Mobile Controls Brainbox

This Advanced Platformer Brainbox allows the player to move the asset with a UI Joystick control.

After you add this Brainbox to an asset, you need to add a Joystick asset to the UI Screen Node connected to the current 3D World.

1. On the Mind Map and in the Node Panel, drag a UI Screen node into the grid.
2. On the UI Screen Node connect the Load input to the UI output of the desired 3D World.
3. Double-click the UI Screen node to open the UI Editor.
4. In the Asset Panel on the left, click the Asset Library button.
5. Double-click the Joystick asset to add it to the Asset Panel.
6. From the Asset Panel, drag the Joystick asset into the UI Editor.

After you add a UI joystick asset, you need to make sure that the Event Name attribute in both the Brainbox and the Joystick have the same name.

Brainbox Attributes

Brainbox Node Group

After you add this Brainbox to an asset, a custom Mobile Controller node, a Receive node, and two UI Button nodes appear in the node map.

Sub Scene Node

This content node contains a 3D mesh with a skeleton that can be animated by a Keyframe Animation node.

• To apply a mesh and skeleton to an asset, connect the Enabled input to the Created output of the Start node.
• To apply an animation to the model and skeleton, connect the Animation input of the Sub Scene to the purple reference output next to the name of a Keyframe Animation node.

See also, Importing 3D Animations.

Keyframe Animation Node

This content node plays a 3D animation for a connected Sub Scene node.

• To apply an animation to a Sub Scene that contains a 3D model with a skeleton, connect the purple reference output on the Keyframe Animation node to the Animation input of the desired Sub Scene node.
• To play a 3D animation, connect the Play input of the Keyframe Animation node to the output of the desired node.
  • The example below shows a 3D animation playing when the asset is created or spawned.
• To pause an animation, connect the Stop input of the Keyframe Animation node to an output of the desired node.

Node Attributes

See also, Importing 3D Animations.

Keyboard Camera Controls Brainbox

This Advanced Platformer Brainbox allows the player to rotate the camera around an Animated Platformer asset with the assigned keyboard buttons.

Brainbox Attributes

This Brainbox contains two attributes:

• Left Turn—rotates the camera counter-clockwise.
• Right Turn—rotates the camera clockwise.

Brainbox Node Group

After you add this Brainbox to an asset, a custom Platformer Rotate Camera node and two Keyboard Button nodes appear in the node map.

Health Node

This action node gives the asset Hit Points, or a health amount that determines when an asset is defeated. Also determines what happens when an asset has been damaged and defeated.

• Health is the amount of damage an asset can receive before being defeated.
• There is no need to connect this node to the Start node. When this node is attached to an asset, it will already be active.
• Connecting a node to Reset will reset the health back to the specified amount.
• When an asset receives damage from a Damage Node, the Damage amount set by the Damage node will be subtracted from the health amount.
• When the Health amount has increased by any number, the asset is considered to be Healed.
• When the Health amount has decreases by any number, the asset is considered to be Damaged.
• Once the Health amount has reached 0, the asset is considered being Defeated.

If needed, you can also customize this node. For details, see Customizing Nodes.

View Collision Shapes

A collision shape is the surface area around an object that gets affected when two objects from different collision groups collide.

To view collision shapes in the Scene Editor, on the toolbar, click the Collision Shape Editor button. See also Changing Collision Shapes.

If you don’t see the collision shape of an object:

1. In the Asset panel, double-click the corresponding asset.
2. In the displayed Node Map of the asset, click the purple Start node.
3. In the Options panel, select the Physics checkbox.
4. On the Navigation bar, click the 3D World to return to the Scene Editor.
   Now you should be able to see and move the collision shape of the selected object.

To preview the collision shapes in the scene, turn on the Debug Mode in the Preview window.

Customizing Nodes

There are some types of nodes that you can customize directly on the Node Map. These nodes have an Edit icon in the top-right corner of their title.

There are several ways you can customize a node when you click the Edit icon:

• By adding or removing inputs and outputs directly in the node, as described below.
• By adding or removing attributes in the Options panel.
• By editing its code directly in the JavaScript panel on the right. For details on the JS API, see JS API Reference. 

Adding Inputs and Outputs

To add or remove inputs and outputs in a customizable node:

1. On the Node Map, double-click the node you want to modify.
2. Click the Edit icon in the top-right corner of the node.
3. Click a plus (+) sign that appears at the bottom of the node to add an input or output respectively.
4. To rename an input or output, click Untitled and type the appropriate name.
5. To remove an input or output, mouse over its name and click the X next to it.
   
6. When done, click anywhere on the Node Map to exit the edit mode.
7. Connect the new input or output to the other nodes as needed.

Adding Images

For some nodes, you can also add an image file directly to the node, for example, to the Animation node. Just click the drop-down arrow at the bottom and drag the desire file to the image area.

Adding Attributes

To add an attribute to a customizable node:

1. On the Node Map, double-click the node you want to modify.
2. Click the Edit icon in the top-right corner of the node.
3. In the Options panel on the right, at the bottom, click the Add Attribute button and select the desired attribute.
   
   A new Untitled attribute field of the selected type appears in the panel. For attribute field examples, see Attribute types below.
4. Click the Untitled label, delete the text, and type the name for the attribute and enter the desired value for it.
   
5. Click anywhere on the Node Map to close the edit mode.

Attribute Types

Here’s an example of all attribute fields that you can add to a customizable node.

Removing Attributes

You can remove any attribute from a customizable node, except the Name field.

To remove an attribute from a node:

1. On the Node Map, double-click the node you want to modify.
2. Click the Edit icon in the top-right corner of the node.
3. In the Options panel on the right, click the X next to the attribute that you want to delete.
   
4. Click anywhere on the Node Map to close the edit mode.

Object and Character Nodes

About Asset Nodes

Each asset in the game has at least two nodes on its Node Map:

• A Start node, which creates the character or object and enables its physics.
• A 3D Model node, which defines the shape of a 3D asset or an Animation node, which defines the appearance of a 2D asset.
  

By default, the attributes of these nodes are displayed in the respective Options panel of the asset.

If you wish to make an asset in the game behave in a certain way in response to the player’s actions, for example, jump when touched or explode when it collides with an obstacle, you need to add the appropriate nodes to the Node Map of the asset.

Similarly, if you want to modify the game flow logic, for example, by randomizing transitions to new levels or by locking certain levels until the user unlocks them, you need to use nodes. For example, see Health, Damage, and Defeat.

Node Categories

There are six node categories that include dozens of nodes that you can use to define any scenario you can imagine. These categories are located in the Node Panel to the left of the Node Map  and are listed in the table below.

For details on accessing the Node Map and adding nodes to it, see Node Map Workspace.

Node Category	Icon	Description	Node Category Color
Content		Nodes that allow you to define the appearance and shape of the selected object or character and add special effects, such as animation, sounds, text, and so on.
Controls		Nodes that allow you to define the player interactions with the object during the game.
Movement		Nodes that allow you to define the movements of the character or object during the game, for example, jumping, bouncing, floating, and so on.
Actions		Nodes that allow you to perform actions on the character or object during the game, for example, to define how to handle collisions, health, damage, defeat, set checkpoints, control the camera, and much more.
Monetization		Nodes that allow you to generate revenue from the dame, for example, by adding ads or game purchases. For details, see Ad Monetization.
Advanced		Nodes that allow you to perform advanced actions, such as terminating your character, create custom script nodes, and so on.

Rotate Node

This movement node allows the asset to rotate along the specified axis.

If needed, you can also customize this node. For details, see Customizing Nodes.

See also, Rotate Brainbox.