EditorRoom
The Room Editor is where you can define the various properties and data that make up a room. This includes:
- Objects
- Hotspots
- Walkable areas
- Walkbehinds
- Regions
- ...and more!
NOTE: Currently only one room can be open for editing at a time
By selecting a background on the Display Background combo box, you can select
which background of a room to display: Main Background, frame 2, 3, 4, 5. With
one background selected, click Change... button to replace the background
image with a new image. If a room has more than one background, by default, they
are animated.
NOTE: If the background images are replaced with ones of a different size this will clear all of the mask (hotspot, walkbehind, region, and walkable) areas which have been are defined so far.
This control allows you to view characters, objects, and edges, simultaneously along with one of the room masks: hotspots, walkable areas, walk-behinds or regions. Moving a character or object already in the room is done by clicking and dragging it.
You can select any element in the room by navigating on the bar using the down arrows, which will reveal the available elements of the chosen category.
Characters and objects can also be selected directly in the room, by clicking on them, as long as the corresponding layer is active.
To select any mask-type layer, first select the layer you are interested and then use the Select area tool (picker icon on toolbar) to pick the specific element.
Placing a new object
If you want to place a new object, you can do so by selecting Objects in the layer menu and right clicking on the screen where you would like to create it. A new context menu should open and you can choose the option "Place New Object Here".
Placing a character
Characters will only be shown if this room is their 'starting room'. You can
modify this by expanding the "Characters" node in the Explore Project tree, and
configuring the property StartingRoom for a particular character.
Layer and element Visibility (eye icon)
Each layer can be made visible/hidden by toggling its visibility button on and off. In addition, for the object, character, and edge layers, each element in the layer can also be made be hidden in the same way.
NOTE: This will only affect the editor, not the actual game
Layer and element Locking (padlock icon)
Each layer can be locked/unlocked by by toggling its locking button. In addition, for each layer, each element in the layer can also be locked/unlocked in a similar way. A locked element cannot be moved until it is unlocked, this is useful to prevent accidentally moving something when designing the room.
NOTE: This will only affect the editor, not the actual game
The properties control will adapt to whichever element is selected on the current layer. If no element is selected or the edges layer is selected, this control will show the current Room properties and events.
The list button switches the control to show Properties and the button with a lighting bolt on it switches the control to show Events. Both can be navigated either in categorical order or alphabetical order.
Positional changes on the properties of an element (e.g. its x or y position) will instantly be updated in the room area, which is useful for pixel positioning.
Edges are moved by clicking and dragging them, once their layer is selected. If you have trouble locating them, the properties which correspond to each edge's position are:
TopEdgeYBottomEdgeYLeftEdgeXRightEdgeX
As described above, right clicking on the room when the Object layer is active allows you to create a new object. Objects can be freely positioned in the room, and whilst an object is selected you can edit its properties within the Properties control. While dragging an Object its x and y position will be shown on screen. The anchor point for positioning is the object's bottom left corner.
As described above, a character will only be available to show in a room if the character is configured to start in this room. Whilst dragging a Character its x and y position will be shown on screen. The anchor point for positioning is at the bottom-middle point of the character - the position should roughly match the middle of the characters feet.
AGS offers a simple drawing editor when one of these layers is selected, so that you can directly edit these mask areas. The tools offered include a picker, a line tool, a freehand tool, a rectangle tool, and an area fill tool.
Also available is a way to import and export all mask areas as a bitmap image. These options are offered in-case you prefer to draw these areas in your preferred external image editor.
NOTE: Mask images must be using a 16-color (4-bit) or 256-color (8-bit) indexed color palette, where color 0 signifies transparency and colors 1-15 are used as the respective hotspot/walk-behind/walkable area numbers
See Also: Room