Genesis

Genesis was a 3D modeller project I made, originally intended for game development. It has basic support for hard-model editing, and is largely inactive now due to other game projects.

Save regularly! I understand Genesis can be very broken at times. On the other hand, I don’t want to withold it from fans anymore. Originally I wanted to release it when it was finished and fully working–but that might never happen now. For what it is however, it’s quite functional, and I look forward to seeing what you all do with it. Have fun!

Getting started

Firstly, if you’re reading this, you’re most likely here exclusively to use it with SpyroEdit! So here’s a quick guide in that context:

0: Extract Genesis into a folder
1: Start up Genesis
2: Start up the latest Genesis-compatible version of SpyroEdit in your favourite emulator
3: Run Spyro 2 or 3. Spyro 1 may work too, but don’t expect it to work reliably
4: Enter a level in the game
5: On the Genesis tab in SpyroEdit, click Connect. If all goes well, you should see some debug text in Genesis.
6: Click the Send Scene button. The scene should start downloading into Genesis
7: Refer to the controls below to browse the scene!
8: Hit the 5 key. Click on a part of the level you want to edit. Don’t try to move it with just yet!
9: Edit the segment. The following keys will set the editor to do the following:
1: Edit the segment’s vertices (points)
2: Edit the segment’s edges (lines)
3: Edit the segment’s faces (polygons)
5: Select a different segment(s). You can edit multiple segments at once at your own risk. Try it out!
10: Use the following keys to change the tool to edit stuff with/gizmo. (You can read more about this below)
W: Move
E: Scale
R: Rotate

Tips:

• It’s recommended to only move elements. Creating or destroying elements such as polygons can sometimes work, but often with unexpected side-effects, including broken collision and an inability to reload levels.
• There is no Save/Load You can -kind of- load changes by connecting up the level, loading it in Genesis, then making changes to update it on the game’s side.
• Polygons with more than four sides will be invisible. Reduce them to rectangles or triangles to fix this.
• Send Collision can be used to view collision triangles, but any changes you make won’t take effect. This means you can move it away from the main level model and see if there are any holes.
• Collision polygons have a size limit. If you make a polygon notably bigger than normal, the collision may not work until you shrink it back.
• Level sections have a size limit. If you make it too big, SpyroEdit simply won’t be able to fit all the polygons in the space. This may distort it, so be wary!
• SAVE REGULARLY. This is a crash-prone app. Quality crash material. Autosave.gen is automatically saved regularly in the root folder of Genesis. If Genesis crashes, see if that file has a surviving version of your work.

Using Genesis: Terminology

Objects

Mesh: A 3D model made of vertexes, edges, or faces
Vertex: A point in a mesh
Vertices: Awkward plural for vertex
Edge: A line connecting two points in a mesh, usually forming a Face
Face: Solid, flat part of a mesh–also called a polygon
Element: A vertex, edge, face or instance, depending on the mode
Gizmo: The colourful 3D tool for moving, rotating or scaling elements

Concepts

Modifier: A type of tool that can be used for a variety of things, automatic or user-controlled
LiveGen: The name of the system used by Genesis and compatible apps to enable real-time editing or viewing
Transform: A broad word describing a movement, rotation, scale, warp, or more advanced systematic point movements

Modifiers

Edit Mesh: Main modifier for editing meshes in a hard-surface-oriented manner UV Edit: Main modifier for editing UV coordinates (texture coordinates) on meshes

Using Genesis: Controls

Camera

Left button (hold): Select area
Middle button (hold): Rotate camera around centre point
Right button (hold): Pan camera/move centre point
Scroll wheel: Zoom in/out
Z: Center camera on selection
Return: Toggle perspective/orthographic mode

Camera flicks

Numpad 2/4/6/8: (imagine 5 is the top of a character looking towards you): Front, Left, Right, Back view
Numpad 1/3/7/9: (imagine 5 is the top of a character looking towards you): Quarter angles
Numpad 5: Top view
Numpad 0: Raise 45-degrees

Transform modes

W: Move
E: Rotate
R: Scale

Selection scopes

1: Vertex
2: Edge
3: Face
4: ???
5: Instance

Selection modes (hold while selecting)

Shift: Add selections to area
Alt: Remove selections from area
Ctrl: Toggle area selection

Gizmo

Left button (hold): Move, rotate or scale along highlighted axis
Alt (hold): While transforming, snaps transform to a hard multiple of a unit, such as 45 degrees or 1 metre
G: Lock/unlock gizmo (selections will take precedence)

General editing

Backspace: Soft delete element (element is destroyed, but associated elements are preserved and re-linked if possible)
Del: Hard delete element (element and associated elements are destroyed)
Ctrl+Z: Undo and pray it doesn’t crash
Ctrl+Y: Redo and pray it doesn’t crash