yaze 0.3.2
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Dungeon Editor Guide

The Dungeon Editor provides a multi-panel workspace for editing Zelda 3 dungeon rooms. Each room has isolated graphics, objects, and palette data, allowing you to work on multiple rooms simultaneously.

Overview

Key Features

  • 512x512 canvas per room with pan, zoom, grid, and collision overlays
  • Layer visualization with BG1/BG2 toggles and colored object outlines
  • Modular panels for rooms, objects, palettes, and entrances
  • Undo/Redo shared across all panels
  • Overworld integration - double-click entrances to open linked rooms

Related Documentation:

Architecture

The editor uses a three-layer architecture:

Layer Components Responsibility
UI DungeonEditorV2 Panels, canvas, menus, toolbar
Backend DungeonEditorSystem State management, undo/redo, persistence
Data Room Model Buffers, objects, palettes, blocksets

Rendering Pipeline

  1. Load - Read room header, blockset pointers, and door/entrance metadata
  2. Decode - Convert blockset into bitmaps; parse objects by layer
  3. Draw - Build BG1/BG2 bitmaps with object overlays
  4. Queue - Push bitmaps to texture queue for GPU upload
  5. Present - Display layers with selection widgets and grid

Changes to tiles, palettes, or objects invalidate only the affected room's cache.

Editing Workflow

Opening Rooms

  1. Launch YAZE with a ROM: ./build/bin/yaze --rom_file=zelda3.sfc
  2. Select a room from Room Matrix or Rooms List panel
  3. Open multiple rooms in separate panels for comparison

Available Panels

Panel Purpose
Room Graphics Main canvas with BG toggles and grid options
Object Editor Edit objects by type, layer, and coordinates
Palette Editor Adjust room palettes with live preview
Entrances List Navigate between overworld entrances and rooms
Room Matrix Visual dungeon room grid for quick navigation

Panels can be docked, detached, or saved as workspace presets.

Canvas Controls

Action Control
Select object Left-click
Add to selection Shift + Left-click
Move object Drag handles
Pan canvas Hold Space + drag
Zoom Mouse wheel or trackpad pinch
Context menu Right-click

Enable Object Labels from the toolbar to display layer-colored labels.

Saving

  • Undo/Redo: Cmd/Ctrl+Z and Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+Z
  • Changes are tracked across all panels
  • Keep backups enabled in File > Options > Experiment Flags

Troubleshooting

Issue Solution
Objects on wrong layer Check BG toggles in Room Graphics and layer filter in Object Editor
Palette not saving Ensure Palette Editor writes values before switching rooms
Door alignment issues Right-click door markers to verify leads-to IDs
Sluggish performance Close unused room panels to release textures

Quick Launch Examples

# Open specific room for testing
./yaze --rom_file=zelda3.sfc --editor=Dungeon --open_panels="Room 0"
# Compare multiple rooms
./yaze --rom_file=zelda3.sfc --editor=Dungeon --open_panels="Room 0,Room 1,Room 105"
# Full workspace with all tools
./yaze --rom_file=zelda3.sfc --editor=Dungeon \
--open_panels="Rooms List,Room Matrix,Object Editor,Palette Editor"

Related Documentation