Scene initialization and handling

Owned by Daniele Federico
Last updated: Oct 17, 2023
2 min read

All scene assets get serialized in a json string which then gets stored on the scene atomsNode.

In all 3D applications, a tcAtomsNode node will be created on scene initialization. This node has one attribute containing the data for your agent variations and one attribute containing the data for your scene (Agent Types, Animation Clips, etc.). The data is stored on those attributes as json strings. 
We provide tools for editing this json data, but you are allowed to create or edit it manually or with a script. Please be careful when doing this as you might break your scene.

You can find tools for exporting, merging and importing your scene and variation data under the Atoms Menu:

  • Atoms > Scene > Import Scene Json
  • Atoms > Scene > Export Scene Json
  • Atoms > Scene > Merge Scene Json
  • Atoms > Variations > Import Variation Json
  • Atoms > Variations > Export Variation Json
  • Atoms > Variations > Merge Variation Json

The difference between merging and importing is that importing will overwrite the current value of the scene or variation json, while merging will create a combination of the new json and the current one.

Alternatively, you can use the Partial Scene Exporter to export selected content from your scene: Atoms > Scene  > Partial Scene Exporter.
From the UI you can select all assets you want to export. Press on the arrow button to move them to the export list on the right of the UI and then click import.
When the "Export dependencies" option is activated, the export process will also store all dependencies. For instance:

  • when exporting a state machine, all animation clips used by its states will be saved as well
  • when exporting an animation clip, the compatible agent type will be saved as well.

It is possible to replace the paths of the scene json by using: Atoms > Scene > Replace Scene Json paths
A UI will show up asking the user to provide the partial path you want to replace ("Orig Path") with a new partial path ("Dest Path"). This is particularly useful if you import a scene json file made in a different operative system.


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