We are going to answer the “How to create an arena scene?” and “What should we take into consideration when creating an arena scene?” questions in this documentation.
Scene Preparation
The first topic that needs to be highlighted is that the terrain for the arena scene should not be too big. Fewer terrain nodes can be used in arena scenes. Far less than you need on other types of scenes.
Terrain and scene models
In an arena scene, the terrain should be flat or near flat with a few uneven parts (it is up to the scene author’s taste).
Models should be placed before with modular parts (stands and lounges).
Example: A Sturgian arena scene has sturgia_arena_grandstand_a, sturgia_arena_grandstand_b, sturgia_arena_grandstand_c, sturgia_arena_grandstand_d modular mesh parts.
Fake houses should be used because we don’t want the background of the stands and the inner city view to be empty. We can do this by referencing the Adam0 model’s head height view in the fighting areas and lounges.
Each faction has unique models. These models should be used accordingly and should be placed on the appropriate parts of the scene.
Required spawn points
In the active fighting area:
tournament_practice_set
tournament_fight_set
In the lounge area:
sp_tournament_master
sp_player_near_arena_master
_barrier_passage_center (needs to be placed at the door or the lounge entry points)
The fighting area is now specified. We have also done the terrain painting (we suggest you use adam0 mesh to help with proportions).
After designating the arena place, the lounges and the stands should be placed (if you have your own custom models you can use them at this stage, otherwise use existing models in the prefab tab, like arena_main_building).
In addition to the environmental elements, you can place various meshes for visual beautification (stones, broken barrels, logs, etc.).
Torches and light sources should also be placed on the scene.
Search for arena_audience_mid_point in the prefab tab. Place it in the middle of the scene periodically.
Search for crowd_man in the prefab tab. Place the three variants as you like on the stands.
This stage is one of the most important ones. The spawn points that should be placed in the arena’s main building which we call lounges are the following:
sp_tournament_master
sp_player_near_arena_master
_barrier_passage_center
sp_player
sp_tournament_master should be placed facing back to the fighting area. In front of this spawn point, you need to place sp_player_near_arena_master because they need to face each other. Besides this, camera_height_limiter needs to be placed as the lens should see the lounge area.
Barries need to be placed in the lounge.
Spawn point placements
Spawn point placements and placed barriers
Another angle of the placed spawn points
The level of the Camera Height Limiter, place, and lens’ target
envmap_prop should be placed in the arena centre. The height of this is important. It is suggested to use the Adam0 model for proportioning.
If there are any areas that we don’t want the player or the AI to go to, we should place barriers.
A path should be drawn along the stands. This path is used for the stand audio. Don’t forget to name the path.
Search for arena_path_sound in the prefab tab. Place the prefab on the scene wherever you want. Enlarge the Scripts drop-down menu on the Entity Inspector tab. You should see the path_converger script. Enter the path name you entered before into the Path Name field in the path_converger script.
A general camera needs to be placed on the scene. You can search for camera_instance in the prefabs tab. WARNING! There are two Camera Instances in the prefabs tab. The one we are going to use is the one named with lowercase letters. You can add your camera to the scene as shown in the screenshot.
For the arena fighting area, you need to place two spawn points. These are:
tournament_practice_set (used for “Practice fight” campaign option)
tournament_fight_set (used for “Join the tournament” campaign option)
After placing these two sets you need to place child spawn points. You can check the screenshot for details.
You need to place border_soft around the fighting area (not necessary around the stands).
The last stage consists of creating the navmesh for the lounge and the fighting area.
