Viewport

SceneView & gizmos

SceneView is the authoring viewport where you select, position, and lay out the entities in a scene using direct-manipulation gizmos.

SceneView is the panel you author in. You orbit around the scene, click to select an entity, and drag a transform gizmo to move, rotate, or scale it — every change is written straight into the live ECS world and is fully undoable. It has two modes, 3D and UI, toggled from a dropdown in its toolbar; your choice persists across sessions.

SceneView, 3D mode
SceneView, 3D mode. The orbit viewport with the transform gizmo on the selected entity. Drag the colored axes to transform it.

Where SceneView lives

The editor shell is a set of dockable, tabbed panels (built on flexlayout) — Game, Scene, Console, Hierarchy, Assets, and Inspector. You can drag any panel to a new position, split the layout, or maximize a single panel. SceneView is the Scene tab.

The editor shell
The editor shell. The dockable, tabbed panels: Game, Scene, Console, Hierarchy, Assets, and Inspector.

3D mode

3D mode is a Three.js orbit camera. Drag to orbit around the scene and use the scroll wheel to zoom. Click an object to select it — the click is resolved by a raycast. The selected entity gets a transform gizmo (Three.js TransformControls) that you drag to edit it.

The toolbar

From left to right, the SceneView toolbar shows:

Editing with a gizmo

Dragging a gizmo axis transforms the selected entity. The change is written to the live ECS world and can be undone. The link to the Inspector is two-way: moving an entity in the viewport updates the Inspector's Transform numbers in real time, and editing those numbers moves the entity in the viewport.

  1. Select an entity Click an object in the viewport. A gizmo appears on it.
  2. Pick a tool Press W to translate, E to rotate, or R to scale (or click the matching toolbar button).
  3. Drag an axis Grab one of the colored axis handles and drag to transform the entity. Watch the Inspector's Transform fields update as you go.
  4. Toggle space if needed Press X (the G button) to switch the gizmo between world and local space.
  5. Undo if wrong Because each drag writes an undoable change, you can step it back with the editor's undo.
Tip

Press P (or click ✦ FX) to preview particle effects directly in SceneView while you author them.

UI mode

Switch the dropdown to UI and SceneView becomes a device-sized DOM preview of your ECS-driven UI. Click a UI element to select it, then use the custom move and resize gizmos to lay it out. UI elements are ordinary entities carrying UIElement and UIAnchor traits.

SceneView vs. GameView

The separate Game tab is a live running preview that composites all three render layers — 3D, 2D, and UI — at a device size you choose. While stopped it shows "Press Play to interact"; press Play to run the actual game.

Note

SceneView is for authoring — selecting and arranging entities. GameView is for playing — exercising the real, running game. Use SceneView to build the scene, then switch to the Game tab to test it.