Introduction
This one’s for all you large-scale map makers! Throughout my heavy involvement of developing a project with a great friend, we came into several troubles while trying to develop assets for our incredibly large island. However, with every problem we find a solution, leading to the creation of World Scan!
What is it?
World Scan is a paramount studio plugin used for the creation of any large-scale game/ asset development of today. Using positional ray-casting, World Scan can gather large areas of environmental information to be exported to Blender to seamlessly implement properly scaled structures, roads, bridges, and more, into your project.
How it works
World Scan operates by casting rays in a grid-like formation across your desired Scan Field. World Scan’s ray-casts can interact with your world’s terrain, parts, and meshes, and can even clone a copy of them! Information is stored in your World Scan Cache folder for manual export to a 3D modelling program such as Blender.
User Interface
World Scan is suited with an intuitive user interface with its main priority directed towards usability while also maintaining strong and reliable functionality. Throughout your Control Panel, you’ll find options ranging from your desired scan size, all the way to whether you want to capture an object’s color or not. Below is a detailed description and user manual containing all information required to operating World Scan.
Brief Tutorial
Step One
- Firstly, you’ll want to create a new World Scan File by scanning your desired location. I’ve already prepared my location and Scan Field size in my Control Panel.
Step Two
- Next, you’re able to change your file’s name by clicking on the text down in the Scan Manager. You can also delete it, but now’s not a good time.
Step Three, That Was Fast!
- Lastly, you’re able to export your file(model) as a .obj by right-clicking and selecting “Export Selection,” from there you can import it to anywhere you like!
What World Scan Looks Like In Blender
- The terrain file decreased from 34mb to just 2.71mb. That’s approximately 13 times less!
User Manual
Scan Field:
- The width (squared, in studs) of your Scan Field.
Scan Height
- The top of your Scan Field.
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Anything above your Scan Height won’t be captured.
Scan Depth
- The bottom of your Scan Field.
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Anything below your Scan Depth won’t be captured.
Chunk Density
- The width (squared, in studs) of each chunk in your scan. Your Scan Field is composed of chunks, so this value directly influences the quality of your scan.
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The Chunk Density value best works with even numbers. Also note that the lower the density, the more studs are in each chunk, henceforth creating a larger file size.
Scan Origin
- Consists of two values, your X, and Z. These values can be set as coordinates to anywhere you like, even negative values.
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Note that these coordinates will be the center of your Scan Field.
Color Scan
- Color Scan provides the option to capture a scanned part/ mesh’s color. Pretty straightforward.
Terrain
- Terrain provides the option to capture terrain. Primarily used to narrow down scan sizes.
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Note that if disabled rays cannot pass through.
Parts
- Parts provides the option to capture parts. Primarily used to narrow down scan sizes.
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Note that if disabled rays cannot pass through.
Save In World
- Save In World relocates the World Scan Cache folder to your game’s Workspace. Disabling this will return it to your game’s Server Storage, where it is housed by default.
Clone Parts
- Clone Parts enables World Scan to clone any objects/ meshes that may be encountered while scanning.
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Clone Parts enables the entire part to be cloned, refrain from using this option if you don’t want a complete copy of an asset.
Display Scan
- Display Scan is used to toggle World Scan’s fancy viewport’s visibility. Upon disabling, World Scan will not display a copy of your newest scan in the World Scan viewport to prevent lag on lesser performant devices.
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Note that World Scan only allows files up to 256 studs in Scan Field size to be displayed in the viewport to reduce memory consumption.
The Scan Manager
Your Scan Manager is an easy reference to all your currently saved Scan Files. From your Scan Manager, you can rename and delete your Scan Files.
Note that any files removed from your World Scan Cache folder cannot be inserted, nor can any other files. Your Scan Files are meant to be discarded/ exported and are not recommended to be left within your World Scan Cache folder due to having a ton of them would lead to unnecessary memory consumption.
-Have fun!
The World Scan Plugin
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