Edit game assets live

01How it works#

The link works on the asset, the model file, not on one object in a level. Every placed copy of that model updates.

Your edits and the agent's are sent alike. Live updates wait while you drag, paint a stroke, play the animation or a background job runs. In Edit Mode they wait until you leave it; Sculpt and the paint modes send as you go. The link runs on this computer only, and one asset is linked at a time.

02Set it up once per project#

1. In Angelo, press + in the message box, open Game engine live link and choose Add Angelo Link to a Godot project…, Add Angelo Link to a Unity project… or Add Angelo Link to an Unreal Engine project… (also in File ▸ Export).
2. Choose the project's folder: for Godot the one that holds project.godot, for Unity the one that holds Assets and ProjectSettings, for Unreal Engine the one that holds its .uproject file. Angelo copies its plugin into the project and turns the link on.
3. Finish in the engine. Godot: open Project Settings ▸ Plugins and enable Angelo Link. Unity loads it by itself when you return to the editor. Unreal Engine: enable it in Edit ▸ Plugins and restart the editor.

Angelo never edits your project settings, which is why the last step is yours.

Angelo notices your engine

When Godot, Unity or the Unreal Editor is open on your computer, Angelo shows a small card once per engine, for example Unity is open. Link a project… sets it up as above; Not now dismisses it for good. Nothing connects unless you click. Angelo only checks which of these three editors is running; it never sends your list of programs or any file path anywhere.

You can also ask the agent, for example “link my Unity project”: it answers, and offers a card to approve where it can set it up for you.

03Godot#

The plugin needs Godot 4.4 or newer and was tested with Godot 4.7.

Edit an asset

1. In Godot, choose Edit in Angelo on a node made from a .blend or .glb file (the Scene dock's right-click menu), on the file itself (the FileSystem dock), or from the Angelo menu in the 3D editor's toolbar.
2. Angelo shows a card, for example Godot wants to edit crate.glb. Click Open, or Not now.
3. Edit in Angelo, yourself or with the agent. Godot shows each change live.
4. Save in Angelo. Godot re-imports the asset.

Godot's Angelo menu also has Stop Live Link, Use Angelo to Import .blend Files and the link's state: Angelo: Live, Angelo: Waiting… or Angelo: Connection Lost. Other files (.gltf, .fbx, .obj) are refused with the reason; Godot's Scene ▸ Export As turns them into .glb.

Godot imports a .blend file through the program set as its Blender path. When that setting is empty, the plugin offers to use Angelo (Use Angelo or Not now). Angelo saves .blend files in Blender 5.2's format, which an older Blender may not read.

04Unity#

The Angelo Link package for Unity adds Edit in Angelo to .blend, .glb and .fbx models, in the Project window and the Hierarchy. Answer Angelo's card, edit, and save: Angelo writes the model back and Unity re-imports it, keeping the import settings you set in Unity. A .fbx is written with the options Unity itself uses for Blender files. Tested with Unity 6.5.

• A .glb is a model in Unity only with a glTF importer installed, such as Unity's glTFast.
• A .blend model is imported by Unity through Blender, so everyone on the project needs Blender installed.

05Unreal Engine#

The Angelo Link plugin for Unreal Engine edits a mesh asset imported from a .glb file in the project. Enable it in Unreal's Edit ▸ Plugins; it needs Unreal's Python Editor Script Plugin, which comes on with it. Then choose Edit in Angelo on the asset in the Content Browser, or on an actor in the level. Saving in Angelo writes the .glb, and the plugin re-imports the asset with its own settings and saves it. Tested with Unreal Engine 5.8.

• An asset imported from .fbx, or one of several assets made from the same file, is refused with the reason.
• To see edits live in the open level before you save, add the Angelo Link Live plugin (tested with Unreal Engine 5.8 on macOS). It comes as source you build yourself for your Unreal version: Angelo doesn't install it or ship it built. Its preview shows shapes and base colours; textures arrive with the re-import.

06Angelo's card#

Opening an asset replaces the file open in Angelo, so nothing opens without your click. The card names the engine, the asset and the project.

A request nobody answers expires after ten minutes; a newer one replaces it.

A .blend asset is opened and saved as itself. Any other kind is edited in a working .blend inside the project's hidden .angelo folder, which no engine imports; keep that folder with the project. If the asset changed elsewhere since Angelo last saved it, Angelo starts again from the asset and keeps its older working file beside it, as the card says.

07What Angelo shows#

While an asset is linked, Manual mode's status bar says so, and in Director the top bar does, with the link's menu (Director Mode):

With the link on and nothing linked, Manual mode's status bar says Engine live link on.

08Stop editing, or turn it off#

• Stop editing: + ▸ Game engine live link ▸ Stop editing crate.glb for Godot (the row names your asset and engine). The engine shows the asset as it was last saved.
• The link also ends by itself when you open another file, save under another name, or the engine asks.
• Turn it off: + ▸ Game engine live link ▸ Turn off the live link. No engine can send models to Angelo until you choose Turn on the live link again.