Preferences

This page details less-obvious items in Preferences.

Auto-completion mode

This defines how auto-completion filtering works.

• Start of string

  This is how things worked in legacy versions of GameMaker - if you typed ds_, you only get names that start with ds_.

• Containing

  This is how auto-completion works in GameMaker Studio 2 - if you type debug_, you'll get debug_get_callstack, show_debug_message, and so on.

• Smart

  This is an auto-completion mode offered by GMEdit's code editor component (Ace.js).
  It matches names that contain all letters from the input, and in order.
  So, sdm will match show_debug_message and icl matches io_clear.

• Per-section

  This is an auto-completion mode written specifically for GML's naming specifics.
  It matches names that have each "section" (separated by _ or lowercase->UPPERCASE transitions) start with according letter of input.

  So, sdm will still match show_debug_message, but icl will get you instance_create_layer.
  You can also use SDM or ICL if you prefer (it'll still be completed to the normal name).

  If this produces too many results, or you do not, in fact, remember the name of a thing, you can "clarify" section(s) by adding opposite-cased letters after the first one.
  So, if you wanted to only get device_mouse_ functions but not ds_map_ ones, you could write dmO/DMo (d*_mo*) or dEm/DeM (de*_m*).

  For convenience, this completion mode can also access full matches in global variables (gsv -> global.someVar).

Backups

GMEdit can make a backup copy of your code whenever you save a file.

Such backups are stored in #backups subdirectory of the project and can be accessed through file manager or by right-clicking a file tab and picking "Backups".

This is not a substitute for version control, but a mechanism to prevent loss of short-term changes.

Specifics, in order:

• GMS1 is, unfortunately, eager to overwrite external changes on any occasion.
  Essentially, when you open a resource in GMS1, it caches it in the memory, and may later decide to flush that to disk, overwriting any external changes. For this reason GMEdit will keep two backups of GMS1 files by default.
• GMS2 is much better with external changes.
  Ticking "Automatically reload changed files" in "File > Preferences > General Settings" will save you from pretty much all trouble. Still, you may find it desirable to have a backup just in case.
• For custom modes (see: Nuclear Throne Together), there is very little that can go wrong, as no other software is writing into the file(s).