Prowl Editor Layout, Windows, and Navigation Guide

The Prowl editor is a fully integrated development environment built on the engine’s own immediate-mode UI library — the same library used for in-game UI. Every panel you see is a live EditorWindow instance rendered each frame, which means the editor itself serves as a practical showcase of what the UI system can do. This guide walks through every major window, explains how the docking system works, and covers the play controls, undo/redo system, and drag-and-drop workflows you will use every day.

Default Window Layout

When you open a project for the first time, the editor constructs a default docked layout automatically. The layout is assembled in code — each window is docked relative to the previous one — and produces the following arrangement:

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                      Header Bar                         │
│  File  Edit  Assets  Create  Windows   ▶  ⏸  ⏹        │
├──────────┬──────────────────────────────┬───────────────┤
│          │     Scene View / Game View   │               │
│Hierarchy │     (tabbed center area)     │  Inspector    │
│          ├──────────────────────────────┤               │
│          │  Assets Browser / Console    │               │
└──────────┴──────────────────────────────┴───────────────┘

Every window in this layout can be undocked, moved, resized, or closed. You can restore any closed window from the Windows menu in the header bar.

Header Bar

The header bar runs across the top of the editor and is always visible when a project is open. It contains the main menu and the play controls.

Menu	Key Actions
File	New Scene, Save Scene (`Ctrl+S`), Save Scene As (`Ctrl+Shift+S`), Build Project
Edit	Scene Settings, Project Settings, Editor Preferences
Assets	Create Folder / Material / Script, Refresh Cache, Reimport All, Recompile
Create	3D primitives (Cube, Sphere, Cylinder, Capsule, Plane, Quad), Lights (Directional, Point, Spot)
Windows	Open any editor window: Scene View, Game View, Hierarchy, Inspector, Assets Browser, Console, etc.

Play Controls

The center of the header bar shows the current PlayMode state and provides buttons to transition between modes:

▶ Play

Starts play mode. The scene is stored, then restored to its pre-play state when you stop. The Game window receives focus automatically if Auto Focus Game View is enabled in General Preferences.

⏸ Pause

Suspends game-time updates while keeping the scene rendered. Click Play again to resume. The button changes to Resume (▶) while paused.

⏹ Stop

Exits play mode and restores the scene to exactly the state it was in before you pressed Play. Any in-play changes are discarded.

Changes you make to the scene while in play mode are not saved. The scene is fully restored to its pre-play snapshot when you press Stop. This matches Unity’s behavior — edit your scene only while in Editing mode.

Scene View (`SceneViewWindow`)

The Scene View is the primary 3D editing viewport. It renders the scene through a dedicated Editor Camera (a Camera component on a hidden GameObject with HideFlags.HideAndDontSave) directly into a RenderTexture, then draws that texture into the panel.

Action	Control
Look around	Right-click + drag
Fly forward / back / left / right	Right-click held + W / S / A / D
Fly up / down	Right-click held + E / Q
Pan	Middle-click + drag
Zoom	Scroll wheel
Accelerate fly speed	Hold Shift while flying
Focus selected object(s)	F
Duplicate selected	Ctrl+D

Fly speed increases exponentially the longer you hold a movement key, then resets when you release, giving you fine-grained control for close-up work and fast traversal for large scenes.

Gizmos and Transform Tools

When a GameObject is selected in the Hierarchy, a Transform Gizmo appears in the Scene View allowing you to translate, rotate, and scale the object interactively. The gizmo supports:

Translate — X, Y, Z axes and XY, XZ, YZ planes, plus screen-space view plane
Rotate — X, Y, Z axes and screen-space rotation
Scale — X, Y, Z axes and uniform scale

Hold Ctrl while dragging a gizmo handle to snap to the increment configured in Scene View Preferences (SnapDistance for translation, SnapAngle for rotation). Toggle between World and Local orientation using the globe/cube button in the viewport settings overlay (top-left of the viewport).

Viewport Settings Overlay

A small overlay in the top-left corner of the Scene View provides quick access to:

Select Editor Camera — selects the hidden editor camera GameObject in the inspector so you can inspect its properties.
Grid Type — switch between no grid, XZ, XY, or YZ plane grids.
Gizmo Mode — toggle World / Local transform orientation.
Open Preferences — opens the Scene View section of Editor Preferences directly.

Object Picking and Selection

Left-clicking in the Scene View raycasts against the scene’s gBuffer to determine which GameObject was clicked. If the object belongs to a prefab instance, a single click selects the prefab root; double-clicking selects the specific child object inside the prefab.

Drag & Drop into the Scene View

You can drag assets from the Asset Browser directly onto the scene:

Asset Type	Result
`GameObject` (prefab asset)	Clones the asset and places it at the surface hit point under the cursor, or 10 units in front of the camera if no surface is hit
`Prefab`	Instantiates the prefab at the surface hit point under the cursor, or 10 units in front of the camera if no surface is hit
`Scene`	Loads the dropped scene
`Material`	Assigns the material to the `MeshRenderer` of the object under the cursor

Game Window (`GameWindow`)

The Game Window renders the scene through the game’s active Camera components, exactly as it will appear at runtime. It is the play-mode preview panel. Input events are routed through the Game Window’s own InputHandler during play mode so that Input calls in your scripts respond to key presses only when the Game Window is focused.

During play mode you can switch between the Scene View and the Game Window without stopping the game. This lets you inspect gizmos and move the editor camera while your game logic runs.

Hierarchy Window (`HierarchyWindow`)

The Hierarchy Window displays the scene graph as a collapsible tree. Every GameObject in the active scene appears here, organized by parent-child relationships. Hidden objects (those with HideFlags.Hide or HideFlags.HideAndDontSave) are not shown.

Selecting GameObjects

Click a row to select a GameObject. Hold Shift or Ctrl for multi-selection. The selected objects are highlighted in both the Hierarchy and the Scene View (where their bounds are drawn as yellow wireframes).

Creating GameObjects

Click the + (circle-plus) button at the top-right of the search bar to open the Create GameObject popup, or right-click anywhere in the hierarchy panel. Options include:

New GameObject — an empty GameObject at the world origin
Everything under the Create sub-menu (primitives, lights, etc.)

Action	Description
Rename	Enter inline rename mode (also triggered by double-clicking)
Duplicate	Clones the selected object(s)
Delete	Removes the object(s) from the scene (undoable)
Align With View	Moves the object to match the editor camera’s position and rotation
Align View With	Moves the editor camera to the object’s position and rotation
Break Prefab Connection	Detaches the object from its prefab asset

Reparenting via Drag & Drop

Drag a GameObject row onto another row to reparent it. Drop it onto the empty space below the list to move it back to the scene root. Dropping a prefab asset from the Assets Browser into the Hierarchy instantiates it as a child of the drop target.

Search

Use the search bar at the top of the Hierarchy to filter the visible entries by name. The filter is case-insensitive.

Inspector Window (`InspectorWindow`)

The Inspector shows the properties of the currently selected object. When a GameObject is selected it lists all attached components; each component is rendered by its registered property drawer. Built-in drawers handle all primitive types, vectors, quaternions, colors, asset references, enums, and arrays. Custom drawers can be registered for any type by creating a class in an Editor script. Asset files selected in the Asset Browser are also shown in the Inspector, where you can view and edit their importer settings (e.g., texture compression, normal-map flag).

Asset Browser (`AssetsBrowserWindow`)

The Asset Browser shows the contents of the currently selected folder inside your Assets/ directory and lets you navigate the project’s asset tree. The Asset Tree (a companion panel called AssetsTreeWindow) on the left shows the folder hierarchy. Clicking a folder in the tree updates the Asset Browser to show that folder’s contents. You can also use the search bar inside the Browser to find files by name across the entire current folder (including sub-folders).

Creating Assets

Right-click inside the Assets Browser (or use the Assets menu bar) to create new assets:

Action	Result
Create → Folder	New directory, immediately enters rename mode
Create → Material	New `.mat` file with default PBR material settings
Create → Script	New `.cs` file from the built-in script template

Drag & Drop from the Browser

Drag any asset from the Browser to:

The Scene View to instantiate it or assign a material
The Hierarchy to instantiate prefabs
An Inspector field to assign an asset reference (e.g., drag a Texture2D onto a material’s albedo slot)

Asset Operations

Action	How
Rename	Double-click a file or folder name
Delete	Select and press Delete
Reimport	Right-click → Reimport, or use Assets → Reimport All from the menu bar
Refresh cache	Assets → Refresh Cache

Console Window (`ConsoleWindow`)

The Console Window displays all output from Debug.Log, Debug.LogWarning, Debug.LogError, and unhandled exceptions. Messages are color-coded — standard log messages appear in white, warnings in yellow, errors and exceptions in red. The console is populated during both edit mode and play mode.

Build Window (`BuildWindow`)

Open the Build Window via File → Build Project. It lets you configure and trigger a standalone build of your game. The build system:

Traverses all scenes included in the build
Collects only the assets referenced by those scenes (dependency tracking)
Packs them into a compact asset archive
Produces a self-contained executable for the target platform

Docking System

The editor uses a hierarchical binary-split docking system (DockContainer, DockNode). Windows are attached to dock nodes at a specified zone (Left, Right, Top, Bottom, or Center) with a configurable split ratio.

Resizing Panels

Hover the mouse over the border between two docked panels. A yellow highlight appears on the splitter. Click and drag to resize both sides simultaneously. The minimum panel size is 100 px in each direction.

Undocking a Window

Drag a window’s title tab away from its current dock position. The window becomes a free-floating panel that you can position anywhere on screen.

Re-docking a Window

Drag a floating window over a docked panel. Drop zones appear at the edges and center of the target panel. Release the mouse over a zone to dock the window there.

Restoring Closed Windows

Any window can be reopened from Windows in the menu bar. The available windows are:

Scene View

Windows → Scene View

Game View

Windows → Game View

Hierarchy

Windows → Hierarchy

Inspector

Windows → Inspector

Asset Browser

Windows → Assets Browser

Asset Tree

Windows → Assets Tree

Console

Windows → Console

Project Settings

Windows → Project Settings

Editor Preferences

Windows → Editor Preferences

Scene Settings

Windows → Scene Settings

Undo & Redo

Prowl has a full undo/redo stack (UndoRedoManager) that covers:

Transform changes (move, rotate, scale via gizmos)
Adding and deleting GameObjects
Reparenting (drag & drop in the Hierarchy)
Renaming GameObjects
Prefab operations (break link, clone)

Action	Shortcut
Undo	Ctrl+Z
Redo	Ctrl+Y

Undo/redo history is currently cleared when scripts are recompiled and the editor restarts. Saving your scene frequently (Ctrl+S) is strongly recommended during active development.

Introduction

Core Concepts

Documentation Index

​Default Window Layout

​Header Bar

​Main Menu

​Play Controls

▶ Play

⏸ Pause

⏹ Stop

​Scene View (SceneViewWindow)

​Camera Navigation

​Gizmos and Transform Tools

​Viewport Settings Overlay

​Object Picking and Selection

​Drag & Drop into the Scene View

​Game Window (GameWindow)

​Hierarchy Window (HierarchyWindow)

​Selecting GameObjects

​Creating GameObjects

​Context Menu (Right-Click on a GameObject)

​Reparenting via Drag & Drop

​Search

​Inspector Window (InspectorWindow)

​Asset Browser (AssetsBrowserWindow)

​Navigation

​Creating Assets

​Drag & Drop from the Browser

​Asset Operations

​Console Window (ConsoleWindow)

​Build Window (BuildWindow)

​Docking System

​Resizing Panels

​Undocking a Window

​Re-docking a Window

​Restoring Closed Windows

Scene View

Game View

Hierarchy

Inspector

Asset Browser

Asset Tree

Console

Project Settings

Editor Preferences

Scene Settings

​Undo & Redo

Build docs developers (and LLMs) love

Default Window Layout

Header Bar

Main Menu

Play Controls

Scene View (`SceneViewWindow`)

Camera Navigation

Gizmos and Transform Tools

Viewport Settings Overlay

Object Picking and Selection

Drag & Drop into the Scene View

Game Window (`GameWindow`)

Hierarchy Window (`HierarchyWindow`)

Selecting GameObjects

Creating GameObjects

Context Menu (Right-Click on a GameObject)

Reparenting via Drag & Drop

Search

Inspector Window (`InspectorWindow`)

Asset Browser (`AssetsBrowserWindow`)

Navigation

Creating Assets

Drag & Drop from the Browser

Asset Operations

Console Window (`ConsoleWindow`)

Build Window (`BuildWindow`)

Docking System

Resizing Panels

Undocking a Window

Re-docking a Window

Restoring Closed Windows

Undo & Redo