WorldBuilder 4 Basics: Part 1, Introduction


Welcome to WorldBuilder 4!

This is Part 1 in a 4-part tutorial. In this guided tour, we will explore some of the basic features of the program. We’ll also build a simple scene.

NOTE: The tutorial is designed to be used with the downloadable demo version of WorldBuilder 4. Some features such as scene and rendered image saving are disabled in this version. Example scene files (for each of the tutorial's four parts) are available for download.

Before we get started with our tutorial, let’s examine the primary elements of WorldBuilder’s user interface.

When you start WorldBuilder the default scene will load,
and your screen will look something like this:

• A Compound Sky object

• A Parallel Light

• A Camera (with Camera Target)

• A Landscape mesh object

The center area is your workspace, comprised of four Viewports. Although you can customize the configuration of these Viewports, the default setting provides three orthographic views (Top, Right and Front) plus one Perspective view. This is where you will place and manipulate the various elements in your scene.

Located on the top are the Main Toolbar and the Main Menu.

The Creation Toolbar is located at the left side of the workspace.

To the right is the Property Editor with three panels:
The topmost panel is the Scene Tree; in the middle is the Property Tree and at the bottom is the Property Page, where you can access and edit object parameters.

At the lower right are the View Tools (sometimes also referred to as the Navigation Bar). These tools include Pan, Arc Rotate, Zoom and several Zoom modifiers; they allow you to adjust your view of the WorldBuilder scene.