How to get started with Trove Creations

• How to get started with Trove Creations
• Metaforge Guide
• Trove Style guidelines for Trove Creations

Step 1: Acquire Voxel EditorTop ^

First, you will need a Voxel editor, a program that allows you to create voxel models. There are lots of them, this guide is going to list most popular ones among Trove Community.

• Qubicle  

http://www.minddesk.com/qubicle_constructor.php

https://store.steampowered.com/app/454550/Qubicle_Voxel_Editor/

Qubicle is not free, but this is the software Trove Developers use. Qubicle works for Windows and Mac. It has lots of useful functions and tools. It also supports big models and multiple models, very useful for creating dungeons and lairs.

• MagicaVoxel

http://ephtracy.github.io

Free, works for Windows and Mac. It has excellent rendering options, supports in-built material maps.

• VoxelShop

https://github.com/simlu/voxelshop/releases

Free, works for Windows, Mac and Linux. Has unique feature of viewing your creation from all directions at once and layer-by-layer editing.

• Zoxel

https://github.com/chrmoritz/zoxel/releases 

Latest Release is available on https://github.com/chrmoritz/zoxel/releases/tag/0.6.2

Free, works on Windows and Linux. Zoxel is perfect for small models such as styles and decorations. It has just enough tools for creating, very easy to work with.

• Troxel

https://troxel.js.org

Free. Works in any browser and supports in-built material maps. Troxel has essential minimum of editing tools. We will be using Troxel for previewing and checking Styles and Decorations.

• Metaforge

https://trovesaurus.com/page=3977/metaforge-guide

Free, Trove in-built voxel editor. Creation process is identical to Build mode in Trove, but with unlimited blocks and flight mode.

Step 2: Create an itemTop ^

Each voxel editor has its own user interface, key bindings and shortcuts, but pretty much all of them are intuitive and easy to understand. Looking for specific tutorials on Google or Youtube usually is a good idea. And if you have any questions, ask in #trovecreations channel on Trovesaurus discord, we are happy to help!

Creating anything is fun but it is also a tricky process. Unlike Modding, here on Trove Creations we have set rules and guidelines, those were made to ensure that content that gets in game is of the best possible quality.

For the very first creation it is suggested you pick some Style or Decoration, creating Dungeons takes much more time, effort and planning.

Styles: Every type of Style has its own guidelines. Please read through those. Each guide has useful tips for creating and templates to download. You can find all the Guides needed over here.

No matter how beautiful creation is, we will not be able to accept it unless it fits in required dimensions and follows other rules. 

In this guide we will use Chipped Sword as sample creation.

Dungeons: If, however, you wish to create a dungeon right away you would need to make sure your dungeons follows guidelines from following articles:

• Chapter 1: Dungeon Basics
• Chapter 2: Planning your dungeon
• Chapter 3: Creating your dungeon models
• Chapter 4: METAFORGE: Plugs and Sockets
• Chapter 5: Creating the .dungeon file
• Chapter 6: METAFORGE: Testing your dungeon
• Chapter 7: METAFORGE: Decorating your dungeon
• Chapter 8: Finishing Touches

To sum it up and highlight most important parts:

• Each dungeon should fit in required dimensions, else it will not spawn in game
• Each dungeon should consist of few Gameplay rooms aside from Boss rooms
• Each room in dungeon should have at least Two variations, more variety is better but not required
• Each dungeon should have npc spawns, some traps, Boss spawn and Exit portal(s)
• Each dungeon should fit in a biome its made for and use colors from that biome

If you picked Dungeon, you can skip to Step 6: Taking Screenshots.

Step 3: Export your creation as .QBTop ^

It helps to have a separate folder for your Creations.

Once you are done creating, you will need to Export your creation as .qb. Each Voxel editor does it in a bit different way, but all those listed in Step 1 can do it.

If you have Material Maps as a separate, you would need to export them as .qb too. Our sword has Specular Material map that adds metal shine to it, so we are going to export main model as sword_001.qb and its specular material map as sword_001_s.qb

By the end of this step you should have your Creation as exported .qb file and its material maps also as .qb files in SAME folder. Material maps are not mandatory to use.

Step 4: Convert to .BLUEPRINTTop ^

.BLUEPRINTS are files that are used by Trove Game client. To preview your Creation in game (or make a Mod out of it) we need to convert our .qb files to .blueprint.

For that, we need to locate your Trove Live folder first and devtool_dungeon_QB_to_blueprint.bat file in it.

If you launch Trove through Steam, right click Trove in your Steam library, chose Properties > Local Files > Browse Local Files. That will take you to SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Trove folder. From there you need to go Games > Trove > Live. Installed through Steam, Trove address should look somewhat like this: SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Trove\Games\Trove\Live

If you launch Trove through Glyph, right click Trove in your Glyph library and chose Settings. That will show you the full path to folder where you have Trove installed. Click Browse to open it. Installed through Glyph, Trove address should look somewhat like this: Glyph\Games\Trove\Live

Now, Trove Live folder is full of files, but we need to locate devtool_dungeon_QB_to_blueprint.bat It is used to convert .qb files to .blueprint. The other one, devtool_dungeon_blueprint_to_QB.bat is used to do the opposite, you need use it if you want to extract .qb files from blueprints.

Keep your Trove Live folder opened, open the folder with your Creation. Drag the
.qb you made in previous step onto the devtool_dungeon_QB_to_blueprint.bat. This will create .blueprint file of same name in the folder with your .qb. Duplicate blueprint is automatically created in Trove\Live\blueprints.

Note: Blueprint is created out of all qbs that share the name with main qb. You do not need to drag material maps (_a, _s, _t) onto the devtool.

Step 5: Preview your creation in TroveTop ^

Previewing is used to make sure that Creation is facing proper direction, does not clip through the ground or the character. It also lets us check if material maps are working as intended. And the last but not least, we use previewing for taking screenshots! You will need those to properly submit your Creation.

Hope you still have your Trove Live folder open. Now we need to locate Blueprints sub folder in it. There you will see your sword_001.blueprint, and in there you will need to put other blueprints that you would want to preview.

Now we launch Trove. Select a class that uses the type of weapon you created and type /weaponpreview sword_001 in chat, that will show it for you in game.

You do not need to reload Trove if you update your blueprint, just make sure it is in Blueprints folder and type /weaponpreview blueprint_name in game.

Keep in mind, there cannot be any spaces in the name of blueprint.

If you change worlds you will need to use chat command again to continue previewing.

Any class can wield any weapon with /weaponpreview , but please, use only appropriate classes for previewing. If you do not have certain class unlocked you can always Trial it.

In this guide we are using Sword as example creation, so proper classes for previewing it are Knight, Candy Barbarian, Neon Ninja or Boomeranger.

Click on a spoiler below to see another way to view your styles in game, it might be harder to do but it is more reliable.

Step 6: Taking ScreenshotsTop ^

Styles:   Once you have your creation displayed in game, it is time to make some screenshots. Default hotkey is F12, that will take a screenshot and display a path where it is saved in game chat. Most commonly that is C:/Username/Documents/Trove. This path can vary, but ingame chat will always show the correct folder with your screenshots.

F12 screenshots without User Interface (UI). If you are using other methods of making screenshots, disable UI manually with F7. Pressing F7 once more will enable UI again.

Here is an example of good and bad screenshots. It is important to accent the view on the creation, not flashy surroundings or other players.

Dungeons:   To preview your dungeon in game you need to launch Trove and go to Metaforge (/metaforge chat command). Inside the Metaforge F9 is a hotkey for flight, F10 is free camera. Again, F12 is for screenshots, path where those are saved will be displayed in game chat.

There is no need to screenshot every corner of a dungeon, but few screenshots are required (above ground part, boss room etc). You can upload both directly to the site or to Imgur. 

Dungeons do not use Troxel (Troxel does not support big models consisting of multiple blueprints), so feel free to skip to Step 8: Uploading your creation.

Step 7: TroxelTop ^

Troxel is a small and handy voxel editor that supports Material Maps. We can upload creations there to preview models and share links for other people to see them.

Go to https://troxel.js.org , then click on big blue button Open model from file...

In a pop-up window you need to select your files and click Open Model button.

In this guide we are working on a sword that has main model sword_001.qb and specular Material Map sword_001_s.qb. It has no other material maps, so no other files are selected.

Once the model is loaded, take a look at Lint and Export button on the right sidebar of Troxel. Choose the type of your creation, press a button and it will highlight all the technical issues on your model, if there are any.

Sample Chipped Sword passed all tests so we can move on to Exporting it as a Troxel link.

Go to Export Model as ... and chose Link (share). Make sure that ‘readonly’ checkbox is unchecked, else the model in the link will be un-editable. Having links editable helps Moderators to show possible edits on your creations, if that is needed.

Color palette compression is optional. Resizing to bounding box is useful, if the matrix of your model is much bigger than model itself it will be hard to rotate and view it in Troxel. Trovesaurus link shortener is currently not working.

Copy the link, we will need it in the next step.

Step 8: Uploading new CreationTop ^

To upload your awesome creation you need to go to https://trovesaurus.com/creations/mine and select a Type. Lairs and Dungeons uploads are similar to eachother, while Styles are tiny bit different. That is because you would need to upolad .blueprint and .dungeon files for Dungeon uploads right away while Styles only require Troxel link to be posted.

First we select Type – Melee, then a Trove Biome in which our sword belongs – Medieval Highlands. For dungeons you select a type when picking a slot in Your Creation Slots, each type of dungeon has its own slot.

Next we name it. Accepted creations usually get new names and lore-related flavor text from Developers when they get in game, but placing some thought in naming your creation is a good thing to do.

After that we need to copy and paste Troxel link, please make sure it is editable. That means, Readonly checkbox  was unchecked when you created a link. Same step for dungeons requires you to upload .bluepint files and .dungeon file so other people could download them and view your dungeon in Metaforge.

Next we upload a screenshot. Don’t worry, you can add more screenshots after initial upload is done.

Last step – description. This is completely optional, but it can be helpful if you share what you intended a creation to be or how a dungeon is meant to be walked through.

Hit Submit button and your creation will be added to the list of Active creations.

To avoid spam of creations there are limits of one Active Dungeon, one Active Lair (1-Star Dungeon) and one Active Style or Decoration per person.

Step 9: EditingTop ^

Once you are done with initial upload of your creation you can Edit it. You can switch to Edit mode by clicking a button in the header of your page.

Editing Styles allows you to rename a creation, change its biome, description, update Troxel link and upload Catalog image of your creation to be displayed in main list. Catalog Images are not required but very welcomed. 

If you want to change type of your creation you would need to post it anew instead to avoid confusion.

Images tab allows you to upload more images and chose a Feature image for your creation, this one will be diplayed first in your post.

Files tab lets you upload upload .blueprints of your creation for Developers to download them straight from Trovesaurus! This is not required to do right away (for styles), but please be sure to have a blueprint uploaded when you set your item for Review. Creator can add, update and remove their own blueprints while creation is set to Draft, Active or Needs Review. Once creation is Approved, editing is disabled.

If you have files uploaded, there will be a Download ZIP button, which lets other people download your creation fiels in .zip.

Editing Dungeons allows you to rename creation, change its biome, description, upload more images and to update your Blueprint files. Dungeons and lairs are too big to be catalogued so that tool is not used for them.

You can also set a Feature Image for Dungeons and Lairs using special button.

Once you are done editing, make sure to hit Submit button to save changes you made! 

Step 10: Review ProcessTop ^

There are few stages a creation needs to pass from initial upload to being Accepted for the game.

In brief, users post creations, mark their Active creations for Needs Review, moderators review those and either advance to Approved or set back to Active if creation needs more work. Developers check Approved creations, Accept them for the game and distribute rewards. Whole acceptance process can take some time, please have patience.

And so, a creation can have following conditions:

Draft - used for discarded creations. Drafts are not seen on main Trove Creation page, only you can see your own Drafts. Users can advance their Drafts to Active if they have an open slot of appropriate type. If you wish to remove your Creation entirely, please contact a Moderator.

Active - used for all freshly made creations. Active indicates a creation is being worked on. Users can advance their creations to Needs Review or discard them as Drafts. 

Needs Review - used by Users to mark their creations ready to be reviewed by Moderators. Moderators check if creation is appropriate for the game, does not have duplicates among in-game items and fits in required dimensions.

Approved - used by Moderators, indicates that creation was reviewed and is good enough to be put in game. Approved creations can no longer be edited. If you want to make any changes to Approved creation, please contact a moderator. Once creation is Approved it stops occupying a Slot in your Creations board freeing it up for new creations and becomes listed on https://trovesaurus.com/mods/submissions.

Accepted - is set by Developers. Developers review Approved creations and Accept ones they are going to put in game.

Rewarded - is set by Developers. Rewards are distributed at this point, please make sure that  your Trovesaurus username matches your in-game charater name and that you have set a Platfom you play on in your Profile. Warning - only PC players are able to recieve Credit rewards because of Legal agreements. Console players will recieve Golden Chaos Chests instead.

Added - is set by Moderators according to patch notes when new creations are added to Trove.

Step 11: Yay it got Accepted!Top ^

Your creation was approved and now it is Accepted! Congratulations!

Styles: Please make sure you have uploaded a finalized blueprint of your item! Developers download those from your Creation page here on Trovesaurus. (an option to upload a blueprit will be available once your creation is Approved by moderator)

Dungeons: Developers download your files from a Dropbox link and send Rewards to account you used to post it.

Please make sure you are familliar with Legal Terms.