If enabled, ::app:: will automatically re-open your last project and select the last level you were in.
Visuals
This setting will affect the whole User Interface size.
This setting will only affect the size of texts and icons in the EDITOR VIEW (including entities custom fields and level custom fields).
This option controls the visual aspect of custom entity fields in the editor.
If enabled, the tiles from nearby levels will also be rendered, to help you when painting transitions between maps.
Please note that this could have a significant impact on performances for large levels.
When the "single-layer" mode is enabled, this setting defines the intensity of the fading effect applied to other layers.
Set default "Full screen" state when starting ::app::.
You may also toggle fullscreen mode at any time using the F11 key.
Enable this option to use color-blind friendly colors by default for newly created entities, enums or intGrid values.
If enabled, the LDtk window will be grayed out when it is not focused.
Controls
This setting affects the zoom in/out speed when using the mouse wheel.
%
This setting allows to automatically switch to the World view when zooming out from a level.
You can then zoom back in to any level to select it.
Navigation keys are used to navigate through the palette of values in a layer. For example, in a Tiles layer, you can navigate through the different tiles using these keys.
Advanced options
When enabled, ::app:: will always try to use the best GPU available on your system, resulting in better performances.
This might use extra battery life.
(Recommended)
When enabled, ::app:: will download and install new updates fully automatically.
This is strongly RECOMMENDED as many updates contain important bug fixes and new features.
But in some case, like when using an outdated importer for your game engine, you may also prefer to stick to a specific ::app:: version.
(Recommended)Only supported on Windows.
The LOG file is only useful when reporting bugs. You can attach it to an e-mail or when you create an issue on GitHub site.
It doesn't contain any sensitive or personal information, except used file paths.
Project entities
ENTITIES are generic data that can be placed in your levels, such as the Player start position or Items to pick up. Each entity can have various custom editable properties as defined below.
Entity settings
Tags are used to group entities in custom categories. Multiple tags can be assigned to a single entity.
You may also use tags in Layers settings to filter which entities are allowed and which are not.
Example: add an "Actor" tag to some entities and create an Entity layer that only accepts "Actors" entities in it.
Default width and height (in pixels) of this entity.
x
Min:xMax:x
Resizable:
Customize visual representation of the entity in the editor view.
9-slice scaling mode splits the selected texture in 9 sections (4 corners, 4 borders and 1 inner).
Corners are drawn as-is, Borders are repeated on the sides of the entity, and Inner is stretch at the center of the entity.
You can adjust the size of up, down, left and right borders, in pixels.
9-slices borders:top=down=left=right=
Tile=% Fill=% Line=%
Alternative icon to represent this entity in the interface panels and lists.\nIf not set, the Editor Visual settings (see above) will be used by default.
The pivot of the entity is its actual pixel coordinate of the entity in the level.
The pivot alignment can be customized to adjust the position of the entity bounds relatively to these coordinates: the entity could be centered over the point, above it, on the right, etc.
An entity can be limited to a specific number of instances per level or per world.
Examples: a PlayerStart entity could be limited to 1 max per world, or you may limit LightSource entities to 10 per level etc.
What actually happens when you reach the limit is also customizable.
, and when max is reached.
Project Enums
Enumerations (Enums) are list of values.
Examples: your enemy types, items, states etc.
This Enum was imported from an external file and can be kept in-sync with it.
You can link an existing Tileset to this Enum to associate icons to each enum values.
Tags are used to freely organize your Enums.
All possible enum values
Project layers
Each LEVEL in your project has LAYERS, as defined below. The layers content can be of various types, including Image Tiles or Integer values.
General layer settings
Default tileset used by this layer. It can be changed in each level from the left tool panel.
Snap grid dimensions in pixels.
px
The offset is used to adjust the horizontal and vertical position of this layer relatively to the level and the other layers.
Each offset can be negative or positive.
X=px, Y=px
Opacity of this layer in percentage, from 0 (transparent) to 100 (fully visible).
The "inactive" opacity is used when the layer is not being selected.
Base:%Inactive:%
These parallax factors are applied to the layer (coordinates and scale) to make it move "slower" or "faster" than the camera, creating a fake 3D depth effect.
- Greater than zero factor will make the layer movement slower than the camera (eg. mountains in a far background).
- Zero means the layer moves at the same rate as the camera.
- Less than zero means the layer moves faster than the camera (eg. fog in the foreground)
X=%, Y=%
Display options
This color will be used in all lists where the layer appears.
Dimensions of the optional secondary grid. This grid is only a visual guide and is not used for actual snapping like the normal one.
xpx
These tags are used to filter elements from your layer list in the main editor panel.
settings
If enabled, entity fields will not be shown if the layer is not currently selected.
You may associate custom interface icons to each value. These icons are only used for the UI, not for actual rendering. To render values as tiles in your level, use Auto-Layer below.
The list of all Integer values that could be painted in this IntGrid layer.
?
This is only useful if the Tileset grid size is different from the layer grid size.
In this case, the pivot will dictate the position of the tiles relatively to the layer grid.
This auto-layer will use the INTGRID layer above to apply its rules.
Selecting a Tileset here will enable all Auto-Layer rendering capabilities for this layer.
This allows to render automatically tiles based on the IntGrid values (eg. painting random "grass" tiles above cells containing "collision" values).
If the selected Tile layer contains any tiles, this auto-layer won't draw anything under them.
You can use an Enum field from your level custom fields as a "biome selector".
Auto-layer rule groups may then be individually enabled when a certain biome is picked.
Only entities that have at least ONE of the required tags will be allowed in this layer.
Note: this won't affect previously added entities.
Entities that have at least ONE of the forbidden tags will not be allowed in this layer.
Note: this won't affect previously added entities.
Level custom fields
Project settings
Extra files
Enable this to export your level data in a secondary super simple format, ideal for quick integration in ANY existing engine.
You will get:
- one PNG per layer,
- one composite PNG per level,
- a single JSON file per level containing main level infos and entities.
Enable this to separate the main project file (containing settings, definitions etc.) from the level files (one file per level, stored in a sub-folder).
Saving times are also faster with separate levels enabled because unmodified data is cached and not re-wrote.
This option allows you to export 'flattened' PNG screenshots of the levels in addition to the JSON data, every time you save the project.
Also export level backgrounds
Enable this to export PNGs that will include the level background color or image.
PNG file names
Enable this to create Tiled TMX files (one per level) in a sub folder, every time you save your project.
Warning: this Tiled export is made for quick integration with game frameworks that don't support LDtk yet, but it comes with some limitations!
See the link for more info.
If checked, the project file will use the official extension ".::ext::" instead of the standard ".json".
This setting is recommended for proper file identification and association on your system.
(recommended)
Everytime you save your project, an extra backup copy will be created in a subfolder.
Backups will obviously increase saving time and disk usage, but that's not a reason for not using them ;)
Note: in case of a crash, a special backup will be created, even if this setting is disabled.
Max backup files: It's recommended to enable backups for large or important projects.
Enable this to save project JSON file without any "pretty" formatting (ie. white spaces and indentation).
This is NOT necessarily recommended if your project is stored on a versioning system (git, svn etc.) because this could cause issues with diffs and merging operations.
Only use this option if you really need to reduce the project files size.
This option allows to customize the constraints on "identifiers" format. It's recommended to keep the default "First letter uppercased" format, unless you know what you're doing.
User custom commands
A list of custom commands that will be executed by LDtk in various situations.
The working directory for all these commands is the project directory.
If multiple commands are to be ran at a given moment (eg. before saving), they will be executed in order of appearance here.
This project is allowed to run user commands on your computer. Remove authorization
This project is NOT allowed to run user commands on your computer. Unblock it
Workspace settings
Set the default grid size when creating new layers in this project.
px
Set the default width/height when creating new entities in this project.
x px
You can customize the default naming convention for all level identifiers.
Note that level identifiers must be UNIQUE and as such, an extra auto-increment might be added to levels sharing getting the same name, to avoid collisions.
Also, remember the identifiers should only contain letters, numbers, "-" and "_".
Base background color of the project workspace
Default background color of all levels.
Default entity pivot point position for all entities.
See the Entity panel for more information about the pivot point.
Advanced project settings
Advanced options are not recommended for most users as they might break compatibility with older game APIs. Please make sure you know what you're doing before using any of them!
Tutorial description
This optional description is displayed in a permanent banner on top of LDtk while this project is open.
It is mainly used in LDtk sample maps to provide extra explanations of provided examples.
Project tilesets
Tilesets are large images in which you pick sub-parts to draw them in your levels. They can also be used as icons for some specific elements (like Enums).
This is the tileset "atlas" image which contains all the tiles organized in a grid layout.
Supported file formats: Aseprite (recommended), PNG, GIF and JPEG.
These values describe how tiles are arranged inside the source image.
You can check the preview of the tile grid below.
Tiles are listed as a grid, from left to right, top to bottom, and their index starts at ZERO.
px tiles, spaced bypx, with an atlas padding of px
Tags are used to freely organize your Enums.
By linking an Enum to this tileset, you will be able to mark tiles using values from this Enum.
For example, you could mark tiles with following informations:
- Collision informations (wall block, slope left/right, thin platform etc.)
- Special material (water, lava etc.),
- Footstep sound (metal, wood etc.)
This tileset is using an embedded image from LDtk and cannot be modified. The tileset was added to your Project because an element (an Entity or an Enum) uses it.
LICENSING: this image is only meant to be used inside LDtk and cannot be redistributed in any way.
Please contact the author () if you want to license this image for your own use in your game.
IID
The IID (stands for Instance IDentifier) is a unique string identifier associated with this Entity instance.
Coords
Coordinates and dimensions in pixels or cells (you can switch the unit by click on it)
, ; x
References to this entity
This is a list of all other Entities having a Reference field pointing to this Entity.
General settings
This is the type of data stored in this custom field (number, text etc.)
If the parent Entity has its "Add to JSON Table-of-Content" enabled, you may also export this field value to the JSON.
If enabled, this field will be searchable throught the app command palette (when pressing CTRL-K).
Value specifications
This is the default number value for this field, unless overridden with something else.
This is the default text for this field, unless modified manually.
This is the default enum value for this field, unless modified manually.
This is the default checkbox state for this field, unless modified manually.
This is the default color for this field, unless modified manually.
You can define a min and/or max limit of this number.
to
Enter a list of accepted extensions, separated by a space, case insensitive. For example: "txt dat png jpg gif". This filter won't prevent user from picking another file, it's just a display limitation.
If empty, all extensions will be accepted.
You can enter a Regular Expression here to check the values entered for this field.
Any character that doesn't match the RegEx will be discarded.
WARNING: existing values in your levels will NOT be affected by any change here!
i
If enabled, it will be possible to have "null" values inside this array.
If disabled, the array values will use the "default" if unspecified.
If enabled, it will be possible to have no value at all for this field (ie. "null").
If disabled, the value will be the "default" one if nothing is entered.
If enabled, it will be possible to have "null" values inside this array.
If disabled, the array values will use the "default" if unspecified.
If enabled, it will be possible to have no value at all for this field (ie. "null").
If disabled, the value will become mandatory and an error message will show up if the value is unspecified.
Default:
Define which kind of entity is allowed to be picked for this value.
Constraints to the array size (ie. min length and/or max length)
to
Display
Customize how values for this field should be displayed in the editor view.
A quick recommendation here: don't display too many entity fields or the editor view would become really cluttered.
Optional text prefix and suffix to display around the values in the editor view.
Examples: 0.1 seconds, $17
1234
If checked, the value will always be displayed in editor view, even if it is using default value.
If not checked, the value will only show up if it is not the default value.
Only applies if any display mode was selected above.
If enabled (recommended), long texts will be cut when displayed in the editor view.
If enabled, this color will override the default ::parentType:: color when displayed in the editor view.
For arrays, the first valid value of the array will be used.
If enabled, the color of the Enum value (if any) will override the default ::parentType:: color when displayed in the editor view.
For arrays, the first valid value of the array will be used.
::app:: help
Online documentation
Video guides
Most important commands
mouseleft
Draw
mouseright
Erase
mousemiddle or space mouseleft
Move the view
mouseWheel or space mouseright
Zoom
add / sub
Zoom
ESCAPE
Clear selection, close panel, cancel an action etc.
General commands
H
Show this help
TAB
Toggle zen mode
%CommandPalette%
Search
%ToggleDetails%
Show/hide visual details
F1 to F10
Select layers
%toggleFullscreen%
Toggle fullscreen
%AppSettings%
Open app settings
%SaveProject%
Save project
%SaveProjectAs%
Save project as...
%CloseProject%
Close project
%ExitApp%
Quit ::app::
G
Enable/disable the grid
%ToggleSingleLayerMode%
Toggle "Single layer" mode
ctrl A
Select all
DELETE
Delete selected elements
%RunCommand%
Run a project custom command
Sections
%OpenProjectPanel%
Open "Project" panel
%OpenLayerPanel%
Open "Layers" panel
%OpenEntityPanel%
Open "Entities" panel
%OpenEnumPanel%
Open "Enumerations" panel
%OpenTilesetPanel%
Open "Tileset" panel
Editing commands
alt mouseleft
Select a single element
shift alt mouseleft
Select all elements in a rectangle area
ctrl alt mouseleft
Duplicate all selected elements
space
Fit view
shift mouseleft (held)
Draw a rectangle.
shift mouseleft (single click)
Flood-fill the current area with the selected value.
Auto-layers
Shift R
Toggle auto-layers rendering
Tile layers
%saveTileSelection%
Save current tile selection.
%loadTileSelection%
Reload a saved tile selection from currently selected tile.
%ToggleTileRandomMode%
Toggle randomization of current tile selection.
%flipX%
X-mirror current tile(s)
%flipY%
Y-mirror current tile(s)
World mode
Shift W OR ~
Switch between world/level views
pgup / pgdn
Change active world layer
ctrl pgup / ctrl pgdn
Move current level between world layers
Level properties: ""
The IID (stands for Instance IDentifier) is a unique string identifier associated with this Level.
It will be used for the level file name if the "Save levels to separate files" option is enabled (see Project panel).
You can organize your levels in various "world layers" by changing their depth.
Depth is just an index (positive or negative), higher values meaning "this level is further in the background" and lower values meaning "closer to the camera" (kind of).
World layers are completely automatic and created/removed as you need them.
Level X and Y coordinates in pixels, in the world coordinate system.
A rule is used to display a specific tile based on the content of an IntGrid layer.
For example, you could create a rule that will display "grass" tiles above every walls.
To describe the "context" (ie. where and when your tile should be displayed), you paint a pattern: that's the grid below.
First pick which tile(s) you would like to automatically render. Start with something very simple: a wall block, grass, etc.
The center of this PATTERN is where your TILE(s) will be rendered (). Paint the pattern to describe in which context the tile(s) should be displayed:
: paint "This IntGrid value is required" in a cell
: paint "This IntGrid value should NOT be here".
: clear pattern cell.
Use the Any Value special value to match "Any IntGrid value" or "No IntGrid value at all"
For example, if you want to paint "wall blocks" where you have the IntGrid value "1" in your level, you just put the IntGrid value "1" in the center of this pattern.
This means: "if any cell in my level contain value 1, paint the given tile(s) there".
Duplicate group: "::name::"
Remap IntGrid values
You can remap any IntGrid value used in this group of rules.
Transpose tiles
Modulo values will allow you to limit this rule to every X columns or every Y rows. For example, if X modulo is 3, then the rule will only apply every 3 columns. If the X offset is 1, then the column counting will be offseted by 1.
Enabling this will alternate the resulting tiles like a checkboard.
3. Auto-rendered tiles
You don't have to fill all the tiles! The important ones in most scenarios are the ones in the green area.
4. Options
Allow rules to stack
In some cases, multiple distinct rules may apply to a single cell. If this option is enabled, this will allow tiles to stack.
This is only relevant if your tiles use transparency. Otherwise, only the topmost pertinent rule for each cell will apply.
::app:: is "pay-what-you-want, including free",
even for commercial projects :)
Everything you will create with it will be fully yours: you are free to use these creations as you wish. If you want to financially support my work, you have various ways to do so:
Syncing ""...
This file was updated by an external program and you need to make some decisions with the changes that happened.
World
World settings: ""
The IID (stands for Instance IDentifier) is a unique string identifier associated with this World.
This setting will affect how all levels are be positioned in the world space.
Size in pixels of the large grid that will contain levels. This grid will constraint levels position and their size.
xpx
Default level width and height in pixels for all future levels.
xpx
I'm really sorry, but ::app:: encountered some kind of... well... a bug.
The best thing to do would be to send me the following information by filling an "issue" on GitHub (see below), so I can fix the problem.
WebGL context is not available :(
Please restart the app.
some useful tips
Visuals
Editing
World layers
World layers are created or removed automatically, as you arrange your levels using the "Change depth" buttons (ie. move level above/beneath).
If you read this, you're awesome! Have a nice day <3