Setting Up the Project

Let's create a new project for our game and set up a level world with a camera view.

All objects added to the scene are called nodes. Each node has a position, a rotation, and a scale and some basic functionality, which can be extended with components. There are a variety of built-in nodes in UNIGINE.

The Play Area in the game will be laid out with a lot of identical floor tiles. Visual representation of the floor tile is defined by a plane Static Mesh with a gray material assigned.

So, we make floor tiles as Node References all referring to the single *.node file on a disk.

Let's create a grid of floor tiles for the Play Area by instancing Node References. For walls we will use box primitives with the default base material and surface collision enabled to stop the character from going through them.

1. Let's instantiate more of the floor tiles by duplicating the Node Reference via Ctrl + D hotkeys.
   Notice

   You can activate snapping by bound box via Shift + Z hotkeys. Click on the arrow next to the Snap by Grid icon on the Toolbar and choose the By Bound Box option. Select the floor node reference and clone it by holding the Shift key and moving the translate manipulator in the required direction.
   

   

   Notice

   Alternatively, you can hold the Ctrl key to snap a node to the grid.

2. You can also select multiple nodes in the Viewport or World Nodes window while holding the Shift key and then clone them all at the same time in a group.

   

3. Create a wall by choosing Create->Primitive->Box and then specify the size in all dimensions. Make sure it resembles a wall and place it on the border of the Play Area.

   Notice

   Don't scale meshes that are going to participate in collision detection — physics doesn't work properly with scaled objects. To avoid scaling, reimport the mesh with the required scale.
4. To make the wall a collider, select it in the World Nodes window. Then, go to the Parameters window and find the Surfaces section in the Node tab. Select the box surface of the mesh and check the Collision option.

5. Duplicate the primitive with Ctrl + D hotkeys and set up the opposite wall. Create the rest of the walls along the borders of the Play Area the same way.

   

A World Light source (sun) is created for each world by default. So, the scene is lit and walls cast shadows on the ground. You can adjust rotation and other parameters of the light source via the Parameters window.

Alternative way of creating Light Sources via the API is considered here.

In order to see the world through the application window, you need to create a Camera and position it above the Play Area.

1. Add a new Camera via Create->Camera->Dummy, and place it in the world.

2. Adjust position (W hotkey) and rotation (E hotkey) of the PlayerDummy node via the manipulator in the Viewport.

   

3. Check the Main Player option in the node's Parameters window to make it the default camera.

   

Alternative way of creating a camera via the API is considered here.