Table of Contents

Model Editor

The Model Editor is our own application to create entities. An entity (saved in a .ent file) is composed of a mesh and a set of physical properties, bodies, and optionally joints and sub-entities. It can also contain animations for an animated entity, such as NPC's. Also worth noting is that an entity must be set up with a user defined type.

Overview

When run, the first screen we get to see is like this:

modeleditoroverview.jpg

Each part of the screen has a specific function, as follows:

  1. Main menu bar: this is where every non-editor command lies, as well as some edition ones.
  2. EditMode sidebar: here you will find a set of buttons used to switch the current behaviour of the editor. More on this later.
  3. EditMode window area: any helper input the current EditMode needs will appear here.
  4. Viewport area: this area of the screen is reserved for the viewports, which are used to actually see what you are doing to the map. Every viewport has its own menu bar, to control some parameters of the visualization.
  5. Lower toolbar: some tools that are either viewport-dependent or global are located here.

This is a menu bar, just like in any other windowed application. Available options for this particular editor are as follows:

EditMode selection bar

Here you will be able to switch between the different EditModes available in this editor. An EditMode describes the state the editor is going to work in when selected. These five EditModes can be found in this editor and the Model Editor.

The following EditModes are exclusive to the Model Editor

Viewport area

This area is meant to actually show what the map contains. There are four viewports in this editor, and their initial setup is shown in this picture:

model_viewports.jpg

Viewport in focus

When working on a map, only one viewport will be focused at a time. This is shown by a red highlight around the currently focused viewport (in the picture above, focus is on the lower right viewport). To set the focus on a viewport, just move the mouse into it.

In the Level Editor, some controls for the currently focused viewport is shown in the Lower Toolbar.

View Menu

Each viewport has a “View” menu bar, which includes the following options:

Moving and looking around

All movement and looking will be done using the mouse. In a nutshell, there are three basic movements that can be done, all need the 'view' key to be pressed (default left Alt). When this key is held, the red focus frame will turn yellow. These movements are listed next:

Linux Note: Left Super (aka “Windows” or Apple key) and the Z key are also the view key as the Alt key is usually bound by the Window Manager.
Mac OS X Note: A three button mouse is required to use the editor.

Enlarging a viewport

When working in a viewport, the common thing to do is enlarging it. This can be done by clicking on the 'enlarge button' in the lower toolbar, or pressing the shortcut for it (spacebar).

Lower Toolbar

You can find some useful controls in this bar located at all times at the lower part of the screen. model_lowertoolbar.jpg

  1. Grid Controls:
    • Grid Plane: cycles through the available grid planes (XZ, XY, YZ).
    • Toggle Snap (magnet button): enables/disables snapping for translation (over grid), rotation and scale.
    • Grid Height: height of the plane, measured on the plane normal.
    • Snap Separation: separation of snapping points.
  2. Enlarge Viewport button: will toggle enlargement of the focused viewport.
  3. Entity Preview button: will toggle the entity preview window.
  4. Misc controls:
    • A: toggles global ambient lighting
    • P: togles global point light
    • LT: toggles Lock to grid for tracking in focused viewport
    • F: focus on current selection

Types of Objects

These are the kinds of objects that you can create and place in this editor. Details on each one and parameter listing in the following links:

The following types are exclusive to the Model Editor