Assembly Mode
The main editing mode used to put a scene or element together.
Tools
Tools are used by activating them, and then using R2 or Move Primary Trigger on objects.
# Stretch
Drag an object using this tool to stretch it in different ways.
Stretch a jointed sculpt: A group or sculpt that is jointed to at least 1 parent and 1 child child object can be stretched between them. To do this, use the tool on the jointed child and drag it out. The middle object will then stretch in that direction.
While dragging, scale the child object up or down to warp that end of the middle object to be larger or smaller than the other end. (Tg)
Note, this adjusts the shapes within the sculpts of the middle object. Not all shapes will react perfectly to stretching or warping like this.
Stretch a Ruler: Use on the sides of a ruler gizmo to adjust its dimensions.
# Clone
While in this mode, we can interact with the “live” state of Sculpt and Painting objects.
Sculpts and paintings are stored as data describing their form. Then the object you see is actually simply pointing at that data. And editing the object changes the data that it’s pointing to. Dreams uses the data the object is pointing at as the form, shape, etc. of the object.
When a clone is made, a new object of the same type is created, pointing at that same data. In fact, if 2 objects are made from scratch but end up identical (2 on-grid cubes, for example), this will be detected and they will also both point to the same data.
This saves a lot of memory (thermo) compared to every copy having its own data.
# Live Clone Visuals On/Off
On by default.
While this context menu button is on and the imp hovering over an object, if there are any live clones linking to it then those live clones and the hovered object will be highlighted in green.
If also holding shift while hovering over the object, all identical clones that are not linked to the hovered object will flash green.
# Live Clone
Off by default. While this context menu button is on, use the tool on an object to make its sculpts and paintings “Live” clones of the originals—pointing to the original objects.
Dreams will then use the data that the original object points at as the clone’s form. When editing the original it will change its data as normal, but the form of the live clones will update as well. And when editing the live clone, it will change the data of the original instead of making the object unique and needing to store its own data.
This means you cannot accidentally turn clones into unique sculpts, when you didn’t want to use more thermo.
You can change the appearance, or at least the geometry, of many sculpts across an entire scene at once.
Good for working on different sides of a modular sculpt and being able to see how they fit together all from one angle. (Tg)
Make identical clones “Live”: While hovering over an object, use shift + the Triangle button to make it and all objects pointing to the same data, or to an object which is pointing to the same data, all point directly to the same data and become “Live.” (Ml)
If Live Clone Visuals is on, the objects affected will be flashing green while holding shift.
Make a Live object not Live:
Hover over an object and use the Delete controls to remove the “live” state from it. It will still point to the same data, but when edited it will become unique as normal. (Tg)
# Hide
Hides objects in edit mode. When an object is hidden in this way, it will not show even with preview invisibility off. (Tg)
Note, this does not affect the player’s experience; only what is able to be seen in edit mode.
This is particularly useful when working on some part of the scene that is normally hidden behind other objects.
When using this tool, all objects in the scene will turn a white colour. Objects marked as “hidden” will be yellow. Use on an object to toggle if it's hidden or not.
Toggle hidden state for all objects except the hovered object: Use shift + R2 or shift + Move Primary Trigger on an object.
# Unhide All
When there are hidden objects in the scene, use this context menu button to make them all unhidden.
# Freeze
Freezes objects, making them uneditable in any way. Including objects surface-snapped to them or inside them. When the creator attempts an action that would edit something frozen, the frozen objects flashes blue instead.
While using this tool, all objects in the scene will turn a white colour and all objects marked as “frozen” will be blue. Use on an object to toggle its frozen state. (Tg)
Note, this does not affect the player’s experience, or how frozen objects behave while playing time, etc.
Toggle the frozen state of all objects except the hovered object: Hover over an object and use shift + R2 or shift + Move Primary Trigger.
# Unfreeze All
While there are frozen objects, use this context menu button to unfreeze all objects.
# Bake Emitted
Normally emitted objects cannot be interacted with in any way. This tool allows special interactions with emitted objects, including “baking” them.
While using the tool, emitted objects are shown as purple, all other gadgets are shown as white, all other sculpts are shown as grey.
While using this tool tweak menus may be opened, windows moved, and objects scoped into—including those of emitted objects. While using these actions, the scene will return to full colour.
Use the tool on an emitted object to “bake” it.
The moment an object is baked, it becomes like an object that was not emitted but placed there by hand with whatever settings, state, contained objects and logic it had at the time it was baked. As it is no longer an “emitted object,” it will turn grey or white.
When time is rewound, it will return to its initial state as all objects do—which in this case means it will revert to whatever settings were there at the time it was “baked.”
# Bake All
Use this context menu button to bake all emitted objects. (Ml)
# Adjust Detail
This tool is used to adjust the detail level of Sculpt and Painting objects. Reducing detail means less data is needed for that object, reducing its thermo cost. Increasing detail means more data is needed for that object, increasing its thermo cost. (Tg)
While using the tool, more detailed objects will look more red, and less detailed objects will look more blue. (Tg) (Pk) Objects that are not sculpts or paintings won't be tinted while using this tool.
Reduce the most expensive object: While in reduce mode, use shift + R2 or shift + Move Primary Trigger to reduce teh detail of the most expensive object in the scene.
# Increase, Decrease
Toggles between increasing detail and reducing detail.
# Consider Scale
When on, a sculpt’s colouring will be relative to its size.
For example, a small object should normally have low detail as its surfaces will not be able to be seen clearly most of the time. So if it has a higher detail, it will appear more red.
However, if you are using an object small in some places and larger in others, and you reduce the detail of the small version, the larger version will also have lower detail and because it's larger can look a lot worse.
# Sculpture Detail
A sculpture’s detail level decides the maximum resolution to use to turn the shapes and edits for that sculpt into voxel data, which is then used to render the surfaces, simulate collisions, etc. (Tg)
As flecks are rendered on a sculpt’s surface based on the size of the voxels, the detail level also affects the object’s minimum visual looseness. The lower the detail/resolution, the larger the voxels are on the surface, and the larger the flecks are. (Mm)
Because of this, if you have metallic or shiny sculptures, lowering their detail can affect the finish on the surface of the object, making them less crisp and clear. (Pk)
This also means that this is a more efficient way of making a sculpt appear looser and its flecks larger. Turning up its looseness setting keeps all the same data, and simply renders larger flecks. Turning down detail instead reduces data renders larger flecks. (Tg)
# Painting Detail
When a painting’s detail level is lowered, fleck positions between the start and end points of each stroke are removed from its data and those flecks can no longer be rendered. This can leave gaps in the painting, which may be patched over by increasing Looseness or Stretch of the flecks. (Ml)
Modes
This is a menu for choosing another mode to change to. See the Modes page to see details about each mode separately.
# Animate
# Timeline
Creates a Timeline in realtime mode, and Snap off.
# Mic On/Off
When on, audio will be recorded from the microphone while recording with the Action Recorder or Possession Recorder. This will result in a timeline that contains the recorded audio and the recorder gadget. (Mm)