Creating Items

All of the editor tools are embedded in-game.

To access the item editor, go to the Main Menu of Tower Unite. Near the bottom, there is a Workshop Editor option. From there, click on Player Model/Item Creation.

We assume in this guide that you have prior knowledge with 3D modeling.

Step 1. Exporting

Assuming you have a model already ready to go, you just need to export it to a format Tower Unite accepts. For items, we allow importing DAE, FBX, OBJ, and SMD!

Textures

For textures, store the files in the same folder as your model file. The game will search for them when importing and assign them based on the naming format.

The supported material maps and their associated names are as follows:

Diffuse maps: <Material Slot Name>_Diffuse.<file type>
Normal maps: <Material Slot Name>_Normal.<file type>
Height maps: <Material Slot Name>_Height.<file type>

So if you had a material called "Bench" for your model, and you used .pngs, your textures would look like:

Bench_Diffuse.png
Bench_Normal.png
Bench_Height.png

The importer will inform you if your texture files are missing. It is not required to have a Normal or Height texture, but the model importer will warn you if they are missing.

Step 2. Importing into Tower Unite

Once you have exported the model into an accepted format, it's finally time to open up Tower Unite and load the Workshop Editor!

To access the item editor, go to the Main Menu of Tower Unite. Near the bottom, there is a Workshop Editor option. From there, click on Player Model/Item Creation.

Once in the editor:

• Select the My Imports tab.
• Select Item from the dropdown.
• Click Import.
• Select the model you wish to import.
• That's it!

Your model will then be converted into our format (.model). If it fails for any reason, the editor will tell you why in the Compiler Info. You can also see the entire import process there and troubleshoot any issues that come up.

You can reimport over and over until you get the perfect item!

Step 3. Metadata

You can edit your item for Tower Unite specific features using the metadata editor.

The item metadata editor allows you to adjust the scale of the model. This is useful for quick scale fix-ups, but it's preferred to adjust the scale of the model during the import process.

You can also adjust material properties from the metadata editor as well.

Once you are done editing the metadata, just hit Save Metadata and when you upload your model, it'll all be included for you!

Material Metadata

You can adjust the material settings using the metadata editor.

• Emissive: Adjusts how much the material glows in the dark.
• Roughness: Adjusts how smooth reflections are.
• Metallic: Adjusts how much the material is metal.
• Specular: Adjusts how reflective the material is.
• Transparency: Adjusts if the material is partially translucent or masked (masked takes in lighting and does not have as many visual sorting issues)
• Toon Shader: Applies a cartoon effect on the material.

Step 4. Publishing

To publish your item, select the My Imports tab, select the Type dropdown and make sure that Item is selected.

Once you have done this, you will see a list of all of your imported models.

Find the vehicle that you wish to upload, and click on its name. On the right, click on the big blue Upload button. From there, you will see the upload panel.

Fill out the necessary information, tag your item type, and follow our rules.

Once you have filled out all the information, simply click Upload, and the editor will upload to Steam Workshop.

If you want to make your item immediately public, click the Publish & Make Public check box then hit upload, otherwise leave that unchecked and you can make it public from the published Workshop page.

You can update your item's title, description and images on the published Workshop page. Unfortunately, you cannot update your tags or thumbnail without doing an update to your item.

Upload Errors

If your item failed to upload to the Steam Workshop, it will give you an error message:

• Nothing: Sometimes this just happens. Try uploading once or twice again, before investigating further.
• Title / Description: Large bodies of text in the title or description field may prevent the upload. Keep it short or empty and you can update it freely afterwards.
• Maintenance / Downtime: Sometimes Steam Workshop is taken offline and will be unable to accept uploads. If this is the case, try again in 15 minutes or so.
• Bans: If you have recently had an item removed from the Workshop, you may be limited by a temporary Workshop ban, even if it wasn't a Tower Unite item.

Video Tutorial

Updating

To update an existing workshop item, while in the item editor, click the My Uploads tab.

From there, you will see a list of your uploaded workshop addons. If you do not see any uploaded Workshop addons, check if you are properly connected to Steam or click Get My Uploads.

Find the item you want to update, and click on its name. An update dialog will open up, and will automatically populate with existing information for the item for you.

From here, you can update the title, the image, tags, and the file.

To update the model, click on Select File To Update and select the file from the list that pops up.

Once you are done with your changes, click Update, and the editor will send the changes to Steam Workshop.

You may have to clear your workshop cache and restart Tower Unite to see the update.

Example