OFP QtFRED Features

QtFRED Features

Editor enhancements: they change how you work in QtFRED, not what the game does. See also Engine Features and Bug Fixes.

Feature	What it does	PR
Full Undo System	All actions in QtFRED are now routed through a full undo/redo system	#18
Background Mouse Drag	Background elements in QtFRED can be moved around using the mouse	#20
Briefing Map Controls	The briefing map works like the main viewport: mouse orbit/pan/zoom, context menus, box select, and multi-icon drag, nudge and editing. Camera controls bound in Preferences take priority over the map's arrow-key nudge and Delete, so with the camera on the arrows, Ctrl+arrows nudge	#21, #66
Briefing Editor Stage Hotkeys	F6 / Shift+F6 step through stages in the Briefing, Command Briefing and Debriefing editors	#22
Environment Gizmos	The volumetric nebula and asteroid field can be selected, moved and resized in the viewport with draggable handles, and appear in the Scene Browser	#23
Events Editor Upgrades	Name filters, a Tree / Graph / Advanced view switcher, an Advanced view that edits events as mission-file text with syntax highlighting (colors customizable in Preferences), and a graph view with Radial, Swimlanes and editable Basic modes	#25
Operator Search Arrow Keys	In the sexp operator search popup (Space on an operator slot), Up/Down/PageUp/PageDown move the selection while you keep typing, so an operator can be picked without the mouse	#27
Typed Custom Data (editor.tbl)	A mod can define its mission, campaign and ship custom data fields in editor.tbl with a type, default and description; the Custom Data dialogs check values by type, and new missions, campaigns and ships start with the defaults	#36
Editor Settings (editor.tbl)	The editor-only game_settings.tbl #FRED SETTINGS entries (message head anis, scripting in FRED, Music Player ignore list, spacemouse curves) can be set in editor.tbl and its modular tables; game_settings.tbl still works	#43
Campaign Editor Workflow	An Add >> button places the selected mission in the visible part of the campaign graph; branch arrows can be started from anywhere on or near a connector and dropped anywhere on or near the target mission or the END node; new branches are added above a Repeat Mission branch so it stays the last fallback	#44
Search for Replacement on Data	Space / Ctrl+S on a SEXP data argument (ship, wing, message, event, sound, ...) opens a type-to-filter list of its valid values, the same choices as the right-click Replace Data menu; free text is accepted where the argument takes it	#48
Event and Tree Keyboard Shortcuts	In the Events editor, Ctrl++ inserts an event above the selected one and Ctrl+Alt++ below it; in any SEXP tree, + expands a node, * expands everything below it and - collapses it	#48
Error Checker Copy & Go To	Each error checker result has a copy button and there is a Copy All button for sharing reports; results tied to a ship, wing, waypoint, coordinate point, event or goal have a Go to button that closes the checker, selects the item and opens its editor	#38
Viewport FOV Control	A FOV spin box on the transform toolbar (right of Camera Rot) sets the viewport's field of view while viewing through a ship or other object, which now uses the in-game FOV instead of the editor's narrower one. The value lasts for the session and resets when a mission is loaded or created	#58
Keyboard Navigation in Dialogs	Buttons reached with Tab show a focus ring (clicking doesn't), Tab moves on out of multi-line text boxes, and every dialog's tab order follows its layout, with OK/Cancel last. A new help page, Keyboard in Dialogs, covers Enter, Escape, Tab and Ctrl+Tab	#59
Cutscene Camera Preview	Selecting a camera SEXP shows the cutscene camera in the viewport as a frustum, worked out the way the game runs camera SEXPs (with a faint ghost when a later SEXP overrides the selected one). Look through it at its FOV (Ctrl+Shift+V cycles editor camera, ship and cutscene camera), play the shot with |< Play >|, choose which earlier shot it starts after, and edit the selected SEXP by dragging its handle, flying the camera, Set Camera SEXP from View or the FOV box. The rules it follows are in the QtFRED help	#62
Reorder Objects Group Moves	The Reorder Objects dialog takes Ctrl/Shift+click selection and moves the selected items together: up and down keep a block together and keep the gaps in a scattered selection, and top and bottom gather the items at that end. Each move is one undo step, the selection follows the items through undo and redo, and right-clicking a ship offers Select Wing to move a whole wing at once	#68
Syntax Color Schemes	Preferences > Syntax Colors picks a color scheme for highlighted mission text (the Events editor's Advanced view): Standard or Solarized, each with a light and a dark version that follow the app theme. Solarized brings its own background; background and plain text can be changed like any other color. Each scheme remembers your changes per version, and a * marks one you have changed	#69
Pivot Modes	The transform toolbar's Local toggle is now a Pivot button with three modes (X cycles them). Group: the marked objects keep formation and orbit the current object, for drags, flying with the camera keys and typed angles alike. Individual: each moves and turns in place by the same amount. Align: each turns to the current object's facing, and a typed value sets every marked object to that value. Move and Rotate remember their own mode.	#73
Per-Mode Axis Constraints	Move and Rotate modes each remember their own axis constraint (X, Y, Z, XZ, XY, YZ): switching modes brings back the one last used there, and both are kept between sessions.	#73
Transform Lock	Ships, props, waypoint paths, jump nodes and coordinate points can be locked in place: their position and orientation can't be changed by dragging, flying, the transform toolbar, the Orient editor, Level/Align or Align Formation, while everything else about them stays editable. Lock from a checkbox under each editor's Layer selector, or a whole layer at once from the Layer Manager's lock button; locked objects show a padlock beside their label. In a group move the locked objects stay put, one locked ship holds its whole dock group, and the lock is saved in the mission (editor only).	#74
Scene Browser Class Search	The Scene Browser search box matches ship and prop classes as well as names: searching "Apollo" lists every GTF Apollo, and a row listed for its class shows the class in gray after the name. Double-clicking an object opens its editor, and double-clicking the volumetric nebula or asteroid field opens theirs	#81
Selection Groups for Every Object	Ships, player starts, props, waypoint paths, jump nodes and coordinate points can all be in any of the nine selection groups (a waypoint path as a whole). Each object editor has a Groups button showing the object's groups and opening a checklist, and right-click Set Group checks the groups the selection is in and adds or removes it with a click. Group changes can be undone, and groups are saved in the mission (editor only).	#83
Select Menu	The Groups menu is now Select: Select All (Ctrl+A), Select None (Ctrl+Shift+A), Invert Selection (Ctrl+I), Select Group (Ctrl+1-9), and Select Layer, IFF, Ship Type and Object Type submenus that show how many objects each would select. Selection Lock, Lock Marked Objects and Unlock All Objects moved here from Edit. All of them leave out what a click couldn't select, such as objects on hidden layers. Right-clicking a layer in the Scene Browser also offers Select All.	#83
Zoom Extents Frames Visible Objects	Zoom Extents (Shift+Z) fits only what the viewport is drawing, leaving out objects on hidden layers, hidden objects and anything the Layer Manager's filters turn off. With nothing visible the camera stays put.	#89
Choosable Placement Clicks	Preferences > Controls > Placing Objects picks which of Ctrl+click, Ctrl+Shift+click and Ctrl+Alt+click places a ship, a prop or the Other dropdown's object (waypoint, jump node or coordinate point). The defaults are unchanged; choosing a click another kind uses swaps the two, and the toolbar dropdowns' tooltips show the current clicks. Useful where the desktop takes one of these clicks, as some Linux window managers do with Ctrl+Alt+click.	#90
Argument List Editing	Right-click any-of, every-of, random-of, random-multiple-of, number-of, first-of or in-sequence (or one of its values) for Edit Arguments As Text..., the list one value per line in mission file syntax (@name variables, &&name containers) with bad lines highlighted, and Choose Arguments..., tabbed checklists of ships, wings, props, waypoint paths, jump nodes, coordinate points, messages, events, goals, ship/weapon/prop classes, IFFs, variables and containers beside the list itself in order, with drag to reorder. Each change is one undo step.	#91
Event Markers	In the Events editor's list and on graph cards, a red flag marks an event with any log flag on and a blue flag marks one with any event flag on	#168
Copy Object Names	Right-clicking objects in the viewport or Scene Browser offers Copy Name / Copy Names (each waypoint as Path:N), and the Scene Browser's wing and path menus Copy Wing Name / Copy Ship Names and Copy Path Name / Copy Point Names, one name per line, ready to paste into Edit Arguments As Text.	#91
Message Wave File Info	Under the Events editor's Wave file field, a gray line shows the message audio's length, sample rate, channels and size (found under .ogg or .wav, as the game does), or File not found in red when the mod has no such file	#100
Briefing Stage Notes	Briefing, Command Briefing and Debriefing stages get an Add Note button beside the voice file, the same voice actor note messages have. The game never shows it; the Voice Acting Manager prints it as $note in the exported script. Saved as +Note: after the stage's voice file, so a mission with a stage note needs FSO 26.1.	#162