Creator Tips

[jfjohnny5]

With this comes an important lesson - if you're going to have multiple lifts or rotating platforms, you want to make one, capture it, and use the same captured object instead of making the same object over and over again manually. Not just because of convenience, but because it's much easier on the themometer!

Question: Does making one and then using "copy" to propagate it around your level have the same effect? It seemed to when I tried it... From a tech standpoint, I'm sure when you use multiple copies of a captured object, it's treating them as "instances." I just wonder if outright copying has the same result behind the scenes. I'd just rather not have 8,000 captured objects to sift through because I capture every lift, platform, and basic do-dad in my design. Make sense?

Also to add to the tips, but I think a lot of people already know this: Don't use a lot of different materials! Every time you use a new craft material, even if it's just a tiny little bit, the game has to cache that texture and that fills up the thermometer quite a bit. So pick a theme and stick with it.

[Risen]

If your emitter emits an object that has an emitter, the settings affect the thermometer exponentially. It's really easy to overheat a map using infinite lifetime and even one nested emitter.

[Linque•]

Question: Does making one and then using "copy" to propagate it around your level have the same effect?

Also to add to the tips, but I think a lot of people already know this: Don't use a lot of different materials! Every time you use a new craft material, even if it's just a tiny little bit, the game has to cache that texture and that fills up the thermometer quite a bit. So pick a theme and stick with it.

Answer to question: I'm fairly confident that using copy has the exact same effect. One more thing to note is that changing the properties of the object doesn't nullify what you save in copying it. What I mean is that you can set one copy (or parts of it) on fire and leave one copy safe, and you still gain the advantage you get from using a copy of the same object instead of an all new object. Same goes for rotating bolt speeds etc., if you want to change the speed of one copy, you can do that without affecting the thermometer too much.

Good tip on the material part. I'll add that to the original post.
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Bump.

Did the mods deem the creator tips sticky not worth it? The two tips threads I've written fall pretty quick out of view here. I can put this stuff in my Concepts thread as well, but I really do think these kinds of tips are better off available in the Help section from a sticky. It's kind of a waste of time to write this stuff if they fall into page 6 of the forum without a link anywhere. :P
Maybe combine the Problems & Solutions sticky with tips as well?

[MatthijsNL]

Another usefull tip is using trying to get the least amount of corners you can. This is already explained but I do not find it very clear. If you have a very messy surface you can try cutting out some corners with the corner editor tool or just using a large square to cut away the upper part of a specific object (the part that is messy).

[Linque•]

Duly noted. I rewrote that part a bit. Think it's good now?

[lionhart180]

One of the biggest selling points of LBP is it's amazing costumizability, from stickers to intmusic, you can do /anything/.

Literally.

So here are some of the big tricks from the pros to cleaning up your levels, making things easier and less complicated, and adding some cool effects....

First we'll start off with the basic things, stuff you've seen in the story levels and wondered "How'd they do that?", luckily for us, the "Creator Curators" we're nice enough not to turn off the visibility on their switches, and left them in plain view, so we could in fact see how they did it!

First off...

The "Grab and Go" Sponge!

This is the commonly used sponge hanging from a chain that lifts the character into the air upon grabbing.

Well thats easy! Just stick a grab switch on the sponge and call it a day! Sadly it's not this easy, becuase upon letting go and goign on to the next point, the sponge stays hanging where you left it, thus leaving the sack person stranded if they die and warp back to before the sponge.

To fix this, you'll use a mysterious setting to the switch, known as the "direction", shown as two arrows pointing left and right. This will at first make your sponge go straight up in the air, simply fixed by changing the polarity of the switch to backwards.

Then, when the person grabs the sponge, they are lifted up, but upon letting go, it will drop back to its original position!

The One Way Switch.

What happens if you wnat your sackperson to jump on a switch and lift up a door via a piston? Under normal conditions, the moment they get off the switch, the door closes on their face! You could give them a sponge or something to put on the switch, but I find that wholly annoying.

Instead, try this technique. First, set your grid to the small setting, and go hunt down a corner of a wall or somewhere near the door and switch, but out of sight.

Now, make a 4 wide, 8 tall, thin thick peice of glass material on the wall, stuck to it of course. Now cut out a 2 wide, 4 tall rectangle from it, in the centre, 1 from the top, leaving 3 spots on the bottom. Good.

Now make a 2 by 2 glass square at the top of the hole, making sure not to attach and weld it with the other glass, it needs to be seperate and able to slide down. Now make a second 2 by 2 square of dissolving material and fill the hole below the other sqaure with it. Glue the dissolving material to the wall, but don't glue the glass square.

Finish up by attaching the button to the dissolving material, so when they hit the button it dissapears and the glass square slides down in it's place. Finish up by sticking a magnetic key to the bottom section of the large glass portion, and the switch to the sliding square. Connect the switch to the piston, and viola!

When the sackperson hits the button, the switch slides down and activates the door, permenantly! No more doors closing in your players faces!

The Two Player Switch

Want to make a double switch for your players to add multiplayer sub games? It's a lot easier than it sounds.

This is my preferred method.

Like the one way switch, you'll be making a contraption with thin thick glass, but instead of dissolving fluid you'll be using pistons.

Here's what you do, go grab your glass material, find a out of the way spot, and make a 4 tall, 14 wide rectangle of glass, glue this to your wall.

Now cut out a 2 tall, 10 wide chunk out of the middle of the rectangle, making sure one side is 1 thick, the other 3 thick.

Now make a 2x2 sqaure, seperate from the other peice, and not glued to the wall, 2 spaces to the middle away from the 1 thick side of your rectangle. Make a second 2 spaces away from it.

Now make attach the square to the thin side of the big peice of glass, and another between the two squares. Set up the two pistons so when one is pushed, the far square only goes halfway, thus both pistons need to be pushed to get the far sqaure all the way across.

Finish up by attaching a magnetic switch to the thick side of the big glass, and the key to the far square, attach the two buttons/switches, set to directional, to the pistons, and the magnetic key to the door/whatever you have in the way.

If you want to make it even more permenant, make a one way switch beside this contraption, attach the magnetic key of the two person switch to the dissolving material, and the one way switch to the door. (Make sure you use different colors of keys for these two switches to prevent mixing up)

The Multi Switch

The problem with piston and hinges, is you can only attach one switch to them at a time. Say you want a level where 3 switches at different points open the same door. Attaching the first switch is no problem, but the second and third refuse to stick. Hopefully in a later update MM fixes this, but til then, here's what you can do:

First, find a remote location. This one is a doozy, so be prepared. I'll try and explain it, but it may be best if I get you a pic later...

Lets just do this with 2 connectors, so you want two switches to open the same door (not at teh same time, but one on either side)

First, make a 7 high, 8 Wide rectangle of, you guessed it, glass. Glue it to the wall.

Next, take out 2 chunks, 2 tall, 5 wide, seperate them wit 1 tall strips, and leave 3 on one side, and 1 on the other.

Now, make 2 2 by 2 squares, one in each of the spaces, with a 2 wide space from the thinner wall.

Attach them to the thin wall by a piston, and set up the piston to slide them and touch the opposite, thicker, wall.

Make 2 identical magnetic KEYs, not switches, but KEYS, one each sqare. Now stick a magnetic switch on the thick wall, in the middle, so both keys activate it, make sure they're all the same color.

Now attach your two switches to the pistons, and the magnetic switch to the door/whatever. Set the two switches to directional, possibly invert them, and call it a day.

The Multi Permenant Super Switch

This one is a bit trickier, but still possible. Say you want the player to hit 4 individual switches at different points of the level, all together that open a door in the middle of them, which leads to the next point...

Here's how I'd do it, first off, make a permenant switch by each of the buttons, cause doors closing on your face sucks.

Now, by the door, here's what ou wantto build, say we have 4 buttons...

Step 1: The Outer Rim.
Make a 14 tall, 18 wide, rectangle. Cut out all the inside, leaving a 1 thick band of glass, glue this to your wall.

Step 2: The boxes

Make 2 boxes. These will be 8 wide an 4 tall each, once again, cut them out and leave a 1 thick band of glass. Place one on the bottom left corner, and the other on the top right, leaving a 2 tall gap between them and the lower/upper wall. DO NOT GLUE

Step 3: The Sliders.

Make a 2 by 2 sqaure insdie the hollow of the bottom left rectangle, 2 spaces away from the left side. Do the same for the top right rectagle, leaving a 2 wide space between the square and its right wall. Attach these to the corner rectangle walls with pistons. Rig the pistons to slide them along their gaps to the inner walls.

Attach a magnetic key to one small square and switch to the other, set the switches's radius to really small for now.

Step 4: The Finishing Touches

Now attach the top right rectangle to the top of the big rectangle, and the bottom right rectangle to the bottom of the big rectangle via pistons.

Rig the pistons to slide the rectangles to the middle, so they are touching side by side.

Finish up by rigging each of the four one way switches you made at the start to one of the pistons each. Attach the magnetic switch to your door, and fine tune it so it only activates when all 4 switches are activated.

For more buttons, set up the magnetic key to one piston of a two person switch, and the other to an additional one way switch.

Or, for like, 8 buttons, make two of these contraptions, and rig them up to the pistons of a two person switch.

Time Release Switch

Want to add soem, cool sound effect to your boss fight, or area in general? This actually can apply to a lot of things that normally lack a delay, like motors.

It' actually very simple, once again, find an out of the way corner, and glue a 4 tall, 10 wide, glass sheet to the wall. Cut out from the middle a 7 wide, 2 tall chunk, leaving three space son oen sid,e 1 on the other. You know the drill.

Build a 2 by 2 sqaure on the thin side, 2 spots away from wall. Attach piston, have it sldie, yadda yadda yadda.

Simply rig the contraption up to whatever, your sound emitter say, and dont attatch anything to the piston, let it run by itself.

Tweak the timing, and there you go, every 5 second tthe floor of your haubnted hosue will creak! Yay~

Thats all for switches for now, next up I'll show you some other neat tricks.

The One Shot Bonus Round!

What if you wnat to give the player a single chance at a bonus round, with teh hopes of obtainign soem sweet goodies?

It's a lot easier than you think. First, build your round. Then, make a save point right before hand, but don't glue it, instead, attach it to a block of wood via chain, and have the left/right side of the wood atatched to a peice of dark matter via piston.

Now, stick a sensor switch right by the save point, and tweak ti so it goes off right when they enter the round, or hit the point, make sure it forces them to gothroguh the save point.

Hook the sensor up to a one way switch, and the one way switch directionally to the chain and the piston. Now when they actvate the save point, it lfits up in the air and to the right (try putting a couple second delay on the piston so it goes up, then right, so as not to hit anything.

Have the save point end up on top of your bonus round, and put a wall in the way so they can't get back, then make sure if they fail the bonus round, they die ad warp to the point. Also make sure they can keep going somehow, like a all of dissolving material that dissolves when you beat the bonus round.

Smoke Emitter

Most people would simply make a chunk of material, turn it into horribnle gas, capture it, make an emitter, and have it spew the stuff out. Bah I say, what if you dont wnat the smoke to kill you?

Theres a much easier way to do this. What other common object automaticly makes smoke by default? Can you say, "Rocket?"

Ah, thats an idea! Let's imagine you wnat your dragon to snort smoke out of his nostrils, easy! Just make tiny rockets, insert them there out of sight, and attatch them to a time release switch out of sight too.

Easy! oss in a light in front of them for added effect, make sure you dont have the rockets too strong, or they might move the object they're attatched to (if need be, stick them to a tiny peice of dark matetr to prevent this)

[Snrm]

wow man i only read half so far but this is real good!

i want to try somethings out before i read rest

[RAINFIRE]

i made a set of four clocks that control the whole first challenge in my level the every time the red hand makes one full rotation it drops 2 bombs from the roof of my challenge causing pits in the ground and you have to jump over the pits where the bombs are falling without getting hit

the first time the 1st clock goes around it not only drops the bombs but starts the second clock and the 1st time it goes around it drops its set of bombs and starts the 3rd clock and then the 1st time it goes around it drops it set of bombs and starts the 4rth clock and it just dops bombs and it needs to work without you on the button switch the entire time, Thank goodness for permanent switches

another switch project i worked on was where i had to solve how i could start a large cascade of bubles and not have to stand on the switch the entire time and then shut it off permanentaly; XOR switches, i love you, rofl

the current one i am working on and that i hope to get solved and completely done is building an actual puzzle, like the ones where you have to put together the pieces, yeah i think i have the solved, thank goodness there is more than one color of key and key switch and thank goodness for the multiple input "AND" switch using hollow circles concept or else this entire puzzel thing could not work

another kinda secret i have hidden in my current level is a 15 minute timer where if you fail to finish the level in 15 minutes, well... BOOOOOOM!!!!!, i am proud of that idea and i plan to keep it

oh but i am glad MM made so many conveniant switches for use and let people figure out ways to use them in creative ways

[Kizo]

Great explanation!

I don't think pictures will be necessary. The text was clear.

[staticvoid]

I thought I'd pass on one of my switch designs. There are times when you need to activate something with one switch and deactivate it by another switch.

Dual Input on/off switch (simple)

build a flat container for the following switch.

B>BK_B ____M___

B - block, > - piston, M - magnetic switch, K - magnetic key

Connect the first switch to the left piston and the second switch the right piston. note that the key is no attached to the block. Now the first switch will push the key and turn on and the second switch will push the key back turning it off again.

Unforunatly if both switch are pressed at the same time something will get crushed, breaking the switch.

Dual Input on/off switch (un-crushable)

===K_=====
B>BK_B ____M______

note that the switch needs to be encased and with the key larger and in notch to stop it from getting pushed to far.

Connect first switch to left and right piston (which is reversed) and the second switch to the middle piston. Now when the first switch is pressed, the left piston pushes to key and the right piston move the middle piston out of the way. Therefore if both switches are pressed nothing get crushed and the default state is on.

Hope that all makes sense including my naff diagrams.

Hope someone doesn't point out a simpler method :o

[Kizo]

staticvoid, I don't get it.

[staticvoid]

maybe a picture will help

[lionhart180]

Simpler method:

A good example of this is the first lift on the third metropilis stage.

First, make a 20 wide, 4 tall rectangle of glass.

Cut out a 14 wide, 2 tall chunk in the middle, leaving 3 wide walls on left/right.

Stick 3 2 by 2 sqaures in the middle, side by side, don't glue, yadda yadda.

Attach the left and right ones to the left and right walls via pistons. Set them up so when off the squares are practicly glued to the wall, and when on the slide the middle sqaure all the way to touch the oppisite side.

Now stick 2 magnetic switches, one on the left wall, one on the right wall. Then put key on the middle sqaure.

Rig the left movable sqaure to the on switch, and the right sqaure to the off switch.

Thus, when the on switch s hit, the sqaure is slid across to the right side, and because it's disconected, it stays there as the piston retracts. Same goes for off position.

Once again, if you want a really good example, look at the switch near the start of metropilis stage 3, theres a lif that goes up and down with a sleeping worker on it.

[Linque•]

Added these two items to the tips:

Weights - Linque

Material weight tests done with 1x1 large grid thickness 1 blocks. The reference weight is the same in both tests, so the lists are comparable.

Weight of different materials:

• 100 = HEAVY (Metal, Stone) - REFERENCE WEIGHT
• 50 = NORMAL (Wood, Glass, Rubber)
• 10 = LIGHT (Sponge)
• 5 = VERY LIGHT (Cardboard, Styrofoam)
• 0 = FLOATING (Pink Bubble)
• -5 = FLOATING UPWARDS (Orange Bubble)
• N/A = INFINITE (Dark Matter)
• NO WEIGHT = TOOLS (Bolts, Strings, Other Tools)
• 15 = SACKBOY (This means that Sackboy weighs exactly the same as a 1x3 large grid thickness 1 cardboard block)

Weight of different shapes:

• 20 = Thin Block
• 100 = 1x1 Block with Thickness 1
• 200 = 1x1 Block with Thickness 2
• 300 = 1x1 Block with Thickness 3
• 120 = 1x1 Block with Thickness 1 + 1x1 Thin Block
• 340 = Three 1x1 Blocks with Thickness 1 + Two 1x1 Thin Blocks

Conclusions:

• Strings, bolts etc. don't weigh anything.
• If you have an orange bubble 20 times the size of a metal object attached to a string, their combined weight is 0 and the object floats in the air.
• An object with thickness 3 does not weight the same as an object made out of 3 thickness 1 + 2 thin blocks.
• Thin blocks weigh one fifth of what a normal thickness 1 block does.

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Change material properties - Cy-Force
(Posted by GuyWithNoEyes)
(Rephrased by Linque)

You can give properties of one material to another completely different material. E.G, wood will be able to float, sponge will be slippery etc.

First off, start with the material you want to have the properties of, such as pink floaty. After you have placed it, just transform it into toxic gas. Then use the tool that transforms materials into other materials to turn the lethalised pink floaty to another material like wood.

After this, unlethalise it. The wood will now have the same properties as Pink Floaty! It can be grabbed it is extremely light. This glitch works for all materials.

Here it is again, but easier to understand:

1. Place material.
2. Turn it into toxic gas.
3. Transform to different material.
4. Unlethalise

Hope this helped.

[Dave-la-kingenbo]

Weight guide = best thing on this forum and for that I completely love you

[UltraNative]

my head hurts from reading this thread, but i learned alot, thanks guys

[mmmiles]

Thank you, the tips on glueing were really useful. Everything else in the creator has been straightforward but glueing was driving me nuts, especially in complex areas. I'm glad there's some flexibility to the tool.

[Pinchanzee]

Great thread!

"If hold L2 it will only glue to whats behind and L1 glues only to whats in front."
I didn't know that! Thanks, very very helpful

[Pinchanzee]

Something useful that would he helpful here.

Some people sometimes have the problem of knackering mechanisms after trying to stick something over the front of them.
For example I often use glass to cover up my mechanisms (ie pistons etc)
When you simply put a layer of glass over it, it bind all the components together, disabling their movement.
After some experimenting I discovered a "cure" if you like. Simply make a tiny bit of the material you want as a thin layer cover and stick it to part of the object so that it won't connect two pieces of the machine together, (eg the outer rim).
Then you can extend the tiny bit in the corner, by going over it with the same material but bigger. The same material MUST be in contact with the tiny bit, but after this, any amount can be added, as long as it is connected to the original thin layer.

I'm not sure if you can understand that, it's not worded very well, be good if somebody could reword it if it doesn't make sense.

[lionhart180]

[QUOTE=Pinchanzee;113149]glue trickQUOTE]

Ah I forgot that trick, yeah this is a really sweet one I use a lot, thanks for posting it, rep for jooo

Here's some other tricks for adding realism and other effects to levels:

#1 The shake: If you have a level thats falling apart or breaking down, like a collapsing mine shaft or building on fire, heres a cool way to add an occasional shake and falling dust effect.

First, fin a decent sized chunk of material like floor/ roof that you can hide this in. Roof is best for falling dust effect.

Next, cut out a large 4x4ish chunk out of it if the material is destroyable, like carboard or sponge. f its metal just cut out a little 1x1 sqaue.

Fill in the hole if its breakable with stone or metal, then cut out a 1x1 sqaure.

Stick an emmitr on it and make it emit an impact explosive every 7-8 seconds, then set emitter to invisible and cover the whole up.

The result is every 7 seconds there will be a large BOOM, the screen will shake, and "dust" (the reamins of the bomb) will fall through the roof.

#2 lightning

This is actually pretty easy. First make a 1x1 sqaure of dark matter wayyy up out of sight. Stick a fairy light on it.

Out of site build a very tall 1 way switch, and place the key halfway down instead of at the bottom. Thus when activated the other part falls down and activates switch brifly, then falls back out of range.

Set a proximity switch in your level to the 1 way. Now stick a enviornment sound near the proximity. (purple one)

Set the sound to lightning. Hook the proximity switch to the one way switch.

Now, make the fairy light REALLY REALLY bright, so it almost blinds you. Then hook the one way switch to the lightning and lght.

Now when the switch is activated, theres a really big BOOM and flash of lightning.

#3 super big enviornment background.

Ever wanted to make a constant rain in background, but got tired of placing 20 million sounds all along?

Theres a trick. First make your background sound on a piece of sponge/cardboard.polystyrene.

Set the switch to "on impact" and make sure its a background sound (denoted by a * on its name)

Now take the sound of the sponge and put it on the ground of your level. Now the range of the sound magically gets big enough to envolop the entire area, as big as the ground is!

Finally:

My personal trick I use in most of my levels...

The title!

It's always fun to add a "Designed and created by name", and such.

Signs, or other things. On one level I had the sign lower down on a winch, so on