Week 1: CryEngine3: Overview of Sandbox User Interface

10 Tips and Tricks Relating to the Sandbox User Interface

1. By Name function allows user to isolate items according to a name parameter.

2. x, y, z, represent the three axes they correspond to.
X, Y, Z, XY options on the toolbar restricts movement of items along the x-axis, y-axis, z-axis, and xy-axes respectively.
Follow Terrain option restricts movement of items to follow the terrain. Shortcut: Ctrl+1
Follow Terrain and Snap to Object restricts movement to terrain and objects. Shortcut: Ctrl+2

3. Speed Input at the bottom means speed of perspective viewpoint. Set options are 0.1m, 1m, 10m, but there is an option to input custom speed.

4. Clipping with Terrain is an option which when turned off allows the viewpoint to continue moving through terrain. This option is only available for terrain.

5. AI Physics turns on detailed simulation in the scene for game perspective while still in editing mode. This means things such as fish can move, etc. Shortcut for game: Ctrl+g

6. Go To Position is an option that shows the user's current coordinates in the scene. These coordinates can be copied and then pasted back into the window in a different location which then will take the user back to that specific place.

7. Console is at the bottom of the screen. This allows comments to be typed in regarding specifics in the scene such as sound or blur. Double clicking the input bar or clicking "..." opens a window that is a directory of all the possible comments. Comments can be searched for and then their values can be changed according to user preference.
Any warnings or errors will also be displayed in this box.

8. Rollup Bar is on the right of the screen. Every aspect of the level will be in this space. The four tabs allows creation of entities, modifying of entities, hide/unhide of entities and debugging functions, and creation and modification of layers.
If the Rollup Bar is accidentally closed, it can be accessed via View>Rollup Bar.

9. Dropdown menu in toolbars where Brushes, No Brushes, Entities, Prefabs, etc can be selected allows the user to specify what items can be selected in the scene.

10. Snap to Grid restricts items to locations according to a grid, of which the size can be changed by the user.
Snap to Angle restricts rotation of items to specific angles of which the disparity between these angles can be changed by the user.
These options are good for industrial type scenes that require a more systematic appearance or construction.

WEEK 1: CryEngine3: Getting Started and Folder Structure video

5 Things Learned About Sandbox Folder Structure

1. Sandbox Folder is where the commands for CryEngine3 are stored.
The main folders to work with are Bin32, Bin64, Game, and Tools.

2. Bin32 and Bin64 are the main folders that contain executables, game files, and editors.
Use Bin64 for a 64bit operating system, this is faster and allows more memory to be used

3. Game Folder contains .pak files that contain nearly all aspects of the game. These .pak files can be opened with WinRAR, WinZip, or 7Zip or they can be extracted if the user wishes to work with the elements within.

4. Tools Folder contains all the exporter plugins that can be copied when installing a particular plugin

5. Tools>SettingsMgr.exe: use this at least once before using a program
A green light is shown which means the engine detects the resource compiler.
Make sure the root directory is congruent with the build being used.