NHUE Now Has a Real Audio Editor

The Audio Editor is probably one of the biggest additions to NHUE during this development period.

I did not want it to be a simple waveform viewer or a tool that only trims the beginning and end of a sound. The goal has been to build an editor that is useful for actual game audio: weapon sounds, footsteps, impacts, ambience, looping machinery, interface sounds, creature voices, dialogue, and layered effects.

The editor now has a multi-track timeline with audio clips, waveform previews, clip movement, trimming, splitting, merging, grouping, gain, pan, fades, mute, solo, markers, and selection-based editing. It also has transport controls, playback meters, project history, and its own .nhaudio project format.

Recording is part of the editor too. It can work with microphone input and Windows system-output recording, which is useful when capturing sound from another program. There is also a sound-activated recording gate so long stretches of silence do not have to be captured when the source is only making occasional noise.

The first main audio formats are WAV, OGG, and MP3, with import and export systems for all three. The editor reports which compressed backend is active and gives useful errors when a machine is missing something it needs.

Where the Audio Editor really starts to feel like an NHUE tool is the game-audio side.

• Voice effects for radio, monster, muffled, deep, and high-pitched sounds.
• Game presets for impacts, weapons, mechanical sounds, magic effects, footsteps, UI sounds, and creature layers.
• Compression, limiting, cleanup, loudness polish, bass/treble work, pitch changes, speed changes, reverb, echo, hiss reduction, hum reduction, and noise gates.
• Loop helpers for finding, previewing, repairing, and exporting cleaner seamless loops.
• Ambience tools for building beds, blending layers, smoothing tails, and preparing looping environmental audio.
• Layered SFX tools for combining several clips into one larger sound while keeping the source layers.
• Variation tools for timing, pitch, gain, and pan so repeated game sounds do not feel identical.
• Batch helpers for preparing groups of related sounds faster.

The Audio Editor also has one of the deepest diagnostics systems in NHUE. It tracks projects, clips, waveforms, playback, recording, effects, formats, markers, loop quality, ambience tools, layered SFX, variation sets, and export readiness.

The Video Editor Is No Longer Just a Future Plan

The Video Editor has also become a real NHUE module.

The current build focuses on the parts that need to be solid before effects and final rendering can make sense: projects, media management, metadata, thumbnails, waveforms, bins, missing-media recovery, and a real multi-track timeline.

Video projects use the new .nhvideo format. Projects can be created, opened, saved, recovered, and checked for compatibility. The project stores media, bins, tracks, clips, markers, timeline state, and editing information.

FFmpeg and FFprobe are the main media backend. NHUE includes path setup, automatic discovery direction, manual Browse buttons, validation, status reporting, and a route to the official download page. That gives the editor a dependable foundation for probing and eventually decoding and exporting a wide range of media.

The Media Library already does quite a lot:

• Import video, audio, and image media.
• Read image sizes and useful media metadata.
• Generate and cache thumbnails.
• Generate waveform previews for audio and video files with audio.
• Search, filter, sort, and organize media into bins.
• Create smart collections for video, audio, images, unused media, duplicates, and unsupported files.
• Detect exact duplicate files.
• Detect missing files and relink them individually or from a folder.
• Show codec, resolution, frame-rate, audio, bitrate, and editing-suitability details.

The VE-3.x timeline arc adds the editing side. Clips can be appended, inserted, overwritten, selected, box-selected, moved, trimmed, split, grouped, ungrouped, deleted, lifted, and ripple deleted. The timeline also has snapping, markers, blank insertion, gap removal, track locking, video visibility, audio mute, track renaming, reordering, detachable audio, context menus, and shortcuts.

This does not mean the entire Video Editor is finished. The current audited build is the completed project, Media Library, and timeline-editing core. Active playback, proxies, effects, transitions, titles, and final rendering are later arcs.

That is still a huge step forward. The difficult project and timeline foundation is now real, persistent, and testable instead of being a mockup.

Geometry Nodes Has Become a Major 3D Editor System

The 3D Editor already had a large Editable Mesh 2.0 and Surface Forge expansion, but the next big step was procedural modeling.

NHUE now has a full Geometry Nodes branch with a graph editor, nodes, sockets, links, frames, groups, graph navigation, diagnostics, and Mesh2 output. It can be used in its own window or as part of the M.D.O modifier workflow.

One of the most important ideas is the new Graph Controls panel. A graph can expose useful settings as ordinary controls, which means I do not need to open the full graph every time I want to change a few important values. Exposed controls can use sliders, number fields, toggles, vectors, sections, custom names, value ranges, defaults, and saved presets.

That makes it possible to build a complicated graph once, then use it more like a normal procedural tool afterward.

The system now includes a lot of the building blocks needed for deeper procedural work:

• Fields that can evaluate different values across geometry.
• Vertex, edge, face, corner, instance, curve, and spline domains.
• Selection fields for targeting only part of a mesh.
• Named and anonymous attributes.
• Attribute storage, capture, rename, removal, and sampling.
• Instances with stable IDs, transforms, and deterministic randomization.
• Curve tools for pipes, cables, roads, rails, and trim-style shapes.
• Repeat zones for iterative procedural construction.
• For Each Element zones for processing vertices, edges, faces, or corners.
• An early simulation foundation with frame, time, reset, seed, and cached state.
• Reusable node-group assets and built-in preset packs.
• Conversion and compatibility tools for evolving graphs and node patterns.

There is also a big greeble-focused node direction. Nodes can create panel cuts, grooves, inset sections, protrusions, vents, blocks, repeated details, and material bands. This is aimed at sci-fi surfaces, hard-surface props, buildings, machines, and other procedural detail work.

Geometry Nodes can duplicate an evaluated result or bake it into a normal base Mesh2 object. That part matters because procedural work eventually needs to become editable project geometry.

The graph system also includes CPU job support and GPU assistance while keeping safe CPU fallback behavior.

Boolean Ops Has Its Own Dedicated Workflow

Boolean modeling has also become a dedicated 3D Editor system.

The Boolean Ops workspace includes its own side panel, live modifier workflow, operand picking, operand history, multiple operands, validation, diagnostics, hide/keep/remove behavior, and collapse/finalize actions.

The operation list includes Difference, Union, Intersect, Slice, Imprint, and Cookie Cut. The most mature technical work right now is the real Mesh2 Difference route.

A lot of effort has gone into moving this away from fake substitute results. The goal is not to create a voxel-looking approximation or a simple bounds trick. The Difference kernel works through real triangle intersections, surface splitting, classification, cap reconstruction, welding, material handling, topology checks, and result-promotion guards.

Union and Intersect are still guarded while their complete real classifier and extraction routes are developed. Slice, Imprint, and Cookie Cut also have workflow foundations without pretending that every difficult mesh case is already solved.

I would rather keep those limits visible than claim the system is more finished than it really is. The important thing is that the architecture is now pointed at real Mesh2 Boolean output and has a full workspace around it.

Voxel Blocks, Voxel Terrain, and VoxWalk

The 3D Editor now has a full Voxel category too.

The basic Voxel Block can create solid blocks, walls, floors, pillars, chunks, stairs, ramps, and rough sphere shapes. Blocks can use Solid, Accent, and Damaged material roles, and the editing mode supports adding, removing, and painting voxels directly in the viewport.

Voxel Terrain takes the idea much farther. It can create blocky terrain with height ranges, seeds, mountains, lowlands, noise, material bands, landmarks, seam blending, and internal-face removal.

Terrain presets include:

• Super Flat
• Grassland Hills
• Mountain Valley
• Desert Badlands
• Snowy Highlands
• Forest Basin
• Volcanic Ridge
• Canyon Lands
• Alien Wasteland

Voxel Terrain can also generate larger tile grids, including 1×1, 3×3, 6×6, 9×9, and 18×18 layouts. Tile generation is progressive and cache-aware so the editor does not try to build an enormous world in one blocking step.

A lot of the later work focused on editing speed. Add, Remove, and Paint should not force unrelated terrain scans every time the mouse moves. Navigation overlays and tile data are cached and deferred where possible, and there are safety limits for very large surfaces.

Then there is VoxWalk.

VoxWalk lets me move through Voxel Terrain directly inside the 3D Editor using game-style controls. It supports walking, running, vertical movement, mouse look, auto-step settings, ground safety, terrain streaming/cache behavior, and movement diagnostics.

It is a fun feature, but it is also useful for judging terrain scale and shape from ground level instead of only looking down from the normal editor camera.

The Procedural Spaceship Generator

One of the most fun additions is the procedural Spaceship Generator.

The generator creates native Mesh2 ships from seeded rules, which means the same seed and settings can reproduce the same ship. It is designed to create a useful starting point that can still be edited afterward.

Current ship styles include:

• Current Default
• Directional Exhaust Grid
• Cruiser
• Freighter
• Carrier
• Industrial
• Drone Ship
• Cargo Hauler

Ships can use a box-style hull or a cylinder-hybrid hull. The generator supports horizontal and vertical symmetry, controlled asymmetry, beveling, hull segments, cylinder sides, end scaling, middle bulging, top/bottom flattening, and seeded shape variation.

The detail passes are where the ships start to come alive:

• Square and round exhaust grids.
• Rear engines and glow sections.
• Square, round, and grid-based windows.
• Small, medium, and large hangars.
• Hangar frames and alternate glow materials.
• Panels, widgets, vents, and tech plates.
• Glow pods and edge strips.
• Domes, antennas, utility pods, ribs, and surface equipment.
• Protected regions so later detailing does not cover windows, hangars, or engines.
• Separate material roles for hull, dark hull, panels, lights, exhaust glow, and accent glow.

The system is not meant to replace hand modeling. It is meant to produce a strong procedural base, a quick concept, or a reusable starting point that can be taken into the normal EM2 and Surface Forge workflows.

Scene Editor and Avatar Editor Improvements

The giant new modules are getting most of the attention, but the Scene Editor and Avatar Editor also moved forward.

The Scene Editor now has a stronger Project Browser with an Assets tree, search, category filters, icons, cached results, and Resource Editor bridge selection. This gives the Scene Editor a better way to find content without turning the Resource Editor into a basic file browser.

A dedicated Scene Tools panel adds useful actions for selection, visibility, locking, freezing, hierarchy organization, object creation, duplication, deletion, framing, layout reset, and backend selection.

The new Add Component menu is organized into categories for rendering, 3D physics, 2D physics, cameras, lighting, audio, effects, UI, text, and world components. It also checks locks, frozen objects, unloaded scenes, unavailable component types, and duplicate restrictions before making changes.

Hierarchy search and filters can show only visible, hidden, locked, frozen, renderer, light, camera, terrain, or prefab rows.

Scene Camera Settings now includes field of view, near/far clipping, terrain-safe dynamic clipping, navigation speed, acceleration, sensitivity, camera easing, and ground safety. The Scene Editor also has expanded GPU viewport/cache foundations and better selection diagnostics.

The Avatar Editor gained Guided Auto Zones.

Instead of relying only on rough body bounds, it can estimate and display useful anatomical landmarks for the head, chin, neck, chest, shoulders, hips, elbows, wrists, knees, ankles, and other important areas. These landmarks can be edited in the viewport, mirrored across the body, saved, and used to improve automatic zone placement.

Custom source meshes can now route through the zone-deformation system too. The .nhavatar format can store compressed embedded mesh data, which makes it possible for an avatar file to carry more of its custom geometry and editor setup instead of depending only on an outside model path.

What All of This Means for NHUE

The main thing I notice when looking at this update is how much wider NHUE has become.

It already had major systems for modeling, UVs, terrain, textures, prefabs, scenes, and avatars. Now it also has serious audio-production tools, a real video-project and timeline foundation, procedural node graphs, Boolean modeling, voxel worlds, and procedural spaceship creation.

These are not all at the same stage, and they should not be.

The Audio Editor has reached the end of a large development arc. The Video Editor has completed its project, Media Library, and timeline-editing core, while playback and final rendering remain future arcs. Geometry Nodes has a broad procedural foundation that will keep growing. Boolean Ops has a real Difference-kernel route while other operations remain guarded. Voxel and Spaceship tools are already useful but will continue getting polish and new features.

That is what a project this large looks like. Some systems are mature, some are expanding, and some are laying the groundwork for the next several development arcs.

The important part is that these tools are being built to connect.

• Geometry Nodes can create procedural Mesh2 results that can be baked and edited.
• Surface Forge can prepare UVs for those models.
• The Image Editor can prepare textures and material maps.
• The Resource Editor can organize and edit the resulting prefabs and resources.
• The Scene Editor can place and manage them.
• The Audio Editor can build the sounds they need.
• The Video Editor can eventually help with trailers, cutscenes, and presentation work.

That connected workflow is still the bigger NHUE goal.

TL/DR

NHUE has grown a lot over the last couple of months.

• A full game-focused Audio Editor is now part of NHUE.
• The Video Editor now has projects, media management, and a completed multi-track timeline foundation.
• Geometry Nodes adds procedural graphs, Graph Controls, fields, attributes, instances, curves, zones, presets, and Mesh2 bake workflows.
• Boolean Ops now has a dedicated workspace and substantial real Mesh2 Difference development.
• The Voxel System adds blocks, terrain presets, tile grids, fast editing, and VoxWalk.
• The Spaceship Generator creates seeded ships with hull styles, windows, hangars, engines, panels, glow, and surface equipment.
• The Scene Editor gained better project browsing, tools, component menus, hierarchy filters, camera settings, and GPU viewport work.
• The Avatar Editor gained guided anatomical landmarks, better Auto Zones, custom mesh deformation, and embedded mesh data.

There is still a lot more coming, but NHUE is starting to feel less like a collection of separate editor windows and more like the connected game-content environment I have been trying to build.