Browsing and dropping
Browse and Drop are the first two behaviours: find an asset in the game’s own files, and put it in the world.
Meshes and entities
The game builds its world from two kinds of asset that EDGEbuilder can place today:
| Kind | What it is | Example |
|---|---|---|
Mesh (.mesh) |
A 3D model on its own: a shape with materials, and nothing else. Meshes can be scaled | A cargo crate, a bench, a wall panel |
Entity (.ent) |
A ready-made game object built from one or more meshes, sometimes with lights or other parts. It keeps the size its template gives it | A vending machine, an ATM |
Lights, decals, particles, sounds and the rest are planned for a later phase (B5).
The asset index
EDGEbuilder doesn’t ship a list of game files. When it first starts, it asks REDbridge to read your game’s archives and builds an index: every mesh and entity, about 31,500 of them, with each one’s size and appearances. On the test PC that took about four seconds.
The index is saved and loads at once on later starts. It’s built again when the game version changes. Rebuild asset index in the Settings tab builds it again by hand.
Search
- Open the Assets tab.
- Type in the search box, for example
cargo crate,benchorvending. - Narrow the list with the All, Meshes and Entities tabs under it.
Results show the file name, with the kind at the right. PL before the kind marks an asset from Phantom Liberty. Hover a result for its full path. The count above the list shows how many matched. The list stops at 120 results (the count then shows 120+), so a longer, more exact search works better than scrolling.
Pick an asset
Click a result. The Picked panel shows:
- the asset’s path in the game’s files;
- its size in metres, along X, Y and Z (Z is up);
- a list of its appearances, when it has more than one. An appearance is a variant of the same model: other colours, labels or wear.
cargo_crate_a.mesh, for example, has 18.
Click an appearance to use it for the next drop.
If REDbridge isn’t running, the size and appearances may be missing. You can still drop the asset.
Drop it
Press Drop where I look.
| With | The asset lands |
|---|---|
| EDGEbuilder’s own camera (Edit on) | On the first surface the camera looks at, up to 60 m away, turned to face the camera. With nothing in that range, 6 m ahead |
| Edit off, or the editor camera switched off | About 3 m in front of V, facing V |
A drop takes about half a second. The message line under the pills says how long it took. In the in-game test, crates and vending machines both landed in 0.36 to 0.44 s.
If a drop fails, nothing is added to the scene, and the message line says why.
The Scene tab
Everything you drop is listed in the Scene tab, with its kind at the right, or not in world if its preview isn’t in the game right now.
Click an object in the list to select it. The game draws its own outline around the selected object, and the Selected panel shows its name, asset, appearance and position.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Apply | Moves the object to the numbers typed in the fields. See Positioning objects |
| Drop to floor | Lowers the object onto the surface below it |
| Delete | Removes the selected object from the world and the scene |
| Rebuild previews | Puts back every object that’s in the scene but not in the world, for example after a save loads |
| Clear scene | Removes every object at once |
There’s no undo yet. Delete and Clear scene act at once. Undo and redo come with Arrange (B3).
After a save loads
Loading a save, or starting the game again, takes the previews out of the world. The scene keeps them. EDGEbuilder’s message line says how many objects are waiting: press Rebuild previews in the Scene tab and they come back where they were. See Scenes and baking.