I'm sure many of you have seen the SW Build "Room over Room" rules as quoted below:-

1> The height of the floor mirror (on the ceiling) in level 1 must be the exact same as the height of the -floor- (not the floor mirror) in level 2

2> The height of the floor mirror in level 2 must be the same as the height of the -ceiling- (not the floor mirror) in level 1

Well - now we'll show this is not the case

Here we are really going to buckle and bend the rules somewhat ;-)

Another word of caution..

Do not go into the 2D mode while the "Room over Room" mode is on.

Ok I will conduct this exercise as if you did not do the "Simple Room over Room" - ie.. start all over.

Here we are now going to make a double story building with windows and doors in the correct places that look right, access to the upper level via a ladder and a crossbeam - sounds simple except here we have a few small problems which you will see as we proceed.

NB.. DO NOT go into the "3" Room over Room mode until I tell you too, as should you have an error in your design, "Build" will destroy your map by putting a Tile 342 in the faulty area's, and this may be inside a wall that you may not see or find.

Also remember to SAVE your work often.

Get into the Build editor and set the "Grid" for Grid 1. In other words press the "G" key till the screen goes blank, then press the "G" key once more for the largest grid. This is the 1024 "Grid 1".

Draw 2 sectors 8 x 8 grid squares and using Scroll Lock set your start point somewhere in the the Bottom/Level1 (left)

In the Bottom/Level1 or (Left) sector

Go into the 3D mode, point your cursor at the ceiling, and holding down the left mouse button move the ceiling onto the floor then UP - 39 "Page Up's"

In the Top/Level2 or (Right) sector

Go into the 3D mode, point your cursor at the ceiling, and holding down the left mouse button move the ceiling onto the floor then UP - 78 "Page Up's"

Now point your cursor at the floor and move it UP - 39 "Page Up's"

NB.. be very carefull when counting the UP's here, as any mistake will later crash your whole map

Ok - so what have we here ? - Our ceiling of our Bottom/Level1 is at the exact same "Z" axis as our floor in our Top/Level2

Back in the 2D mode draw a "Player" sector in the center 4 x 4 grid squares.

Do this in both sectors as shown below.

Now press "G" key twice to get to Grid 3 position. Draw another sector just inside the present "Player" (Red) sector and using Alt S also make it a player (Red) sector - this is the "new inner wall" for your building which houses the windows and doors.

Put in the appropriate ST1 sprites shown below - you will need to go to Grid 4 to get the 5th ST1 sprite in place.

Do this in both "Levels" as shown below.

The Bottom/Level1

ST1 (1) - Tag1 = 202 / Tag2 = 0

ST1 (2) - Tag1 = 110 / Tag2 = 2 / Tag4 = 512

ST1 (3) - Tag1 = 120 / Tag2 = 2

ST1 (4) - Tag1 = 110 / Tag2 = 2 / Tag4 = 512

ST1 (5) - Tag1 = 110 / Tag2 = 2 / Tag4 = 512

The Top/Level2

ST1 (1) - Tag1 = 203 / Tag2 = 1

ST1 (2) - Tag1 = 111 / Tag2 = 2 / Tag4 = 512

ST1 (3) - Tag1 = 121 / Tag2 = 2

ST1 (4) - Tag1 = 111 / Tag2 = 2 / Tag4 = 512

ST1 (5) - Tag1 = 111 / Tag2 = 2 / Tag4 = 512

The Bottom/Level1

Go into the 3D mode and find the small thin sector where your 5th ST1 sprite is - Point your cursor at this "new inner wall" on the floor and raise it UP - 10 "Page Up's"

Point your cursor at this "new inner wall" on the ceiling and lower it DOWN - 10 "Page Down's"

On both sides of this new wall give it a Tile 3.

On the floor of both the outer and inner sectors I used Tile 93.

On the "inner" ceiling put the "Floor Mirror" - Tile 341.

On the "outer" ceiling I used Tile 54.

The "outer" walls I used Tile 16.

The Top/Level2

Go into the 3D mode and find the small thin sector where your 5th ST1 sprite is - Point your cursor at this "new inner wall" on the floor and raise it UP - 10 "Page Up's"

Point your cursor at this "new inner wall" on the ceiling and lower it DOWN - 10 "Page Down's"

On both sides of this new wall give it a Tile 3.

On the "inner" floor sector put the "Floor Mirror" - Tile 341.

On the "outer" floor sector I used Tile 54.

On the "inner" ceiling I used Tile 89 (blue sky) - Point at it and press "P" to parallax it.

On the "outer" ceiling I used Tile 18.

The "outer" walls I used Tile 50.

Ok back in the 2D mode we will now place our windows and doors.

In the Bottom/Level1

Insert the necessary points as shown below and join them accordingly - Put an ST1 sprite in each of the appropriate sectors also as shown below.

Tag1 = 110 / Tag2 = 2 / Tag4 = 512

The Top/Level2 - Do the same here as shown below

Tag1 = 111 / Tag2 = 2 / Tag4 = 512

The Bottom/Level1

Go into the 3D mode and the "Full Walls" - in other words, walls that do not have a window or door now need to be "closed" up.

To do this first point your cursor to the top section of that wall (remember we pulled it down 10) - now push them back up 10 ie.. back to the "Z" axis point.

Ok - now point your cursor to the bottom section of the wall - (remember we pushed them up 10) - well now push it all the way up to the top so that it is level with the ceiling (z axis).

NB... With this type of Room over Room always remember that the Bottom/Level1 walls MUST be raised from FLOOR to CEILING - where as the Top/Level2 walls MUST be lowered from CEILING to FLOOR

Ok - on your door which is on the side wall all you need to do here is lower the bottom section to the floor.

The Top/Level2

Do the same here as you did for the bottom level except remember the rule I've just given you - Walls = CEILING to FLOOR.

The door in this case is opposite the windows.

Ok - if you are sure everything is the same as I have here, you can now press the "3" key to go into the Room over Room mode, and what do you see ?

A dissapointment - as I said at the beginning, it's not so simple as our "Simple Room over Room"

Because if you look from the Top Level down into the Bottom Level you cannot see the wall on top of the windows, and if you look up from the Bottom Level to the Top Level you cannot see the walls below the windows

Ok - for now this is fairly simple to fix, but we will run into further problems as we proceed.

Where is our "Z" axis ?? - it is at the top of our "inner wall" in Level 1 and at the bottom of our "inner wall" of Level 2 - so no matter what we do now we cannot destroy this.

Press the "3" key to get you out of the Room over Room mode, go into the Bottom level and point your cursor to the "Mirror" on the ceiling and move it UP 10 "Page Up's"

Go into the Top Level and move the Mirror on the floor DOWN 10 "Page Down's"

Now press the "3" key for Room over Room mode and "Bingo" the window problem is fixed - So much for the "Rules"

BUT if you now look up from the Bottom Level to the door at the Top level you see the bottom of the door starts at the same height as the windows!

NB... From now on you will see strange things in the "Room over Room" mode - but don't worry about them as they will NOT appear in the game

Ok - to solve our "door" problem we need to "buckle" the rules a bit more!

In the 2D mode and in the Top/Level2 make in a new sector as shown below

Do the same for the Bottom/Level1 and put the appropriate ST1 sprites in

Bottom/Level1 - Tag1 = 110 / Tag2 = 2 / Tag4 = 512

Top/Level2 - Tag1 = 111 / Tag2 = 2 / Tag4 = 512

Now in the Bottom Level go into the 3D mode and pointing your cursor to the ceiling of this new sector, lower it down 10 "Page Down's" as shown below.

The side piece's of the sector that is showing (facing you) without the Floor Mirror Tile - put a Floor Mirror Tile 341 there as shown below.

Now if you go into the "3" Room over Room mode you'll see our problem is fixed.

How's that for setting the "Rule Book" on fire!

Ok - so now lets make it a little more difficult by adding another sector, a ladder and a walkway so we can get from one Level to the other.

I know there are much easier ways to get to the next floor but lets do it a difficult way so that we can break some more "Rules" ;-)

Ok - lets put a "Pillar" sector in the middle with a "Walkway" linking it to the Top/Level2 door.

So on both Levels draw in the 2 sectors as shown below

Put in the necessary ST1 sprites as shown

Bottom/Level1 - Tag1 = 110 / Tag2 = 2 / Tag4 = 512

Top/Level2 - Tag1 = 111 / Tag2 = 2 / Tag4 = 512

The Bottom/Level1

Go into the 3D mode and point your cursor to the ceiling finding where this new "pillar" sector is and replace it's "Floor Mirror" tile with Tile 129. Directly in front of it towards the upper door, put Tile 54 (this is the walkway) as shown below.

Now lower the "Walkway" sector 2 "Page Down's" - this is to give it some thickness. Point your cursor to the floor finding the "pillar" sector and move it all the way up to the ceiling as shown below. Put the Tile 129 all the way around this pillar.

In the Top/Level2 find the sectors and put their appropriate Tile's 129 and 54 in as shown below.

Now if you press "3" to go into the Room over Room mode you'll see that if you look up from the Bottom/Level1, everything looks ok - but if you look from the Top/Level2, you'll see the "Walkway" is very thin. So once again we need to "bend" the rules a bit.

In both levels insert a point either side (in front) of the "Pillar" sector and join these 2 sectors as shown below. Put the appropriate ST1 sprites also as shown below.

Bottom/Level1 - Tag1 = 110 / Tag2 = 2 / Tag4 = 512

Top/Level2 - Tag1 = 111 / Tag2 = 2 / Tag4 = 512

Now in the Top/Level2 - back in the 3D mode, lower the 2 thin "Mirror" tile sectors on either side of the walkway - 2 "Page Down's"

As you do this you'll see edges appear with no "Mirror" tiles on them as shown below.

Put a "Floor Mirror" Tile 341 on these edges.

Ok - all we have left is, to put the ladder in so in the Bottom/Level1 put the Ladder sprite Tile against the pillar and align it correctly.

Back in the 2D mode in BOTH Levels put a "Wall Lotag" of 305 then directly in front of the ladder sprite in the Bottom/Level1 put an ST1 sprite with a Tag1 of 30 as shown below.

Ok - that's it........