Editor: Navigation
This guide covers how to navigate and use the Editor's basic functions as a user. If you haven't yet installed the Baldur's Gate 3 Toolkit, please see Getting Started: Installing the Toolkit.
To aid us, we'll use the example of editing a statue.
Opening or Creating a Project
When you open the Editor, you'll be greeted with the Project Browser. Here, you can open an existing project (mod), or create a new one.
If you want to open an existing project, simply select the project you want to open and click Select.
If you want to create a new mod, select the New Project tab [1], then choose a Project Name for your mod [2], and click Create [3]. For this example, we’ve named our project “LavaStatueMod“.
Loading a Level
After selecting a project and waiting for it to load, you’ll be presented with the choice to select a level in the Level Browser.
You don’t always need to have a level actively open to work in the Editor, in which case you can simply click Cancel to close this window. If you do this, the game window will still show the loading screen at 100% loading, but you can safely ignore this – no level is actually loading.
You do need to load a level, however, if you want to test your work.
Let’s search for a level called WLD_Crashsite_D in the search bar [1]. This level is the beginning of Act I, just after the nautiloid crashes on the beach. Click on the thumbnail [2] and click Select [3] to load it.
ⓘ Some levels contain other smaller ones. For example,
WLD_Main_Acontains quite a bit of content, including the Crashsite, Emerald Grove, Goblin Camp, Underdark, and much more! Because it's so big, it also takes a long time to load. Try to load smaller levels with the specific content you want, likeWLD_Crashsite_D, to save on loading times.
This is what the Editor looks like with a level loaded:
Exploring a Level
In our example, we see the vast blue skybox and no level to be found. That’s because our level is slightly offset from the world origin and we need to find it.
Hold the middle mouse button on the main viewport (the window containing the blue skybox), and drag your mouse around to look around the level. Here are some other common controls you can use to navigate within the viewport when using the Editor Camera:
| Action | Input |
|---|---|
| Forwards | W / scroll forwards |
| Left | A |
| Backwards | S / scroll backwards |
| Right | D |
| Up | E |
| Down | Q |
| Select Object | LMB click on an object |
| Multi-Select | LMB click, hold and drag |
You can also double-click on one of the objects in the World Outliner [1], like BLD_HUM_Abbey_Arch_Pillar_B_006 [2] (the first one in the list). This will transport you to that object in the viewport.
When you select an object, you can see its properties in the Sidebar [3]. Though you can’t edit any of them directly, you can edit the components they are built from, and the properties of their parent templates.
Editing Templates
Let’s now edit the visuals of the statue in the middle of our scene.
Select the statue by locating it in the main viewport or in the World Outliner by looking for DEC_GEN_Statue_Wizard_B_Broken_A_000 [1] [2].
Copy the Root Template ID by right-clicking on the property’s name in the Sidebar [3] on the left and selecting Copy Value to Clipboard [4]. In this case, the UUID is 6086ae20-f69b-4c39-b151-41c43d41ab6d.
It’s usually better to find objects by UUID rather than by name, since many objects can share the same name but their UUIDs will always be different.
Root templates are the building blocks of our levels. When building a level, we place trees, rocks, items, chests, and characters. Initially, all of them are root templates, but once they are placed in the level, they become local templates.
This means we can have a common root (e.g. a male elf guard), but many local override templates for male elf guards with different faces, armour, equipment, and other stats. Modifying the root will modify all instances of the local templates that inherit from it.
Modifying the root template is what we’re going to do in this case, so let’s find it! Open the Root Template Manager by clicking on the building block icon in the toolbar [1], find the root template by pasting in the UUID you’ve just copied [2], select it [3], and copy the Visual Resource ID [4] property so you can modify its visuals.
Resources
You need to override resources and templates in your mod before you can modify them.
To find the visual resource, we need to go to the Resource Manager, which you can open by clicking on the crayon box icon in the Editor's main toolbar [1]. Search for the visual resource by pasting the copied UUID into the Resource Manager’s Filters field [2]. Once the resource shows up, right-click on it and select Override in the Active Mod... [3]. This makes this resource editable for you, and assigns it to your mod.
When asked "Do you want to keep the same package structure?", select "Yes". The resource is now editable!
You can edit it by double-clicking on it [4] or opening the context menu (by right-clicking on it) and selecting Open.
Properties of resources are not editable through the Sidebar, but through special resource editors.
Open the Visual Editor by double-clicking on the visual resource of your chosen object – in this case, our statue – in the Resource Manager [1]. A new window will appear, where you can edit the properties of your visual [2].
The Visual Editor lets you select the materials, animations, and attachments that a visual uses.
Search for an interesting Material Resource in the Resource Manager [1], like NAT_Lava_Fall_A_Animated (4861504e-ccaf-d2a8-3bb8-13475136f133). With the Material Resource selected [2], click on the arrows (<-) in the Visual Editor [3] [4] to assign that material to your object for both LODs.
Click Apply [5].
Congratulations! The statue in game, and everything else using the visual resource you’ve just modified, is now a little bit hotter.
ⓘ Alternatively, you could create a new Visual Resource with new materials and assign it to the statue’s root template in the Root Templates Manager, so only objects inheriting from that root template would get your changes.
Testing While Playing in the Editor
To see your changes in-game, you can enter Game Mode by clicking the joystick icon on the left of the main toolbar. To switch back to Editor Mode, click the same button again.
ⓘ While you're in Game Mode, do not use the in-game Main Menu button or try to load a savegame! If you do, you'll end up having to force-quit and restart the Toolkit.
Whoops, where are we? Remember how the level was offset a bit from the world origin? Well, now we’ve spawned in the middle of the void and cannot move. How unfortunate.
One of the ways we can get out of this void is by switching to the Editor Camera while we’re in Game Mode by clicking the camera icon in the toolbar – see the screenshot below. Try switching to the Editor Camera and looking around to find the level. Fly over to it using WASD controls. When you’ve found a bit of good, walkable terrain, hover your cursor over it and press Ctrl+T. This will teleport your player character to where your cursor is.
Switching between the Editor Camera and Game Camera is useful for fast world traversal.
If you can’t find any terrain, you can also note the XYZ coordinates of a nearby object and try to fly to it. Both the camera coordinates (left) and selected object coordinates (right) can always be viewed on the bottom bar of the Editor.
Voilà! After teleporting there, we can now walk around our statue in-game and admire our work.
