Skip to content

sideview editor

Jump to bottom
Chris Frantz edited this page Apr 14, 2019 · 1 revision

The SideView Editor

The SideView Editor allows you to change the layout, connectivity and enemies for a side-view area.

Side-view editing is by far the most complex aspect of editing Zelda 2 maps. Unlike the Overworld which is a simple grid of tiles, the representation of a sideview area is more like a list of commands which describe how to draw the area. This list of commands limits what can be drawn in a given type of area. For example, you cannot put a tree inside of a palace area because the commands for drawing a tree do not exist in palace areas.

Sections:

Map Commands

The Map Commands view shows the command list to draw this map.

sideview-command-list

There are lots of parameters which control map drawing:

Map Objects

Each object on the map has its anchor point highlighed with a box.

  • item Represents a normal map item, such as a rock floor, lava, a pillar, etc.
  • item Represents a map command which sets a new floor or ceiling height.
  • item Represents a map command which advances the map cursor (normally, you won't need to interact with this command).

Each anchor point can be moved by dragging it with the mouse.

Using the scroll-wheel inside of a normal map item will also adjust its param field (if it has one). For example, the param field often controls the length or height of an object (e.g. the height of a pillar).

Each anchor point has a right-click context dialog that allows you to edit its properties.

sideview-command-context

Note that if you Copy an object, it will be duplicated and placed in the exact same position as the existing object. Drag it to a new location.

Flags

  • Object Set controls which set of objects are available on this map.
  • Width controls how wide the map is (in screens). All maps decompress to four screens wide. The Width can be used to make a 4-screen wide area into four 1-screen wide areas. Many of the 1-screen wide destinations on the Overworld use this technique (such as road-encouters, fairies, or item screens).
  • Grass controls whether grass appears at vertical position 9.
  • Bushes controls whether bushes appear at vertical position 9.
  • Cursor Moves Left is not a real map parameter, but controls how Z2Edit attempts to optimize maps when it compresses them back into ROM. So far, I believe only the church in the town of Mido uses this feature.

Ground

  • Ceiling controls whether the area has a ceiling.
  • TileSet controls which tiles are used in this area.
  • Floor controls at which height the floor is drawn.

Background

  • Spr Palette controls which palette is used for sprites in this area.
  • BG Palette controls which palette is used for the background.
  • BG Map controls whether or not a background map is drawn first, before drawing this map. This seems to be typically used for item rooms, such as Palace1 08 or west_hyrule 17 (Heart Container Cave).

Command List

This is the list of commands used to draw this map.

TODO(cfrantz): Expand this section. For now, refer to Dwedit's information on DataCrystal.

Clone this wiki locally