Jimco Software Reviews - WorldBuilder Professional 4.1 (continued)
Getting Started with WorldBuilder
Before I really get into this review, let's get one important point out of the way. WorldBuilder is not an application that you will learn in an afternoon. In order to get good results, you have to work with it for a long time. I mean many days of working many hours a day. While WorldBuilder does have some extraordinary features that allow you to create incredibly realistic results quickly, putting all of those features together into a believable scene is not for the inexperienced. Not to worry. WorldBuilder is a heck of a lot of fun to use, and you will want to spend a lot of time experimenting.
In fact, WorldBuilder is designed around experimentation. Years ago, I got a demo copy of 3D Studio Max and I played around with it for a while. When you make a modification to a shape in 3D Studio Max, it places that modification on a "stack." If you want to remove or tweak a modification, you can easily do it by adjusting the modification on the stack.
WorldBuilder's design is part of what makes [it] stand out from the crowd .
I get the distinct impression when working with WorldBuilder that its developers were heavily influenced by 3D Studio Max. For example, if you apply some erosion to your landscape and you inadvertantly apply too much, you can quite easily select the erosion modification and tone it down a bit. In other packages, once you apply erosion, it's a done deal. You can never get back what your virtual erosion has washed away. WorldBuilder's design is preferable by far, and it's part of what makes WorldBuilder stand out from the crowd.
WorldBuilder's interface (figure 1) is composed of (by default) 4 viewports; top, front, left, and perspective view. You can drag the divider between these viewports so that each is the size that you'd prefer. You can maximize a viewport by simply double-clicking on the viewport name or you can choose from a large assortment of pre-defined interface layouts. There's no need to accept the default layout if you don't like it. WorldBuilder's interface is fully customizable.
Figure 1 - WorldBuilder's Interface
In the upper-right is the Object Tree. This is where you'll see a complete list of objects that make up your scene. Objects can be selected by clicking them in the Object Tree. You can also access other options for an object (such as hide, show, delete, etc.) by right-clicking on it.
Directly underneath the Object Tree is the Property Tree. From here, you can access all of the properties of the object selected in the Object Tree. By expanding a property (Bumping or Noisy Texture 2D in figure 1 for example), you can access the sub-properties of that property.
When you select a property in the Property Tree, the Property Page (directly beneath the Property Tree) changes to reflect the settings for that property. In figure 1, I have selected Placing Conditions in the Property Tree. As you can see, the Property Page that is visible allows me to control where the grass sand02 texture is placed. I'll go into more detail on that later.
Surrounding the interface are the toolbars. The Main toolbar at the top offers the usual commands; open, save, etc. However, it also contains some very cool WorldBuilder-specific tools that I'll show you later. Along the left side is the object creation toolbar. The bottom toolbar contains zoom tools, tools for changing your view in the viewports, and toggle buttons for different WorldBuilder features.
There are plenty of toolbars that are not visible by default. Some of them are object-specific and will automatically turn on when needed. Others are optional and are available by manually turning them on. I should note that WorldBuilder also displays some animation tools by default. I've turned off these tools in figure 1 in order to give you a better view of the interface.