User Guide 1.14.3
Content:
TMA 0.4 added and improved composer tools to a new level! Here's all you need to know to make amazing builds with any existing theme out there.
- To begin the process, hit the Keybind for bringing up the Architect's Menu, this is set to [G] by default.
- Choose a theme by hitting one of the number keys shown on the Menu. You will now enter the first phase.
There are several types of tools to be used in this phase, Drawing tools and other Manipulation tools, switch between them holding [ALT] and scrolling with the Mouse Wheel.
Certain tools have two different Modes, which will show up next to the cursor. Modes usually govern the tools selection behavior. The Mode on top is active by default, the Mode below is active while [CTRL] is held down. The controls will take some getting used to, you'll be scrolling and holding buttons, but after a few cycles a learning curve is guaranteed!
Here's a quick description for all tools in compose mode: (with 'Stacks' referring to a set of rooms on top of each other)
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+ Cuboid allows you to start a new stack of rooms. By clicking on the ground twice in different locations, you mark a rectangle to be built upon. This rectangle may have size limitations depending on what types of roof are supported in the theme you are using. After drawing a room you can use Scroll to give it some more floors above, or to remove the room again.
- 3-Grid is the regular old mode, where the rooms are only locked into having an uneven wall length.
- 5-Grid is an even stricter grid that ensures more variety in available wall designs. 3-Grid rooms will only be able to use 5-wide wall segments half of the time, hence this grid exists.
- + Cylinder, similarly to the room tool, creates new parts of the building. These are special in their appearance though, as they will use the themes Tower Designs, a completely separate set of walls and roofs that are cylindrical. Note that not every Theme supports towers, in that case the tool will not appear in the composer.
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Adjust Y allows you to select existing rooms and moving/scaling them along the vertical axis.
- Move Stack offsets a stack and all its floors as you Scroll while pointing at it.
- Resize selects individual floors and grows/shrinks them as you hold [Ctrl] and Scroll. Floors above will move accordingly.
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Adjust XZ moves or scales selected rooms horizontally. Note that horizontal gaps between floors may have to be filled in afterwards.
- Move mode selects individual Floors and moves it depending on the face you select and the direction you scroll. Floors above will move with it, but you can always revert that by moving back the floor above.
- Resize scales the room both ways. Horizontal scaling only works in steps of 2 to retain the uneven lengths. Like the previous tool, you hold [CTRL] and Scroll while pointing at the room to modify.
- Floors let's you readjust the amount of Floors a stack will have. When adding floors, it will clone the topmost room including its size. Therefore it can be useful to resize rooms before adding more floors to them. Again, Scrolling is the way to go. Scroll up to add, scroll down to Remove and Delete the Stack of Floors.
- Roof Style changes the type of roof used by the stack you point at. A little outline indicates the general type of roof that will be used, it will not match the shape exactly, though. Be aware that themes have different roof types available, starting / ending at certain sizes - you will not have the same choice every time.
Now, having drawn at least one cuboid, you can move on to preview the result by bringing up the Menu [G] and pressing [F] to finish composing.
Shortly after, almost magically, your building gets decorated. A hologram of it will appear hopefully somewhere around where you drew the rooms. This hologram is not visible to other players on a server, remember that this feature of the mod is purely client-sided and does not require the mod installed on the server. You can also freely walk/fly through this visualization.
From here you will be able to tweak the design choices with the new set of tools visible. Technically you could get right to exporting it if you're happy with what it is. Find out what options you have in the Export section.
These are the Tools you are seeing: (Controls being very similar)
- Reroll All let's you sit back and browse through all the different possibilities of what your ground plan can look like. Simply Scroll to cycle all the designs.
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Reroll Target comes in handy when you're happy with one part of the building, but not the other. It keeps everything else in place, while trying to find something better for your selection.
- Stack mode re-rolls all rooms and the roof part of the selected stack. Giving rooms of the same size similar designs.
- Room / Roof mode activates when holding [CTRL] and targets individual floors. For targeting the roof, point where the topmost room would have its surface, the selection box will indicate the part you are currently targeting.
- Reuse Patterns is another way of dealing with unwanted or especially favorable designs. Hold [CTRL] and right-click to essentially copy a design onto a virtual clipboard. In paste mode, you can then try to apply the copied section onto other rooms! Note that this is limited by the flexibility of the designs and the type of room you're trying to reformat. Cylinder designs will not fit on flat walls.
- Wall Style is the reincarnation of the old Style Layer. Scroll on selected targets to cycle their style. This is unrelated to the palette used by the room. Style layers are sets of designs that have different aesthetics, such as Foundation, Regular or even a Special Layer that some Themes provide.
- Palette Used is the new way of choosing whether the selected rooms use the Primary or the Secondary Palette. Scroll to cycle the options. In order to use this tool, a secondary palette has to be chosen first. See below on how to pick and create new Palettes for your builds.
Don't forget about the Architect's Menu [G], it will allow you to return to the composer to re-adjust your ground plan. Other options there are the Palette Picker and the Exporter.
If you haven't known yet, these materials are not what you have to stick with!
From the preview, hit [G] + [C] to open the Palette Picker. Here you can choose your primary and secondary Palette for the building. Left-click on a swatch to assign it as primary (R-Click for 2nd), close it and you'll see the hologram updated.
- Key Point for modifying a palette: Markers for the individual palette entries will appear on the highest block at your position in the world. I suggest you prepare a 9x9 area to stand in beforehand.
If you want to tweak one of the existing palettes a little (or remake one entirely), assign it to primary and hit the little [+]-Button in the "My Palettes" section. More ghost blocks will appear on the ground below you, showing what blocks are currently assigned to the various palette entries. Hover over them to get a description of whereabouts it generally appears in a building.
Now you can just go ahead and place your favourite blocks into these spaces to modify the palette. The hologram will update with every block you change. You can Save or Discard the progress in the Architect's Menu. If you save it, your new palette will be assigned automatically, and will appear in the picker GUI for any of your future builds, unless you delete it from the file system. Once you're done here you will re-renter the Preview Mode.
All done? Then it's time to make this vision reality. Here's what you can do: (From the Architect's Menu in the Preview Phase)
- You can export your structure to the classic Minecraft .nbt format to be used with other Schematic Mods. Note that Vanilla Structure Blocks can only import structures with dimensions somewhere below 30x30x30m, any other structure importer should work just fine with the Architect's files. Check out the mod Create for a survival friendly schematic printer.
- In Singleplayer, you can always just Print your structure into the world. This will place it exactly where it is in a matter of ticks. This is also handy if you would like to add a few finishing touches yourself, before turning it into a schematic with other Tools. Mind that this will not use up any Blocks and is a Feature designed for Creative Mode.
- Operators on a Server can also print the structure from the menu, using a massive chain of
/setblockcommands as a backbone. This may take a few seconds depending on how large your structure is.
That's it! This should be all the knowledge required to make awesome things together with The Mighty Architect!
Thanks for your interest, I'll be happy to see your creations!~
- Make sure that most the floors of neighboring Stacks line up horizontally. If two stacks with different floor levels collide, you will have a hard time cleaning up the flooring that generated.
- After adding a new Room with the Cuboid or Cylinder Tool, use Ctrl+Scroll to immediately adjust the amount of floors on top of it.
- Returning from the preview phase into the room composer does not make you lose the design choices! Rooms that didn't change much will hold on to their style.
- Use the secondary palette to bring a few accents into your building, it's enough to just swap out a few blocks from the original and applying that to some walls to achieve more variety.
- When drawing rooms in the composer, it usually yields better results whenever one intersects rooms rather than putting them next to each other. A cross shape of two perpendicular longer rooms for example works out pretty well! Don't worry about the walls intersecting, they will be cleared out by the interior, so there shouldn't be any facades on the inside of your build.
- Making layers only one meter high in the composer can sometimes call for special behavior: In the medieval and modern theme it creates a nice trim breaking up the floors a little, while the Town House theme creates a full balcony around whatever layer comes next!
- Creating a one meter high open arcs layer in the Medieval theme creates a loop of railings, which can be quite nice to top off a stack of rooms with. Don't forget to disable the roof for that stack!
- Re-rolling is partly reversible, scrolling back with the re-roll Tool will allow you to back-track skipped rolls.