Sonic Frontiers DevTools

Welcome

This is an in-engine toolkit that aspires to eventually become a full featured game editor. This tool is currently in rapid development. Check back soon for more features.

Download

About

This is an in-engine modding toolkit for the SEGA game Sonic Frontiers. Releases can be found on GitHub or on the project's GameBanana page. A HMM update server is also available.

Setting up the development environment

Using Visual Studio 2022's CMake integration

You will need to have the following prerequisites installed:

• Visual Studio 2022

Check out the project and make sure to also check out its submodules:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/angryzor/sonic-frontiers-devtools.git

Simply open the project folder in Visual Studio 2022 (File > Open > CMake...) and it should automatically detect the CMakeLists.txt file.

The following presets are available:

• x64 Debug: Debug build.
• x64 Debug ImGui Demo: Debug build with ImGui demo window enabled (for editing themes etc.).
• x64 Release: Release build.
• x64 RelWithDebInfo: Release build with debug information.

Using CMake with the Visual Studio 2022 generator

You will need to have the following prerequisites installed:

• Visual Studio 2022
• CMake 3.28 or higher

Check out the project and make sure to also check out its submodules:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/angryzor/sonic-frontiers-devtools.git

Now let CMake do its thing:

cmake -B build

If you have Sonic Frontiers installed in a non-standard location, you can specify that location with the DEVTOOLS_GAME_FOLDER variable:

cmake -B build -DDEVTOOLS_GAME_FOLDER="C:\ShadowFrontiers"

Once CMake is finished, navigate to the build directory and open devtools.sln with VS2022. You should have a fully working environment available.

Building the INSTALL project will install the mod into HedgeModManager's Mods directory.

Screenshots

DevTools has a builtin level editor complete with rendering of debug visualizations such as volumes and colliders:

As well as debug information left in the game's binary:

DevTools is able to manipulate datastructures and resources inside the game's memory through reflection:

DevTools has a resource browser where you can see the game's currently loaded resources, edit them and hot reload them while the game is running:

DevTools can edit NeedleFXSceneData graphics parameters in realtime, giving you instant feedback when modding postprocessing and lighting parameters:

DevTools provides inspectors for a variety of game systems, such as the memory allocation system:

Roadmap

This section outlines the future developments and features planned for Sonic Frontiers DevTools.

• Inspectors for all GOComponents. See what's going on inside your game objects.
• Lua console - Interactively test your Lua scripts.
• DvScene editor - build your own cinematics.
• UI editor - Edit SWIF UIs in-engine. Test your new UI designs and export them to a SWIF project to be used in your mod.

Controls

This section provides a list of important hotkeys and controls for using Sonic Frontiers DevTools effectively.

• F8: Bring up the devtools
• F7: While devtools are open, toggle passthrough of mouse events to the game
• F6: Toggle debug camera (hover the toolbar toggle to see the controls)
• F3: Object pause
• F4: Debug pause
• F5: Step frame-by-frame
• Holding ALT while left clicking will bring up a selection menu with all the objects under your cursor instead of selecting directly, for more fine grained selection.
• In level editor mode:
• Escape: deselect object
• Delete: remove object
• Shift+Click: place object
• Caps Lock: toggle place mode
• While a gizmo is active:
• G: Move
• R: Rotate
• S: Scale
• Alt+Space: Toggle local/world coordinate system
• X/Y/Z: Restrict transformations along X/Y/Z axis
• Shift+X/Y/Z: Restrict transformation along everything but X/Y/Z axis

Issues

This section lists known issues and troubleshooting tips for using Sonic Frontiers DevTools.

• There is something wrong with the mouse hook. It only starts blocking mouse events once you alt-tab, I will have to take a good look at it in the future. So, if something is wrong with your mouse, press F7 a few times until it goes away.