Mirror's Edge Editor Tutorial - Basic Time Trial Map from Scratch by Blizzard

General Notes:

• When you go to save your map, use File->Save As to save it in the Documents folder (or the equivalent location on Vista) as Documents\EA Games\Mirror's Edge\TdGame\Unpublished\CookedPC\Maps\SP00\TT_TutorialA01_p.me1 and make sure you use the "All files (*.*)" option at the bottom of the dialog. If you save to this directory, you shouldn't have to worry about overwriting files in your Mirror's Edge install directory.
• If you were using the Steam version of Mirror's Edge, by the way, you could find the original map files in the "steam\steamapps\common\mirrors edge\TdGame\CookedPC\Maps\SP00" directory. Like the warning at the top of this tutorial says, you should make a copy of these files if you ever write over them for some reason.

• * Run editor ("mirrorsedge.exe editor").
• * Create your map in the empty level that appears by default. Example instructions follow:
• - Left click on "camera" icon to use camera mode.
• - Click the "Unlit" button in the 3D view (it's the far left green cube above the 3D view) so you can see solids even if they're not lit.
• - Right click on the cube in the brush section (above the stairs) to use a cube brush.
• - Change the cube brush's size (in the dialog that pops up) to be 10000 X, 10000 Y, and 256 Z (height).
• Hit the Build button to create the brush, and Close to close the dialog.
• - If desired, scroll out and move the brush where you want it in the level, using the various views.

• + You can use the scroll wheel to zoom in and out.
• + Holding the right mouse button lets you rotate.
• + Holding the left mouse button and moving lets you rotate left and right, and move forwards and backwards, but not up and down.
• + Holding both left and right buttons lets you pan in various directions.
• + This affects all of the above operations, I think: You can click the three squares with various amounts of blue in them to adjust camera movement speed.

• - Click the "CSG: Add" button (top left button in the section below all the green brushes) to add a solid. You should see it with a checkerboard pattern.
• - In theory you'd probably actually add tall buildings or something. I'm not sure if it's best to make them solid or use the actual building resources from the game (probably using them is more efficient). But for now, just try adding a couple of simple things on the flat surface.
• - If you want to add some small solids, you can right click the brush again and change its size to be something more reasonable, like 1024x1024x256. You can also click the hollow option in the brush size dialog if you want to make a room easily. Also, for making rooms, the subtract tool can be a huge use. It's right next to that "CSG: Add" option I mentioned earlier, and it will cut a chunk out of whatever your current brush (highlighted in red) intersects.
• - Once you've gotten a few basic objects added, or maybe just stuck with the big flat plane, add somewhere for Faith to start. For a time trial, we need a TdTimeTrialStart and at least one TdTimerCheckpoint. Open the Actor Classes dialog using the View->Browser Windows menu option. Select NavigationPoint->PlayerStart->TDPlayerStart->TdTimeTrialStart.
• - Right click on your actual level (you can close the Actor Classes dialog if you want) and choose "Add TdTimeTrialStart Here". Use the same process to add a NavigationPoint->TdPlaceableCheckpoint->TdTimerCheckpoint. Add multiple TdTimerCheckpoint objects if desired.
• - You now need to link the time trial start point and the checkpoints with the current level, and give them distance values, or else Mirror's Edge may freeze forever at the red-and-white loading animation before your time trial. The easiest way to do this is probably to use ETTS_TutorialA01.

• + Right click the TdTimeTrialStart point, and select Properties. Change the TdTimeTrialStart>TrackIndex property to ETTS_TutorialA01. Make sure you don't have more than one object selected or you might not see the right property.
• + Right click your TdTimerCheckpoint objects and select CheckpointSettings>BelongToTracks.
• Click the "+" button to add a new item, and hit the down arrow to expand it. Change the TrackIndex to the same one you used above. Change the OrderIndex property in the same item to be something non-zero. I haven't researched how this works yet, but I think it's something about distance and order. You should be able to just make your points be something like 20, 30, 50, 80 (or whatever) as long as they're in order.

• - Finally, let's add a a point light and a skylight.

• Right click the level somewhere, and choose "Add Actor->Add Light (point)". You may want to move it a little bit in the air so it lights some of your level. You can use the "scaling widget" button at the top to resize, and use the "Lit" view (see the note about the Unlit view earlier) to preview your lighting before you build everything.
• + Use the "Actor Classes" dialog mentioned earlier. Select the Light->SkyLight option. Right click the level and add a SkyLight somewhere. If it's too hard to see, right click it and edit the properties. Change Display->Draw Scale to something like 20.
• * Once everything is finished and saved, hit the "Build All" button (a green cube near the far right of the top toolbar). If you have lots of lights, it may take 5-10 minutes to build. You can use the "Build Geometry for Current Level" option to build everything except lights while testing a level.

• * After you've backed up whatever chapter maps you're replacing (see notes above), copy your newly created TT_TutorialA01_p.me1 file to your Documents\EA Games\Mirror's Edge\TdGame\Published\CookedPC\Maps\SP00\TT_TutorialA01_p.me1 directory. You will need to create this directory if it does not exist. (It's like where you're already saving your map file, but in "Published" instead of "Unpublished") This "Published" directory SHOULD take precedence over the map files in the actual Steam Mirror's Edge TdGame etc. directories.
• * Now, if you quit the editor and run Mirror's Edge, the very top time trial map SHOULD be replaced by your new level!

All credit for this tutorial goes to Blizzard from touchofrain.com.