The object editor is probably one of the more complex tools in the DoW toolset, however, once you get used to it, it does become a little less scary then it appears at first glace. This document will provide you with a quick overview of how the UI of the object editor works.
You can think of the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War Object Editor as the sum of a few different parts. Which we will describe below.
Contains standard options like File, Edit, Info, Render and Help. The two most useful features, which are described below, are probably the display actions and display motions options.
Displays the currently playing actions in the upper left of the main window.
When this option is enabled the currently playing motions, along with time into a motion, and type of animations are displayed in the upper left corner of the main window.
This is where you see the model that you are working on, along with any overlays or render features that you have chosen to enable such as bone names, or marker names.
The left sidebar, also known as the List Panel, contains a set of rollup lists, mostly dealing with lists of one sort or another. These are used to examine the model and determine what clauses, conditions, events and modifiers the given model contains. A useful thing to remember is that objects marked with red icons in the list don’t contain any information and bold items are not currently being used.
The Right Sidebar, also known as the Edit Panel, works in conjunction with the List Panel and allows you to modify Clause, Condition, Event, Modifier, Anim, Motion and Action Properties. When you choose a given clause, condition event or modifier in the left pane, it’s values will appear in the right pane.
Finally the bottom bar contains a set of variables that simulate conditions in game. These variables can be used to simulate logic in the game. For instance, you could apply cover to a unit, or make them move at a certain velocity, or make them fire while aiming at a specific direction, and so on. Basically, this will be how you want to test the riging that you do in the object editor.
The bottom bar also includes some playback controls for some of the animation/actions that can be played back in the object editor.
In general the way to think of the object editor is as follows: in the left side you choose what things to edit, and on the right side you actually edit them, a fairly simple concept overall. We recommend that you go through the object editor tutorial both to get a better feel for it and its interface.
Object Editor
Mod Tools
RDN Wiki Home