Timelines
Every timeline of the editor and the beat grid, one section per panel
Level timeline
Shows every object of the level over time. Each object is one clip. The lane a clip sits in is the object's layer
A clip is a half-open span. An object covering frames 10-19 ends exactly where one starting at 20 begins. The two never both draw on the shared frame
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 their values do 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
The three tools live in the button strip: Selection picks and drags, Edges reshapes an edge, Scissors splits a clip at the cursor. Right-click empty space to open the menu. A press on a clip starts a drag
A prefab placement and the objects it brings are drawn in the prefab tint
How the tools treat a placement:
- Its length is its template's by default. Setting a different length on one placement records an override for that placement only
- Dragging its start edge with
Edgesalso moves where it starts reading the template. So the picture inside it stays where it was Scissorscuts it into two placements of the same template, each playing its own part. The template itself is not edited- The objects a placement brings cannot be cut. Cut the placement, or cut those objects in Prefab Mode
More: How the editor thinks, Composition and the camera
Local timeline
Shows the keyframes of the selected object. Each animatable property has its own lane: position, rotation, scale, size, anchors, pivot, colour, UV, font size
Frames here count from the start of the object's span. Move the object and its whole animation moves with it
An empty track is valid data, not missing data. A track with no keyframes uses the default value. That is why a new object animates nothing until you add a key
Values blend between neighbouring keyframes only. The span decides which frames exist, never how values blend
On an object that comes from a prefab, a track that still matches its template is drawn in the prefab tint. Add, move or edit a keyframe on it and the tint goes: the track now holds an override
In Prefab Mode, with the template's root selected, this timeline is as long as the whole template
More: How the editor thinks
Prefab timeline
Prefab Mode's own timeline. Shows the template's objects
Its length is the template's own length, not the span of one of its placements. A template is edited as a small self-contained level. It can be placed many times, at different times
One row is the template's root, and it spans the whole template. Every other object of the template hangs off it:
- the root row can be selected. The inspector and the Local timeline then show the root
- it cannot be dragged, resized or cut
- it folds like any parent. Folding it hides the whole template on this timeline
The selection is not shared with the rest of the editor. There is no live preview of a specific placement. Edits change the template and spread to every placement that references it
More: Reuse: prefabs, copying, generators
Audio timeline
Shows the level's audio tracks with their waveforms. They make it easy to line content up with what you hear
Fit Track in the inspector resizes a track to its clip's real length. The button is disabled without a clip, or at speed 0: a frozen track has no length
The inspector's Volume slider is the track's fader. The keyframed volume is a separate Volume track on the Local timeline. The two multiply at playback
More: Preparing the track
Events timeline
Shows level-wide keyframes that belong to no object:
- camera position, rotation, zoom, pivot and shake
- markers and checkpoints
- the screen limit
- background and theme
- every post-processing effect
- the player's visibility, control, collision, size and speed
The Beat lane is the exception here. Its items carry a span, and it is the only lane Edges and Scissors act on
A colour can reference the level's theme instead of holding a fixed value. Then changing the theme recolours everything that points at it at once
More: Composition and the camera, Themes
Beat grid
Helps you place content on the music. Generators act on the same beats you see
It is authoring metadata, not a game mechanic. Playback does not read the grid
The grid is a list of segments. Each has a constant tempo: BPM, phase offset, beats per bar. Segments never overlap. The gaps are useful: an intro with no percussion, a break, the tail after the song. A single tempo track could not express them
TAP records taps at the playhead. Create from taps turns them into one segment from the first tap to the last. Beats are always counted from the segment's start and never accumulated, so the error stays under half a frame
More: Rhythm and structure
Beat segment
One stretch of constant tempo: BPM, phase offset in fractional frames, beats per bar, a name and a colour
Exactly one segment is shown even when several are selected. Every field but the name is unique to one segment. Editing them together would collapse them onto each other
A segment is identified by its start frame. So moving it changes its identity. After a move, reselect it at its new start
Taps here re-phase the selected segment instead of creating a new one. BPM and offset change in one undo step
More: Rhythm and structure