have a memory problem, possibly running too many other apps parallel to the IC. The IC sometimes crashes in this situation. Save your work, exit IC, close some other apps, and restart IC.

Problem: Processing Assets gets stuck at 1134. And restart does not help. Try this: Go to your c:\Users\username\AppData\LocalLow\Bossa Studios\Worlds adrift island creator and delete the ObjectData folder, but do make sure not to mess with any other files in there, just delete ObjectData








Lost your island? If you have created and uploaded your island to steam you can download it from there. Also, on Windows, if you have a copy of the island.wai file somewhere you can put it back into the directory C:\Users\YourName\AppData\LocalLow\Bossa Studios\Worlds Adrift _ Island Creator\IslandData\NameOfIsland\ . You can rename the island by renaming its directory. IC will find it on restart.

Turrets https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/196609118520213505/355093885158162434/unknown.png

For Electric, Light, and Snare Turrets their initial pointing direction is in the Z-direction (blue arrow).

Center mode (the '4 arrows to a point' - icon in the top center of the edit screen) has a useful influence on groups of selected objects (not converted to group). When in center mode, edit actions like rotation work like the selection were converted to a group already. However, when not in center mode, you can create amazing things; e.g. arrange identical objects in a circle and play with the rotation ;-)

If you cannot open the Subscribed Groups folder, exit and restart solves the problem. That will happen if there was a connection issue with Steam. You can just open the steam workshop tab in game and see if there's any issue with your subscribed islands or front page content. If so, that's a steam workshop connection problem and the only solution is a restart.

Problem: The island creator enters box selection mode when dragging objects. Like this: https://gyazo.com/8f7098b551959384a23536ea8575ff63
Try a restart of the IC.
If that fails, take a look at your mouse drivers. A quick reinstall or unplugging/replugging the thing might fix it. Worst case scenario it might be the mouse itself. Then you need a different mouse.

(IC 1.66) Biome-only stuff shows up when you check show hidden assets. Biomes are more suggestions than hard limitations like culture-specific stuff.
However,groups that contain e.g. Saborian assets will NOT show up on Kioki islands and vice versa (even if that check mark is set).


(IC 1.66) Problem: Processing Assets gets stuck at 1134. Restart does not help. Then try this:
Go to your c:\Users\username\AppData\LocalLow\Bossa Studios\Worlds adrift island creator and delete the ObjectData folder, but do make sure not to mess with any other files in there, just delete ObjectData.


To change lighting for the best screenshot:
- build lighting
- open environment (sun behind cloud, top right)
- stop time
- change time of day a bit, then
- use right and left arrow keys: you can change time of day in 10 steps
- now F2. And the arrows will work!
- note: the up and down arrows change between the horizontal environment sliders.
- you can zoom in and out with the mouse wheel and still use the arrows, but changing the viewpoint will switch the arrows off.
(You can't do it after you've moved the view because the slider ui element that controls the day night time is no longer focussed as you have clicked the mouse. )







As of IC 1.84 the slidng door is disabled - it remains shut permanently. It only worked up to IC 1.66: As far as I know, it is something from the early development phase. Only a single asset from the Ruins (Saborian) Brick group did it: Brick Wall Doorframe 01 . When you left the play mode with the door open, the door would not react any more in that session. But you could fix this by deleting the Doorframe and restoring it with Z.

TIPS & TRICKS 3

How to have a mural with Kioki and Saborian symbol sets

This trick was found by Teras. It worked in IC 1.66.
Let's say you want Saborian symbols on a Kioki mural. Start with a Saborian mural. Use the desired symbol on the mural. Directly leave the island and load a Kioki island. Now you can use the selected symbol when editing a mural. Note: it is not shown as a transparent symbol before placing - you can't see it until you click on the mural.
This also works the other way. The Kioki symbols on Saborian murals show as bas-relief.
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How to collaborate with friends

Discuss with your collaborators: the general design idea, who does what in which order, and other technicalities, e.g. polygon space allotments for the different work packages, decision system in case of conflicting opinions etc.
Then create the first part of the island, let's call it 'Yai' (yet another island). Upload. Change visibility to Friends-only. Add the next contributor, let's name her B. B will upload the updated island under a different version name, e.g. 'Yai by B' and make it visible to friends only. Now B will add the next contributor (let's call him C) or you, whoever has to do the next work package.
Assume C is the last in the list of contributors. C will upload his work under 'Yai by C' and make it visible to friends.
Then the overall result is discussed and maybe sent through another loop of work packages.
After final adjustments, the island is uploaded as 'Yai' and made public. The intermediate islands remain Friends-only visible or are deleted.

How to see workshop files of private profiles

You can add "/myworkshopfiles/" to the url of their profile to see the workshop stuff (2018-03-25 hint by Jerodar)

Placing Loot

In WA (May 2018) Data banks and loot ruin piles will stay after being scanned. However, chests and loot containers will vanish after being looted. So when someone has already looted a chest, it will take a while before respawn (This should have changed by October 2018: Loot chest don't vanish but are empty directly after looting). Loot containers respawn randomly. And the more loot containers you place, the less loot will be in each of them. (Please correct me if I'm wrong)

How to avoid most of the purple/blue blotches after you build the lighting

Note that the light model in the IC isn't as good as the one they use once its ingame. Because of that, one can't reliably predict from the IC how it will look in WA.
Cora's advice is to keep those weird spots to a minimum, if possible. They somewhat translate into the live build. Basically, if you have them all over the place you will get "uneven" light in a live build island.
In this hour-long video, IC creator Tom Jackson explains it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7LjsabD4V4
But basically each object calculates its own light around it in an atypical fashion. If objects are not in direct global lighting it runs a funky real time lighting solution around it.
The best way Cora found to avoid those splotches is to break up big flat objects with more complexity or terrain. Or use the in-game lighting to "force" better lighting in darker areas with big assets.
Avoid drastically up-scaling assets unless they're in direct "sunlight" and you shouldn't have much issue. That means: adding more geometric noise to upscaled objects reduces the blotching.
Making a cave too small or creating a dead end can cause surface areas to refuse to light up. In that case remodel or cover it up.

TIPS & TRICKS 4

How to change screen resolution

Got to Settings (Click on the gearwheel in the lower right corner).
Choose the GRAPHICS tab. Click the checkbox for fullscreen and the resolution settings pop up. Choose the one you want from the drop-down menu. Click APPLY RESOLUTION. You may uncheck fullscreen now, if you want - you may get a weird screen but don't worry: everything will be fine as soon as you click on the 'Maximize' square (top right, left of the X)

How to submit an island to Bossa once it is complete

You just submit it to the public on steam. bossa looks through them and approves them (see chapter IS MY ISLAND IN-GAME?). You can also submit it to your friends only (you do this by marking them as co-creators on steam). The devs will see it in any case - and they might like it.

Symmetry

UgLY shows how to create symmetric forms. Experiment and figure it out! https://youtu.be/Ifp6DBKUsUM

How to measure lengths

Note the POSITION info in EDIT mode. Use the pivot of an object to mark beginning and end of the length in question. (The pivot is the point where the RGB arrows of the Move Tool originate).
If you measure along a single coordinate axis, e.g. Y (height), you can directly subtract one Y-value from the other to get the length.
Or use UgLY's method to let the IC do the difference calculation (height only): align the first object's bottom with the lower end of the height and the second object's top with the higher end of the height, Then GROUP the two objects and start the SAVE TO DISK dialog where you can read the group's size; this is the height. Do not use the pivots here because the height of the top object will be added. However, this method only works along the Y coordinate axis, because the group tool computes the maximum height along the Y coordinate axis.
For oblique lengths where more than a single coordinate differs, use either measuring-stick objects the lengths of which you know, or good old Euclidean distance computation (square root of the sum of squares of the coordinate differences).

How far reaches the grappling hook?

50 meters. However, since the avatar cannot aim directly up, a 50 m high ceiling cannot be grappled. If you want the ceiling to be grappled, put it at 48.6 m.

How far can the avatar jump?

Measured for a horizontal gap (approximate values).
with normal running (W) : 7.29 meter
with fast running (shift-W) : 9.89 meter

TIPS & TRICKS 5

Quadcopter FPV Mode

You need to connect a controller for this.

Here is the introduction for IC 2.00 (April 2020) by the master himself:

This mode was a Secret Easter Egg in IC 1.84. It worked like this:
1 Quadcopter mode:
2 click the runner icon for Play Mode
3 ctrl + click where you want the quadcopter to start
4 calibrating hint(F1 configure axes):
5 First move the joystick of the axis to maximum (only the one you want to assign), then click ASSIGN. This way you can make sure that you have no other axis involved.

See also the helpful description of the island FPV Tune you physics

How to change asset proportions

Example: crush two short pipes to 4.9% and 10% of their original length.
put two short pipes near each other. Rotate them so that they stand upright (i.e. their length is parallel to the z-axis).
save these as 'two short pipes'
close the IC
Go to where the groups are stored. On my computer the path is
C:\Users\OddNova\AppData\LocalLow\Bossa Studios\Worlds Adrift _ Island Creator\GroupData\two short pipes\
with an editor open group.json there
change the z-scales and the totalHeight like this

{"name":"two short pipes","totalTris":1376,"totalHeight":0.34683018,
"objects":[
{"name":"44ae004740d15164b89dd7623894c8f0","pos":{"x":-0.705,"y":1.74,"z":-0.019},
"rot":{"x":90.0,"y":0.0,"z":0.0},
"scale":{"x":1.0,"y":1.0,"z":0.049},"group":null,"meta":"","ld":null},
{"name":"44ae004740d15164b89dd7623894c8f0",
"pos":{"x":0.682,"y":1.74,"z":-0.019},
"rot":{"x":90.0,"y":0.0,"z":0.0},
"scale":{"x":1.0,"y":1.0,"z":0.100},"group":null,"meta":"","ld":null}
]}

restart the IC and use the group. It should look like this
NOTE: to resize, only use the red handles (R in edit mode).

SHARING

It is possible to share object groups and material sets. Use the STEAM WORKSHOP menu on the top right.

There you find

• HOME items that are currently popular
  
• YOUR FILES items you have created or are a contributor of
  
• UPLOAD upload new items or update already uploaded ones (note the stars!)
  
• SUBSCRIPTIONS the islands, groups, and materials you have subscribed to

There are nice explanatory texts in the sharing menu.

GET VISITED !

To get your island visited refer to my Upload Guide http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=896766919

IS MY ISLAND IN-GAME?

You could go to the excellent Cardinal Guild map[map.cardinalguild.com] and see what they found so far, or ...

Open Steam Workshop and go to the island you want to check. Copy its ID number like this
Go to your Steam Library and right-click on Worlds Adrift.
Choose Properties with left-click.
Choose tab LOCAL FILES
Click button BROWSE LOCAL FILES...
Open folder Assets
Open folder unity (Should be somewhere like C:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\WorldsAdrift\Assets\unity)
Now search this folder for the ID number of your island.
If you find it, the island is in the game!

The simple python tool to see if a Worlds Adrift island is in-game: Worlds_Adrift_Island_Finder https://github.com/wolfinabox/Worlds_Adrift_Island_Finder by wolfinabox does this.

There is an excellent map of the WA beta. It is zoomable, has screenshots from in-game, can switch servers, and has a legend. Most interesting for creators: you can search by loupe button for your steam name and see how many of your islands made it for the selected server. However, the islands are named by the mapper and thus names are different from steam (also to prevent cheating somewhat). But you can click on the found name and the map jumps to the island directly. Have a look at the screenshot to identify the island. https://jerodar.github.io/WAMap/ (2018)
Note that this map may be incomplete. It is updated as data from the Cardinal Guild's surveyors come in.
No longer relevant for WA, but kept for historical reference: 2017 map[docs.google.com]

ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA

bossa has disclosed some dos and don'ts for accepting an island (July 2018): some tips[www.worldsadrift.com] by Malford himself!

Watch the steam workshop and see which islands appear in-game. Use Jerodar's map (see previous section).

Also the islands featured by bossa may be an indication

• 'one of the best islands' on the WA website www.worldsadrift.com/island-creator/
  
• on twitter.com/WorldsAdrift

It MAY help to

• fit well into the WA world (keyword "lore-friendly")
  
• be smoothly playable
  
• have no editing errors like floating grass or flickering surfaces
  
• be unique or at least a new variation of a theme
  
• have some trees, (but no tree larger than size 1.5)
  
• have some loot
  
• be much liked in the steam workshop
  
• have some free, open space for devs and players to put things (shipyards can only be placed on reasonably flat terrain, NOT on buildings!) You can use dummies to gauge the space needed, e.g. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1741746455
  
• don't use water if you want your island to be a candidate. Currently (2019-05-15) WA does not accept islands with water. Maybe later

Here is what Luke Williams from bossa said about island themes (May 2016) https://www.worldsadrift.com/forums/topic/what-types-of-islands-will-be-put-in-the-game/#post-30348

LORE

An island creator needs to know some of the lore of WA. Here is what I found helpful.

Worlds Adrift - Cinematic Introduction (May 2018, 1:47) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPGpW5ZGfzw

The people of Worlds Adrift (June 2016)
https://www.worldsadrift.com/blog/people-worlds-adrift-quick-guide-former-inhabitants-foundation/

Interview with WA writer Matt Cook (June 2016)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYiaOME7Xa8

"Codices (codex plural) are pieces of ancient writing that can be found within chests. They can provide a glimpse of ancient civilization or just entertain you while you travel the vast skies." (September 2017) - many puzzle pieces ...
https://worldsadrift.gamepedia.com/Codex

WHICH CULTURE IN WHICH BIOME?

(Info by Node on discord 2018-04-27 12:05, half common sense and half asking Devs): Sabor and Kioki were the two large cultures, whose influence spanned foundation, it makes sense to have them everywhere, everything else was smaller and more localised, like the Bandini and their deserts, and the Verbudans and their tundras.

Klaudia talks about The Architecture of Worlds Adrift - Saborian and Kioki (April 2018)
https://www.worldsadrift.com/tech-tuesday/tech-tuesday-the-architecture-of-worlds-adrift/

MAGNETS

Objects that have magnets can be aligned perfectly at the white points. These are made active and visible by the magnet icon on the top right of the edit screen.

1. Activate the magnet
2. select the wall/floor/roof asset
3. place that asset
4. position the mouse on the circle where you want to continue extension.
5. Press [M] (possibly several times) to select desirable asset's magnet bubble
6. confirm with RMC it when it changes from white to yellow: it will position itself.

Note for IC 1.66 : curently the magnets are active in Kioki culture only. Saborian magnets are disabled and may be added in a future update.

M key cycles through the magnets on the selected object. By default the bottom magnet is selected. If you press M, the next side magnet will be selected, so you can snap to the side. The selected magnet is yellow on new assets. You'll see the white magnet highlight to yellow when alignment is possible.

The object that is selected will be aligned to the target object in yellow highlighted magnet focus (not the other way round!).

THEMES

After 12 months of observing the island creations, in my view the islands have recurring themes. What have I forgotten or overlooked? What has never been done?

GENERAL FORM
single
island pair
archipelago
scattered
artificial form (e.g. a hollow cylinder)

VEGETATION / CLIMATE / BIOME
arctic tundra (not implemented yet)
temperate
desert
jungle (not implemented)

THEME (more than one can apply)
town or city
harbour, port, or dock
garden or parc
market, trading post, or bazaar
inn, pub, bar, or restaurant
station (refuel, repair, &c)
street, highway, or racecourse
educational facility (school, institute, planetarium, or library)
temple, church, mosque, or shrine
lighthouse or tower
prison
castle or fortress
battlefield
tomb or graveyard
volcano
labyrinth
mining
research facility or secret lab
big tree or plant
big animal (turtle, dragon, skywhale &c)
big machine
big ship
big skeleton
food (cheese, tomatoes, pizza, &c)
adaptation (history, movie, story, game, TV, &c)
random jumble of ruins

CHECKLIST

For your perusal, here's my checklist after I think I am done with an island. For each point I ask myself, "satisfied?"
This is the order in which I generally work. But exceptions from this sequence are the norm. For instance, I almost always place loot early - as soon as I know where it shall be. And not every island has everything on the checklist.
(+ are a must, - are optional)

+ idea
+ terrain
+ material
+ points of interest, often buildings, sometimes just terrain
- lights
+ trees (have mercy with the marooned ;-)
- bushes
- rocks
- rubble
- grass
- flowers
+ screenshots (see GET YOUR ISLAND VISITED)
- effects (after person-less screenshots because of balls)
- video
+ loot (reward the explorers!)

HISTORY BITS

May 2016 Malford interviews IC Senior Developer Tom Jackson about permanent trees, why there is no water yet, gliders, snow biomes etc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k59IP9RUP3w

December 2016 Vince visits some islands with the IC 1.29 - oldies, but goldies!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AY3DxTzWCc

May 2015 "OMG water" at the end of https://www.worldsadrift.com/blog/show-and-tell-worlds-adrift-style/


The Island Creator had two significant growth spurts between 2016 and July 2018: The first and biggest came with the introduction of groups, the second with the new Kioki culture.

TABLES

IC tree names / WA wood correspondence

Why bother? Because wood is ship building material. Each wood type has different qualities: https://worldsadrift.gamepedia.com/Wood

There are 22 tree types one can place on an island (date 2018-09-03).
These simple rules hold:
- Palms yield Palm wood
- Desert Trees yield Hemlock wood
- Dark Trees yield Oak wood
and Birch never yields Birch wood ;-/

• Birch Purple Long Leaf Tree = Cedar
  
• Birch Blue Long Leaf Tree = Cedar
  
• Straight Green Tree = Birch
  
• Palm Tree Stubby = Palm
  
• Palm Tree Short Leaves = Palm
  
• Palm Tree = Palm
  
• Desert Tree Leaf = Hemlock
  
• Desert Tree = Hemlock
  
• Dark Orange Tree = Chestnut
  
• Dark Green Tree = Oak
  
• Blue Palm Tree = Palm
  
• Birch Red Tree = Chestnut
  
• Birch Purple Tree = Ash
  
• Birch Pink Tree = Ash
  
• Birch Green Tree = Elm
  
• Blue Birch Tree = Ash
  
• Orange Tree = Birch
  
• Palm Tree Branches Green = Palm
  
• Palm Tree Branches Pink = Palm
  
• Straight Blue Tree = Ash
  
• Straight Pink Tree = Ash
  
• Straight Red Tree = Chestnut

Davemane42 shows a visual guide:

[The-0-Endless]

what happened to worlds adrift?

[OddNova]

afaik, the Island Creator will remain (and there is a possibility it may even get an update). I think the created islands will stay visitable and treasures can be searched - just not in Worlds Adrift ...

[CookieFan]

shame that no island will ever exist again.

[crafterarpi]

wHY Is iT CoMMon SEnSe ThAt AN IslanD'S ComplExiTY Is A prObLEm

literraly thought that making an island detailed is only good but it turns out that if i make a small rifle object that takes up 4% :(

[OddNova]

Thanks for all your support and constructive remarks to make this guide better!

[OddNova]

I'm glad to hear this :) Thanks for your comments!

[ButterandCream]

This saved me so much time. Still got a long ways to go but thank you! :)

[Doctorine]

Ctrl + D has saved me so much time lol Thank you, that's exactly what I was hoping to find here.

[OddNova]

Such are the comments that keep me going :-))

[CommanderEcks]

Great guide! I did not know about the "mirror" using the scaling tool, thanks!