Introduction

The Torque X Builder 3D is a user interface intended to aid your game's development. Instead of writing all of your game's code by hand, the Builder offers drag and drop functionality for populating your game with 3D objects and components. It is organized into several different elements, including the viewport, level data editor, editor panes, and editor dialogs.

Main Viewport

The main viewport renders the current 3D scene just as it will be rendered when running the game. Also, all lighting, rendering, particle effects, and object placement are exactly how they will appear in the game. This is why the Builder is called a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. You will use the Viewport to examine your game objects and manipulate them via gizmos and editor panes.

Movement and Selection

To move around the scene by mouse, right-click the mouse button and then drag the mouse. The camera will pan around in response to the mouse movements. To move forward or backward within the scene, use the mouse’s scroll wheel. If the speed of the camera movement is too fast or too slow, there is a Camera Speed Slider you can adjust.

To move around the scene by keyboard, use the arrow keys to pan and pitch the camera. To move the camera forward, left, right, and backwards, use the WASD keys, respectively. This should be familiar for people who play First Person Shooter games, or use 3D modeling applications.

Object Transform Manipulation

If you want to modify the position, rotation, or scale of your objects, you will need to use the Builder's gizmos. Axis gizmos appear over selected scene objects and indicate to the designer that the selected object can be moved, rotated, or scaled directly within the scene. If you look at the screenshot below, you will notice there are different appearances for the gizmos.

• Gizmo with Arrows : Moves object in scene
• Gizmo with Boxes: Scales an object
• Gizmo with Rings: Rotates an object

To free-form move object, left-click the center of the gizmo and drag the mouse around. To only move the object along a single axis, left-click on that axis’ end cap and drag the mouse. Some objects, such as light sources and sound emitters are never visible in the scene, but still have a location. Object position markers are boxes that indicate to the level designer where such objects are positioned.