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Properties, Round 2


Josh

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As I always do when making design decisions, I tried out several approaches to the properties dialog. Previously, I wrote about embedding it in the side panel, below the scene browser. I liked being able to quickly modify object properties, but I couldn't drag assets like textures and materials from the Asset Browser to the Properties Editor, because they were under different tabs in the side panel. Because of that, I popped the Properties Editor back into its own tool window.

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The experience of using the Properties Editor in the side panel gave me the idea to have an "Instant Update" mode, in addition to the default "OK", "Cancel", and "Apply" buttons. When "Instant update" is checked, any changes to the Properties Editor are immediately sent to the selected objects, giving you more immediate visual feedback.

 

To add a script component to an entity, drag a script file from the Asset Browser to anywhere on the Properties Editor and release. A new tab with the properties for the script component will appear. Parsing scripts and getting their exposed variables is the next step I will work on.

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Why not embed it on the left side with the option (and the right side should have this option also) to hide it. Sort of like pinning in Visual Studio does with those side windows.

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That sounds like the Xcode 4 layout, which isn't bad. What I don't like is that a huge chunk of screen real estate will be empty and wasted when nothing is selected.

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You could auto hide the left properties panel after 5 seconds of nothing being selected, and auto show it when something is selected with a nice smooth transition.

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