| Left Mouse |
Select, manipulate |
| Right Mouse |
Rotate Camera |
| Mouse Wheel |
Zoom Camera |
| W,S,A,D |
Quick-move camera |
| R,F |
Quick-move camera vertical |
| Enter |
Make Actor from selected objects |
| Delete |
Delete Selected |
I will start with an overview of the basic object types and terminology, as these will be what everything centers around.
FILTER BAR
Below is the filter bar, you will find it on the toolbar at the top of Scythe:
This is your selection filter, it dictates what types of objects you wish to be capable of selecting. From left to right these are:
PRIMITIVES
Primitives are the basic physical collision entities that are created by any physics engine. They are usually basic boxes, spheres and capsules.
MODELS
You should know what a model is, its a mesh, made in milkshape or 3ds max for example. These are what your engine renders and represent the only portion of a physics entity that should be visible in-game.
ACTORS
An actor is a combination of primitives, models and lights, to form a single physical entity. Effectively an actor should contain at least 1 model (to be rendered) and 1 primitive (for physics).
JOINTS
A joint is a physical constraint, such as a door hinge or a wheel axis. Every joint must link 2 actors. (except if you link to 1 actor, then the actor will be constrained to the static world).
JOINT LIMITS
This filter simply makes the joint limits visually represented.
LIGHTS
These will be less commonly used, but usefull nonetheless. Used for headlights on cars, or a rotating police siren for example.
EDIT TOOLS
Your basic tools for selecting and manipulating objects: move, rotate and scale.
Use in conjuction with the snap to grid sliders to create accurate models.
If a particular object is in front of the object you wish to select, select it, and press the "freeze selected" button, this will render the object grey and transparent, and it will now be un-selectable. "Un-freeze all" will undo this, and make it selectable again.
The SHIFT key can be used to select multiple objects.
TEST MODE
The hammer button is what runs your scene as a physics simulation, the red cross clears the simulation and reverts back to edit mode.
INSERT MODELS
This section shows the contents of your specified working directory, selecting a mesh file and clicking the Insert button will load the model into your scene. It can then be made part of an actor to make it visible during simulation. The Change button will replace the currently selected model, with the specified model file.
ACTORS
By selecting a group of objects, for example a primitive and a model, and then clicking on Create Actor you will create a new Actor, which will now show up in the simulation. Selecting objects that are part of an actor and clicking Detach from actor will separate them again.
