Properties & Components¶

The Properties window displays every component attached to the selected entity and lets you read and change their values. It is the primary place to configure transforms, materials, physics, scripts, UI layout, audio, animations, and any other component data.

Selecting an entity¶

Click an entity in the Structure panel or directly in the Scene view to select it. The Properties window updates immediately to show its components.

Adding components¶

Use the Add Component button at the bottom of the Properties window. A searchable dialog lists all available component types grouped by category. Components are added to the entity immediately and their defaults appear in the panel for editing.

Component groups¶

Editing component fields¶

Most fields are edited with the mouse or keyboard directly in the panel:

When a field differs from the component's default value, a small reset arrow appears next to its label; clicking it restores the default. Edits apply to every selected entity and every change is undoable.

A texture field set to a camera shows that camera's live output (render-to-texture). The camera is switched to render-to-texture automatically and can no longer be the scene's main camera. This is the manual building block behind effects like minimaps and monitors; for reflections, prefer the Mirror component, which manages its own camera.

Once a camera is in render-to-texture mode, its own properties gain a Render Target section for setting the framebuffer Width, Height, and sampling Filter (Nearest or Linear). These control the resolution and look of the output texture, are saved with the scene, and are applied in exported projects.

When the field holds an image texture (not a camera link or an empty slot), a sliders button next to the camera button opens the Texture Settings popup:

• Min Filter / Mag Filter — sampling filters for minification and magnification. Picking a mipmap variant for Min Filter enables mipmap generation for the texture.
• Wrap U / Wrap V — wrapping mode per texture axis.
• SVG Scale (only for .svg sources) — a multiplier on the vector's intrinsic size (a drag field plus 0.5×–4× presets), so the image rasterizes crisp when drawn larger or on high-DPI displays. The scale is stored on the texture reference, so different slots can use the same SVG at different resolutions.

Like any other field, each row shows the reset arrow when it differs from the component's default, and the settings are saved with the scene and applied in exported projects. See Vector images (SVG) for the underlying behavior.

Model component¶

The Model component loads a GLTF/GLB/OBJ file onto the entity. Multi-node GLTF files usually create child mesh entities under the model root.

For static multi-node models that need same-entity features such as Instanced Mesh, use Merge static model on the entity in Structure (or Restore model mesh children to undo). That sets the serialized mergeStaticMeshes flag and reloads the model in one undoable step. See 3D Graphics — Merging static model meshes.

Instanced Mesh¶

Instanced Mesh draws many copies of the same entity's mesh geometry with per-instance transforms. Add it from Add Component, then populate the instance list in Properties or from script via Mesh::createInstancedMesh / addInstance.

Instancing only uses geometry on the entity that owns the component. If a Model still stores its meshes as child entities (the default multi-node GLTF layout), the editor shows a warning and writes to the Output panel: instances will not render until you merge the static model.

A clone mark next to the entity in Structure indicates the instance count. See Rendering Pipeline — GPU instancing.

Mesh materials and IBL¶

The Mesh component exposes rendering flags beyond per-submesh material slots:

Each Submesh section contains a Material row with a shaded preview sphere. The preview reflects the current Receive IBL setting so you can see environment reflections before entering play mode.

Expand the Material row to edit Alpha Mode and Alpha Cutoff alongside the base colour, textures, metallic, and roughness controls:

Alpha Cutoff ranges from 0 to 1, defaults to 0.5, and only affects Mask. Masked cutouts use the same threshold in the visible surface, shadows, depth, and SSR G-buffer.

For explicit Opaque, Mask, and Blend modes, the engine derives Texture Shadow from the alpha mode: it is enabled for Mask and disabled for the other two. The separate Texture Shadow checkbox remains meaningful in Auto mode for legacy materials and sprites.

Linking material files¶

The Material row supports three workflows:

1. Edit inline — expand the material section and change factors and textures directly in the scene (values stored on the mesh component).
2. Link to a file — drag a .material file from the Resources Browser onto the Material row or preview; the mesh submesh links to that file and reloads when it changes on disk.
3. Create a shared file — drag the material preview from Properties into the Resources Browser; the editor writes a new .material file and links the submesh to it automatically.

When linked, the material name shows the file name and an unlink button (broken chain icon) appears. Unlinking keeps the current values on the mesh but stops syncing with the file.

You can also drop a single image onto the Material row to assign only the base colour texture without replacing the rest of the material.

Custom shaders¶

Mesh, UI, Points, Lines, and Sky components expose a Shader row. By default it shows Built-in; click Customize to fork the built-in shader into your project and edit its GLSL in the Code Editor. Edit reopens the assigned shader and Reset to Built-in returns to the engine default. You can also drag an existing .vert/.frag from the Resources Browser onto the row.

A scene can also define a default custom shader per type (in the scene settings' Default Shaders section); components whose Shader row shows Built-in inherit it. A shader assigned on the component always takes priority over the scene default.

See Custom Shaders for the full workflow, scene defaults, includes, and project settings.

Sky component¶

The Sky component controls the scene cubemap background and the IBL environment:

Use Default sky to restore the built-in editor cubemap.

Mirror component¶

The Mirror component turns its mesh into a planar reflection surface. Add it to a flat mesh (a Wall works out of the box), or use the Mirror entry in the Structure create menu, which sets up the wall and component together.

The reflection camera is created and managed by the engine — there is nothing else to wire. If the reflection is clipped on the wrong side, flip the sign of Normal. See Rendering Pipeline — Mirrors and planar reflections for how it works and its cost.

Reflection Probe component¶

The Reflection Probe component gives meshes inside its box-shaped influence volume a local reflection environment instead of the global sky — see Rendering Pipeline — Reflection probes for how probes are selected, blended, and captured.

Selecting the probe draws its influence box in the viewport — cyan for static, purple for dynamic — with a gold marker at the capture origin when Box Offset moves the box away from it. The Refresh Probe button forces a re-capture (or re-bake of the authored cubemap) regardless of mode.

Scripts¶

Two buttons at the bottom of the Properties window create scripts:

• New Script — opens a dialog that generates the script files (Lua module, or C++ header + source), adds a ScriptComponent if the entity lacks one, and links an enabled entry to the new files — all in one undoable step.
• New component → ScriptComponent, then Add Script inside the component — adds an empty script entry without creating files. Use the entry's pencil button to set the class name and link existing header/source (or .lua) files.

Each script entry shows an enable checkbox, buttons to open its files in the Code Editor, and a right-click menu to reorder or remove it.

Script properties¶

When a script is linked, the Properties window shows every property declared with the DPROPERTY macro (C++) or in the properties table (Lua). These fields are serialized with the scene and injected into the script instance at play and export time.

See Creating Scripts for the full workflow and Script Properties for declaring and typing custom script properties.

Entity references¶

Some component fields accept another entity as their value — for example, a physics joint links two Body entities, a Camera can follow a target entity, and script properties of pointer types display an entity picker. Drag the target entity from the Structure panel into the field, or use the picker icon.

Keep referenced entities inside the same scene or a consistently-loaded child scene so exports can resolve the relationship correctly.

Transform gizmo¶

Selecting a transform field highlights the corresponding gizmo in the Scene view. You can edit numeric values in the Properties window and see the result in the viewport at the same time, or manipulate the gizmo and watch the numbers update live.

Undo / redo¶

Every property edit is recorded in the command history. Use Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y to step back and forward through changes made in the Properties window or in the viewport.

Best practices¶

• Prefer editor-exposed DPROPERTY fields for any value a designer should tune, rather than hard-coding it in script logic.
• Keep generated or runtime-only data out of serialized component fields.
• After changing physics, script, or animation fields, test in play mode immediately because those affect runtime behavior, not just visual appearance.
• Use bundles for repeated configured entity hierarchies so the same property values do not have to be re-entered manually in many scenes. For entities inside a bundle instance, the component header's right-click menu offers Make Unique (override this instance) and Revert to Bundle (re-link to the shared values).