Standalone Desktop Tools

Standalone Desktop Tools

Gondwana provides focused Windows applications for each native authoring format, plus a separate runtime Scene Viewer.

The standalone editors are not reduced copies of Gondwana Studio. Their reusable editor controls are the authoritative authoring surfaces that Studio hosts directly.

Native content editors

Format	Project	Primary job
GAF / ZIP	Gondwana.Tooling.Assets.WinForms	Create and manage typed asset containers.
GTS	Gondwana.Tooling.Tilesheets.WinForms	Author tilesheets, regions, frames, collision metadata, and image sources.
GANI	Gondwana.Tooling.Animations.WinForms	Author animation definitions and GTS-backed frame sequences.
GSND	Gondwana.Tooling.Audio.WinForms	Author portable sound definitions and source metadata.
GSCN	Gondwana.Tooling.Scenes.WinForms	Author scenes, SceneLayers, sparse tile placements, GTS/GANI sources, and scene preview.
GSPR	Gondwana.Tooling.Sprites.WinForms	Author collections of sprite definitions with scene/layer and frame references.

Run a tool from the repository root with the normal dotnet run --project ... command. For example:

dotnet run --project Tooling/Gondwana.Tooling.Tilesheets.WinForms -c Release

Replace the project name with the editor you want to run.

Shared architecture

The common pattern is:

standalone MainForm
    |
    +-- working-directory / source browser
    |
    +-- one or more outer editor documents
            |
            +-- reusable editor UserControl
                    |
                    +-- editor-local DockPanelSuite panes

The same reusable UserControl is what Gondwana Studio embeds.

This means fixes to an editor's authoring behavior should normally be made in the editor itself, not separately in Studio.

Format documentation remains authoritative

The standalone applications edit native Gondwana definitions; they do not define separate tooling-only formats.

Use the corresponding format pages for serialization and runtime semantics:

• Assets Files
• .gts Files
• .gani Files
• .gsnd Files
• .gscn Files
• .gspr Files

The editor applications add authoring workflows such as source browsing, previews, property editing, validation, docking, and Save As.

Working directories and documents

The standalone editors use a working-directory or source-browser model appropriate to their content type. Multiple authoring documents can remain open at once where the editor supports it.

Editor-specific behavior remains with the editor. Examples include:

• GAF entry import/export/filtering and password-protected containers;
• GTS image and packed-image browsing;
• GANI GTS source browsing and animation preview;
• GSND portable audio-source editing without requiring a backend just to edit;
• GSCN scene/layer editing, GTS/GANI source browsing, sparse tile editing, and definition-driven preview;
• GSPR sprite collection editing, GSCN layer assignment, GTS frame assignment, and sprite preview.

Docking and layout preferences

The newer standalone editors use an outer application workspace plus an inner editor-owned docking workspace.

Layouts are stored under:

%LOCALAPPDATA%/Hidden Worlds Games/Gondwana/Tooling/<entry-application>/Docking/

Editor layout preferences are scoped by entry application, so a standalone editor and Studio can arrange the same editor type differently.

These preferences affect only UI layout. They do not alter native definitions or EngineState.

Scene Viewer

Gondwana.Tooling.SceneViewer.WinForms is a separate utility rather than another definition editor.

Its purpose is:

Show what a saved authored scene looks like when the Gondwana runtime actually loads and renders it.

Launch it directly with:

Gondwana.Tooling.SceneViewer.WinForms.exe --scene "Content\Scenes\level1.gscn"

or use View Scene from the GSCN editor. The command is available in both the standalone Scene editor and Studio because it belongs to the shared SceneEditorControl.

The viewer:

• validates and materializes the saved GSCN;
• resolves authored GTS/GANI dependencies;
• discovers applicable adjacent GSPR definitions according to the viewer's documented resolution rules;
• uses the WinForms GPU host;
• runs real animation playback and Gondwana rendering;
• supports camera movement and zoom;
• can show the runtime diagnostics overlay.

Common controls are:

Input	Action
W/A/S/D or arrows	Move camera
Shift	Faster movement
Mouse wheel	Zoom
Home	Reset camera and zoom
F3	Toggle runtime diagnostics
F4	Pause/resume active tile animations
Esc	Close

The viewer is read-only. There is no save-back, gameplay scripting, hot reload, or editor transport.

See the Runtime Scene Viewer section of .gscn Files for dependency resolution and runtime behavior.

Studio or standalone?

Use Gondwana Studio when you want several content types open under one shell and want shared global tools or plugins.

Use a standalone editor when the task is focused on one format, when you are testing that editor independently, or when you prefer a smaller dedicated application.

The content model is the same either way.

Where to read next

• Studio & Desktop Tools
• Gondwana Studio
• External Asset Importing
• .gscn Files