Studio Panels

Objects Panel (3.2)

This panel is used for placing all objects into the world. Open it with the 2 key.

Placing objects

The world's objects are divided into categories for convenience. These are listed in the top box of the menu. Click the various categories to see all the objects you can place. It will show "all assets" by default.

Select the object you wish to place from the list. Left-click the terrain to place the object. You can relocate it around by holding down the mouse button and moving it elsewhere, and delete it by pressing the delete key.

Manipulating placed objects

You can manipulate the object in 3 basic ways. With the object selected:

• Alt+Left click+Vertical drag
  Rotate object on the Z axis
  
  
• Shift+Left Click+Vertical drag
  Adjust height of object
  
  
• Ctrl+Left click+Vertical/Horrizontal drag
  Rotate object on X/Y axis
  
  
• Up arrow/Down arrow
  Fix height to terrain beneath it without zipping
  
  
• Ctrl+Down arrow
  Zips object to terrain, may adjust terrain to match*

Zipping objects is very important to the level, so keep reading this section.

*In many cases, the terrain will be adjusted for the object, but not all objects do this. You can see this several times in the sandbox boot camp levels where objects are half-buried in the sand, but they still have to be zipped to prevent the player's units from walking through them.

Zipping objects

Most ambient objects you place will need to be zipped. Zipping locks the object onto the cluster of cells it covers, so that units will know to avoid them when pathing. Think of it as zip-tying the object to the terrain. To "zip" an object to the terrain, select it and hit Ctrl+Down arrow. You should see the object snap into place.

When you save your map with un-zipped objects, you'll get a warning window upon save. This message will contain a unique number for all un-zipped objects. To easily find the un-zipped object, bring down the console and type common.debug.lookat <ID>, where <ID> is the object number. Your view will jump to that object.

NOTE: Despite the warning and red text, leaving un-zipped objects is not fatal. It is common to leave objects un-zipped when they are not intended to block movement or line-of-sight.

Also, there are three buttons at the bottom of this menu:

• Upgrade [Buildings] - Click while an upgradable building is selected. The building will be upgraded if its team's filter types allow it. (Backtrack to chapter 2.2 if you need help)
• Edit FTP/Footprint - Edits the "footprint" of a object, which is data related to how it affects the world, like what tiles block line-of-sight. The footprint properties won't be covered in this chapter.
• Type Names - Toggles all object names between their language print names and their config type names.

This probably goes without saying, but when placing attack units (or anything that should be hostile/allied with anything else), be sure you are placing them on the correct team. When you are placing units, have the correct team highlighted in the "Team" menu. When placing ambient objects, (trees, buildings, resources, etc.) it doesn't matter which team is selected.