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2.0 Setup Content Development Environment

2.1 web.alive Editor Download and Installation

In order to develop content for web.alive you must install the web.alive Editor which is part of the Content Developer Kit (CDK). You can download the latest version of the Content Developer Kit at:

http://avayalive.com/WaStore/DownloadCDK.aspx

After downloading the Content Developer Kit, follow these steps to install the web.alive Editor:

1. Run the web.alive Editor installer and click “Next” on the installation welcome screen.

2. Select the Destination location where you would like to have the web.alive Editor installed and click “Next” to proceed.

3. Select the Start Menu Folder where you would like to place the web.alive Editor program shortcut which will be used to launch the web.alive Editor and click “Next” to proceed.

4. Select the “Create a desktop icon” checkbox if you would like a short cut to the web.alive Editor added to your desktop and click “Next” to proceed

5. Review the settings that will be used to install the web.alive Editor and click “Back” if you would like to change any of them. Otherwise, click “Install” to start the installation

6. Click “Finish” on the final installation screen in order to complete the installation

2.2 Launching the web.alive Editor

After installing the web.alive Editor (see section 2.1), it can be launched by performing the following steps:

1. Navigate to the program group you selected during installation (e.g. the default is “web.alive”) under the “Start Menu” and select the desired version of the web.alive Editor program shortcut (e.g. “web.alive Editor 2.5beta.1”).

2. The first time you launch the web.alive Editor you will be prompted to choose a “Workspace Folder” as shown in Figure 15. The web.alive Editor stores all user data under a folder called a “workspace”. By default, this workspace folder is created under your “My Documents” directory. Your selected workspace folder will be preserved across upgrades and only needs to be specified the first time you launch the web.alive Editor.

3. The web.alive Editor launch pad will be shown as seen in Figure 16. From this launch pad you can create a new project, open an existing project, import a project from a WAE file, export an existing project to a WAE file, or delete an existing project.

2.3 Create a New Project in web.alive Editor

To create a new project in web.alive Editor perform the following steps:

1. Launch the web.alive Editor as described in section 2.2.

2. Select “New Project” from the web.alive Editor Launch Pad.

3. Enter a “Project Name” in the “New Project” dialog that is shown. This name will be used to identify your newly created project going forward.

4. Click “OK” in the “New Project” dialog. The newly created project will be opened in the main web.alive Editor window with a blank map.

2.4 Open an Existing Project in web.alive Editor

To open an existing project in the web.alive Editor perform the following steps:

1. Launch the web.alive Editor as described in section 2.2.

2. Select “Open Project” from the web.alive Editor Launch Pad. The “Open Project” dialog will be displayed as shown below.

3. Select the project (and map) that you wish to open. The “Open Project” dialog shows an entry for each project and map combination. This allows a project to have more than one map.

4. Click “Open” in the “Open Project” dialog. The main web.alive Editor window is opened with your selected project (and map) loaded.

2.5 Import a Project in web.alive Editor

To import a project from a WAE (web.alive environment) file perform the following steps:

1. Launch the web.alive Editor as described in section 2.2.

2. Select “Import Project” from the web.alive Editor Launch Pad. The “Import Project” dialog is displayed as shown below

3. Select the “Archive File” that you wish to import.

4. Provide a “Project Name” for the imported environment.

5. Click “Import” to begin importing the web.alive project from the WAE file. A progress dialog will be shown which provides the ability to cancel the import operation.

6. After the import has completed, the web.alive Editor main window is opened automatically with the newly imported project loaded.

2.6 Export a Project in web.alive Editor

To export an existing project into a WAE (web.alive environment) file perform the following steps:

1. Launch the web.alive Editor as described in section 2.2.

2. Select “Export Project” from the web.alive Editor Launch Pad. The “Export Project” dialog is displayed as shown below.

3. Select the project (and map) that you wish to export. It is important to note that all map (.csm) files under the selected project will be exported to the resulting WAE file. However, only the selected map will be used when the WAE file is deployed to a web.alive server. Therefore, you should choose the map file that you wish to be loaded when the WAE file is deployed to a web.alive Server.

4. Provide all the requested distribution information pertaining to your environment to help others identify your environment, determine what version of your environment is contained in the WAE file, and under what license type the environment is being distributed.

5. Provide an “Insertion Domain” for the resulting WAE file. The insertion domain is used to preserve end user uploaded insertions as described in section 7.11. In most cases the default value provided can be used. The insertion domain is particularly important when updating an environment that has already been deployed to a web.alive Server. In order to have end user data preserved across updates to the level it is important that the same “Insertion Domain” be used. Using a different “Insertion Domain” will effectively reset all insertions (i.e. image insertions, document insertions, and movie insertions) to their default content as provide in the map and will abandon all end user uploaded content.

6. Provide the "Minimum Server Version" that this web.alive environment is compatible with. As new features are introduced in web.alive it becomes possible to create a web.alive environment that is not compatible with older versions of the web.alive software. By default, the "Minimum Server Version" will be the same version as the web.alive Editor being used to export the environment. Depending on the features used in a given environment it may be possible to lower the minimum server version in order to support deployment on a greater number of web.alive servers. If you modify the default minimum server version we strongly suggest that you test your environment on the minimum server version to ensure compatibility.

7. Select the “Archive File” to export the selected project to.

8. Click “Export” to begin exporting the selected project. A progress dialog will be displayed providing the ability to cancel the export operation which can take a few minutes to complete. Upon completion the progress dialog will close automatically and the “Archive File” you selected in the “Export Project” dialog will have been created.

2.6.1 .wae optimization

A WAE file contains among other things the compressed packages that an end user will need to download in the initial white fog room when first visiting a web.alive environment. When exporting a project the web.alive Editor produces a warning if the total size of these compressed packages is over 25MB so that users don't spend too much time waiting to get into an environment on their first visit while these compressed packages are downloaded. The truth is that if the total size of these compressed packages is too large many users will simply give up before getting into the environment. Furthermore, during WAE file deployment additional checks are performed to ensure that the WAE file isn't excessively large. Therefore, it is important to spend some time optimizing your packages in order to produce a WAE file that is of suitable size.

The good news is that with some optimization work the recommended 25MB compressed size for packages (i.e. *.utx, *.usx, *.csm, etc.) should be easy to achieve. For your information all of our standard configurable levels (Rotunda, Plateau, Loft, Executive Office, Bridges, etc.) have WAE files that are well under 25MB and provide numerous themes. Typically, texture packages have been found to be the largest consumer of space in an unoptimized WAE file. The following are some guidelines on how to minimize the size of textures in your web.alive environment file:

1. Remove textures that aren't actually used. Often as an environment is being developed many textures are introduced that ultimately don't end up being used in the final environment.

2. Always minimize the size of textures whenever possible. For example, don't use a 1024x1024 texture where a 512x512 or 256x256 texture would do the job without any discernable loss of quality. If the texture is simply a solid color use a 4x4 texture. In the case of a tiled texture you can simply use a texture that is the size of a single tile rather than having multiple tiles in a single texture. Keep in mind that a 512x512 textures is one fourth the size of a 1024x1024 texture and a 256x256 texture is one sixteenth the size of a 1024x1024 so you can realize a dramatic difference by simply reducing the resolution of many of your textures.

3. Make use of web.alive insertions in your environment as much as possible.

4. Make sure that any textures you do use are compressed using DXT1 (8 to 1 compression) when there is no transparency required by the texture and DXT5 (4 to one compression) when transparency is required.

By applying these guidelines above you'll end up with a WAE file that is quicker to export, share, deploy, and ultimately gives a better end user experience.

2.7 Delete a Project in web.alive Editor

To delete an existing project and all of its data perform the following steps:

1. Launch the web.alive Editor as described in section 2.2.

2. Select “Delete Project” from the web.alive Editor Launch Pad. The “Delete Project” dialog will be displayed as shown in Figure 20.

3. Select the project you wish to delete. It is important to note that all data (i.e. maps, textures, static meshes, level assets, etc.) associated with the selected project will be deleted.

4. Verify that you have selected the correct project to delete and click “Delete” in order to delete the selected project and all of its associated data.

5. A confirmation dialog is presented to confirm the delete operation. Select “No” if you wish to abandon the delete operation. Otherwise, select “Yes” to confirm the delete operation.

6. The selected project is deleted along with all of its associated data and a dialog is presented indicating that the project was deleted.

2.8 Migrating existing Unreal Editor content to the web.alive Editor

The Unreal Editor and older versions of the web.alive Editor prior to build 605 store their level content directly under their installation directories along with their program files. This method of operation does not provide a clean separation between program files and user data. As such, the web.alive Editor now uses the concept of a “Workspace” in order to store all user data separately from the web.alive Editor program files. To migrate existing Unreal Editor content for use with the web.alive Editor we must move this existing content into the web.alive Editor workspace as new project. The following steps can be performed to migrate existing Unreal Editor content to a new web.alive Editor project under the users workspace:

1. Identify the existing Unreal Editor content that you wish to migrate. By default, the data will be located under the editor’s installation directory and will likely be organized over the following directories.

  • \Animations
  • \Classes
  • \Documents
  • \Images
  • \LevelAssets
  • \Maps
  • \Movies
  • \Music
  • \Sounds
  • \StaticMeshes
  • \Textures

2. Create a New Project in web.alive Editor as described in section 2.3.

3. The main web.alive Editor window will now be opened with the newly created project loaded.

4. Close the web.alive Editor.

5. Navigate to your newly created project folder on the file system which will be found at:

"<workspace directory> \Projects\ <project name>"

Where:

<workspace directory> is the directory you specified the first time you launched the web.alive Editor. The default workspace directory is located under your “My Documents” directory with the name “web.aliveEditor”.

<project name> is the name you gave to your project in step 2.8 above.

6. Under your project directory you'll find the various folders you've come to expect in an Unreal map ( i.e. \Maps, \Textures, \StaticMeshes, etc.).   Copy all your existing map data files as identified in step 2.8 above into the appropriate directories under your project.

7. This completes the migration. You can open your migrated map content for editing by Opening the project you created in step 2.8 above as described in section 2.4.