Manipulating simple meshes for a quick layout is such a dream in FPSCR - and for this, I applaud the development team. I'm sure most game developers who are trying to outline their concepts will find this rapidly evolving engine very exciting, especially in the leaps and bounds the rendering has improved.
But with complex meshes, this program is causing me some very serious issues. I'm guessing (and very hoping) it is the result of my ignorance, so I humbly request both advice and direction.
My primary goal with this program is to be able to render forms of animation with original animated objects for the use of video projects. While I'm sure my meshes will make some outstanding entities for many games - and I do very wish to both sell at an extremely low price (as well as simply offer them freely) - my main intention is to simply create scenes that can be manipulated and rendered quickly for my animated videos. OK - to the point -
Could somebody please explain to me how to manipulate my objects in a more precision manner? It seems like the greatest measure of manipulation is in the editor, before actually entering the game itself and using F9. In the initial phase of object placement, rotation is excellent. Moving objects, however - especially if they need to be stacked and couple together - does not seem to uphold as well. The first part of the editor does not allow (I hope this is where my ignorance is coming in) any sort of precise indication to visually align the objects - oh yes, I can get them close - but these models really require the mesh placement to be edge to edge right on the money. When entering the game itself and pressing F9, oh my oh my - total nightmare scenario. The models that I have already placed in the initial phase do not seem to have any ability to be manipulated - even deleted from what I can tell - and the entity tool, while spitting out the models I might want freely - does nothing, from what I can tell, to manipulate the placements of the objects (needing adjustment) which are already there. Let me explain a little bit bit more to be clear.
I have for example, 1 model that is a large structure - not altogether overly complex, but something like this - One large base which sets easily, a second base with 4 stair wells that need to precisely align in 4 corners of the base structure and finally, a third structure which requires a second copy to be rotated 180 degrees opposite it's twin and which has a small measure of gear animations (which render beautifully, I might add). So basically, I need to align 4 meshes of magnificent size. Am I expecting too much? It seems to me that 4 meshes aligned precisely - whether because of size or slight complexity - should be a breeze in a program like this.
For the record - yes, my axis are proper. I'm just hoping that there is a technique that I'm not seeing and that someone could lead me into some sort of learning process to align my meshes with precision - if there is any sort of grid matrix with X Y Z numerical adjustments, this would be ideal. Please, if you're going to tell me about a video tutorial, please give me a link - because, having been given that sort of advice before, I found myself sifting through hours of videos (because of other problems) that too often never lived up to their titles. I really would appreciate whatever solution might be provided right here. My thanks in advance!

Not sure how to help you on all of this... but a couple of pointers I have for you. Pressing F1 in editor mode will give you the list of commands you can use. In particular I think you will be glad to know about the "Grid mode" which is toggled by pressing "B" there are 3 modes. I'm not sure entirerly what order these are in or exactly what each one does but I think one mode snaps to the map grid, another snaps to the objects dimensions and the other is freeform... I think but I'm not sure. The other particular command I find useful is pressing "Enter" to stack items on top of each other.

Sorry I can't be much more help... but this is the limit of my knowledge!

I'll give it a try, Duncan - much obliged!

The grid placement mentioned is really the only precise way to place things. You need to make your entities the correct size for this of course. I find in Blender a size of 100 is the exact size you need. So a 100x100 cube would place correctly when using the grid system.



Edit - (The 3 modes of grid are basically free, small and large. There is no snap to another object unfortunately. There are just 3 levels, exact, small grid, large grid. To be more precise than my first description. if you want to be able to quickly place objects fairly close but fast the second grid level is the easiest to use, unless you have exact objects such as walls etc that can be designed to snap perfectly to the 100x100 grid)



However you could adjust your objects more precisely in it's properties panel. Place your objects as well as you can in the editor, then select them, go into properties and from there you can move your object up, down, left, right, forwards, backwards with a lot more precision. The shift key will make it even better, or is it ctrl? I forget, one is slower one is faster Arrow keys for forward/back etc., page up page down for up/down. You can also get a better view with the mouse and holding the right mouse button, with the wheel zooming in and out.



Not great for lots of entities but can be manageable with a few at a time easy enough. Just takes a bit of time and patience.

Thanks for the information. I went into the game, pressed "B" and my entire computer locked up so completely that the task manager would not even come up! I had to restart my computer. But in all fairness, I'm guessing I'm developing a hard drive issue, as I've been working this one for hours upon hours every day for about 4 years now.
One problem that really seems to be dogging me is how to re-select my meshes after I get into game editing mode. I press F9 , but when I toggle the " < and > " keys, I can't seem to select the actual objects already placed there - all it wants to do is give me copies of the meshes I already placed. What am I doing wrong? It's driving me crazy! And thanks so much for your help, it really is so very much appreciated!