Quickstart
This document provides a quick and sketchy insight on the functioning of the editor, please refer to the full documentation for additional informations. Upon launching the editor for the first time you are presented with the default interface layout:
Editor startup layout.
As you can see the property view is empty. A Get Started document is open to let you quickly access important informations such as the recent project list, tutorials and the editor newsfeed.
Opening a project.
Open a project by clicking on a recent project in the Get Started page or by opening it via the File/Open Project menu entry.
The project explorer shows up in the interface and displays all resources available for edition.
The project explorer.
The project explorer has a four-buttons set of filters to toggle display of resources based on their type. Hover the mouse over a button to see a tool-tip with the type this button filters.
Opening a scene.
Open a scene by double-clicking it, drag'n'dropping it on the interface or via the File/Open menu entry. The template scene "Bookshelf0.nms" of the "Astrofra - Medieval Kit" library is used for this example.
A new document view shows up in the interface and the scene explorer docks itself above the project explorer.
The scene explorer has docked above the project explorer, the scene content is visible.
The scene view.
Right under the scene view tab is a set of buttons controlling the viewport configuration for this view. Multiple viewports can be used to display the scene under different viewpoints. Each viewport lets you choose a viewpoint among a set of predefined locations (top, left, right, etc...) and the available scene cameras.
Viewport header for a 3d scene view.
Interacting with the viewport.
By left-clicking in the viewport you can pick items to edit. The editor supports multiple selection by using the Left-Ctrl modifier key to append or remove items from the current selection.
By using the movement modifier key Left-Alt you can drag the view to move the current viewpoint in the scene. Viewpoints can operate in two different modes: Free View and Orbit View.
To target and orbit around a selection use the View/Centre on Selection menu entry.
to release the target back to the Free View mode, use the View/Free View.
Tip: You can also orbit around an arbitrary point on the surface of a geometry by Left-Alt
ouble-Clicking on a geometry, the view will centre on the hit point and adapt its distance based on the geometry size.
Right-clicking while pressing the movement modifier key will zoom in and out and middle-clicking will pan the view in the projection plane.
Adding content to the scene.
Adding content to the scene is done via the Scene/Add sub-menu or by drag'n'dropping resources onto the viewport. The editor will try to guess the best course of action depending of the type of resource you drag in.
eg. Dragging a geometry from the project explorer to a scene viewport will add a new Object referring to this geometry in the scene. The editor will create the new content at the drop position so that you may quicky build levels out of a few drag'n'drop operations. Dragging a scene will create a new instance of that scene.
Editing the content properties.
Make a selection, its properties will appear in the Property View docked on the right side of the screen.
You can open a geometry or an instance template by right clicking on it in the viewport and selecting Edit in the popup menu.
Previewing the scene.
Preview the scene by using the Scene/Preview... menu item. A new document opens and an instance of the viewer is started with the scene in its current state on the local machine. The debugger and the profiler will both connect to this target and start displaying informations as soon as the loading ends.
Previewing a scene as a secondary document of the editor.
Tip: The editor scene preview provides limited interaction with the physics world and let you grab and drag Dynamic items around.
Please refer to the full documentation for additional informations.