Actor and Template Properties

When a template or an actor is selected, the Property View displays the properties and property values of the selected actor/template per component type.

This means that, as in the example above, if you select an actor made up of two components (a “3D” component and a “KeyboardMove” behavior component) then the Property View will either display the properties of the 3D component or those of the behavior component, depending on the component you selected in the actor’s component ring (the component highlighted in yellow). Visit the section below for more information on component rings.

Component Ring

The component ring of an actor/template consists of all the components that make up the actor/template. In the Property View, the component ring of the selection appears as a set of radio buttons that allow you to choose the component whose properties are to be displayed in the Property View:

The selected button is highlighted in yellow to indicate the active component (i.e. the one whose properties are being displayed in the Property View).

The actor itself is a component: the actor is the entry-point component of all the other components in the actor’s component ring.

Show/Hide Actor Component

For simplicity, you can show/hide the actor component in the component ring of the selection:

Show/Hide Actor Component

Showing	Hiding

When in show mode, the button appears highlighted in yellow .

Configuring Components

Actors and templates can be configured by modifying the property values of their components. Configured values will override the default (or creation) values, as explained in Component & Configurations.

Default values can still be recovered by clicking on the “Revert selected fields” button (n.b. the property(ies) to reset must be selected).

As a visual aid, properties whose value has been modified will appear:

• next to a configuration wrench : if the property value has been modified by the user.
• in bold italics: if the property value has been modified by the engine.
• in red: if the property value has been modified by the engine at runtime.

For a selection of multiple objects, modified property values will appear over a darker background (as explained below for multiple selection).

To edit a property value, use the apporpriate modification control. If the property type allows you to, you can aslo use the keyboard to enter a new value (SPACEBAR for true/false values, numbers for numerical values, and so on).

Multiple Selection

When several actors/templates have been selected, the Property View will group the selection by component type: the Property View will display the components making up the selection, with no per-object differentiation except in those properties where the value is different for some object in the selection (which will appear on a darker background).

For example, imagine two different objects: one made up of a “3D” and a “Rotate” component, and another one made up of a “2D” and a “Rotate” component. The first object has a configured rotation speed of 3, the second object has kept the default rotation speed value of 2.

Only 3D object selected	Only 2D object selected

Selecting the two elements will result on a component ring made up of three components only: “3D”, “2D” and “Rotate” (those are the three distinct component types of the selection). If you select the “Rotate” component from the component ring, you are choosing to display the “Rotate” component properties of both objects. Nevertheless, the values you see are those of the “Rotate” component of the first object you selected, with properties with different value highlighted by a darker background. For example, if you selected the 3D object first, you will see a  rotation speed of 3 on a darker background, because the other element has a rotation speed of 2:

Note: There is no distinction in all the other values because they are identical for both objects.

WARNING: If you modify the value of a property (configured or not), the new value will apply to both objects.