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Object properties
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Object properties

The object and keyframe inspectors and every property they show

Object inspector

Shows the selected object's own fields. Every type has the shared rect fields. Shape, Effect, Text and Prefab objects add their own below them

Active turns off both rendering and collision. Children inherit it. An object hidden here cannot kill the player

Caution

Layer is relative to the parent, never absolute. Beside it is the global layer, read-only. That is what the renderer uses: your layer plus every ancestor's

Tip

Editing a field on an object from a prefab records a per-instance override. The checkbox beside it shows the override and reverts it

The parent button shows what the object hangs off, No Parent included. It opens the Select Parent picker: every object of the scope, plus fixed choices on top:

  • in the level - No Parent and Camera. Camera is the level's camera, and a child of it moves with the camera
  • inside a prefab template - one Prefab Root row. It stands for both "no parent" and the template's root, which is the same thing there. The camera and the player are not available as parents inside a template

A reserved parent is shown with its id: Camera (-1), Local Player (-2), Prefab Root (-3)

The button beside it selects the parent. On an object at a template's top level it selects the template's root. It is greyed out with several objects selected, and when there is nothing to select: no parent, the camera or the player

A right-panel tab with nothing to show is hidden. When the open tab empties, the panel moves to the first tab that has something. With every tab empty, the panel reads No inspectors

More: How the editor thinks

Keyframe inspector

Shows the selected keyframes. Every track the selection touches is shown at once, not just the last one you clicked. A selection can hold position and rotation keys, keys of several objects, and object, audio and event keys together

Tip

The Ease picker works across all tracks and takes a single undo step. A selection of position and rotation keys changes in one operation, not two

Worth knowing

The Frame field is locked while several keys are selected. A frame is unique on a track. One number for many keys would collapse them into one and silently drop the rest. To move several keys at once, drag them on the timeline

A blank value means the selected keys disagree on it

More: How the editor thinks

Span

Sets when the object exists. The range is half-open: the start frame is in, the end frame is not. An object ending at 20 and one starting at 20 never both draw on that frame

Worth knowing

A child's span must lie inside its parent's. That is resolved on read, never stored. Shrink a parent and its children are clipped, but what you authored here does not change. Grow it back and everything returns. A root object running past the end of the level is valid data - it simply never plays

Worth knowing

Anchors mean "this edge follows the parent's edge", and they decide what plays. An anchored edge sits on the parent's edge, so an anchored child stretches with a growing parent. Its animation keeps the timing you authored

A prefab placement's length is its template's by default, and it can still be typed like any other. A different value records an override for this placement. The checkbox beside the span shows it and puts the template's length back

A prefab template's root has no span block. A Frame Length row takes its place: the length of the whole template, the same value as Frame Length on the Prefab tab. The root's Active and Layer are read-only, and the root cannot be deleted or given a parent

More: Frames, time and the length of a level

Easing

Sets how the value arrives at this keyframe from the previous one

Worth knowing

Easing belongs to the incoming side of a keyframe. It shapes the stretch from the previous key to this one, and that is how playback reads it. So on the first keyframe of a track the easing has no effect

Tip

With several keyframes selected, the choice applies to all of them as a single undo step. That holds even across different tracks and different objects. A blank choice means the selected keyframes disagree

More: Keyframes and easing

Layer

Sets draw order relative to the parent, not absolute

Caution

The renderer uses this number plus every ancestor's. The sum is shown read-only in the Global field below. So the same layer means different things under different parents. Reparenting changes where an object draws

Worth knowing

The layer also feeds randomness. A random value is tied to the effective layer, so moving an object in the hierarchy rerolls its numbers. Two objects with the same effective layer AND the same start frame get the same numbers

More: How the editor thinks

Shape

Sets what this object draws

Worth knowing

A shape is real geometry, not a picture. It is fitted to its box and measures exactly 1 across its longer axis. So the object's rect is exactly what appears on screen

Worth knowing

The game generates around 500 shapes along four axes: form, sector, thickness and invert. A level can add its own. An empty value is valid: an object that draws nothing but has a hitbox is an invisible wall

More: Readability and fairness

Collider

Sets what this object hits. It is a separate choice and does not depend on what the object draws

Worth knowing

Neither derives from the other, on purpose. A harmless warning beam, a hitbox simpler than its art and an invisible wall are ordinary content, not tricks

Tip

Both fields pick from the same two collections. A shape the level authored works for either or both

In the editor's hitbox views, an object with no collider draws nothing, and neither does an inactive one. That is how you tell decoration from a hazard. How they are drawn is set in Editor settings

More: Readability and fairness

Shader Type

Sets which render path this object takes

Caution

Auto decides once, when the level loads. The rule is strict: the level's look must not change. Anything that cannot be proven opaque becomes transparent. Geometry is not considered, only alpha

Tip

The label beside this field shows what Auto actually resolved to. It is read straight from the renderer's data, not worked out again. That way the label cannot disagree with what is on screen

More: The level's budget

Resolved values

Shows what the selected objects are on the current frame, not what you authored onto them. Every number is read from the running simulation. So it matches what you see in the viewport

The square at the end of a row is that field's keyframe state:

  • blue - a keyframe sits on this frame. Clicking the square selects it
  • amber - the frame lies between two keys, the value is interpolated
  • grey - the track has keys, but this frame is outside them. The value is held
  • hollow - the track is empty, the field takes the engine default

The arrows move the playhead to the previous or the next keyframe of that track

A UV row reads as two pairs: tiling first, then offset

Below the rule sit the composed values: the summed layer, the inherited Active flag and the parent-composed transform. No keyframe sets them, so they carry no indicator

Worth knowing

An empty keyframe track is valid data, not missing data. It means the object uses the default for that field

Worth knowing

Inside Prefab Mode this section is hidden. A template plays no frames of its own, so there is nothing to show on a frame