Step 3: Build and Customize Your World

So now you've entered the desired Template or Blank Canvas you were looking to build your experience within. How do you start? There are a few ways to learn how:

Watch this short tutorial video (<5min)
Follow along with me building an experience and speaking over it teaching you how to use our creation tools -- > COMING SOON
Here is a written out step-by-step How to Build:
1. For first time users to Agora World, at any moment you can access our instructions and "help" menu on How to Use Agora World by clicking "H"
2. "T" = Toolbox
  1. In the Toolbox menu:
    2. "Ghost Mode" = no gravity, can go through walls. Move freely in any direction. This is great for building from a bird's eye view rather than on the ground (this is disabled at the start as it's recommended for advanced users)
    3. "Edit Mode" = When in edit mode, you can make edits. When you're not in edit mode, you will view the world as your users would. It's essentially changing from having "Edit Permission" to "View-Only" permission.
    4. "Create" = This is where you'll find all of the plugins you added or that were already added by the template to the experience. This is also where youwill upload your very own 2D and 3D assets which we'll get to in a few.
3. How to spawn, move, and manipulate assets
  2. In the Create menu, select any 3D model from one of the plugins already added to the experience. If you haven't yet added any plugins, click the "+" found next to Plugins and add an "Official Plugin", "My Plugin" (already added to your account), or discover some from the marketplace and add them via "From Share Code".
  3. Once you selected an asset, you'll find it is in front of you. If you use your mouse or trackpad to move your head, you'll find the object automatically sticks to the ground, walls, and other physical objects in front of you. This is to make it easier to place them directly on the ground or hanging on a wall.
  4. To place the asset down, just right click!
  5. To re-select any object in front of you, click on it again! You'll see a blue outline on the asset letting you know that it was selected
  6. When an asset is selected again, you'll see a new "Asset Menu" pop up on the right side of your screen.
    2. Here, you can move the asset, duplicate it, delete it, change the color of it (with a color wheel), or go to the asset (will bring you directly to it wherever it is in the experience).
    3. In the "Advanced" section, you'll see options for:
      1. moving the geolocation of the asset (X, Y, Z)
      2. rotating the asset
        
        another way to rotate an asset is that while you are in "Move mode" and have the asset "in your hand" you can click "," to rotate it left or "." to rotate right. On mac, if you click "option" or Windows you click "alt", it will change the direction in which you are rotating the asset! You can see the direction it's being rotated via a red cube with an arrow on it in the top right corner of your screen.
      3. scaling the asset - making it larger or smaller than it currently is (X,Y,Z)
4. How to upload your very own 3D model to the experience
  1. Click "T" and then if you're not already on the "Create" page, make sure to open that page. Select the plugin package "Agora World Core" (found from within Official Plugins). For 3D assets, choose the "3D slot" asset and place it in the space where you want it to go! These slots are interchangeable, meaning one you put one 3D asset here, you can replace it with another very easily.
  2. Once you put the object down (aka unselect it), select it again so the Asset Menu opens on the right side of your screen. Here, you'll see that under "Advanced", you can now scroll down to a new section for your 3D media.
  3. "Select Media" - this is where you upload your 3D assets to your library. You can also find or select any other asset you have already uploaded to your library. Once a 3D asset is chosen, you can do all of the things you could for other 3D objects to these! Move, scale, rotate, change its color, duplicate, and more.
    1. NOTE: at this moment, we support .FBX, .OBJ, & .GLTF. If downloaded from somewhere like sketchfab, we recommend uploading the .ZIP file directly to the app
    2. NOTE 2: File size is vital to remember. The bigger the file you download and use, the more your user has to download in order to access your experience, meaning longer download times! If you need help optimizing files, we have multiple partners that can help. Pretty soon, they'll be offered right inside of our editor!
5. How to upload your very own 2D content (images, gifs, videos) to the space
  1. Click "T" and then if you're not already on the "Create" page, make sure to open that page. Select the plugin package "Agora World Core" (found from within Official Plugins). For 2D content and media, choose the "Media Slot" asset and place it where you want it to go! These slots are interchangeable, meaning one you put 2D content here, you can replace it with other media very easily.
  2. Once you put the Media Slot down (aka unselect it), select it again so the Asset Menu opens on the right side of your screen. Just like all other assets, you can move, duplicate, go to, change color, and delete it from this menu. Here, you'll see that under "Advanced", you can now scroll down to a new section for your 2D media.
  3. "Select Media" - this is where you upload your 2D media to your library. You can also find or select any other asset you have already uploaded to your library. Once a 2D asset is chosen, you can do all of the things you could for other assets to these! Move, scale, rotate, change its color, duplicate, and more.
    1. NOTE: When selecting 2D media, we accept jpeg, png, and gif files
  4. Underneath "Select Media", you'll see another section to Change the Media Type, add a Title, Description, and URL to the Media Slot.
    2. Image Media Type: When a URL is in the URL section, the webpage will open in an external browser
    3. Video Media Type: When a URL is in the URL section, the webpage or video will open directly on the wall inside of the media slot! This is the best way to showcase videos and livestreams.
    4. Weblink Media Type: When a URL is in the URL section, the webpage will open in a browser built directly in the experience. This means that your users can view web content without leaving the experience (which we all know loses their attention and interest).
6. How do you center objects?
  1. Right now, the best way to center an object is to set the X or Z coordinates to match the asset you're looking to center it with. Copy it from one object and paste it in the X/Z coordinate slot for the other asset. Coming soon is a center feature.
7. Uh oh! You made a wrong move or change? Don't worry! We have undo-redo
  1. Mac: Command-Z to undo // Command-Shift-Z to redo
  2. Windows: Control-Z to undo // Control-Shift-Z to redo
8. Want to collaborate with someone else to build the experience? Our platform supports up to 100 people building together at any moment! To share your experience, click "esc" to pull up the main menu. Once there, you'll see your "Experience Code" and the ability to "Copy Code". Click "Copy Code" and share it with your collaboators who can now join your pricate building instance by entering the app, clicking "Join Experience" and pasting in that room code!
MAKE SURE TO CLICK SAVE. WE DO NOT CURRENTLY HAVE AUTO SAVE IN THE APP
1. To save, click "T" and on the top bar click the "Save" icon.