Let's talk about the group tool first. If you have ever worked on a game engine like unreal or a 3d modeler like maya or blender you will know exactly what grouping is.
Grouping is essentially linking objects together to make them act as one. Why is this usefull ?
Well, you can perform all the operations you performed on a single block, on the group itself. Now you would think that there arent any use for groups besides copying and pasting them on the ship but you are wrong, here comes the gizmo tool.
I'm repeating myself, but those who are familiar with 3d modelers like maya or blender will know what this is.
The gizmo tool can be used to both rotation and movement of the blocks.
When using the gizmo mode you should be able to select any object or group of objects, to the center of those it will appear the gizmo tool which looks like this:
The movement gizmo:
The rotation gizmo:
Dragging by any of the axis of the gizmo tool in movement mode will move the object along the axis (if possible). Dragging between the small portion of 2 axis will drag the object only on those 2 axis (sort of planar). Dragging the object from the center of it will drag it in all 3 axis.
When in rotation mode things get different from the usual rotation gizmo because in starmade you can rotate objects just by a 90 degree tick but is still usefull. Dragging by the axis will rotate on those axis just like the movement gizmo.
Why do I think starmade needs those? Because currently is just too time consuming holding ctrl and searching for the right rotation of a object, trying to build weird structures just to put some blocks were they belong or having to reconnect all modules to a computer because there is no movement tool.
Also its so much easier to copy groups than trying to copy with the current template system.
I'm waiting your opinions.
Grouping is essentially linking objects together to make them act as one. Why is this usefull ?
Well, you can perform all the operations you performed on a single block, on the group itself. Now you would think that there arent any use for groups besides copying and pasting them on the ship but you are wrong, here comes the gizmo tool.
I'm repeating myself, but those who are familiar with 3d modelers like maya or blender will know what this is.
The gizmo tool can be used to both rotation and movement of the blocks.
When using the gizmo mode you should be able to select any object or group of objects, to the center of those it will appear the gizmo tool which looks like this:
The movement gizmo:
The rotation gizmo:
Dragging by any of the axis of the gizmo tool in movement mode will move the object along the axis (if possible). Dragging between the small portion of 2 axis will drag the object only on those 2 axis (sort of planar). Dragging the object from the center of it will drag it in all 3 axis.
When in rotation mode things get different from the usual rotation gizmo because in starmade you can rotate objects just by a 90 degree tick but is still usefull. Dragging by the axis will rotate on those axis just like the movement gizmo.
Why do I think starmade needs those? Because currently is just too time consuming holding ctrl and searching for the right rotation of a object, trying to build weird structures just to put some blocks were they belong or having to reconnect all modules to a computer because there is no movement tool.
Also its so much easier to copy groups than trying to copy with the current template system.
I'm waiting your opinions.