Texture editing and engine resources

Edit an existing tileset

Save or export the image to the same PNG file registered in the workspace catalog. The studio notices the changed file and updates the palette and map view automatically, usually within one or two seconds. Saving a layered source document alone does not update its exported PNG.

Tile positions, tile shapes and Undo history stay intact. Keep the atlas dimensions and sprite positions unchanged when redrawing a tileset. Changing the atlas layout also requires updating its sprite rectangles in the catalog.

The default workspace keeps Maps/ and Textures/ beside the launcher or at the source project root. Palette settings and resource mappings are managed in .studio/catalog.json. Open File → Storage folders to locate your maps and images. Existing root catalogs move into .studio automatically, with the original retained in .studio/catalog-backup/. Explicit custom catalog paths are preserved. Each sprite's asset identifies its image, for example Textures/palettes/stage-1/atlas-1.png. Newly added palettes use PNGs in the workspace's Textures/palettes/ directory. Workspace settings may configure another texture root. Edit the registered workspace image; changing a separate copy will not update it. The bundled sample images are fallbacks until a matching workspace image is provided.

Checks run in the background and are based on unique image files, independent of painted tile count. Incomplete or locked saves are retried, and the browser retains the previous image while a replacement loads. A file whose timestamp and length were preserved is also checked periodically; these changes can take several additional seconds.

Share one source with an engine

Use the studio workspace as the shared source folder. Edit each PNG there and configure the engine adapter with that same catalog and resource root. This keeps one editable original; engine-generated assets are derived copies for rendering and packaging. The engine package remains a reusable loader, separate from your project data. Every adapter reads the same three parts:

For file-based import, select the workspace catalog, exported map/rooms and resource root directly. A shared workspace can look like this:

world/
  Maps/
    room-01.json
  .studio/
    catalog.json
  Textures/
    palettes/
      palette-id.png

Choose world/ as the resource root and world/.studio/catalog.json as the catalog in the adapter. Preserve the exact case of paths in the catalog. For a shared file-based workspace, keep the default Textures/ layout so every loader resolves the same originals. To hand the current map to another machine, use File → Export project bundle…. It includes the matching catalog, registered palette sources and referenced images, including bundled fallbacks, at their resource paths. See Project bundles. A map JSON alone does not contain texture pixels or the sprite mapping. Adding or redrawing a tileset does not require rebuilding the engine package.

The Unity connection window already downloads catalog textures from the running studio. With Follow web edits enabled, the texture revision also requests a resource refresh. For the other adapters, select the matching exported files and use their import/reload action again. Automatic live synchronization is currently provided by the Unity adapter only.

Storage and file dialogs

Room JSON is generated automatically under Maps/AutoExport/<map-folder>/. A complete map saved with File → Save as uses the file you select. On Windows, both the web version and application start the map file dialog in Maps. The web version opens a native Windows dialog through its local server. On other browser platforms, use File → Storage folders → Set file dialog folder once to remember that directory for open/save dialogs. Browser downloads without file picker support use the browser’s download folder.

Legacy default data is copied once into the accessible layout, without deleting its original folder. Different files with the same target name stop migration instead of overwriting either copy. Explicit --project workspaces retain their configured paths. For release launchers, --storage-root changes the default portable storage location; --project selects an existing workspace without migration.

Choose the folder containing Textures as the engine resource root, .studio/catalog.json inside that folder as the catalog, and a JSON inside Maps/AutoExport as the room. Existing engine packages already resolve image IDs relative to that resource root, so there is no machine-specific path inside the exported data.