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Scene View

The Scene view is the main canvas for authoring scenes. It renders the current scene using editor cameras and overlays gizmos, selection highlights, and tool guides on top. You place, rotate, scale, and test entities here, and you see the result of component changes made in the Properties window immediately.

Scene view

Action Input
Orbit Right-click drag (3D)
Pan Middle-click drag, or Shift + right-click drag
Zoom Mouse wheel
Focus on selection F key
Reset camera Home key or double-click empty space

In 2D mode the camera is orthographic; orbit is replaced with a simple pan.

Gizmo tools

Select a gizmo mode from the toolbar or with the keyboard:

Gizmo Key Purpose
Translate W Move selected entities along axes or planes
Rotate E Rotate selected 3D entities
Scale R Resize entities uniformly or per axis
Object2D Manipulate 2D objects in canvas space (position and size)
Anchor Edit UI anchor points and layout bounds

Hold Ctrl while transforming to snap to the configured grid interval. Hold Alt to move in world space instead of local space.

Viewport settings

Open the gear button on the scene view toolbar to toggle display and snap options for the current scene. Settings are saved with the project.

Setting Applies to Purpose
Snap to grid All scene types Snap transforms to the configured grid spacing
Snap tile 2D / UI Snap Tilemap tiles to their own width and height so they pack edge-to-edge
Snap rotation All scene types Snap rotations to the configured step (degrees)
Show grid All scene types Draw the editor grid overlay
Grid spacing All scene types Interval used by the grid and by Snap to grid

Snap tile takes priority over Snap to grid while you move or resize an individual tile inside a Tilemap. Turn it on when laying out floors, walls, or other tiled content that should sit flush without relying on the global grid.

Selection

Click an entity in the viewport to select it; the Properties window updates immediately. Hold Ctrl and click to add to or remove from a multi-selection.

Selection respects the Structure panel expand state: if the hit entity is under a collapsed parent, the editor selects that visible ancestor instead of a hidden child. Expand the parent in Structure when you need to pick a specific child mesh (common with multi-node models).

For fine-grained selection in dense scenes, use the Structure panel — clicking a row there selects the entity without needing to click through overlapping objects.

Drag and drop from the Resources Browser

Files dragged from the Resources Browser can be dropped directly into the viewport. The editor shows a live preview while you hover, and the change is only committed (undoably) when you release the mouse:

Creating entities

File Scene type Result
Model (GLTF/GLB/OBJ) 3D Creates a Model entity at the drop position, named after the file
Image 2D, on empty space Creates a Sprite entity at the drop point, sized to the image
Image UI, on empty space Creates an Image widget at the drop point, sized to the image

While dragging an image over empty space, a half-transparent ghost of the texture follows the cursor so you can place it precisely before dropping.

Modifying the entity under the cursor

Dropping a file onto an existing entity assigns it instead of creating something new. The hovered entity previews the change live; moving away before releasing restores the original value:

File Target entity Result
Image Mesh-based entity (sprite, mesh, model) Sets the base color texture of the material
Image UI widget Sets the widget texture
Material (.material) Mesh-based entity Links all submeshes to the material file (live preview while hovering)
Font (TTF/OTF) Text entity Sets the text font

This makes texturing a scene fast: drop a texture onto each model to assign it, or drop a saved material onto several meshes to keep them consistent.

Shared materials across meshes

When you drop the same .material file onto different mesh entities, each submesh links to that file. Editing the material in Properties (while linked) or saving the .material file on disk updates every linked mesh.

To create a new shared material from an existing look:

  1. Tune the material on one mesh in Properties.
  2. Drag its material preview into the Resources Browser to create Material.material.
  3. Drag that file onto other meshes in the Scene view.

Use the unlink control in Properties when a mesh needs a one-off variation copied from a shared file.

Bundles and scenes drop on the Structure panel

.bundle and .scene files are instanced by dropping them on the Structure panel, not the viewport — the tree controls where the instance is parented. See Bundles.

Viewport camera vs game camera

The editor camera is only for authoring navigation. The game camera is a Camera entity you place in your scene; it defines what the player sees at runtime. Always verify gameplay framing with the game camera preview before testing.

2D and tilemap editing

2D sprite editing

In a 2D scene the editor uses orthographic projection and a canvas overlay. Sprites, tilemaps, UI widgets, and polygons should be positioned in a consistent logical coordinate system so that canvas scaling stays predictable across different screen sizes.

Tilemap cells can be painted directly in the scene view when a Tilemap entity is selected and the tile-paint mode is active.

Tilemap in scene

Placing and grouping tiles

Drag a tile rect from the Tilemap palette onto the viewport to place it. With Snap tile enabled in the viewport settings:

  • Dropped tiles snap to multiples of their own size in the tilemap's local space.
  • Dragging or resizing a selected tile with the Object2D gizmo snaps the same way, so neighboring tiles line up edge-to-edge.

Use Snap to grid instead when tiles should align to the scene grid rather than to each other. See also Tileset Slicer.

2D lights and occluders

2D lights show a bulb icon in the viewport — click the icon to select the light and drag it to move it. While selected, the light's range is drawn as a circle.

Selecting an entity with an Occluder2D component shows its outline. For polygon occluders, each point gets a small handle:

  • Click a handle to select that point (it also highlights in the Properties point list), then drag the move cross to reposition it. The drag is a single undo step and respects snap-to-grid.
  • Click the occluder body to go back to entity-level selection, or click another handle to switch points.

Standalone occluder entities (no sprite) are selected by clicking anywhere inside the polygon's bounds. See 2D Graphics — 2D shadows.

3D scene editing

3D scenes use perspective projection and full 3D gizmos. Switch between the editor camera and the game camera preview to check framing. Use the F key to center the view on a selected entity.

Editing movement paths (TranslateTracks)

Selecting a TranslateTracks entity draws its movement path in the viewport: a polyline through the keyframe positions with a handle at each point, shown in the space the values play back in (the action target's parent space). The path renders on top of scene geometry, so waypoints lying on floors or inside meshes stay visible.

  • Click a handle to select that point — it highlights and the translate gizmo (move cross in 2D scenes) jumps to it.
  • Drag the gizmo to move the point. The drag is a single undo step, respects snap-to-grid, and updates the track's values list live in the Properties window.
  • Click empty space or another entity to return to normal selection.

Keyframe times and per-segment easing are edited in the Properties window; see Keyframe tracks.

UI scene editing

UI scenes display the canvas in screen-space overlay mode. Anchor gizmos show the layout boundaries of UI elements. Drag anchors directly to reposition or stretch widgets relative to their parent.

UI scene editing

Physics visualization

When a Body2D or Body3D is attached, the editor draws the collision shape outline in the viewport. This lets you verify that the physics shape matches the visual mesh without running the game.

Physics visualization

Play mode in the viewport

Press Play to run the scene inside the viewport. All input and logic operate normally. When you press Stop, the scene is restored to the pre-play snapshot. Use play mode for fast local iteration; export to a real build for platform-specific testing.

Play mode follows Project → Project Settings → VSync. With VSync disabled, the editor render loop is uncapped only while a scene is running; it returns to synchronized rendering after you stop. See Project Workflow — VSync.