How to: the Extended Editor

[Ane 1213]

Dear Ylanders,

The Editor has evolved from elementary to extended, bringing us a more advanced version, which translates into having more buttons that we don't know what are used for. 

There are tooltips for every button in the editor, but in case you find the interface not to be very intuitive, we decided to compile this short “guide”, mainly explaining what each button does. So let's go by parts, as Jack the Ripper said.

 

 

1. Pressing this exits the editor, creates a game based on it and starts it. You can return back to the editor from the game via the in-game menu.

2. This switches to the character mode - you can then test the scene as if you were playing. You can pause/restart time (in the editor mode it is always paused) and toggle the editor mode back on.

3. Undo/redo buttons. With undo you erase the last action you made and with redo you revert the action that you undid. 

 

The following buttons show/hide "widgets" for the currently selected object. Widgets allow you to perform some action with the object more intuitively, by selecting/dragging various axes etc.

4. Selects objects in the level/scene. No widget - nothing is shown.

5. Movement (sometimes called "translation") widget.

6. Rotation widget.

7. Scale widget. Currently this is only used to set the area of effect for some game logic objects (trigger zone). Eventually you will be able to scale other objects as well.

 

8. This button lets you select whether you move the selected object in the World or Local coordinate space. In the World mode you move/rotate the object along axes that never change, while in the Local mode you'll be using the object's own axes, that change as the object rotation changes. If you are unsure about how this feature works you can check some of the many articles and videos available on the Internet.

9. If this is active and you drag an object across the level ("drag" - not by using the movement widget axes), the object will keep its distance to the ground. So if, for example, you place an object slightly below or above the ground, the object will stay this way even if you drag it someplace else.

10. If this is active and you move an object vertically, the object gets snapped to the terrain or structures for an easier and more precise placement. If not, it goes right through.

11. If this is active the object will stick only to the terrain, building block and such, otherwise it will stick to everything. This can be helpful when placing items on tables, hanging them on trees etc.

12. If this is active the items are snapped to a grid instead of freely (its size can be specified by pressing the arrow) when moving an object.

13. If this is active the items are rotated by predefined values instead of freely (the angle can be specified by pressing the arrow) when rotating an object.

14. If this is active the items are scaled by predefined values instead of freely (its size can be specified by pressing the arrow) when moving an object.

15. If this is active, the camera can't pass through the terrain, otherwise it can.

16. You can use the terraforming tool directly in the editor without going to the character mode with the Terraform button. 

 

  With these two buttons you can maximize/minimize the left and right panels. 

 

The left panel shows the list of the current game logic objects in the scene. 

 

 In the right panel you can access the whole catalog of items, divided into different categories: all, game logic objects, creatures, objects and items. 

 

Unlike in the game, the progress in the editor is not auto-saved. For now we need to do this manually by clicking on File (in the upper left corner) and then on Save. But in the future there will be a warning message asking us if we want to save the changes made in the scenario when trying to exit the editor.

And last but not least - it is possible to copy (Ctrl + C), paste (Ctrl + V), duplicate (Ctrl + D) delete (Delete key) and select multiple items (holding Ctrl) in the editor with said shortcuts, but for now this is not specified by any hint. This will be changed in the future and it will be possible to complete these actions by right clicking on the item/object. In the same way, shortcuts will be added for every button.

 

Aaaand that's all folks! Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments below - what you like, what you don't like, what you'd like to see changed etc. 

Ane

[MisterPoop 8]

There's a big flaw in this in my point of view. 

Scenario: 

The character is on another island exploring. You go to the editor and select games -> and select your saved game. There should be a button to instantly teleport you to where the character was...

[John - NEXFER 111]

On 02/08/2017 at 4:25 PM, MisterPoop said:

There's a big flaw in this in my point of view. 

Scenario: 

The character is on another island exploring. You go to the editor and select games -> and select your saved game. There should be a button to instantly teleport you to where the character was...

Yeah, could really do with a feature to allow searching of spawns, and fast locating / moving to them.

[V-Alfred 367]

Yep, I think teleport to last player location is pretty important feature, this tool could save you incase weird things happen

Edited December 11, 2017 by Velocifer

[TheUrbanSquatch 6]

I've been looking at the editor, perhaps I'm just being dense, but I cannot figure out how to rotate the camera view. I can rotate objects and such, but how do you change the way the camera is facing?

Edited December 11, 2017 by TheUrbanSquatch

[John - NEXFER 111]

7 minutes ago, TheUrbanSquatch said:

I've been looking at the editor, perhaps I'm just being dense, but I cannot figure out how to rotate the camera view. I can rotate objects and such, but how do you change the way the camera is facing?

Hold right click on mouse and strafe with your WASD keys  Shift will speed up WASD movement

Edited December 11, 2017 by John - NEXFER

[TheUrbanSquatch 6]

Thanks John!

[Robert Loughrey 0]

I dont have the "1" play button on my screen. My ship hit a reef and bounced 50 feet in the air and landed on the island, So I fired up the gamesave in the editor and moved the boat. but now when I save and try to play the game it just puts me back in the editor. How do I turn it back into a playable game?

 

[V-Alfred 367]

10 hours ago, Robert Loughrey said:

How do I turn it back into a playable game?

you just open the wrong save game I guess.. there is editor save game and explorer save game, the editor save game have symbol on it

[gagorian 0]

is there an option to mark all the building blocks of one type without using click and drag 
click and drag mark everything in the back grune too when i just want to mark the roof

Edited December 16, 2017 by gagorian

[Nuke92 2]

How do I exit character mode in the editor?

[handofthesly 214]

4 hours ago, Nuke92 said:

How do I exit character mode in the editor?

I was having this exact problem before! I can't remember how I got out of it as I just spammed the keyboard until something changed.

[V-Alfred 367]

9 hours ago, Nuke92 said:

How do I exit character mode in the editor?

which character you mean? there are couple if I'm aware, one is "Creator" character, you can back to editor by pressing O, and another one is scenario character, you can back to editor by pressing "Esc" then choose back to editor.

[Robert Loughrey 0]

On 12/15/2017 at 2:42 AM, Velocifer said:

you just open the wrong save game I guess.. there is editor save game and explorer save game, the editor save game have symbol on it

No I really didn't. I know that the edited game has a symbol on it, thats the one I want to play, but igf I go there from the continue menu it just puts me back in the editor. I know this is an old thread but I think you may not be able to play edited worlds anymore. There is no "Play" button (labeled 1 in the OP) in the menu anymore. I tried "pack for Sharing" in the menu but that doesn't seem to do anything. They need a more recent guide for this. 

[handofthesly 214]

5 hours ago, Robert Loughrey said:

No I really didn't. I know that the edited game has a symbol on it, thats the one I want to play, but igf I go there from the continue menu it just puts me back in the editor. I know this is an old thread but I think you may not be able to play edited worlds anymore. There is no "Play" button (labeled 1 in the OP) in the menu anymore. I tried "pack for Sharing" in the menu but that doesn't seem to do anything. They need a more recent guide for this. 

You don’t actually want to play the one with the symbols on it, I made that mistake initially too. Make sure you save your progress in the editor before returning to the main menu and then choose the normal save without the icons and any changes you made should appear in it

[RacerX 0]

So friend got transferred to a random island upon joining the game and now we cant find him. Is there a way to find him in the editor? A "GO-TO" button or something? He could be anywhere. No way to "go-to" a character in the editor?

[Designated Drinker 16]

you can store a position by right clicking but how do you see a list of saved positions?, i noticed you cant edit spawns or add any new ones once you edit a played game also or am i missing something?

Edited December 22, 2017 by Designated Drinker
typos

[Daisy Kowalczykowski 0]

Can you change time of day in editor?

[V-Alfred 367]

8 hours ago, Daisy Kowalczykowski said:

Can you change time of day in editor?

Nope, so far I think this option not available in editor menus. Only thing I know to change time which no need to wait is using command. Update: but it also disabled in Editor.

Edited January 7, 2018 by Velocifer

[zarwil 393]

On 2018-01-07 at 3:02 AM, Velocifer said:

Nope, so far I think this option not available in editor menus. Only thing I know to change time which no need to wait is using command. Update: but it also disabled in Editor.

they disabled that command along with some others for the steam release. It's infuriating because you get such poor lighting in the editor.

[V-Alfred 367]

4 hours ago, zarwil said:

It's infuriating because you get such poor lighting in the editor.

Yes it's.. Devs need to provide new menu or somehow enable the command in Editor.

[renderin 61]

So, is it just perpetual darkness in the editor now? I am confused.

[Baz Foobar 102]

10 hours ago, renderin said:

So, is it just perpetual darkness in the editor now? I am confused.

Depends on the time of day in-game for the game save file you're editing.  Drop a lit bonfire down somewhere and you'll see.

[Damemarianne 21]

I have a question concerning the select and place tool did it have options ? I wanted to do two thing with it : select and place a group, and use it at a copy tool currently only the color is picked I wanted to keep the unpickable option

Also it might be useful to be able to update a selection to set it unpickable like you can do to set indestructible

 

[renderin 61]

1 hour ago, Baz Foobar said:

Depends on the time of day in-game for the game save file you're editing.  Drop a lit bonfire down somewhere and you'll see.

Well, that's the problem, I save the game during the day, but it is night in the editor no matter what. This seems to be a new issue since the last update.