Introduction

This document represents hours and hours of fiddling around with Pfhorte and making maps which take full advantage of all of the features of the Marathon Engine. While no means complete, this is the start of a comprehensive look at the features specific to the Pfhorte map editor by Steve Israelson. The concepts, however, can be applied to any map editor including the popular Mia! by Dan Walkowski. In fact, in a later edition, I'll explain just how you can use both Pfhorte and Mia to complete your map and give it those finishing touches that any good map deserves.

Speaking of "good map," what does that mean? Well I'm no expert, but I have seen hundreds of maps made with Pfhorte and other editors, and I feel the ones that are the best are those that emulate Bungie's efforts through the clever use of shadows, lighting and texture assignment. This handbook will help you achieve those same results by explaining each of the features of a map, and how you can use them to make your maps look great.

This is a work in progress. When it is completed, it will include a tutorial which will walk you through creating a map which includes each feature available in a Marathon map. It will also address how to make terminals, warping from level to level and editing the interface to cater to your map. A brief section on using Michael Hecht's utility ResCompare will allow you to create an updater for your scenarios which will customize the terminals and/or the interfaces. The Handbook will also be hot-linked and include screen shots as necessary. Right now, it's just a whole lot of text.

The Pfhorte Handbook is free, but I would appreciate some comments and input from users as to how I can improve the product. You may distribute the Handbook on the regular online services, but commercial distribution is restricted. Contact me for detiails.

If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for this Handbook, please e-mail me at Face Value@aol.com. I'll be happy to answer your questions through e-mail or by updating the Handbook. While this product is a companion to Pfhorte, it is not endorsed nor supported by Steve Israelson. So please do not bug him with questions about this handbook. I'll be happy to address issues about the handbook via e-mail.

Good luck!

John M. Vizcarra
Face Value@aol.com