EmptyEngine Editor

EmptyEngine is an editor-only game engine with no runtime implementation of its own. This extension opens the EmptyEngine editor as panes in VS Code.

Requirements

.NET 10 SDK or later
An EmptyEngine project (*.emptyengine) that allows the editor to be embedded

To allow embedding, add the following to the targets file specified by editorProps in your project. Projects created with dotnet new emptyengine already include it.

<ItemGroup>
  <EditorFrameAncestor Include="vscode-webview:" />
  <EditorFrameAncestor Include="vscode-file:" />
</ItemGroup>

Usage

Opening a folder that contains a *.emptyengine file activates the extension, and you can open the editor panes from «EmptyEngine» in the Activity Bar.

View	Contents
Hierarchy	Scene tree, Play/Edit toggle, Undo/Redo
Inspector	Editing of the selected object or asset
Build	Scenes included in the build, and distribution builds

You can drag each view to the Secondary Side Bar on the right or the Panel at the bottom. With «Open Pane in Editor Area…» you can turn it into a tab in the editor area, which can also be moved out into a separate window.

Logs from the editor itself (the Host) appear in the «EmptyEngine Host» terminal.

Explorer integration

Selecting a file in the Explorer shows its asset in the Inspector
Shift-dragging a file onto the Hierarchy or Inspector loads a scene additively, places a prefab, or assigns it to an asset reference
Clicking the name of an asset reference in the Inspector selects the source file in the Explorer

Commands

Command	Description
EmptyEngine: Open Pane in Editor Area…	Pick one pane and open it as a tab in the editor area
EmptyEngine: Open in Editor Area (All Panes)	Open all panes in a single tab
EmptyEngine: Open in Browser	Open the same editor in a browser
EmptyEngine: Show in Inspector	Show the selected file's asset in the Inspector
EmptyEngine: Show Host Console	Show the Host terminal
EmptyEngine: Restart Host	Restart the Host. Scenes being edited and the undo history are lost
EmptyEngine: Show Extension Logs	Show the extension's logs
EmptyEngine: Select Project (*.emptyengine)	Choose a different project to open

Settings

Setting	Default	Description
`emptyEngine.project`	empty	The `*.emptyengine` to open. If empty, the workspace is searched, and you are asked if there is more than one
`emptyEngine.configuration`	`Debug`	Build configuration of the editor
`emptyEngine.followExplorerSelection`	`true`	Show the asset of the file selected in the Explorer in the Inspector

Limitations

Only one Host can run at a time. While a Host is running for the browser, the extension cannot open the editor
On first launch, the panes do not appear until the editor has finished building
The game screen opens in a separate window outside VS Code

EmptyEngine Host

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