The Atomic Editor
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The Atomic Editor is one of the core features of the Atomic Game Engine, and is a visual interface that can be used to edit your project and to get a visual view of what you're working on. The editor is included with all installations of the Atomic Game Engine, and is typically where you spend most of your time.
When opening the editor, it will look something like this: (example projects will only be displayed if they are installed)
**To create a new project**, click on New Project in the top of the editor, or navigate to `File > New Project`.
Now, you will be prompted to choose a project type.
Project types include:
• 2D | Configures a standard 2D project for you.
• 3D | Configures a standard 3D project for you.
• Empty | Creates an empty project for you to configure yourself.
As soon as you choose a project type, you will be prompted with a new window. Here, you can set a project name, your App ID (if you have one), choose what platforms you need to build for, what project directory you want to work in, and what scripting language you mainly want to use.
Choosing a project language doesn't mean that you can't use other languages in your project. For example, you can create a C# project and use .NET features while also implementing JavaScript in other aspects of your project.
When opening a new project, (either via File > Open Project, choosing a recently opened project, or accessing it via [ProjectName].atomic), the Atomic Editor will prepare it for you - it should look something like this:
There are four main sections here:
Project section
The project section displays the project root folder and all of its contents. This is where you navigate all your files and folders.
By clicking the Create button, you get the option to create several kinds of items for your project:
• A folder
• Component
• Script
• Material
• Scene
You can also search all your resources by using the search bar on the right.
Hierarchy
The hierarchy is where all the nodes in your scene are displayed. In the picture shown to the left, no nodes are shown because a scene has not been loaded by the editor. As soon as we enter a scene, the nodes will be displayed here.
By clicking the Create button (and a scene is loaded), you will get the option to create a new empty node or a light.
The hierarchy is also the place where you configure parents.
3D view
When you open a scene in the Project section (scenes are usually stored within the Scenes folder, and has the .scene extension), it will be shown in the 3D view.
You can fly around the 3D view by holding down the right mouse button and tapping W A S D on the keyboard (usual first person controls).
Select a node by left clicking it. The 3D gizmo will appear, and you can use it to manipulate the nodes position, rotation and scaling values.
Inspector
The inspector shows all the components that the selected node contains. You can read much more about components here.
In the inspector, the most important values of the attached components are displayed and can be modified.
Usually, when working with components, you do so with scripting.
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