Editor Interface

Words Used in the Tool

• Cave – the object holding one cave. Everything you build belongs to it.
• Passage – a tunnel through a row of points.
• Point – a spot on the walking floor in the middle of a passage. Points carry the passage size.
• Room – a chamber with a level floor: square (2, 3 or 4 connections) or round (2 to 8 connections).
• Crossing – a passage-sized junction (3-way or 4-way) where passages meet, cross or branch.
• Entrance – the opening where the cave meets the outside world.
• Connection – an opening in a room or entrance. A passage attaches to it. Free connections are closed by a plug, so there is never a hole.
• Open end / Closed end – a passage end that stops (open) or is sealed with a rounded cap (closed).
• Profile – the shape of a passage cross-section (Default, Broad, Irregular).
• Theme – the set of materials and decorations.
• Preview – the cave you see while editing. It is rebuilt automatically after every change.
• Bake – saving the cave as a normal prefab for your game.

Step Guide

New to the tool? The Step Guide panel (bottom left of the Scene view) always shows:

• Now – a tip for the tool you are using or what you selected (for example “Now click opening B” in Connect mode).
• Next – the next step of the pipeline with a button that starts it: Create a cave › Place an entrance › Place rooms › Connect the openings › Shape the passages › Fix problems › Pick a look › Light and dress it › Walk through it › Bake. Steps tick themselves off from your cave; optional steps have Skip.
• Show all steps – the whole checklist.

When you know the pipeline, hide it with ✕, the Guide button in the window toolbar, or Tools > Arkerion > Cave Builder Utilities > Show Step Guide. The same steps are listed in Build > Quick Start Guide (with Reset Skipped).

The Cave Builder Window

The window has four tabs. Most of the building happens in the Scene view; the window holds the settings.

• Cave selector (top bar) – lists the caves in the open scene. Selecting one frames it.
• Build – create caves, place entrances, draw passages, add rooms and branches.
• Selected – settings of whatever you clicked in the Scene view: a point, a passage, a room or a connection. With nothing selected, it shows the settings of the whole cave.
• Appearance – theme, rock look, distortion, lights and decorations.
• Finish – preview quality, Play Test, validation, baking and export tools.
• Status bar (bottom) – the result of the last update, and the number of errors and warnings. Click the counter to jump to the list.

All sections can be folded. The window remembers which ones are open.

The Scene View

When a cave is selected, the Scene view shows the cave’s layout on top of the geometry, and a small toolbar (Arkerion Cave Builder overlay) appears.

The overlay toolbar

• Mode label – what the current tool expects, for example “Entrance: aim direction”.
• On Surface / On Plane – where clicked points land (see Placing Points).
• Snap 2 m – snaps points to a 2 m grid horizontally. Height always stays free.
• Clean – hides all editing lines and labels to judge the look, without losing the selection.
• Labels – shows or hides measurements and names.
• Finish (Enter) / Cancel (Esc) – ends the current tool.
• Open Cave Builder and Play Test – shortcuts.

Colours

• Blue line – the walking floor centre of a passage
• Yellow – the selected passage, point or room
• White spheres – points
• Orange arrow – a free connection
• Green arrow – a connected connection
• Grey arrow – a connection you marked as closed, or a closed passage end
• Orange / red marks – warnings / errors from validation, drawn where the problem is

Keys and mouse

• Click – select a point, passage, room or connection arrow
• Enter – finish drawing a passage
• Esc – finish drawing, or cancel the current tool
• Delete – delete the selected point, passage or room
• Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y – Undo / Redo; every action is one Undo step
• Alt + drag – orbit the camera as usual; it never places points

Placing Points

Every tool needs to know where on the floor you clicked. Choose the method on the Build tab (Point Placement) or in the overlay.

• Draw on Surface – points land on whatever collider is under the mouse: terrain, a ground plane, other geometry. The cave itself is ignored. Floor Offset raises the walking floor above the clicked surface.
• Depth Below Surface (with Draw on Surface; saved with each cave) – keeps terrain out of the cave: passage points, rooms and crossings go this far below the surface you click, while entrances stay on it. A passage drawn out of an entrance descends at a comfortable slope until it reaches this depth. About the passage height plus a few metres (e.g. 6 m) works well. Already built a cave too shallow? Lower Existing Cave moves passages, rooms and crossings down by the amount you enter (entrances stay, passages ramp down from them, passages that would get too steep are smoothed) – one Undo step.
• Draw on Plane – points land on a flat horizontal plane at Plane Elevation. Use it in empty scenes and for caves deep underground. Change the elevation between clicks to build on several levels.
• Snap to 2 m Grid – snaps X and Z for tidy layouts. Heights stay free.

When the mouse is over nothing usable, a message next to the cursor tells you what to aim at instead. Points are never placed at a random spot.