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- <section id="basic-concepts">
- <h1>Basic Concepts<a class="headerlink" href="#basic-concepts" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h1>
- <p>This page describes basic concepts and terminology commonly used when working
- with Crown.</p>
- <section id="project">
- <span id="id1"></span><h2>Project<a class="headerlink" href="#project" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
- <p>A project in Crown is a folder that contains all the resources that describe
- your game. Resources are plain-text files (with some exceptions) identified
- by their relative path (to the project’s root).</p>
- <p>You are free to organize resources in a project however you like. However, to
- avoid confusion it is recommended to put units in their own folder because
- they often consist of multiple files (e.g. a resource for a tree may consist
- of a <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">tree.unit</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">tree.material</span></code> and <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">tree.lua</span></code> files).</p>
- </section>
- <section id="resource-paths-and-names">
- <h2>Resource paths and names<a class="headerlink" href="#resource-paths-and-names" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
- <p>All paths in Crown are unix-style (forward slashes). Only canonical/normalized
- paths are allowed.</p>
- <p>Resources in a project are identified by their relative path to the project’s
- folder, without extension.</p>
- <p>For example, to refer to the unit named “units/player/player.unit” you will
- use the string “units/player/player”.</p>
- </section>
- <section id="unit-and-components">
- <h2>Unit and Components<a class="headerlink" href="#unit-and-components" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
- <p>Units are the fundamental building blocks in Crown. Units can be used to
- represent any object that exists in a game world - a character, a tree, a
- vehicle, a light etc.</p>
- <p>By default, units are empty. You add functionality to a Unit by adding
- Components to it. No component is mandatory, units can be just empty IDs.</p>
- <p>Crown includes a number of predefined components, some examples are:</p>
- <ul class="simple">
- <li><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Transform</span></code> - specifies a position, rotation and scale in the world</p></li>
- <li><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">MeshRenderer</span></code> - draws a 3D mesh</p></li>
- <li><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Actor</span></code> - specifies physics properties for a collider, such as mass, filter etc.</p></li>
- <li><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Script</span></code> - adds logic via a Lua script</p></li>
- <li><p><code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Light</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Camera</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Fog</span></code>, <code class="docutils literal notranslate"><span class="pre">Bloom</span></code> etc.</p></li>
- </ul>
- <p>Components can be added or removed at any time in the editor or at runtime.</p>
- <p>Units support parent-child relationships, allowing complex hierarchies of
- objects to be built from many smaller units (e.g. a car with wheels, body,
- lights etc.).</p>
- </section>
- <section id="unit-prefab">
- <h2>Unit Prefab<a class="headerlink" href="#unit-prefab" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
- <p>Units can be saved to disk as a <em>.unit</em> resource, creating a prefab. Other
- units can then reference this prefab, instantly inheriting all of its
- components and hierarchy. Changes to a prefab are automatically propagated to
- every instance of that prefab.</p>
- <p>Unit Prefabs are created by saving existing units inside
- the <a class="reference internal" href="level_editor.html#level-editor"><span class="std std-ref">Level Editor</span></a>, or, more commonly, by importing them from
- a <a class="reference internal" href="../importing_resources/importing_meshes.html#importing-meshes"><span class="std std-ref">meshes</span></a> or <a class="reference internal" href="../importing_resources/importing_sprites.html#importing-sprites"><span class="std std-ref">sprites</span></a>.</p>
- </section>
- <section id="world">
- <h2>World<a class="headerlink" href="#world" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
- <p>A World is the runtime container that holds Units and other objects and
- advances the game simulation. When a World is running it:</p>
- <ul class="simple">
- <li><p>updates animations/audio/particles;</p></li>
- <li><p>steps physics and handles collisions;</p></li>
- <li><p>dispatches logic events to script components;</p></li>
- <li><p>renders the visible scene;</p></li>
- <li><p>etc.</p></li>
- </ul>
- <p>A World can be populated manually via code or automatically by loading Level
- resources into it.</p>
- <p>A game always has at least one active world. Multiple worlds can exist
- simultaneously (for example, one for the main game and one for a UI overlay),
- though this is uncommon.</p>
- </section>
- <section id="level">
- <h2>Level<a class="headerlink" href="#level" title="Permalink to this headline">¶</a></h2>
- <p>A Level (<em>.level</em> resource) is a saved collection of units, sounds and other
- objects.</p>
- <p>Levels are authored in the <a class="reference internal" href="level_editor.html#level-editor"><span class="std std-ref">Level Editor</span></a>. A world can load any number of levels
- at the same time, enabling complex multi-layered scenes.</p>
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