World Editing

World Editing

How to change the map in the GUO editor: find a spot, select what is there, place and move things, and take it back if you change your mind. This page is for a shard owner opening the editor for the first time. For how the editor is set up (profiles, the world project, the live tier), see Editor.

Nothing you do here touches your UO install. Every edit goes into a world project, a folder of its own that the editor lays over the install (see Where your edits go).

Open the World tab

1. Open the project with launchers\editor\open_project.bat.
2. Click World in the row of main screens at the top of the editor, beside 2D, 3D and Script. The first time, the status line says starting the world... while the game's own renderer loads.
3. Go somewhere: pick the map (map0 to map5) in the top bar, type x,y in the box beside it and press Go. You can also click a spot on the minimap in the corner of the view, or use Show in UO World in the Maps panel of UO Assets.

[screenshot 1: the World tab, with the tool rail on the left, the Tools and UO Inspector panels, the brush library and the map]

The tab has four parts:

• The tool rail: a column of icon buttons on the far left. The pressed one is what a left click on the map does.
• The left panel: the Tools and Advanced tabs on top, and the UO Inspector and Nearby tiles tabs below them.
• The brush library: art to place, with a search box, beside the map.
• The map, with the status line under it. The status line tells you what the last click did, so read it whenever a click seems to do nothing.

Moving around

Do this	To
Arrow keys (Shift: 8 cells at a time)	Step the view one cell
Right-drag or middle-drag	Pan
Hold Space and left-drag	Pan
Mouse wheel	Zoom in and out
Tab, or the Focus button	Hide the side panels (and the Godot docks) for more map; press again to bring the side panels back

Keyboard shortcuts work while the map has focus. Click the map once first if a key does nothing.

The tools

Tool	Key	A left click on the map...
Select	V	Shows what is under the pointer in the UO Inspector. Changes nothing.
Brush	B	Paints with the brush recipe while you drag; the edit applies when you let go (Esc cancels).
Stamp	S	Places the current static on the cell, on top of what you clicked.
Erase	E	Removes the static you clicked.
Raise	R	Raises the ground at the cell by 1 (Shift-click: 5).
Lower	F	Lowers the ground by 1 (Shift-click: 5).
Hue	H	Gives the static you clicked the current hue.
PlaceItem		Places the current static as a shard object (see below).
PlaceSpawner		Places a spawner for the creature named in the spawns box.
MoveObject		First click picks up one of the project's objects, second click puts it down.
DeleteObject		Deletes one of the project's objects.
Measure	M	First click starts, second click gives the distance in tiles.
Area	G	Two clicks set the corners of a rectangle; Area to multi (under Advanced > World & overlays) takes its items into the Multi Editor (see From an area to a building).

The rail also has Route (the walking path between two clicks) and Pin. Hover over a rail button to see its name and key. The four object tools, Route and Pin have no key; click their buttons.

Two more keys: [ and ] shrink and grow the brush, and Q opens your quick favourites.

Selecting: what is under the pointer

With Select (V), a left click on the map fills the UO Inspector tab on the left. It shows what you clicked (land or a static), its id and name, its map, position and height (z), its block and cell, and its hue if it has one.

[screenshot 2: a static selected, its details in the UO Inspector]

Three things trip people up:

• Nothing is highlighted on the map. The result shows only in the UO Inspector and the status line. If the left panel is hidden, press Tab or Focus to bring it back. If the UO Inspector tab is hidden, click its tab under Tools.
• Click on the drawn pixels. The editor picks the way the game does, by the pixels of the art under the pointer. Clicking the empty space around a lamp post or inside a tree's gaps picks whatever is drawn behind it, often the ground.
• A cell can hold a stack. A table with a candle on it, or a wall on a floor, is several things on one cell. Clicking picks the top one you can see.

To reach the things lower in a stack:

• Alt + mouse wheel steps through everything on the cell, highest first, and shows each one in the UO Inspector as you go.
• The Nearby tiles tab (beside UO Inspector) shows the ground of the 3 by 3 cells around the pointer and, next to it, the full stack of the centre cell. Click a row to inspect it; double-click a row to make it the current art. Click one of the 3 by 3 cells to look at that cell instead. Tick Pin to keep the panel on one cell while you move the mouse.
• Shift-click with Select starts again from the top of the stack.

[screenshot 3: the Nearby tiles tab with a stack listed]

Selecting a piece of land or a static also makes it the current art, so you can select something already in the world and then Stamp more of it.

Choosing what to place

The current art is what Stamp, PlaceItem and the brush put down. Its picture and name show at the top of the Tools tab. To set it:

• click a static in the brush library (type a name like torch in its search box), or in UO Assets > Art;
• type a name or an id (0x0A0F) in the field at the top of the Tools tab;
• select a static on the map with Select;
• Alt-click a static on the map with any tool (the Pick button in the Tools tab does the same). This takes its hue as well.

Stamp and PlaceItem need a static, not a land tile. If you picked land, the status line says so.

[screenshot 4: the brush library with a search, and the current art at the top of the Tools tab]

Brushes, and getting back to one item

The brush library (left of the map) has four one-click recipes. Each sets the brush size, density and target in one go:

Recipe	What it does
Single	One item per click: a 1-tile, 100% brush with the selected static.
Scatter	Many items over a 7-tile area at 35% density, spaced 2 tiles apart.
Terrain	Paints land over a 5-tile area.
Sculpt	Raises land over a 5-tile area.

A recipe stays in force until you pick another. If you used Scatter and want one item again, click Single. Choosing art in the library does not change the recipe, so a recipe and the art are two separate choices.

The map always tells you what a click will do: the line at the top left of the map names the tool and, for the brush, the recipe, for example Brush · Single 1×1 100% or Brush · Scatter 7×7 35%. While you hover, it also shows how many cells the stroke will change. If a click changes nothing and a rule turned the cells away, the status line names that rule and what to change. With Keep existing statics on (Advanced tab, Variation & rules), a cell that already holds an item is left alone; the status line then says Nothing placed: that cell already has an item. Keep existing statics is on; untick it to place on top.

Rows in the Variation list, the saved presets, the favourites and the Nearby tiles stack show the name first and the number second, for example tree · 0x0CCA.

Stamp or PlaceItem?

There are two kinds of thing you can put in the world, and they go to different places:

• Stamp adds a map static: part of the map itself, like the walls and trees in the client's files. It ends up in the exported map files, so every player sees it, and a player cannot pick it up or move it.
• PlaceItem adds a shard object: an item kept in the project's list of things for the shard to create, as a server-side item. It is drawn with its own art and hue. Use this for things the shard owns, like decoration that may be moved or removed later.
• PlaceSpawner puts a spawner on the cell. Type the creature or vendor class name the shard knows (Horse, Tanner, ...) in the spawns box first; it is under Advanced > World & overlays. The spawner shows as a hued spawner item.

MoveObject and DeleteObject work only on shard objects (what PlaceItem and PlaceSpawner made). To move a map static, Erase it and Stamp it again where you want it.

Hue and height (Z)

• Hue: set it in the Hue field of the Tools tab (a name or an id, 0 for none). Stamp, PlaceItem and the brush use it, and the Hue tool applies it to a static already in the world.
• Height: Stamp and PlaceItem put the new thing on top of what you clicked: on the ground, or on the top of the static you clicked. Click a table to stamp something on the table.
• To stamp or paint at an exact height, tick Fixed Z in the Tools tab and set Z / offset. (PlaceItem always goes on top of what you clicked.)
• To change one static's height or hue afterwards: click its row in the Nearby tiles stack. The status line names it and the button: Chosen: crate · 0x0E3C at Z 0. Type Z / ground offset and Hue, then press Set Z / hue. Set Z / ground offset and Hue, and press Set Z / hue. Set Z / hue changes items only; for the ground's height use the Flatten brush.
• Z min and Z max hide everything outside a height range. This helps when you work on an upper floor.

Seeing the map differently: the View menu

View (Advanced > World & overlays) recolours the map to answer one question, without changing it. A box at the top left of the map names the view, says in one sentence what the colours mean, and lists each colour. Hover over a view in the menu to read that sentence before you choose it.

View	What the colours mean
Height	How high the ground is: blue is low, red and white are high.
Walkability	Where a player can stand, and where they are stopped.
Reachability	Click a cell: where a player can walk to from it.
Types	What each cell holds: wall, floor, roof, water and so on.
IDs	Each kind of item gets its own colour, so the map looks like a patchwork. That is normal, not damage.
Land mesh	The ground's shape; yellow tiles are stretched over a slope.
Problems	Only mistakes: holes in floors, two items in one spot at one height (they flicker), items on water.
Project diff	The parts of the map this project changed; the rest is your own install.

Choose Off to see the plain map again.

From an area to a building

With the Area tool, click two corners, then press Area to multi (Advanced > World & overlays). The items inside open in the Multis tab as a new building. A bar across the top of that tab says From the World: N items opened here as a new building; its Back to World button returns to the World tab, and × hides the bar. The World's status line says where the items went.

Undo and redo

Ctrl+Z undoes, Ctrl+Y (or Ctrl+Shift+Z) redoes, and the Undo and Redo buttons in the top bar do the same. The status line counts what is left to undo and redo, and the last 200 map edits can be undone. One brush stroke is one undo step.

Shard objects (PlaceItem, PlaceSpawner, MoveObject, DeleteObject) are not in undo. Take one back with DeleteObject or MoveObject.

Where your edits go

Every edit is saved the moment you make it. There is no Save button and nothing to lose if the editor closes.

• Edits go into the world project: the folder named by the UO_WORLD_PROJECT setting, or build\world\default in your GUO folder if that setting is empty.
• Map edits are stored as whole 8 by 8 cell blocks, one small file per block you changed, under the project's blocks folder. Shard objects go in its shard\objects.json.
• Your UO install is never written to. The editor only reads it and draws the project over it.
• Reload project (top bar) reads the project from disk again, for example after you copied blocks in from someone else.
• To give the map edits to a server or a client, export them: launchers\pipeline\04_world_export.bat writes patched map files beside the install, never into it (see Editor).

[screenshot 5: the status line after an edit, showing the undo and redo count]

When a click does nothing

Read the status line under the map first; it says why. The usual answers:

Status line	Meaning
nothing under the pointer	The pointer was not on drawn pixels. Click on the art itself.
Erase takes an item; that is the ground (or Hue takes...)	You clicked the ground. Use Alt + wheel or Nearby tiles to reach the item.
Stamp needs an item	The current art is a land tile. Pick an item.
Nothing placed: that cell already has an item...	Keep existing statics is on. Untick it to place on top.
Nothing placed: the brush is over water...	Avoid water is on. Untick it to paint there.
Nothing placed: Density and Spacing left these cells empty...	Raise Density, or move the brush.
Set Z / hue: first click an item's row in Nearby tiles	Choose the row first, then press Set Z / hue.
Move object: click one of the project's objects first	Move and Delete work only on shard objects, not on map statics.
Place spawner needs a creature name in the spawns box	Type a creature name under Advanced > World & overlays.
Terrain is locked	Untick Lock terrain in the Tools tab.
A key does nothing	Click the map once so it has focus.

With Select, a click only fills the UO Inspector and never changes the map. To change something, pick a tool from the rail first.