Assets and Items

Assets and Minecraft items

Two panels in the top-left tab group handle pictures: Assets for your own images and Items for Minecraft item icons. Both are also under View → Panels.

Assets (your images)

Assets shows thumbnails and resource paths for every PNG in your project, with a search box.

Button	Does
Import PNGs	Adds one or more PNG files. A clashing filename gets a suffix; nothing is overwritten. You can also drag PNG files from Windows Explorer onto the Assets panel, or straight onto the canvas to import them and place them as Image controls. (Also Project → Import texture….)
New pixel art / Edit pixels	Draws a new picture, or edits the selected image, in the [[pixel editor
Assign selected	Uses the selected image as the skin or texture of the selected controls.
Add image	Creates an Image control showing it.
Replace	Swaps in another file but keeps the name, so everything using it updates. Works for images (a PNG) and sounds (any sound format; a different one is fine, as sounds play by name). A sound made in the Music maker or Sound effect maker loses those settings, since they described the old sound.
Rename	Right-click → Rename…, press F2, or click the name of the selected asset once more and wait a moment. Only the name changes, never the extension. Controls, change-texture and play-sound actions, Sound controls and particle effects that use it follow, and so do its animation, pixel-editor layers and maker settings. Scripts aren't rewritten (they can build names as they run); the Output panel lists any that mention the old name. Names use lowercase letters, numbers, _ and -.
Find uses	Lists controls, events and scripts that mention the image.
Delete	Removes the image. Refused while it's still known to be used.

You can also drag an image onto the canvas to create an Image control there. All of these can be undone.

Scripts that build image paths from pieces can't be detected by Find uses. Check your scripts before deleting an image that looks unused.

Where images live: assets/<project_id>/textures/gui/<control_type>/<name>.png, referenced as <project_id>:textures/gui/<control_type>/<name>.png. Arcadia Studio manages these paths for you, and they update automatically if you change the project Id. Minecraft resource packs can override them.

Limits: PNG only, up to 8192 × 8192 pixels and 32 MiB each, 256 MiB per project. The editor may show a smaller preview of large images; exports keep the originals.

Sounds

Import sounds (or drag audio files onto Assets) adds .ogg, .mp3, .wav and .m4a/.aac files. Each gets an ID such as myproject:click, which play_sound actions and Sound controls use. Minecraft only plays .ogg: other formats work in web and desktop apps, and a Minecraft export lists where they're used. Project .ogg sounds go into the Minecraft JAR with a sounds.json automatically.

An animation file (name.png.mcmeta) dropped on Assets by itself joins the project image with the same name.

Animated textures

Arcadia Studio plays animated textures the way Minecraft does: the frames are stacked in one PNG, and a .png.mcmeta file beside it sets the timing (for example {"animation":{"frametime":2}}; frame times are game ticks of 50 ms, and frames can list an order and per-frame time).

• Minecraft's own animated textures work straight away: set an Image (or a skin) to minecraft:textures/block/prismarine.png, minecraft:textures/block/sea_lantern.png, minecraft:textures/block/magma.png and so on.
• Made in the pixel editor: tick Plays on its own before saving. See Pixel art and sprites.
• Your own: keep name.png.mcmeta in the same folder as name.png, then import the PNG (Import PNGs or drag and drop). The animation file comes along automatically, and Assets marks the image animated.

Images and skins show one frame at a time, animated on the canvas, in Preview and in the game. Frame blending (interpolate) isn't supported; frames switch.

Items (Minecraft item icons)

Items searches Minecraft items by name or ID (namespace:item_id).

• Add item creates an Item Icon control, or drag an item onto the canvas.
• Assign selected changes the item of the selected Item Icon controls.
• Item Icon controls also have a Browse Minecraft items button in Properties.
• You can always type an ID straight into the control's Item field.

Where the list comes from

• Arcadia Studio reads your installed Minecraft 1.21.1 client automatically when it can find it (the standard launcher, or Arcadia Studio's own test instance).
• Load Minecraft / mod JAR adds items from another client or mod JAR.
• For the exact list of registered items, including modded items, start a Minecraft test once, then click Read test items. It also reads textures from the test instance's mods folder.

Minecraft's files stay on your computer; they're never packed into your project or exports.

About the thumbnails

Thumbnails are texture previews, not 3D renders. Blocks show one face, animated textures show their first frame, and some custom-rendered items have no thumbnail. In Minecraft, the real model, tint and animation are drawn. An item with no thumbnail still works if its mod is installed.