Layers Guide

Native Layers (0—2)

The editor provides three native layers that are fully compatible with RPG Maker XP. These layers use the map’s assigned tileset and standard tile IDs. Native layers are exactly what RMXP reads and renders, so anything you paint here will appear correctly when the game runs in RMXP alone.

Extended Layers (3+)

Beyond the three native layers, the editor supports unlimited extended layers. Extended layers offer several features not available in RMXP:

• Cross-tileset tiles: Paint tiles from any tileset, not just the map’s default one.
• Extra autotiles: Use named autotiles beyond RMXP’s eight-slot limit.
• Per-tile effects: Set individual opacity, rotation, hue, saturation, lighting, and flip for each tile.
• Per-tile passage, priority, and terrain: Override game properties on a per-tile basis.

Extended layer data is embedded inside the map’s .rxdata file. It is invisible to RMXP itself, but the editor’s runtime plugin reads and renders it in-game.

Layer Panel

The Layer Panel lists every layer — native, extended, and shadow layers alike, plus the fog / panorama / custom layer groups described below.

• MS badge: Extended layer rows, the fog/panorama (and any mod-added) group rows, and the shadow group row carry a small MS badge — these features require the MakerStudio plugin in-game (see MS-Exclusive Feature Indicators). Native layer rows have no badge because they work in stock RMXP. Hide the badges via View → Show MS-Exclusive Indicators.
• Eye icon: Toggle layer visibility on and off.
• Opacity slider: Adjust the overall transparency of the layer. Dragging the slider adjusts opacity only — it no longer reorders the layer.
• Drag a layer row: Drag an extended layer by its name to reorder it. (Dragging from the eye icon, opacity slider, or delete button does nothing, so you can use those controls freely.)
• Right-click: Rename a layer.
• Click a shadow sub-row: Select that shadow — its sub-row highlights, a cyan outline draws on the canvas, and (in Dim mode) only that shadow recovers full opacity while others stay dimmed. Press Ctrl+D to deselect.

Fog, Panorama, and Custom Layer Groups

Besides tile layers, the Layer Panel hosts image layer groups — full-screen graphics drawn above or below your tiles. Two groups are always there:

• Fog Layers — drawn above all tiles, like RPG Maker XP’s fog, but you can stack as many as you want. Images come from Graphics/Fogs/. New fog layers start at 20% opacity.
• Panorama Layers — drawn beneath all tiles, replacing the tileset’s single panorama. Images come from Graphics/Panoramas/. New panorama layers start at full opacity. See Map Management for how existing tileset panoramas are picked up automatically.

Both groups work the same way:

• + on the group row adds a layer; each layer gets its own sub-row with edit and delete buttons.
• The group eye icon shows/hides every layer in the group at once; opacity is set per layer in the edit popup.
• The edit popup picks the image with the standard image picker (live preview, favourites, Browse) and offers per-layer hue, opacity, blend mode (normal/add/subtract/multiply), zoom, scroll X/Y speeds, Follow camera (lock the image to the screen), and — for world-anchored layers — a Parallax slider (0–1): 1 moves with the map, 0.5 is the classic RMXP panorama half-speed, 0 stays fixed on screen.
• Everything is rendered live on the editor canvas (scrolling included) and in-game by the MakerStudio plugin, clipped per map so connected maps don’t bleed into each other.

Custom layer groups: mods can register extra groups of the same kind, each with its own Graphics/ subfolder and its own draw priority (below or above the tiles). They appear as additional group rows in the Layer Panel and are saved inside the map file, so they keep rendering in-game even when the mod isn’t installed.

Above-tile groups (fog and custom groups with priority ≥ 0) are listed near the top of the panel; below-tile groups (panorama and negative-priority custom groups) sit at the bottom, mirroring their draw order.

Collision Overlay

Press C to toggle the collision overlay. This displays passage flags directly on the canvas as directional arrows and blocked/open indicators. For each square it shows the passage and terrain of the top-most tile placed there, combining the tileset’s base values with any per-tile overrides.

Priority and Layer Order

On the editor canvas, tiles are drawn purely in layer order — a tile on a higher layer always covers a tile on a lower layer, regardless of its priority — and events are drawn on top of all tiles. This matches RPG Maker XP’s own map editor, where priority never changes what’s drawn on top.

Priority only controls in-game and Game Simulator occlusion: a tile with a priority of 1 or higher (an “overhead” tile, such as a treetop) draws in front of the player when the player walks behind it. Ground tiles (priority 0) never hide the player.

This is decided per tile: each tile keeps its own priority, so an overhead tile and the ground tile beneath it on the same square behave independently (the treetop hides the player while the path under it does not). The one exception is layering — a ground tile on a higher layer covers everything beneath it on that square, so an overhead tile only draws in front of the player when no higher layer places a ground tile over it. The in-game plugin and the Game Simulator follow the same rule, so what you test in the simulator matches the game.

So priority no longer moves a tile up or in front of events in the editor — use layers to control what’s drawn on top, and use priority (set in the Tileset Editor) to decide what the player can walk behind in-game.