Walls

Wall Tool

Wall Data · Wall Types · Key & Flags · Add & Delete

Walls are, by their nature, attached to a side of a segment. They are used to add triggers, obstacles, decorations or simply close off areas. Walls, much like closed sides (those not connected to a segment) will always have a texture.

Note that walls present on both sides are technically two separate walls. With the exception of Overlay walls, all walls must be on an open side, i.e. a side that is connected to another segment, and thus basically always a single wall in-game will actually correspond to two walls in the editor.

Wall Data

The current wall is the wall located on the currently selected side, if any. If the current side has no wall, all "wall data" controls are disabled, except for the wall type, which is used to control the wall type that is added once the "add" button is clicked.

Text	Description
Seg. #	The segment the current wall is in.
Side	The side number of the current wall from 1-6.
Trigger	The ID of the trigger on the current wall, or -1 if none.
Wall No.	The ID of the current wall. The list allows changing the current wall (which will also select another segment/side).
Type	The current wall type; see the "Wall Types" section below.
Clip #	The texture to be used with this animated wall; only applies to doors or blastable walls.
Strength	The strength of this wall. Only applies to blastable walls (see "Type" below).
Cloak, transparency	Controls how transparent or see-through this wall is. Only applies to Cloaked walls, except in D2X-XL where this will also apply to any wall with a texture or color.
set both sides	Makes the Type, Clip #, Strength, Cloak settings, flags and the add/delete buttons apply to both sides (both walls), if applicable. Off by default, but should be on most of the time.

Type

Text	Description
Blastable	A wall that can be damaged and destroyed by the player. Used for hostage doors, guide bot doors (Descent 2) and destroyable walls (not used in the original levels). The "Strength" controls the amount of damage necessary to destroy the wall and is usually set at 100%. Blastable walls must have a corresponding blastable wall on the other side, or the level is malformed and may crash the game.
Cloaked	A special type of Close wall that does not have a texture, but instead appears pitch black with adjustable transparency. Robots can spot players through Cloaked walls and will attempt to fire, but projectiles will not pass through unless a transparent texture is used.
Close	A simple closed wall. Used for solid walls, grates, fans and (in Descent 2) force fields. Players or robots cannot pass through Close walls, but if the wall has transparent gaps (such as grates), projectiles can fly and robots can spot and fire at the player through them.
Colored	(XL-exclusive) Similar to Cloaked, but the color and strength of the color can be customized by changing the light color and the Strength value, respectively.
Door	A special type of wall that can be opened and closed by the player, guide bot (Descent 2) and some robots. While open, players, robots and projectiles can pass through freely. Doors always feature an animation, which is controlled by the Clip # setting. Most of the flags concern doors specifically. Doors must have a corresponding door on the other side, or the level is malformed and may crash the game.
Illusion	A wall that appears as if a Close wall, but can be passed through by players, robots and projectiles; in essence, a pass-through wall. Used mainly for some effects, such as fuel cells in energy centers, the secret exit entrance (D2), water(falls) (D2) and lava(falls).
Normal	Similar to Close, except designed to never open and mainly intended for completely opaque/solid walls. Rarely used, as Close is used instead, or the two sides are simply separated.
Open	A wall that can be passed through and is invisible. Intended mostly for triggers that are activated when a player passes through a certain side, but also used for walls that may later close.
Overlay	Descent 2 only (also available in Descent 1 levels if on D2X-XL): The only wall type that must be on a closed side, i.e. a side that is not connected to another segment. Overlay walls are used to add triggers to monitors and control panels that activate when they are destroyed.

Key & Flags

Text	Description
key	Controls whether a key is required to open the wall. Only applies to doors, but non-door walls with a key requirement will still display a message if hit by a player that does not have the matching key.
Blasted	Signifies if the Blastable wall has already been destroyed. Should not be used; it is better to add an Illusion wall instead with the correct "destroyed" texture.
Door open	Signifies if the door is open. If used, the texture should be set up correctly, but it is generally not recommended to use this flag.
Door locked	Whether the door is locked. Locked doors can only opened by triggers; players or robots cannot open them. It is possible to make doors locked from only one side.
Door auto	Whether the door closes automatically after being open for some time. Should be used with most doors, except those that are designed to stay open once opened (usually via trigger).
Illusion off	Whether the illusion is invisible.
Switch	Unused, has no effect. Originally intended to be used for walls that are targeted by triggers, but it is unclear what the purpose would have been. Leave unchecked.
Buddy proof	Prevents the Guide-Bot from opening the door, if the wall is a door, or seeing through a closed wall or illusion (unless the illusion is off).
Additive	(XL only) uses additive blending for this wall if it is a Colored or Cloaked wall.
Ignore marker	(XL only) makes a door close even if a marker is in the way.
Fly through	(XL only) makes a Colored/Cloaked wall flyable through.

Add & Delete

Text	Description
add	Adds a new wall to the selected side (and also to the opposite side if "set both sides" is enabled).
delete	Deletes the selected wall (and also the wall from the opposite side if "set both sides" is enabled).
delete all	Deletes all walls from the level.
other side	Selects the side the current side is attached to, which in terms of walls will often give you the opposite wall. Does nothing if the current side is closed.
lock / unlock	TODO

The rest of the buttons will always also act on the other side, regardless of whether "set both sides" is checked.

Text	Description
add door: standard	Adds a standard door. The clip/animation used is the last one used.
add door: exit	Adds an exit door, an exit trigger to the door and adds the wall to the list of reactor triggers.
add door: secret exit	In Descent 1, does the same as "add door: exit", except the trigger is a secret exit trigger. In Descent 2, adds an illusion with a secret exit trigger and a cube behind it.
add door: hostage	Adds a hostage prison door (which is actually not a door but a blastable wall).
add door: guide bot	Descent 2 only: Adds a guide bot door (which is actually not a door but a blastable wall).
add wall: fuel cells	Adds an illusionary wall that has a fuel cell animation on it. Intended to be used with energy centers.
add wall: illusion	Adds an illusionary wall.
add wall: force field	Descent 2 only: Adds a closed wall with a force field texture. Force fields cannot be passed through. Projectiles that hit the force field itself will bounce back, as will any players attempting to pass through the wall itself (which also causes some damage).
add wall: fan	Adds a closed wall with an animated fan texture.
add wall: grate	Adds a closed wall with a grate texture.
add wall: water fall	Descent 2 only: Adds an illusion with a water fall texture; it will behave like water when touched.
add wall: lava fall	Descent 2 only: Adds an illusion with a lava fall texture; it will behave like lava when touched.