Pixscape Studio Free 0.2.2 — Physics Authoring and Spatial Collisions
Pixscape Studio Free 0.2.2 is a major physics, runtime integration, and production workflow update.
This release introduces a redesigned persistent physics authoring model, tighter integration between Spatial Blocks and Box2D collisions, improved Runtime Availability and progressive Preview loading, multi-animation entities, and extensive editor and rendering optimizations.
It also includes important improvements to particle workflows, asset metadata, scene switching, prefab handling, HTML Preview, and overall editor responsiveness.
Pixscape Studio Free remains fully open source under the Apache License 2.0.
No Pixscape royalties.
No runtime fees.
No hidden export fees.
Important compatibility note
Pixscape Studio Free 0.2.2 introduces breaking changes to the physics authoring model.
Existing physics scenes and prefabs using the previous fixture schema must be recreated or re-exported with this version.
This release replaces the legacy physics authoring model with persistent Runtime physics shapes and introduces stable shape identities across:
- scene editing
- save and reload
- duplication
- copy and paste
- prefab creation
- prefab instantiation
- undo and redo
Particle emitter positioning has also been simplified.
Particle effects now use the owning entity's Transform.x/y directly. Legacy particle local-space and transform-origin positioning behavior is no longer preserved.
Pixscape Studio Free 0.2.2 requires Pixscape Runtime 0.1.9.
Persistent physics authoring
Physics authoring has been redesigned around persistent Runtime physics shapes.
The new model provides:
- stable physics shape identities
- persistent authored geometry
- validated polygon geometry
- derived runtime fixture compilation
- coherent prefab and clipboard behavior
- stable joint references
- consistent undo and redo
- atomic validation before invalid physics state can be published
Body, fixture, polygon, joint, clipboard, prefab, and scene workflows now use the same authored physics model.
Tiled layer physics bodies are always static.
Polygon editing has also been refined with circular vertex handles, while resize and Spatial handles remain visually distinct.
Spatial Blocks and physics collisions
Spatial Blocks can now directly author physics collisions.
A new Physics collision option creates a linked static polygon shape derived from the Spatial Block footprint.
Linked collisions remain synchronized with the authored Spatial geometry.
Highlights include:
- automatic collision generation from Spatial Block footprints
- stable linked physics shape identities
- automatic recompilation after Spatial geometry changes
- automatic recompilation after pixels-per-meter changes
- atomic deletion of Spatial Blocks and their linked collisions
- full undo and redo restoration
- read-only linked geometry
- editable Sensor, material, collision-filter, and enabled properties
- a visible
Linked to Spatial Block #...indicator
This creates a much cleaner workflow for walls, structures, passages, and other 2.5D environments that need both deterministic Spatial ordering and physical collision.
Spatial actor workflow
This release also introduces a dedicated Spatial actor layer.
Spatial actors can now be created with their required physics body and footprint configuration already prepared for Spatial ordering.
This reduces the amount of manual setup required for characters and other moving actors participating in 2.5D depth relationships.
Multi-animation entities
Animation entities can now own multiple Animation assets.
This makes it possible to keep related character animations on one entity and switch between them instead of creating separate animation entities.
For example, one character can own:
- idle
- run
- attack
- hit
- death
Animation assets can be switched from the Properties panel, while their authored clip and FPS metadata remain authoritative.
Animation editing now stays synchronized across:
- active entities
- multiple entities using the same Animation asset
- asset edits
- animation switching
- undo and redo
- scene reloads
Prefab atlas dependency collection has also been updated so prefabs containing multi-animation entities include all required animation assets.
Runtime Availability and progressive Preview loading
Preview loading has been significantly improved.
Desktop and HTML Preview now use the Runtime's progressive scene-loading pipeline and enter normal gameplay only after Runtime READY.
The HTML Preview pipeline now defers selected-scene resources to Runtime Availability instead of eagerly copying or loading everything during bootstrap.
This includes:
- scene data
- atlas pages
- particle effects
- prefab fragments
- other declared Runtime Availability resources
The Preview now displays simple loading progress while the Runtime prepares the selected scene.
The HTML Preview pipeline has also been simplified so the fixed player and current Runtime export can be served directly instead of rebuilding a complete temporary player tree for every launch.
HTML prefab support
Runtime prefab spawning through Runtime Availability is now supported correctly in HTML/WebGL2.
The embedded HTML Preview player has been rebuilt with the updated Runtime GWT reflection configuration required by runtime prefab fragments.
This fixes prefab spawning paths that worked on Desktop and Android but previously failed in HTML when the prefab was instantiated dynamically.
Particle workflow improvements
Particle editing and playback received several important improvements.
Particle entities now use a dedicated fixed-size viewport marker instead of synthetic rectangular dimensions and resize handles.
Particle Transform properties expose only X and Y, matching the actual emitter position.
Additional improvements include:
- more consistent particle selection and hover behavior
- improved dragging and lasso selection
- reduced editor overhead for non-render entities
- cached particle atlas readiness
- fewer unnecessary atlas rebinds
- fewer full asset refreshes after particle file drops
- corrected fallback looping behavior
- corrected premultiplied-alpha behavior
- safer shared atlas texture ownership
- failure-atomic particle effect replacement
A failed particle effect replacement now preserves the previously valid effect instead of leaving the entity without a visible effect.
Asset and atlas pipeline improvements
Studio asset resolution has been substantially optimized and consolidated.
Asset metadata is now indexed by:
- Asset ID
- logical path
- source ownership
Sprite, animation, tiled fallback, tiled ghost, and render-rebind paths now reuse centralized asset resolution instead of repeatedly scanning atlas contents.
Other improvements include:
- centralized atlas and standalone visual resolution
- Runtime atlas binding reuse inside Studio
- reduced repeated asset metadata loading
- reduced duplicate resolution during scene changes and undo/redo
- atlas page decoding off the render thread
- GPU snapshot preparation off the render thread
- prepared atlas pages reused for normal textures and texture arrays
- reduced particle-related Preview stalls
- improved prefab dependency collection for animation assets
These changes significantly reduce unnecessary editor work during atlas rebuilds and asset changes.
Scene switching and editor reliability
Scene switching now uses an explicit unsaved-changes workflow.
When changing scenes with pending changes, Pixscape now asks whether to:
- Save
- Don't Save
- Cancel
Scene activation waits for a successful visible save when Save is selected.
If saving is cancelled or fails, the previous scene remains active and the scene selector is restored.
The previous silent automatic scene save has been removed.
Other reliability improvements include:
- stable physics selection after fixture or body changes
- stable picking after undo/redo and scene activation
- atomic prefab and clipboard physics instantiation
- corrected entity identity handling after delete/undo/redo
- linked collision activation when a tiled layer initially has no transform
- copied entities correctly adapting to their destination layer
- prevention of partial state after failed physics or Spatial operations
- asynchronous save failures no longer leaving the progress dialog open indefinitely
Canvas and editor improvements
The Canvas now permanently displays the active editing mode.
The indicator distinguishes contexts such as:
- Normal
- Physics
- Spatial
- Tiled
- Lights
In Tiled mode, the same indicator also displays the logical grid coordinates under the mouse cursor.
The Studio interface has also been refined with:
- a more compact layout
- clearer panel hierarchy
- harmonized dialogs
- unified icon-based list controls
- clearer Asset ID and stable entity ID presentation
- logical asset names in labels and tooltips
Performance improvements
0.2.2 contains a substantial amount of work aimed at reducing unnecessary editor and Preview processing.
Highlights include:
- reduced repeated atlas lookups
- reduced particle fallback work
- reduced repeated asset metadata loading
- reduced atlas rebinds after particle changes
- reduced undo/redo overhead
- asynchronous atlas page decoding
- asynchronous GPU snapshot preparation
- reuse of prepared atlas pages
- tiled fallback rendering disabled when no standalone fallback is required
- cached particle atlas readiness
These changes improve responsiveness during editing, scene changes, asset updates, atlas repacks, and Preview startup.
Distribution
This release is available as:
- Windows x64 ZIP
- Linux x86_64 AppImage
- Linux x64 tar.gz portable archive
SHA-256 checksum files are provided for the downloadable builds.
Requirements
Pixscape Studio Free 0.2.2 requires Java 21.
Projects exported by this release use Pixscape Runtime 0.1.9.
Pixscape Runtime 0.1.9 is published on Maven Central with Java 8-compatible bytecode for broader LibGDX ecosystem compatibility.
Pixscape projects have been validated with the current Runtime across:
- Desktop
- Android
- HTML5 / WebGL2
Project direction
Pixscape Free is the open-source foundation of the project.
Pixscape Studio Free and Pixscape Runtime remain available under the Apache License 2.0 and can be used for commercial games without Pixscape royalties or runtime fees.
Pixscape Pro will remain a separate optional edition focused on advanced production workflows. Its purpose is to fund the long-term development of Pixscape without replacing, restricting, or weakening Studio Free.
Thank you to everyone testing Pixscape Studio Free, the Runtime APIs, physics workflows, HTML Preview, prefabs, animations, particles, and multiplatform builds.