Render Window

Overview

The Render Window is the area where the world can be viewed and manipulated. References can be added, moved, copied, deleted, and edited. Much of the editing process involves dragging and dropping base objects from the Object Window into the Render Window. By default, the Render Window is located in the upper right corner of the Construction Set.

Note the difference between base objects and references. The base object (defined in the Object Windows]]) forms the template for all instances of that object. References, on the other hand, are placed instances of objects. In addition the properties that they inherit from the base object (e.g. health, weight, price, etc.), they also have reference specific info (e.g. position, ownership, key to open, etc.).

Keep in mind that Changes to base objects will affect all instances of that object!

Keyboard/Mouse Shortcuts

(LMB=left mouse button, RMB=right mouse button)

Camera

• Centre Wheel Scroll – Zoom
• Centre Wheel Hold – Move
• Shift + LMB - Rotate
• C – Centre On selected
• T – Top View selected

Reference

• D – De-select
• LMB – move: x, y
• Z + LMB move: z only
• X + LMB move: x only
• Y + LMB move: y only
• F – Fall
• CTRL x – cut
• CTRL c – copy
• CTRL v – paste
• CTRL d – copy and paste in present position (duplicate)
• LMB (with nothing selected) select multi-objects
• S - "Scale": drag mouse to edit size
• RMB – rotate about z
• RMB + y rotate about y
• RMB + x rotate about x

Misc

• A - Toggle Bright Light

Basic Operations

Move the Camera

The camera can be moved in several ways:

• To pan the camera (side to side), hold the SPACEBAR while moving the mouse, or hold down the mouse-wheel.
• To Zoom the camera, hold down V while moving the mouse or spin the mouse-wheel.
• The arrow keys allow you to move quickly through the world by moving a half cell distance at a time.
• To rotate the camera, hold down SHIFT while moving the mouse. If a reference is selected, the camera will rotate around the center of the screen, at the distance of the selected object.
• You can center a selected object in the window by pressing C. This is also a fast way of zooming in on a reference.
• You can also center on a selected reference in the window by pressing T. This switches the camera to a close-up, top-down view of the reference.

Select

Selecting references can be done multiple ways:

• Left click to select a reference. A rotated bounding box highlights it. Other selected references are deselected.
• Left clicking empty space (or landscape) deselects all references. Pressing D also deselects.
• Hold Ctrl to select/deselect multiple references by clicking on them.
• Drag a selection box to select multiple references.

Move

Only selected references can be moved. You'll know if you are able to move a reference if the + symbol appears along with your cursor. Hold down the left mouse button and drag the reference to move it.

References move, by default on the horizontal (xy) plane. If you want to move a reference vertically (z plane), hold down the Z key while moving the mouse. You can also lock the reference's movement to the world's XY axis by holding down X while moving.

Rotate

To rotate the reference, hold down the right mouse button while moving the mouse. The default axis is Z, since most reference rotations are done around this axis. If you want to rotate around the X axis, hold X, and if you want to rotate around Y, hold Z (yes, holding Z is bizarre for Y rotations, but it was better than having to hold it all the time since most rotations are Z rotations, so they were switched).

Resize

Holding down S while using the mouse will cause the selected references to change size, while remaining proportional.

Drop

Press F to make references fall. They will hit any reference. You may have to press it multiple times if you have multiple references selected that can fall onto each other. This is a quick way to get references to "snap" to the floor, or a shelf, etc.

Delete

Pressing delete will delete the selected references from the world.

Cut, Copy, Paste, Duplicate

Cut and Copy

You can use Ctrl-C to copy references, Ctrl-X to cut them, and Ctrl-V to paste them. Pasted references are placed in front of the camera. Multiple references can be copied and pasted at once; they simply all need to be selected at the same time, and will retain their relative orientation when pasted.

Paste

Ctrl-Shift-V, will place the references down, "in-place" or at the coordinates they previously existed, but in the current cell you are viewing.

Duplicate

You can also press Ctrl-D to duplicate selected references. This places duplicates of the references right on top of the selected ones. You can then move the new reference(s) into place. This is great for duplicating hallway pieces for quick building.

Edit Properties

Double clicking a reference opens its properties window. All properties shown in this dialog is data relevant to the selected reference only. To edit the Base Object click on the "Base Object" button. Note that edits to the base object will affect the current reference 'and all other instances of that object.

Generate LOD textures

Right click with the mouse and select to generate LOD textures for the current cell, or the current quad (32 by 32 cells). The generated textures will be stored in Oblivion\data\textures\landscapelod\generated\ partial textures of each cell will be stored in Oblivion\data\textures\landscapelod\generated\partial. A bug in the CS misnames the generated textures. Manually rename the textures by changing all instances of "0" to "00" to avoid missing (purple) LOD textures in the game. Delete partial textures if you need to regenerate them.

See also

• Shortcuts