Getting Started
The first thing to do is oviously getting Overload. There are two alternatives: building Overload from sources.
Compiling Overload sources requires using Visual Studio 2019.
You'll need to clone the repository and open the .sln file located in Sources\Overload\Overload.sln. Building the sources should be pretty fast forward, make sure you do not re-target the project to another MSVC version. Try to stick with the v142 platform toolset. Build all projects and if not already, define OvEditor as your startup project.
You can download a release by checking the releases list.
Here are some terms that you'll encounter while using or reading about Overload.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Window | As the Overload editor is fully modulable, it is possible to undock or move around parts of the editor. We will call these parts Window |
| Actor | Any entity with components in Overload is called an actor. Actors are part of a scene |
| Scene | A scene in Overload is a collection of actors. It can be serialized to XML format to be loaded another time by the editor or the game |
| Mesh | A mesh is a set of vertices and indices. You can't manipulate meshes directly from the editor |
| Model | Models are collections of meshes. Each model can be composed of multiple meshes. They directly represent a model file (fbx, obj...). They can be spawned into a scene |
The first window you'll see when launching Overload is the Project Hub. Basically, the Project Hub is a place where you can create new projects or open a new project. Projects that has already been opened will get displayed in a list. For the guide next steps, we will assume that you have created a new project.
Let's now take a look at the editor!
When launching Overload for the first time, you should have an editor layout similar to this one:
Actually, only a few editor windows will be opened when you'll launch the editor. You can open additional windows by clicking the Window menu in the top bar (AKA menu bar). For now, we will stick with Overload basic features and we won't need to open any other window.
Let's dive into those windows:
The Scene View can be considered as the main view of Overload editor. It will give you a real-time feedback of what is happening in your current scene. This window is necessary to create your scene (Placing and moving objects).
You can freely move in this view using these controls:
| Action | Input |
|---|---|
| Rotate the camera |  |
| Zoom in/out |  |
| Move camera Forward |
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| Move camera Backward |
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| Move camera Left |
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| Move camera Right |
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| Move camera Up |
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| Move camera Down |
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| Orbit around selection |
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| Move to selection |  |
| Move to selection (From Top) |  |
| Move to selection (From Bottom) |  |
| Move to selection (From Left) |  |
| Move to selection (From Right) |  |
| Move to selection (From Front) |  |
| Move to selection (From Back) |  |
| Delete selection |  |
The Game View, like the Scene View, reflects what is happening in your scene, but only from a fixed camera, which correspond to your game main camera. The editor will automatically focus the Game View when playing the scene
A simple window providing some controls onto your scene. It allows you to play, pause, resume, step, and refresh your lua behaviours.
You'll find there your project file hierarchy. Any file in your project should be placed into Assets or Scripts. You can create/move/delete files there. Plenty actions are available for each different file type (Accessible by right-clicking onto a file). A lot of editor fields and windows can take an asset as input (Texture, Scene, Shader...), the Asset Browser allows you to drag and drop these assets.
The Hierarchy window shows the current scene hierarchy with relations between actors. You can select/rename/delete/move/create actors in this view.
In the Inspector, you'll be able to view and edit the currently selected actor. Adding, tweaking and removing components, changing actor settings (Name, tag, activation state...).
As a way to communicate with you, the user, Overload is using logs. These logs (Information, Warnings, Errors), will be found into the console.
The profiler will help you identifying bottlenecks in your games. It will show you timings of key modules of the engine, such as the physics system, the scripting system or the renderer.
Tutorials
Sample Projects
Scripting Reference