DJ的古墓丽影自制关卡专栏——序幕
DJ's TRLE CORNER – PROLOGUE
2021年6月11日
06.11.2021
啊，《最后的启示》……没有哪部早期的古墓丽影拥有如此丰富多样的内容。在世纪之交，星辰更迭，一款能复用古墓丽影4素材并融合新元素的关卡编辑器诞生了。粉丝们很快便为自定义地图注入了新鲜血液。随编辑器附带的入门资源包至今仍可下载，供人一窥旧日体验，但与当前资源相比，它显得极为简陋。虽简陋，却已足够。
Aahh, The Last Revelation... No earlier Tomb Raider had content so varied and numerous. At the turn of the millennium, the stars have shifted and a level editor appeared, able to reuse TR4 ingredients and mix them into new flavours. It didn't take long for the fans to inject custom maps with a fresh spirit. The starter pack, supplied with the editor and even still downloadable for a glimpse of the old experience, was, compared to the current assets, tiny. Tiny, but still enough.
Piega - 地下墓穴塔楼
Piega - Catacomb Towers
上图是Piega数月的成果。那是2001年，无人料到自制关卡会在未来数十年间通过大量更新，在质量、容量与艺术自由上不断突破。彼时，创作如同游乐场——单一关卡主导场景，建造者们测试着可行与不可行的边界，尽管唯一能自定义的只有纹理。
What you see above is several months of effort by Piega. The year was 2001 and nobody yet expected the decades of life custom levels would be granted with a gallore of updates to increase quality, capacity and artistic freedom. For now, building was a playground - single levels dominated the scenery as builders tested what can and cannot be done, even though the only thing we could customize was textures.
Cave of Pandora - 失落的营地
Cave of Pandora - The Lost Camp
即便仅混合默认素材，也能带来大量变化。当然，你也可以添加任意新纹理，随心定制角色。很快，埃及的边界被打破，劳拉驶向全球各地。北京城下的这处隐藏世界，成为首个完全自定义纹理且评分接近9/10的关卡（一个月后Piega更进一步），若不知其真实年代，你根本看不出它是旧作。
You can see even mixing the default ones introduces a lot of variety. But you could also add any new texture, to customize the character at will. Soon, the borders of Egypt were lifted and Lara sailed away to a whole range of travel destinations in offer. This hidden world below the city of Beijing has become the first level with fully customized textures to get a score close to 9/10 (with Piega going beyond exactly a month later), and if you don't know its true age, you won't be able to tell.
GeckoKid - 紫禁城之下
GeckoKid - Beneath the Forbidden City
与此同时，用Turbo Pascal制作的非官方关卡编辑器支持在古墓丽影1、2、3、5引擎中构建关卡。
Meanwhile, the unofficial level editor made by Turbo Pascal allowed building levels in the engines of TR1, 2, 3 and 5.
The Vagrant - 恐惧之角
The Vagrant - Cape Fear
Bojrkraider - 月光之下
Bojrkraider - Under the Moonlight
一切曾很简单，直到一个大胆的想法出现……经过约200个关卡的谨慎尝试，终于有人将多个关卡整合到同一发布包中。不知谁是首个提出此想法的建造者，但敢于公开分享的包括Josep Borrut和MagPlus。多年来，他们像文艺复兴雕塑家般精心雕琢故事，最终完成了由9关和13关组成的两部冒险作品。还有Harly Wuson，他后来为我们带来了宽屏补丁，至今仍被认为是最稳定的版本。
Things were simple, until one brave idea... It took around 200 levels of careful steps and experiments until somebody included more than one level in the same release. It is unknown which builder first came up with this idea, but among those who dared share it with the public were Josep Borrut and MagPlus. Over the years, they kept carefully chiseling their stories like renaissance sculptures, to end up with two adventures made of 9 and 13 levels respectively. There was also Harly Wuson, who later on gifted us a widescreen patch, often considered the most fireproof to date.
Josep Borrut - 塔拉戈纳4：恶魔巢穴
Josep Borrut - Tarragona 4 - Devil's Lair
MagPlus - 救援行动
MagPlus - The Rescue
Harly Wuson - 地狱谷2
Harly Wuson - Valley of the Hell 2
自那时起，多关卡游戏登上榜单顶端，作者中涌现出众多明星。某天，你只做了一个房间，次日便发现包含超34关会导致游戏崩溃。其他建造者则偏好中等规模，多次切换素材却不保持同一风格太久。这类关卡如今如埋藏的文物，等待某日被重新发现——若你遇见，或许会收获惊喜。
Since that moment, multilevel games overtook the top of the charts, and massive stars emerged among the authors. One day, you made a single room, the next day you found out including more than 34 levels crashes the game. Other builders preferred medium size and switching the asset several times without keeping the same mood for too long. Such levels are now like buried artifacts, waiting for a day to be uncovered - and if you do, you might be in for a nice surprise.
TonyTomb - 通往穆之路1/2
TonyTomb - Passage to Mu 1/2
MissKroft - 亚历山大之墓2
MissKroft - Alexander's Tomb 2
在任何编辑器中，总有人厌倦潜入，转而设计逃生地图。Ma.ximo的“被困”便是此类作品。就古墓丽影而言，原作跳过了大量剧情片段，于是填补这些空白的逃生关卡分支应运而生。例如，1999年无人知晓劳拉如何从金字塔坍塌中幸存（或是否幸存），Loch便制作了“梦之启示”来衔接这段空白。除剧情补充外，还有平行或替代原作的故事——如Titak的丛林中，劳拉试图从柬埔寨的密室中解救被困的韦恩（及其余下部分）：
In any editor, there comes a moment when people have enough of infiltrating and design an escape map. Ma.ximo's "Trapped" was one of these. In case of Tomb Raider, since the original game happened to skip large plot chunks, a special branch of escape levels has emerged that was supposed to fill those gaps. For example, in 1999 nobody knew how Lara survived the pyramid collapse, or if she did at all, so Loch has made his "Dreaming for a Revelation" to interpolate that bit. Aside of plot supplements, we got stories alternate or parallel to it - for instance, in Titak's jungle, Lara attempts to rescue Werner's trapped leg (and the rest of him) from a locked room in Cambodia:
Ma.ximo - 被困
Ma.ximo - Prise au Piege (Trapped)
Loch - 梦之启示
Loch - Dreaming for a Revelation
Titak - 丛林热
Titak - Jungle Fever
注意这些关卡通常使用相同素材预设，因为不同关卡的物体（如卡纳克的开关与亚历山大的门）无法混合。社区虽尝试解决，但早期管理工具功能单一，使用不便。直到Michiel的WadMerger发布，情况才迎来重大转变——它不仅能混合古墓丽影4不同关卡的物体，还能从前五代古墓丽影中导入，添加音效、计算碰撞、制作动画，集于一体。这大大节省了建造者的时间，让他们能测试更多可能——结果几乎一切皆可行。创造力如潮水般涌入新设计的世界，注入多样化的互动。突然间，你不再局限于既有素材，比如可以找到古墓丽影2中的水下墙开关。玩家的挑战从检查熟悉元素的排列，转向发现建造者想给你的新互动惊喜。
Notice in those levels you usually see the same asset presets, because objects from different levels - for instance the a switch from Karnak and a door from Alexandria - were not mixable. Of course the community tried to help but the first management tools were often simple and limited to a single purpose, so using them wasn't so comfortable. A major change came with the release of Michiel's WadMerger, which could not only mix objects from different TR4 levels but also import them from the first five Tomb Raiders, add sounds, calculate collisions and make animations, all in one tool. A major timesaver for the builders to test what's possible - and it again appeared almost everything is. A surge of creativity streamed through the newly designed worlds, injecting them with biodiversity of interactions. Suddenly, you were no longer limited to the assets provided, but you could for example find an underwater wall switch, just like those known from TR2. A player's challenge shifted from checking how the familiar elements are aligned, to finding new interactions a builder wanted to surprise a player with.
eRIC - 安德烈亚斯之剑1
eRIC - Andreas' Sword Part1
Lima - 水下矿井
Lima - Underwater Mine
若说这是难度飞跃，那么StrPix的发布则让难度直冲云霄——它支持从Metasequoia等建模程序导入自定义模型。关卡开始拥有定制角色，彻底突破限制，新世界的大门被推开。psiko是最大的创新者之一——首图摄于2004年，第二张则是2014年他找到直接在3dsMax中制作关卡再导入编辑器的方法后完成。
If that was a difficulty leap, then it skyrocketed with the release of StrPix, able to import custom meshes from modelling programs like Metasequoia. Levels got their custom character burnt in, and nothing was left in the way of making entirely new worlds. This is psiko, one of the biggest inventors – the first picture is from 2004, the other one from 2014 after he found his way to make levels directly in 3dsMax and then import them to the level leditor.
psiko - 科技埃及人
psiko - The Techno Egyptians
psiko - 超立方体
psiko - Hypersquare
有人制作工具，有人深入研究——古墓丽影4中许多技术上可复用到自制关卡但未被编辑器手册记录的设定，被一群志愿者粉丝仔细分析并编写成教程。这些知识高效传播，首次汇聚大量经验丰富的建造者，共同完成了一个完整的自定义游戏项目。目标质量不低于原作古墓丽影4的“劳拉大银幕”选取了一系列卖座电影，由劳拉替代主角。经典时代就此达到巅峰。
While some people were making tools, other ones were researching - dozens of setups known from TR4 and technically possible to reuse in custom levels weren't described in the editor manual, so a group of volunteer fans has carefully analyzed them and wrote tutorials on them. This knowledge was shared very efficiently, and for the first time in history a large pool of experienced builders has assembled to pull off a full-length custom game project. Aiming at quality no lower than the original Tomb Raider 4, "Lara At The Movies" pictured a selection of blockbuster films, with Lara in place of their protagonists. The classic age has peaked.
Cowboy - 加勒比海盗
Cowboy - Pirates of the Carribean
Codo - 异形重生
Codo - Alien Resurrection
RaiderX - 印第安纳琼斯：魔宫传奇
RaiderX - Indiana Jones - Temple of Doom
tombrdr - 惊魂记
tombrdr - Psycho
Josep Borrut - 木乃伊之墓的鲜血
Josep Borrut - Blood from the Mummy's Tomb
但如今，玩家对自制关卡的要求已不仅是已知互动，未知互动成为必备。沉浸感与游戏性的平衡变得极其难以把握，玩家因此“跌落”。落地后，他们抖落尘埃，凝视曾跌落的绳索，方知脚下土地何其稳固。就在此刻，他们怀念经典时代——而经典时代已逝。受全球怀旧驱动，为填补这份空缺，2005年“回归基础”竞赛拉开帷幕。目标仅使用编辑器附带的“地下墓穴”资源包，接受其所有不足，依靠创造力打造优质关卡。成果极为出色，无法仅用一张截图展示。
But now, on top of interactions known from the whole franchise, expecting unknown ones started to be required from a player of custom levels. The tightrope between immersion and gameplay became incredibly hard to walk, so the players fell from it. Down at the bottom, they shook off the dust, gazed at the tightrope they fell from, and realized how stable the ground they fell onto was. In that very moment, they missed the classic age - and the classic age was over. Driven by global nostalgia, aiming to fulfill it, the Back to Basics contest was organized in 2005. The goal was to take only the Catacombs resource pack originally shipped with the editor, accept all of its shortages and rely on creativity to make a good level. Results were so good, it's impossible to show just one screenshot.
GeckoKid - 沙漠遗迹与蛇塔
GeckoKid - Desert Ruins and the Serpent Tower
Horus - 哀悼宫殿
Horus - Mourning Palace
Dhama - 寻找黄金甲虫
Dhama - Quest for the Golden Beetle
“返璞归真”每年举办，每届设定特定主题。因资源极度有限，部分关卡诞生了最难忘的谜题。“杀戮之地”让劳拉一改消灭濒危物种的习惯，转而执行拯救猴群的任务；“印蒂在注视你”设计了复杂的太阳谜题。历经亚洲、伦敦、秘鲁后，竞赛回归初始编辑器资源包，此次允许每关选择不同资源包，而非仅限竞赛通用包。该届的“空wad诅咒”看似调侃原版缺陷，实则eRIC选用最空泛的资源包，通过非常规方式使用物体，证明了其价值。此后数年，他持续挑战自我，最终成为最全能的竞赛者之一，甚至两次夺冠。
Back to Basics continued annually, with a specific theme chosen for every edition. Due to the very limited nature, some of those levels feature the most memorable puzzles ever made. "The Killing Fields" redeems Lara's habit of annihilating endangered species, as she's now on a rescue mission to save a population of monkeys. "Inti Is Watching You" features a sophisticated solar riddle. After Asia, London and Peru, the competition looped back to starter editor resourcepacks, this time you could choose a pack per level, not just per contest. Of this edition, "Curse of Empti Wad" quirkily seems to mock the vanilla shortcomings, but in fact eRIC chose one of the emptiest resourcepacks and proved it useful regardless, using objects in a way they weren't meant to be. In the next years he continued this fashion of extra challenging himself, to eventually become one of the most versatile competitors and even win twice.
Loch - 返璞归真2006：杀戮之地
Loch - BtB2006 - The Killing Fields
TimJ - 返璞归真2008：印蒂在注视你
TimJ - BtB2008 - Inti is watching you
eRIC - 返璞归真2009：神的诅咒
eRIC - BtB2009 - Curse of Empti Wad
部分建造者选择合作而非竞争，在Skribblerz论坛集结，追求团队效率，不限定制自由，但受共同理念约束——每位成员从相同初始房间开始，调整周边以匹配项目风格。Skribblerz石之系列由此诞生。目前该活动已举办五届。
Meant to collab rather than compete, some builders parallelly assembled on the Skribblerz forum, aiming for group efficiency, not limiting customization at all, however still bound by a common idea - each member of the project would begin the building in an identical starter room but then adjusted the surroundings to match the chosen style of the project. This is how Skribblerz Stonez were born. For now, the event had five editions in total.
Dhama - 太阳神庙
Dhama - Sun Temple
随时间推进，项目愈发精细。为保持同步，游戏可执行文件获得了内存补丁。绘制距离提升，劳拉周围20格的黑暗墙壁不再是必须。这些调整被整合进Pyuaumch的古墓丽影引擎补丁（TREP），同时包含改变互动与视觉风格的自定义补丁。自2004年起，大量新功能通过简单勾选即可应用。若你制作中等规模地图，偏好快速预设调整而非高级脚本，TREP因其易用性与独特视觉风格成为首选。
As we advance on the timeline, you see the projects gain detail. In order to keep up, the game exe has gotten a memory patch. The draw distance was also increased, and the dark wall 20 blocks around Lara wasn't a must anymore. Those tweaks were wrapped into Pyuaumch's Tomb Raider Engine Patcher (TREP) alongside with further custom patches which changed interactive and visual style. Since 2004, literally tons of new features were added, applicable to the game by a simple tick of a button. If you build a medium-sized map and prefer instant preset tweaks over advanced scripting, you can use TREP due to its easiness and unique visual flavor.
Titak - 喜马拉雅之谜（完整版）
Titak - Himalayan Mysteries (Full)
Danilo Rocha - 古老知识
Danilo Rocha - The Ancient Knowledge
Mr XY - 西藏冬季重制版
Mr XY - Tibetan Winter Remake
此时，核心设计工作室的编辑器也需更新。此前，你只能绘制地图局部以检查拼接，但编辑器频繁崩溃——因此，想制作包含互通区域的有机关卡，建造者需具备极强的空间想象能力。为解决此问题，Paolone重制了编辑器内存。如今，建造者无需脑补即可查看更多内容。操作更直观、更流畅。更多游戏功能陆续引入，这个短暂的时代虽短，却留下了最难忘的瞬间。
Around that time, Core Design's editor also needed an update. Until now, you could draw multiple parts of the map in order to check their alignment with each other, but the editor crashed very often if you did - therefore any builder who wanted to make an organic level with interconnected areas, needed to have insanely good spatial imagination. To counter it, Paolone revamped the editor memory. Now as a builder you could see much more without interpolating things in your head. Controls were also more readable and faster. More gameplay features were on the way to be introduced so this little age lasted for very short - but nevertheless it gave us some of the most memorable moments.
l.m. - 威尼斯一日
l.m. - One Day in Venice
Bigfoot - 一把红沙
Bigfoot - For a Handful of Red Sand
Kosmos - 月光遗产
Kosmos - Moonlight Legacies
几乎同时，古墓丽影：下一代（TRNG）——一款基于新编辑器的自定义引擎——以远超默认编辑器的优势登场，因其拥有原生编程语言，支持完全跳出框架的游戏元素与前所未有的风格单元。关卡从完全经典到完全不像古墓丽影均有分布。TRNG与TREP不兼容，这成为缺点，但也让两类关卡各有特色——至今，选择任一工具仍是有效方式。TRNG通过城堡主题的“复杂简约”竞赛推广，并用于众多项目，但其最知名的可能是节日关卡的奇特、超现实风格。
Almost immediately, Tomb Raider: The Next Generation (TRNG) - a custom engine for the new editor was added, far superior compared to the default one due to featuring its own primitive programming language. It enabled completely outbox gameplay elements alongside with style units not designable before. Levels now ranged from completely classic to not resembling Tomb Raider at all. TRNG didn't pair with TREP, which was a drawback but also provided both types of levels with distinct character – and so, building with one tool or another is still a valid choice today. TRNG was promoted in a castle-themed Complex Simplicity contest and used for many projects, but its idiosyncratic, often surreal nature is probably the most known from holiday levels.
Masha - 公主与恶龙
Masha - The Princess and the Nasty Dragon
Ranpyon - 彩虹蛋
Ranpyon - The Rainbow Eggs
与此同时，另一项努力是提供与TREP兼容的高级脚本。Larson88制作的替代脚本工具eSSe用于少数返璞归真关卡，但因开发周期长，其知名度主要来自Clara/Masha/Sponge的关卡——这些游戏因作为工具的主要测试场地而独具特色。
Meanwhile a bit on the side, efforts were made to provide advanced scripting compatible with TREP. An alternate scripter eSSe was made by Larson88 and used in a couple of BtB levels, but due to long development it's mostly known from levels of Clara/Masha/Sponge - a lot of uniqueness in those games comes from being the major betatesting ground for the tool.
Clara/Masha/Sponge - 耶路撒冷计划
Clara/Masha/Sponge - The Jerusalem Project
Clara/Masha/Sponge - 德古拉归来
Clara/Masha/Sponge - Dracula's Return
Clara/Sponge - 非常糟糕的基础
Clara/Sponge - A Very Bad Grund
随着两款工具的路径交汇，灵活引擎补丁（FLEP）——TREP的更新版——实现了与TRNG的兼容。如今（2021年），同时使用这两者已成为制作高度定制项目的默认选择——TRNG提供数千种游戏逻辑组合，FLEP负责海量视觉效果……当然，99%的使用场景是制作瀑布。
Converging the separate ways of both tools, Flexible Engine Patcher (FLEP) - a TREP update - became compatible with TRNG. Today (2021), using these two together is the default go-to choice for building a seriously customized project – TRNG provides thousands of game logic combinations, while FLEP is responsible for unmeasurable amount of visual effects.... so of course 99% of usage is waterfalls.
Dino - 别杀猴子
Dino - Don't Kill The Monkeys
tombraiderxii - 波塞冬圣殿
tombraiderxii - Poseidon's Sanctuary
Vandit – 大城府 – 第二部
Vandit – Ayutthaya – Part 2
最后两者是“单房间挑战”的一部分。若你只想通过一个活动了解古墓丽影自制关卡的进化史，非它莫属——众多浓缩关卡快速剖析了从标准低多边形区域到完全自定义超高清环境的全部定义范围。尽管一提“高清”便唤起怀旧——此次怀旧更甚，因原版风格几乎消失——连“返璞归真”都因细节过于丰富，令人怀疑是否仍符合初衷。因此，AgentXP将“每届使用多资源包”的废弃理念复活，在其竞赛中允许定制，但要求不低于原版精神——另一种“半新半旧”的平衡，另一种……“创造经典”的方式。新一代建造者就此登场。
The last two are a part of One Room Challenge. If you could only play one event for a synopsis of TRLE evolution, you should pick this one – many condensed levels quickly dissect the entire definition range, from standard, low-poly areas to fully custom, super HD environments. Though it's like if as soon as you utter „HD”, the nostalgia calls – and this time it hit even harder, since the vanilla niche almost disappeared – even Back to Basics was so detailed people wondered if it still serves its initial purpose. Therefore, AgentXP took the dead idea of using multiple packages per edition, and revived it in her own competition. This one allowed customization but not below the melting point of vanilla spirit - another way to go half cup old half cup new, another way to... Create a Classic. A whole new generation of builders entered the scene.
SrDanielPonces - 敌对水域
SrDanielPonces - Hostile Waters
AgentXP07 – 劳拉的假期
AgentXP07 – Vacation of the Tomb Raider
tomreginald - 迷失亚马逊
tomreginald - Lost in the Amazon
我们已非常接近当代，上述所有关卡均用最新、最革命性的工具——古墓丽影编辑器制作。此前所有编辑器、更新与补丁皆具革命性，但此工具拥有一项它们梦寐以求的功能：稳定性。差异如此显著，甚至可能让你忽略它整合了过去25年的所有其他功能，并配有一套外部工具完善编辑器套件——一切只为让关卡设计更快、更直观。若你是新晋建造者，只需忽略我之前所说，从此处开始即可。也要记住，这并非终点，因为百倍强大的后继者正在路上——终极形式的建造工作室，将书写新历史：古墓丽影引擎。
We're now very close to contemporary times, as all these levels above were made in the latest, most groundbreaking tool - Tomb Editor. All previous editors, updates and patches were revolutionary, but this one has a feature they could only dream of: stability. The difference is so striking it may distract you from noticing every other feature from the past 25 years is also here, aided with with a set of external tools completing the Tomb Editor suite - all in order to make level design faster and more intuitive. So if you happen to be a new builder, just ignore everything I said until now and start from here. Also mind this is not the end, because a successor a hundred times more powerful is coming – a building studio in the ultimate form, which will write a new history: Tomb Engine.
Jesus C.Croft – 一条围巾的故事
Jesus C.Croft – A Scarf Story
Delca – 卢浮宫画廊
Delca – Louvre Galleries
古墓丽影编辑器重振了社区。我们建造、游玩、直播，Klona创建的专用Twitch频道不久前获批。我们甚至参与慈善活动，如古墓丽影马拉松。此刻，我们在此。因此，更多关于古墓丽影自制关卡的历史与进化，涵盖过去并展望未来的内容，将在6月12日的@twitch.tv/crystaldynamics马拉松直播中讲述。这也将是官方支持的系列直播的序章，为#tr25庆祝活动每月精选自制关卡。活动将于太平洋时间上午7点（中欧时间下午4点）开始，敬请期待。
Tomb Editor has revived the community. We build, we play, we stream, and our dedicated twitch category made by Klona has been approved not so long ago. We even join charity events like Tomb Raider Marathon, and now we're here. Therefore, more about the history and evolution of Tomb Raider custom levels, covering the past and even looking into the future, will be told on June 12, in a dedicated marathon on @twitch.tv/crystaldynamics. It will also be a prologue to an officially supported series of streams which will supplement the #tr25 celebrations with a monthly highlight of custom levels. We're starting at 7 AM PDT (4 PM CET). Stay tuned.
-DJ
——原文网址：https://tombraider25.square-enix-games.com/en-us/tr4/blog/trle-episode-0/
