Editing Tools Map Editor

Map Editor

The PICO-8 map is a 128x32 (or 128x64 using shared space) block of 8-bit values. Each value isshown in the editor as a reference to a sprite (0…255), but you can of course use the data torepresent whatever you like.

WARNING: The second half of the sprite sheet (banks 2 and 3), and the bottom half of the mapshare the same cartridge space. It's up to you how you use the data, but be aware that drawing on the second half of the sprite sheet could clobber data on the map and vice versa.

The tools are similar to the ones used in sprite editing mode. Select a sprite and click and drag to paint values into the map.

To draw multiple sprites, select from sprite navigator with shift+drag To copy a block of values, use the selection tool and then stamp tool to paste To pan around the map, use the pan tool or hold space Q,W to switch to previous/next sprite Mousewheel or < and > to zoom (centered in fullscreen) CTRL-H to toggle hex view (shows tile values and sprite index in hexadecimal)

To move sprites in the sprite sheet without breaking references to them in the map:

1. Select the area of the map you would like to alter (defaults to the top half of the map) press ctrl-A twice to select the full map including shared memory
2. Select the sprites you would like to move (while still in map view), and press Ctrl-X
3. Select the destination sprite (also while still in map view) and press Ctrl-V

Note: this operation modifies the undo history for both the map and sprite editors, but PICO-8 will try to keep them in sync where possible. Otherwise, changes caused by moving map sprites can be reverted by also manually undoing in the sprite editor.