Behavior Editor Overview

The Behavior Editor is a design tool for creating and managing a Behavior Graph, by combining multiple Behaviors and Operators inside a Behavior Container.

The Behavior Editor also contains the Trigger Editor, a dedicated tool for creating and managing a Trigger Graph. Please refer to the Trigger Editor page for more informations.

LAUNCH

• Golaem Shelf: 
• Golaem Menu: Behavior Editor
• MEL command: glmCrowdBehaviorEditor;

Behavior Editor GUI

The Behavior Editor is composed of a main workspace to design a Behavior Graph, the Behavior Library, the Trigger Editor and its Trigger Library, the Nodes Outliner, a toolbar and a status bar.

Main Workspace

The workspace is a node-based graphical interface where you can combine Operators and Behaviors to create a Behavior Graph.

• For controls see Behavior Editor Controls.

Several workspace tabs can be opened, each one showing the content of a Behavior Container. Without any Behavior Container opened the workspace stays empty, prompting the user to create/open an Entity Types. Opened Behavior Containers tabs are saved with the scene.

Behavior Library

The Behavior Library is the toolbox of the Behavior Editor. It contains three views.

This panel is dockable on either side of the Main workspace. If closed, it can be reopened by clicking the Behavior Library button 

Behaviors view

	Go To	used in addition to Navigation Behavior to make an Entity, or a particle reach a target
	Navigation	provides reactive navigation abilities to an Entity
	Motion	plays a set of Motion Clips on an Entity
	Locomotion	follows the particle's position and velocity by dynamically blending motions from a given set
	Synchronized Motion	plays an animation synchronized with the environment
	Navigation And Locomotion	plays a set of Motion Clips and dynamically blends them together to reach the current target position of the Entity
	Physicalize	physicalizes an Entity
	Force	used in addition to Physicalize Behavior to add dynamics' event on a physicalize Entity
	Detach	detachs a bone or a bone chain from an Entity
	Character Controller	uses the physics engine to perform ground adaptation and obstacles navigation on physicalized entities / Crowd Rigid Bodies
	Look At	makes an Entity limb look at a given target
	IK	makes an Entity reach a given target with a given body limb
	Adapt Position	adapts the position of an Entity
	Adapt Orientation	adapts the orientation of an Entity
	Adapt Ground	changes the ground adaption mode of an Entity
	Set Bone	allows to edit a bone orientation (affect a fixed value or add a noise function to an animation)
	MassSpring	adds inertia to one, or several, bone chain(s), according to some spring and damping coefficients.
	Channel Operator	allows to process input values and output the results in some channel values through a graph of Channel Operators nodes (ChOps). Check out the Channel Operators documentation for more details about this graph.
	Activate Sensor	enables a sensor on an Entity for as long as the behavior is active.
	Cloth	adds a Maya ncloth simulation on an Entity
	Apex Cloth	adds a NVidia Physx Apex cloth simulation on an Entity
	UVPin	binds an Entity according to its projected position on source terrain and destination mesh.
	Set Terrain	used to switch the ground used for adaptation or the ground orient normals / pin mode
	Geometry Animation	changes the source GCG / FBX Geometry File during a simulation or play a GCG / FBX baked animation Geometry File.
	Constraint	constraints any Maya object (emitter, locator, light…) to an Entity bone
	Master Slave	binds a slave entity position and/or orientation to a master entity bone, with optional offsets.
	Emit	emits new particles, from a bone position of the current character, with an optional offset.
	Kill	removes the current entity from the simulation immediately
	Script	applies a script command at each frame
	Set Formation	enables a formation for a group of Entities
	Steer	adds a goal to flock Entities in addition to Flock Behavior.
	Flock	applies flock navigation forces to entities
	Perch On	defines all surfaces on which a flock boid may land/stop.
	Traffic	makes an entity present on the traffic system
	Traffic Goto	adds a target destination, or a wander behavior, to entities already using the Traffic behavior

Operators view

	Behavior Container	combination of Behaviors and Operators resulting in a Behavior Graph
	Loop	process a Behavior several times
	Parallel	process several Behaviors at the same time
	No Order	process a sequence of Behaviors in a random order
	If	selects one connection among several connections and conditions
	Random	randomly select one connection among several connections
	Block	blocks the Behavior Graph process until a trigger returns true and then waits a given number of frames to delay
	Anchor	organize the Behavior Graph

Custom Behaviors view

The Custom Behaviors view is a file browser, pointing on a chosen directory containing Custom Behaviors, i.e Behavior previously saved.

• Drag-and-drop a Custom Behavior into the workspace to load it. 
• For Custom Behavior Containers, Double-click to open it in a new tab, drag-and-drop to add it inside an edited Behavior Container.

Nodes Outliner

The Nodes Outliner is a snapshot of the Entity Types, Behaviors, Operators, Motion Clips and Triggers currently available in the scene. It contains two views.

This panel is dockable on either side of the Main workspace. If closed, it can be reopened by clicking the Nodes Outliner button 

Entity Types view

It contains the Entity Types and Group Entity Types currently available in the scene and mapped to a Behavior Container.

• Double-click on the desired Entity Type to open the mapped Behavior Container in a new tab.

Mapped Dynamic Attributes are visible under Entity Types in the view.

• To add a New Dynamic Attribute, right-click on an Entity Type to open its context menu then select Add New Dynamic Attribute.

 

• To share Behavior Containers between Entity Types select the source Entity Type first and the destinations after, right click to open its its context menu then select Share Behavior Container.

Scene Nodes view

This view is divided in three tabs. Each tab contains a filter box to perform accurate searches on relative nodes. 

Behaviors Tab

Behaviors Tab

This tab contains all Behaviors and Operators of the Maya scene.

• Drag-and-drop one or several Behaviors or Operators to add them inside an edited Behavior Container.
• Double-click on a Behavior Container to open it in a new tab.

Motion Clips Tab

Motion Clips Tab

This tab regroup every Motion Clips present in the Maya scene.

• Drag-and-drop one or several Motion Clips on a Motion/Locomotion Behavior to add them in the simulation.
• Double-click on a Motion Clip to select a new animation file.
• Ctrl + Double-click on a Motion Clip to preview it in the Motion Clip Preview tool.. 
• Click on  to preview the selected Motion Clip in the Motion Clip Preview tool.

Triggers Tab

Triggers Tab

This tab contains every Triggers present in the Maya scene.

• Drag-and-drop a Trigger on a start/stop Behavior Trigger to use it in the simulation.
• Click on  to hide Triggers with default values (e.g. start Triggers with only the true Trigger checked)

Tool bar

It contains quick access buttons mostly used for changing the display or editing in the main workspace.

	Link button, to draw a link between Behaviors/Triggers inside the workspace. It's also possible to drag mouse while holding the middle-button to draw a link
	Enable button, to make the selected Behavior/Trigger active
	Disable button, to deactivate the selected Behavior/Trigger without removing it from the Behavior Graph
	Back to parent button, to get back to the parent of the current Behavior Container. It's also possible to use CTRL+double-click.
	Expand selected Behavior Containers. If no selection, expand workspace's collapsed Behavior Containers.
	Collapse selected Behavior Containers. If no selection, collapse workspace's expanded Behavior Containers.
	Frame all button, to fit the workspace to all Behaviors/Triggers of the current container tab
	Frame selection button, to fit the workspace to the current selection. Press "F" Key for the same result
	Real size button, to resize the workspace to the initial size
	Sticky Notes button, to add Sticky Notes inside the workspace.
	Trigger Editor button, to show or hide the Trigger Editor
	Behavior Library button, to show or hide the Behavior Library window
	Trigger Library button, to show or hide the Trigger Library window
	Behavior Outliner button, to show or hide the Behavior Outliner window

Status bar

It contains a contextual report relative to the current selection. Behavior Graph Feedbacks are also shown in the Task bar.