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Navigating the viewport
The viewport shows the level in 3D with its textures, vertex colours and object models. You move the camera with the mouse, a few keys and the view cube. The right and middle mouse buttons always belong to the camera, whatever tool is active. If you already use another 3D program, pick its mouse scheme under Navigation presets.
Mouse and keys
These controls are the same in every preset:
| Input | What it does |
|---|---|
| Right mouse button held, move the mouse | look around (fly mode) |
| Right mouse button held + W A S D | fly forward, left, back, right |
| Right mouse button held + Q / E | fly down / up |
| Shift while flying | fly four times faster |
| Mouse wheel while flying | change the fly speed |
| Mouse wheel | zoom smoothly towards the point under the cursor |
| Ctrl+middle drag or Alt+right drag | zoom |
| Alt+left drag | orbit |
| F | frame the selection |
| Home | frame the whole level |
| Double-click | select and frame |
The middle mouse button depends on the preset:
| Input | Fusion 360 (default) | Blender | Unity / Unreal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Middle drag | pan | orbit | pan |
| Shift+middle drag | orbit | pan | pan |
| Double-click middle | frame the whole level | – | – |
- Orbit turns around the surface point under the cursor where you start dragging (if there is none: the selection, then the view centre). A small red-green-blue cross marks that point while you orbit.
- Pan moves the point you grabbed exactly with the cursor.
- Zoom changes the distance by a fixed percentage per wheel notch (default 12 %) towards what is under the cursor, so pointing at the sky or a far cliff does not make huge jumps.
Tip: Fly mode is the quickest way to get around a big level: hold the right mouse button, steer with the mouse, move with W A S D and adjust the speed with the wheel.
The view cube
The cube in the top right corner of the viewport shows which way you are looking.
- Click a face (Top, Front, Left …), an edge or a corner to look at the level from there. The camera turns smoothly and keeps its pivot.
- Drag on the cube to orbit.
- The small house button goes to the home view: a view from the front-right-top that shows the whole level (also View → Navigation → Home view).
View → Navigation → View cube hides or shows it.
Views
| Key | View |
|---|---|
| Numpad 5 | perspective / orthographic |
| Numpad 7 | top – looking straight down, orthographic |
| Numpad 1 | front, orthographic |
| Numpad 3 | side, orthographic |
The same views are in View → Camera and in the view box of the options bar. Orbiting an orthographic view switches back to perspective. The top view is handy for laying out paths, coin lines and zones; the 3D view for checking heights and jumps.
Navigation presets
View → Navigation chooses the mouse scheme: Fusion 360 (the default), Blender or Unity / Unreal (see the table above). The status bar shows a one-line summary of the chosen scheme, and Help → Viewport navigation shows the complete cheat sheet for it.
Viewport preferences
View → Navigation → Viewport preferences… opens the Viewport & navigation settings:
| Setting | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Navigation preset | Fusion 360, Blender or Unity / Unreal; the table below the settings shows its controls. |
| Zoom step (%) | Distance change per wheel notch (2–40 %, default 12 %). |
| Invert zoom direction | Wheel away from you zooms out instead of in. |
| Orbit speed (°/pixel) | How fast the camera turns while orbiting. |
| Show the view cube | The cube in the top right corner. |
| Show back sides of one-sided faces | See Back faces. |
| Back side opacity | How strongly back sides are drawn (default 30 %). |
Back faces
Many faces in the game are one-sided: the game does not draw them from behind (you can see through a cliff wall from the inside). The editor shows these back sides darkened and hatched so you can still see and click them. When the mouse is over one, the status bar adds "(back side)". View → Show back faces switches this off; the opacity is a viewport preference.
Note: The hatched back sides are invisible in the game. If a wall must be visible from both sides, look at it from behind in the editor before you play-test.
Looking through a game camera
View → Camera → Look through camera (pilot) (Ctrl+Shift+L) puts the viewport into the selected camera object or camera node; flying then moves that camera. See Cameras and triggers.
What the viewport shows
- The grid marks the level's cells; geometry outside it has no collision in the game.
- Markers stand for logic objects without a model (cameras, triggers, the exit, checkpoints' respawn points).
- Collision (C) colours every collision polygon by its material: normal ground, exit floor (16), death floor (30) and others. Invisible walls and blocks are drawn translucent red.
- Waypoints of the selected objects are drawn as connected points; View → Show waypoints of all objects shows every chain.
- With View → Fog preview the viewport shows the game's fog for the zone the camera is in; everything beyond the fog is drawn as a pale "ghost" so you do not lose track of it. View → Vertex colours only (Shift+V) hides the textures to judge the lighting (Environment).
Use Layers in the options bar to switch any of these on or off (Layers).
Note: The viewport does not animate textures and shows the level with the editor's own lighting of object models. What you see is very close to the game, but always play-test (F5) before you share a level.