(Note: This tutorial is on-line, but there are MANY more tutorials included in the Cosmos Creator documentation.  These other tutorials can be accessed when you have a full version of Cosmos Creator installed, from the "Help" menu.)

Creating a Simple Interactive Scene in Cosmos Creator

Getting started in any new 3D software package can be overwhelming, even if you have experience in other packages. To help ease you into feeling comfortable with Radish Works Cosmos Creator, the revolutionary procedurally driven editor/engine, we have created this tutorial for building and running a simple scene. 

I -  Start with a Box

This scene will consist of a room with a door and a few items. You will start by building the door.

1.             Open Cosmos Creator by clicking on the icon on your desktop or selecting Cosmos Creator from the Start menu.

2.             Take a moment to look at the  the UI. Locate these general tool collections:

File Handling and Workflow:

Transform Constraints,  Viewport Components, Coordinate System Tools, Misc. Tools

 Sub-Object Selection Modes, Transforms, Selection Tools, Snap Tools

Viewport Navigation Tools

Spline Primitives, 2D Mesh Primitives, 3D Mesh Primitives

Program Modules, Game Mode Tools,

Non-Mesh Objects, Particle and Dynamics Systems,

Compound Objects, Arrays and Replication Tools 

Creating a primitive object is as easy as choosing an object type and then clicking and dragging in the viewport where you want the object to be drawn. 

3.             Click on the Box button . In the Top viewport, using the following image as a rough guide, click and drag with the left mouse button down to define Length and Width. Release the mouse button and drag to define the height. Click once more to complete the box.  

The box is drawn on the ground plane as the default construction plane in the top viewport. Box01 is now shown in the Object List tree, and the Properties panel shows its current parameters. Click the Box button to toggle it off.

4.              Refine the size by highlighting the numbers in the Length text box and typing in 3.5. Click <Enter> to complete the change. Change the Width to 0.3, and the Height to 7.

5.             In real-time applications, every polygon takes time to draw. Since the underside of the door will never be seen,  uncheck Bottom to keep your scene streamlined.

6.             Take a moment to adjust the viewports. Each viewport has a Quick Tools collection in the top right. 

To activate a viewport without leaving whatever mode you are currently in, click the appropriate quadrant in the center viewport control box. 

Click in the upper left quadrant to select the Perspective viewport. Use the Pan and Viewpoint tools to center the box in the viewport as in the following image. By Clicking and dragging in the very center, you can adjust the size and shape of the viewports. Use the Toggle Viewports button to toggle between a single viewport and all four. The individual viewports can be can be changed by right clicking over the viewport label and selecting a different view, or using shortcut keys.

7.             For the doorknob, you will need a few more objects, starting with a cylinder that connects the two knobs. This time, the construction plane should be on the door. Click to toggle on the Align with Face Button . Hover the mouse over the object buttons to see the tool tips. Select the Cylinder Button . 

8.             Position the cursor over the door where the knob should be. Click and drag to create the cylinder, dragging upward after releasing the mouse button to create a positive height. In the cylinder's properties panel, change both Radius 1 and 2 to 0.15. Set the Height to 1.

9.             Rather than creating 2 cylinders (twice the polygons), you will move this one to extend through the door on both sides. Click the Zoom Window button and drag a region around the cylinder in the Front viewport. Use Pan and Zoom to adjust the viewport further if necessary. Click the Move Mode transform button , position the cursor over the X axis arrow until it turns bright red, and move the cylinder to the right to center it on the door's thickness.

10.           Select the Sphere button and positioning the cursor over the cylinder in the Perspective viewport, click and drag to create a knob for the door. Set the radius to 0.3.   Set the Slices to 8 and the Stacks to 6 to cut down on the number of polygons in the sphere.  Toggle off the Align with Face button .

11.          The Sphere is too round for a knob.  Click the Scale Mode button. In the Front viewport, position the cursor over the X axis arrow until it turns bright red, and click and drag downward to scale the knob on the X axis.

12.           To save on file size, create the knob for the other side by clicking the Reference Copy button (in the tool bar on the right side of the interface). A copy of the sphere is made in the exact location as the first. Select the Move Mode tool and move the new knob to the other side of the cylinder. All creation and modification parameters will stay identical for both spheres.  

13.           Having used the ends of the Cylinder to create the knob object in the correct place, there is no longer any need for the program to have to draw them. Select Cylinder01 in the Objects List tree. Uncheck Top and Bottom. 

14.           Save your new scene by clicking Scene in the menu bar of the 3D Scene Maker, and choosing Save As.... 

Cosmos scenes are saved with the extension, .rsn and include all objects, animation events, and procedural images created in the Image Creator. Sound files and non-procedural images are not included with the scene file, only the path to their location.

II. Animating the Door

Because Cosmos was designed for creating interactive content, you will create an animation event for the door. First, you will need to organize you current objects. When the door is clicked, it will swing open with a creaking sound, then close after a short interval. 

1.             Select the Sphere in the Objects List tree. Drag and drop it onto the Cylinder object. A group is formed. Drag and drop the reference sphere into Group01 as well.

2.             Click on the Group01 name to initiate Re-naming and type in DoorKnobs as the new name. Click <Enter> to finish the operation.

3.             Drag an drop the new DoorKnob group onto Box01. Name the new group Door. Click the + box to open the new group. Click the + box to open the Doorknobs group. Click on each object to select it and view its properties. 

4.             Objects can be taken out of groups just as easily. click and drag the DoorKnobs group out of the Door group and drop it in an empty space in the tree window. The DoorKnob group is no longer part of the Door group. Click the Undo button to undo the last operation. Undo and Redo operations are unlimited within a session with the exception of a few cases.     

With the door objects organized, you will add a few animation events.

5.              Before opening the door, you will need to move its pivot axis. You should always make sure all objects to be moved together are in the group before performing this operation. Select the Door group. Click the Move Objects Axis Mode button. The transform arrow shafts become cyan colored. In the Top viewport, zoom in on the door using the Quick Tools. Move the transform axis to the lower left corner of the box. Toggle off the Move Objects Axis Mode button

6.             With the Door group still selected, click the Animations tab to the right of the Properties tab. Click the Add button. A list of available animation events appears. Under Object Transforms, choose Rotate. The Rotate animation's parameters appear.

7.             Click the down arrow next to the Activate text field and choose User Pick. For Action, choose Stop at Ends. Set Rotate Amount Z to 90.

8.             Click in the Upper left quadrant of the cyan colored center viewport control box to activate the perspective viewport (see part I, 6). Click the Play button to go into game mode. Left click the door. It swings open. Click it again. it snaps back to its original position before opening again.

9.             Right click to create two new nodes in the Speed mini-graph. Click and move the nodes until the graph looks like the following example. 

Click on the door again in the game mode viewport. The door opens, then closes. Slow the action down by setting the Animate Time Sec to 2. Click on the door again. 

Most animation events are greatly enhanced by adding an accompanying sound effect. Next you will add a creaking sound.

10.            With the Door group still selected, in the animations panel, click Add again. Under Sounds, Choose Play Sound.  

11.           Click the down arrow next to the empty Sound text field and choose DoorCreak.ogg. Click the door in the viewport again. The door creaks as it opens. If you wanted it to creak on closing, you could add another Play Sound animation and set its Start Delay Sec amount to something less than 1.

12.           Click the Stop button to return to edit mode.

13.           Save your file again by clicking the Save button.

III -  Create the rest of the room

The door works nicely, but it would be nice to be able to have a room to move around in for your scene. A flat floor would be too conventional, so this one will have a sunken area.

1.             Select the Plane button and click and drag in the top viewport to create a floor for the room about the size of the grid (25 x 25). Re-name the plane object, Floor. Uncheck 2-Sided.

2.             In order to create a sunken area, the floor must have more polygons. Set the L Segments and W Segments to 3 each.

3.             Click on the Alterations tab. Click the Insert button. A list of available alterations appears. Choose Select Sub-Objects. For Select, choose Face.

4.             In the front viewport, drag a region around the two center faces. Check Selection Locked.  

5.             Click Insert again and choose Extrude Sub-Objects. Set the amount to -1.2. The center of the floor drops down. 

6.             To insure smooth user navigation, the sides of the sunken area should be more like ramps. Click Insert and choose Select Sub-Objects. For Select, choose Vertex.

7.             In the top viewport, select all of the sunken area's vertices. In the front or left viewport, while holding the Alt button down, drag a region around the lower tier of vertices to remove them from the selection. Check Selection Locked.

8.             Click Insert again and under Transforms, choose Scale. Set the X and Y Scale to 1.5. the floor slopes down to the sunken area.

9.             Before giving the new floor a try in game mode, you will need to change a few default parameters. To make the floor a "floor" object, click on the Physical tab (to the right of the Alterations tab) and check Object is floor or ground. Set  the Collision shape to Mesh for later use.

10.           Activate the perspective viewport. In the Scene tabs, select Settings. In the Collisions section, set Dist to Ground to 5 and Dist to Wall to .5. In the Camera section, set User Camera to Walk About, Walk Sp to 50, and uncheck Look Return.    

11.           Click the Play button to try your scene out in game mode. To move, move the mouse forward or backward. To turn, move the mouse left or right. To look around, hold the Shift button while moving the mouse. Let the Shift button up to return to Walk About mode. Try moving across and around the floor. Click Stop to return to Edit mode. 

12.           To build a quick wall, Select the Line tool and in the top viewport, starting at one side of the door, and ending at the other, click to create the outline of a wall. Right click to finish the line. Name it Wall.

Tip: To Adjust the vertices of your line, after you have created it, Toggle on the Refine Points button. Click and drag to move vertices. Right click adds and removes vertices.

13.           In the Alterations Panel, Choose Insert and under Linear Objects, select Extrude. Set the Z Amount to 10. In the Physical Tab, check Object is wall.

12.           Turn on Play and try the new wall out in game mode. you can't get through the wall  but you can go through the door since it isn't set to be a wall object.  

13.           Open the Door group and select Box01. Click the Physical tab and check Object is wall. The player can not get through the door way without clicking to open the door first.

14.           It is often a good idea not to keep saving over the same file. Cosmos will automatically increment your file name, allowing you to easily retain earlier versions of your file. Click the Increment Save button.  Your file is saved as the previous name with an 01 appended to it. 

IV -  A Few Finishing Touches

Cosmos chooses random colors for objects as they are created. Before adding a few simple materials, you will add a light to your scene.

1.             Select the Light tool from the right side tool bar and click to create a light in the lower right corner  of the room in the top viewport. Use the Move Mode tool, restricting to the Z axis (the blue arrow) to move it up in the perspective viewport.

You may have noticed there are no parameters for shadow casting assigned to the light. Lights do not cast shadows in real-time applications as they do in conventional 3D rendering programs because of the considerable time involved.  Shadows are assigned on a per object basis, and are calculated in several different ways depending on the desired effect, hardware capabilities and a few other considerations.  

2.             Click the Materials tab (between the Objects and Settings tabs). At the bottom of the page, Click New Material, and then click New Stage. Stages are where maps are put in materials. Older graphics cards may only support two stages at once, so the most important maps should always be added first. You will be creating simple one stage materials 

3.             At the top of the right hand panel, click the down arrow and select (SC)Stone Wall. Click on Material01 and rename it Wall.

4.             Make another material and choose (IM)Stone Wall Tiles for its stage. Name the material Floor.    

5.             Make one more material and choose (IM)Wooden Barrel for its stage. Name it Door.

6.             Click on the Objects panel and open the Door group. Select Box01 and click the down arrow next to the Materials text box and replace <None> with Door. The Door material appears on the door.

7.             Repeat for the Floor, choosing floor. Repeat for the walls choosing Walls. These two materials were assigned to their objects with varying amounts of success.

8.             Select the wall. Click the UV Wraps tab. Set the Tile W to 12 and the Tile X to 1.5. the material looks much better.

9.             Select the Floor. Because of the Extrude Sub-Objects alteration, the center faces are lacking a mapping type. Choose Planar in the Type drop down list. Set the Tile U and Tile V to 4. The floor is mapped fairly well.

10.           To improve the door opening, you may wish to experiment with Some other primitives. The Frame object, for example, is quite useful for door frames.    

11. Click the Increment Save button to save the next version of your file.

V -  Bonus Fun

Cosmos Supports a limited number of Physics solutions at this time. The great advantage to using physics is not having to pre-animate some kinds of reactions. In this last section, you will build a stack of objects and ket the user move the bottom one.

Before getting started, you may wish to rotate the viewport to get a better view. of a particular object. By selecting an object, using the Zoom Extends Selected button, then rotating or zooming, the viewport controls will use that object as their center axis.

1.              Select the door. Click the Zoom Extends Selected button. The view zooms in on the door. Now use the viewport Quick Tools to zoom and rotate around the door. Select the Floor. Click the Zoom Extends Selected button. The view zooms in on the floor. Now use the viewport Quick Tools to zoom and rotate around the floor. adjust the viewport until you have a clear view of the left side of the room.

2.             Turn on Align with Face . On the left side of the room, create a box near the edge of the sunken area. It should be about 3 x 5 x 4. Uncheck Bottom. In the Physical panel, check Object is wall.

3.             Click on the Animations tab and select Add. Under Objects Transforms, choose Move. Set Activate to Pick/Rev Re-Pick. Set the X Amount to -5. This will cause the box to move -5 units when clicked once, and then move back +5 units when clicked again.

4.             Create another box on top of the first one, approximately the same size. In the Animations panel, click Add, and under Physics, choose Rigid Body.

5.             Create a Sphere on top of the second box. You will need to move it  up (constrain to Z, blue arrow) since its creation point is at its center.  In the Animations panel, click Add, and under Physics, choose Rigid Body.

6.             Click Play and then click on the bottom box. The box moves out from under the other objects and they fall. Click on the box to move it back to its original position. The other objects are again affected if they are within range.

7.             Click play again and click the box again. The physics solution is different every time.

8.             Try changing Mass (in the Rigid Body animation) and Friction and Bouncy in the Physical panel for varied results.

9.             Save your file again, using either Save or Increment Save .

VI -  A Quick Procedural Texture

When most people think of procedural textures, they think of geometric or psychadelic patterns. In Cosmos, anything that can be described mathematically, can be added into an image. The following are examples of a procedural textures created in the Cosmos Image Creator. The image you create will be much simpler.

1.             Click the Image Creator button on the left side of the main program interface to open the Image Creator module. The maps used in your materials are shown in the [Show] Images list. Check each box to see the image and its component layers.

2.          Click the New button at the bottom of the Images list. A new solid black image is created, with a blank Layers list tree.

3.          Click the Insert button at the bottom of the Layers section.  Choose Drips Gradient from the Patterns section. A nice gradient drippy pattern appears. The initial gradient colors are randomly generated, so yours will be different from the following image.

4.          Click Insert again and this time choose Text from the Miscellaneous section. With the Text layer highlighted, Click the Font button and choose a different Font, Size, etc. Since the text will be created on each user's machine, you should choose a font that is included on most PCs. 

5.          Change the Text Value to WET PAINT.  Position the text by clicking an dragging the small box at the upper left of the text in the image window, or by changing the value in the Location text boxes.

6.          Close the Image Creator. Click on the Materials tab and follow the instructions in part IV to create a new material. For the stage, choose the image you just created- it will be at the top of the drop down list- (SC) Image01.

7.          Assign the new material to the Sphere and boxes as per section IV. In the UV Wraps panel, you will need to check the Flip for Tile V and Tile W for the 2 boxes, and set the Map Rotation to -90 for the Sphere.

8.         Save your scene. Without the sound file, it is about 6 kb- a fraction of the size of most small jpg images! After completing a game or interactive content, you would create an .exe (Files/ Create User File (.rwd)...) that could be run by anyone using the Radish Works Viewer.

You have just created your first scene using several of the standard features in Cosmos. There are, of course, many, many more tools and features to help you the creation of games or interactive content. Feel free to contact us with ideas, bug reports or questions. We value your input! Please help us refine and improve the Radish Works Interactive Cosmos Creator.

For more help on using Cosmos, see the User Documentation, Special Topic Tutorials, and Project-styleTutorials.