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3D Object Types Overview


CopperCube includes several 3d object types which can be added into a 3d scene. These 3d objects are sometimes also referred to as 'Scene nodes', because CopperCube uses a hirarchical scene graph to display 3d graphics.


The following is a list with short descriptions of all types available:


Icon Name Description
3D Primitives Creates various 3d Primitives: Cube, Sphere, Cylinder, Cone and Plane. Use them to place them anywhere in your scene. They can be set to block or receive the light when using the lightmapping feature of CopperCube, or simply decorate your scene. If you want to create more complex scenes, it is recommended to model them in an external 3d editor and import them as mesh.
Room Creator Starts up the room creator to generate a simple 3d room with walls. When you click this icon, a dialog opens where you can paint floors and walls. When clicking 'OK', a very simple 3d room is created for you.
Terrain Creates a terrain scene node, for editing terrains with trees, grasses and more. See terrain editing for details.
Import a static 3d mesh from file Imports a static 3d mesh from a file, like a .3ds 3d Studio file. There are many 3d files supported. If you want to create complex 3d scenes, this is the recommended way to import your files into CopperCube.
Import an animated mesh from file Imports an animated 3d mesh from a file. Details about this can be found one the Character Animation page.
Light Creates a light positioned in the 3d space. The light can be used for the lightmapper or to dynamically light your 3d scene. Lights do have a radius in which they affect items around them and a color. Additionally, for the lighmapper, you can select if the light should cast shadows or not.
Directional Light Creates a directional light. This is useful to simulate a light source from a very far position, like for example the sun. The 3D position of the light is not used for light calculation, only the direction of the rays. The light can be used for the lightmapper or to dynamically light your 3d scene.
Note: Normal mapped materials only work with point lights in CopperCube, directional lights are ignored.
Camera Creates a camera, from which the scene will be drawn once you publish the scene. Cameras work like real world cameras: They have an aspect ratio and a field of view. Additionally, you can set the NearPlane (default 1) and the FarPlane (default 3000) which defines between which values geometry will be drawn. If for example something is farer away than 3000, it will not be drawn. Notice that increasing this value will reduce the precision of the drawing because this affects the z-buffer.
You can add various Behaviors the a camera on the 'Behavior' tab, including special behaviors for cameras only, like a first person shooter style controller. See Camera Controllers for more details.
Tree Creates a procedurally generated tree based on user specified parameters. For details, see tree generation for details.
Water Creates a realtime reflecting water surface with quite some parameters, so it can be used to create lakes, rivers and oceans.
Billboard A billboard is simply a 2d sprite placed in 3d space. A plane always facing to the camera. Billboards are usually used for creating particles, phaser lights, smoke and similar.
Vertical Billboard Behaves just like the normal Billboard, but is always standing up, vertically. This is useful for example to quickly create plants in a simple way: Simply asign the picture of a tree or some grass as texture to it, and this will look like a plant.
Particle System A particle system, can be used to simulate effects like fire, smoke, rain, fog, etc. The property window has a lot of settings with which it is possible to customize the particle system, so it looks exactly like the wanted effect.
Skybox A skybox is a cube with 6 textures drawn over the whole scene. Used to create the illusion of a sky or an environment. It doesn't make much sense to have more than once skybox per scene.
3D Sound Used to create a sound placed somewhere in 3d space, but can also be used to play usual, 2d sound for example for background music. See the 3D Sounds topic for details.
Path A path defines a path in 3d space and can be used to make an object follow it. Simply add the 'Follow Path' behavior to any 3d object in order to do this. Paths can be a closed circle or a simple line and have a parameter named 'Tightness' which controls how it interpolates between the path nodes. Use the 'Create a path node' button to add more path nodes to the path.
Path Node A path node in a path. When a path is selected, clicking this button will add a new path node to that path.
2D Overlay A 2D Overlay can be used to show logos in 2d over the 3d scene, or even to create buttons which trigger actions when clicked.
2D Touch Screen input Behaves like a 2D Overlay, and can be used to simulate input on devices without a keyboard but with a touch screen. With this, it is possible to make your games also run on tablets, phones and other.