Editor Interface

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Work in Progress: Comments & Edits Welcome

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Introduction

The editor user interface

This page details all the interface elements found in the Overgrowth level editor, which can be accessed by pressing 9 when in the game.

Note: A fair number of tools and functions are inaccessible from the editor interface, to find out how to access these, or if you're looking for a control/hotkey reference, go to the Control Reference.

Ribbon User Interface

The tabs of the ribbon user interface

The horizontal bar across the top of the window is called the ribbon. All editor functions can be found here with a few exceptions as some functions can only be reached via hotkeys for now.

Since this is alpha software, some buttons simply don't do anything at all.

Home

Contains the most common tools.

Button	Hotkey	Effect
Rabbot	8	Enter play mode.
Paste	cmd+v	Pastes the clipboard on the cursor position.
Cut	cmd+x	Puts the selection into the clipboard and removes the selected objects.
Copy	cmd+c	Puts the selection into the clipboard.
Undo	cmd+z	Undo the most recent action.
Redo	cmd+shift+z	Redo the most recent action.
Load Item	cmd+c	Opens the item browser.
Save Item	cmd+c	Opens a save dialog to save selected objects.
Load Level	-	-
Save Level	cmd+s	Overwrites the current level with any changes.
New Level	-	-
Parameters	-	Opens the parameter editor for the loaded level.
Group	cmd+g	Groups the selected objects.
Ungroup	cmd+shift+g	Ungroups any selected groups.
Rigging tool	-	-
Delete	delete	Removes any selected objects.
Exit	alt+f4	Closes the application.

Edit

Contains tools more directly related to level editing.

Button	Hotkey	Effect
Calculate shadows	-	Starts baking shadows.
Calculate ambient occlusion	-	Starts an ambient occlusion bake.
Miss object tool	-	-
Material editor	-	-
Shader editor	-	-
Isolate	-	-
Projector box display	-	-
Surface display	-	-
Object editor active	-	Allow selection of objects.
Hotspot editor active	-	Allow selection of hotspots.
Decal editor active	-	Allow selection of decals.
Physics editor active	-	-

Pathfinding

Tools for nav mesh generation, loading, saving and viewing.

Button	Hotkey	Effect
Create Nav Mesh	-	Generates a new navigation mesh.
View Nav Mesh	-	Renders the current nav mesh in the 3D view.
Save Nav Mesh	-	Save the current nav mesh to disk.
Load Nav Mesh	-	Load a previously saved nav mesh from disk.

Dialogue

Tools for dialogue editing.

Button	Hotkey	Effect
Edit Selected	-	?
Load Pose	-	?
Stop Editing	-	?
Preview Dialogue	-	?
Save Dialogue	-	?
Toggle Recording	-	?
Load Dialogue	-	?

Test

Contains an experimental tool for using the terrain to carve into objects.

Button	Hotkey	Effect
Carve Against Terrain	-	Carves into selected objects with the terrain.

Warnings

Just below the ribbon on the left side is a space for warnings. These warnings will tell you if the nav mesh, ambient occlusion or baked shadows needs to be updated.

Item Browser

The item browser

The item browser is used to browse for items that can be spawned in the levels. It is brought up by pressing the Load Item button under the Home tab. To spawn an item, click it and then click in the world to create the item on that location.

This list does not necessarily contain all the objects that can be spawned as all objects need to be manually added to the list. A file browser can be brought up by pressing the folder icon just under the tabs at the top. That file browser can be used to try loading any xml file, which is useful if you're trying to load a custom object that has not been added to the item browser for instance. The types of items that can be spawned are objects (static models), characters, weapons, hotspots, decals and spawn points.

Along the top of the window there are tabs for different categories of items. In the bottom right there is a slider to change the size of the thumbnail images as well as a grip that can be clicked and dragged to resize the window. A search field that searches in the currently open tab is located under the tabs to the right.

Hovering your mouse cursor over a thumbnail image causes a heart icon to appear on the thumbnail. If that heart icon is pressed the object is added as a favorite. To sort out any object that is not a favorite from the view, press the heart button right under the tabs at the top of the window. The favorites do not persist between closing and opening the item browser.

Color Picker

Two crete blocks. The left is the original, the right has had it's color altered by the color picker.

The Color Picker is used to tint the color of selected objects. It is opened by pressing CTRL+P (For Mac users: Command+P). The color picker consists of a color-gradient box, a rainbow slider, two boxes of different sizes showing the basic chosen color, RGB values, a hex value, and an overbrightness slider. Increasing overbrightness makes the color brighter.

Save Selected Objects

Once you have created something you wish to use elsewhere, press Ctrl+Shift+S (On Windows) or Command+Shift+S (on Mac) to open an object saving dialog. This way, you can save buildings, trees or obstacle courses made from many parts as a single XML object, ready to be imported back to Overgrowth.

Sun Editor

To edit the sun, find it in the sky and double-click it. Now you can click and drag on the circle to change the intensity of the sun, click and drag on the dot to change the color and click and drag on the sun itself to move it around the sky.