Map Management

Creating a New Map

Choose Map then New Map from the menu, or click the + button in the Maps panel header (next to the map list, mirroring the add-layer + in the Layers panel). Fill in the details:

• Name: The map’s display name.
• Width / Height: Dimensions in tiles.
• Tileset: Which tileset the map uses for its native layers.
• Parent map: Where the map sits in the hierarchy tree.

Click Create to add the map to your project.

Opening Maps

Double-click any map in the Map Tree to open it in a new editor tab.

Duplicating a Map

To make a full copy of a map as a brand-new map (a separate map_id, not a version):

• Right-click a map in the Map Tree and choose Duplicate Map, or
• Open the map and choose Map → Duplicate Map from the menu.

The copy is named ” (copy)”, placed under the same parent, and opened automatically. It is a faithful clone — tiles, events, layers, shadows/fog, and any map versions come along. If the source map has unsaved edits, they’re saved first so the copy is current. This is different from a map version (same map, swapped in-game); use Duplicate Map when you want an independent map you can change without affecting the original.

Resizing and Shifting Maps

Open the resize dialog from Map then Resize / Shift Map, or right-click a map in the Map Tree and choose Resize/Shift.

Resizing

Enter the new width and height. A 9-way anchor pad decides where the existing content lands in the new canvas — pick the center to keep the map centered as it grows or shrinks, or a corner/edge to anchor there. The dialog auto-computes the shift from your anchor choice.

Wrap

A Wrap toggle (on by default) controls what happens to content that falls outside the new bounds:

• Wrap on: tiles, events, and shadows that move off one edge reappear on the opposite side (toroidal wrap).
• Wrap off: anything outside the new bounds is dropped.

You can also shift content manually by overriding the computed shift values.

Preview & Undo

An SVG preview shows where your content will sit inside the new canvas before you commit. The resize is a single undo step — press Ctrl+Z afterward to restore the original size and content.

Changing a Map’s Tileset

Right-click a map in the Map Tree and choose Change Tileset, or use Map then Change Tileset from the menu. Pick from the searchable list and click Apply — the map repaints with the new tileset’s graphics right away, no reload needed. Changing the tileset only affects the native layers, and does not remap tile IDs (existing tiles keep their numbers, so they may look different under the new tileset). Extended layers can continue to use tiles from any tileset.

Panorama Layers and Battleback

In RPG Maker XP the panorama (the scrolling background image behind a map) and the battleback (the battle background) belong to the tileset, so every map sharing a tileset shares one of each. Maker Studio replaces the single panorama with panorama layers edited from the Layer panel, and still lets you change the battleback right from the map you’re editing.

Panoramas — the “Panorama Layers” group

Panoramas are edited in the Layer panel, in the Panorama Layers group — exactly like fog layers. (The old Change Panorama… menu items are gone; there is no separate panorama dialog anymore.)

• Click the group’s + to add a panorama layer; use a layer’s sub-row to edit or delete it. The group’s eye icon shows/hides all panorama layers at once.
• The edit popup picks the image from Graphics/Panoramas/ with the same image picker used everywhere else (live preview, favourites, Browse), and offers per-layer hue, opacity, blend mode, zoom, scroll speeds, Follow camera, and a Parallax slider (0–1): 1 moves 1:1 with the map, 0.5 matches RPG Maker XP’s classic half-speed panorama scrolling, and 0 stays fixed on screen. The slider hides while Follow camera is checked (that already means fully screen-locked). New panorama layers default to full opacity and parallax 0.5.
• You can stack several panorama layers on one map. They are drawn on the editor canvas beneath your tiles, so you see exactly how they look while mapping, and in-game each map’s panoramas are clipped to that map (they don’t bleed onto connected maps).
• Each map version keeps its own panorama layers — a “destroyed” version can have a different sky than the normal one. Press Ctrl+S to save them with the map.

If a map already has a panorama from its tileset (or a version override saved with an older build), the editor shows it automatically as a single panorama layer. As long as you leave that layer untouched, nothing changes on disk — the map keeps using the stock tileset panorama, plugin or no plugin. The moment you edit the panorama layers (change, add, or delete one), they become part of the map: the MakerStudio plugin renders them in-game and quietly stops the tileset’s own panorama from drawing twice (the tileset itself is never modified). Like fog layers, edited panorama layers need the plugin to show in-game, so the group carries the MS badge.

Mods can also register their own custom layer groups — extra image-layer groups like Panorama Layers or Fog Layers, drawn beneath or above the tiles at a priority the mod chooses. They appear as additional groups in the Layer panel and are saved with the map, so they keep working in-game even without the mod installed.

Battleback

There are three ways to change the battleback, all opening the same image picker:

• Menu bar → Map → Change Battleback… (next to Change Tileset…).
• Right-click a map in the Map Tree → Change Battleback….
• When you’re editing a map version, the version’s right-click submenu has Change Battleback (this version)….

Pick an image from Graphics/Battlebacks/ (no hue slider). Leave the name blank to clear it. What the change does depends on what you’re editing:

• On the base map, you are editing the tileset — exactly like RPG Maker XP. The new battleback is written to the tileset immediately and applies to every map that uses that tileset (other open maps update on the spot). This works in any game, with no plugin needed, so the menu item shows no MS badge while you’re on the base map.
• On a map version, you set a per-version override, stored in the map file (press Ctrl+S to keep it) and applied in-game by the MakerStudio plugin — so those items carry the MS badge.

The battleback is not shown on the map canvas — it only appears in battles in-game — but it is stored and editable here.

Maps saved with an older Maker Studio build may still contain a per-map base override; the editor now ignores it (the base map always shows the tileset’s settings) and removes it the next time you save that map. The same in-game plugin also stops the tileset’s own fog from drawing twice when a map uses Maker Studio fog layers.

Deleting a Map

Right-click a map in the Map Tree and choose Delete Map, then confirm the deletion. Any child maps are moved up to the deleted map’s parent so they are not lost. The map’s .rxdata file is removed from disk.

Exporting Maps

The editor supports four export formats. All exports stream their work in the background — the bottom status bar shows a progress bar while frames render and encode, and a toast pops up when the export finishes with an Open folder button that reveals the output file in your OS file explorer.

Export as JSON

Map then Export Map then Export as JSON saves a complete dump of the map including extended layers and shadow data. This is useful for backups, sharing, or re-importing.

Export as PNG

Map then Export Map then Export as PNG renders the entire map to a PNG image at full resolution.

Export as GIF (Animated)

Map then Export Map then Export as GIF creates an animated GIF showing autotile and shadow animations in motion. GIF is limited to a 256-color palette, so heavily shaded maps may look posterized — prefer WebP for those.

Export as WebP (Animated)

Map then Export Map then Export as WebP creates an animated WebP. WebP supports the full 24-bit color space, so it preserves shadow gradients and fog colors GIF cannot. Before saving, the editor asks whether the animation should loop forever or play once and stop — pick “Play once” if you intend to embed the file somewhere that should not repeat. Output is lossless by default.

Importing Maps

Map then Import Map from JSON loads a previously exported JSON file as a new map in your project.

Setting the Player Start Position

The player start position is where the player appears when a new game begins. To set it:

1. Right-click any tile on the map you want the game to start on.
2. Choose Set as Player Start from the menu.

A green Start marker appears on that tile, and the position is saved to your project immediately (no map save needed). There is only one start position per project — setting a new one moves it. The marker is only drawn on the map it belongs to. To move it, right-click a different tile (on any map) and choose Set as Player Start again.

Running the Game

Click the green Run button in the toolbar (or use File then Run Game). The editor saves all open maps with unsaved changes, then launches Game.exe in debug mode from your project folder.

Running on Linux (Proton / Wine / Native)

Game.exe is a Windows executable, so on Linux the editor normally runs it through Proton or Wine. If your project also has a native Linux build (a Game_Linux folder next to Game.exe, from a native mkxp-z build), the editor detects it and offers that as an option too. The first time you press Run, a dialog lets you pick how to launch:

• Proton: choose an installed Proton version (and, if needed, the Steam app id to use). The editor sets up a dedicated Wine prefix for your game the first time.
• Wine: launch through your system Wine instead.
• Native Linux build (when available): runs Game_Linux directly, with no Proton/Wine involved. If it’s already running, the editor just focuses its window instead of starting a second copy; otherwise it opens your terminal emulator and launches it there in debug mode.

Your choice is remembered per project, so later runs launch straight away without asking again. To make the dialog reappear later — for example to switch between Proton and the native build — use File → Clear Proton Preference.

Saves Button

After your first Run, a Saves button appears in the toolbar that opens the folder where the game writes its save files:

• Windows / macOS: opens the native saves folder (on Windows, %AppData%\<Game>).
• Linux, Proton/Wine: opens the relevant folder inside the Proton/Wine prefix the game ran in.
• Linux, native build: opens ~/.local/share/<GameTitle>/, where native Linux builds keep their save data.

This makes it easy to back up or clear save files while testing.

Autosave and Crash Recovery

You still save with Ctrl+S as usual, but the editor quietly protects unsaved work in the background:

• Every 5 minutes, any open map with unsaved changes is snapshotted to a private autosave folder in your user profile. Your real map files are never touched by an autosave — there is nothing to clean up and nothing changes in your project.
• Saving a map normally discards its snapshot (it is no longer needed).
• If the editor (or your PC) crashes with unsaved changes, the next time you open that project a notification lists the maps with autosaved work and offers two choices. The notification stays up until you pick one:
  • Restore — writes the autosaved changes into the map files and reloads any of those maps you have open. The pre-restore state is kept in the regular Data/map-backups/ history, so you can still go back if you didn’t want the restore.
  • Discard — throws the autosaved work away and removes the snapshot, so the notification won’t come back for it.
• Closing the notification with the ✕ without choosing leaves the snapshot in place, so you’ll be offered the recovery again next session. Use Discard to stop the prompt for good.
• Discarding a map’s unsaved changes (when closing a tab, switching projects, or exiting) also drops that map’s snapshot, so discarded work is never offered for recovery later.

Saves themselves are also crash-safe: the editor writes to a temporary file and swaps it in only once it is fully on disk, so a crash or power loss mid-save can never leave a half-written map file. On top of that, every save first copies the previous file into Data/map-backups/ (the newest 10 backups per file are kept).

Opening the Same Project in Two Windows

Running two Maker Studio windows on different projects is fully supported (it’s how the Cross-Project Clipboard works). Opening the same project in two windows is risky, though: both windows write the same map files, and the last one to save silently wins. The editor detects this and shows a warning when a second window opens a project that is already open elsewhere. You can keep editing, but it’s best to close one of the windows.

Close Confirmation

When you close a tab that has unsaved changes, the editor asks you to confirm:

• Save: Saves the map, then closes the tab.
• Discard: Closes the tab without saving.
• Cancel: Returns to the editor without closing.

Switching Projects with Unsaved Changes

If you choose File → Open Project… or pick a project from File → Open Recent while any open map has unsaved changes, the editor opens a Save All / Discard / Cancel dialog before swapping projects:

• Save All: Saves every dirty map, then switches to the new project.
• Discard: Switches without saving — unsaved edits are lost.
• Cancel: Stays on the current project.

This is the same prompt used by Help → Reset App and View → Layout → Refresh Layout, so unsaved work cannot be lost silently by opening a different project.

”Not a Project Folder” Dialog

When you point the editor at a folder that does not look like an RPG Maker XP project (no Data/MapInfos.rxdata inside), it shows a Not a Project Folder dialog with two buttons:

• Choose Another…: Re-opens the folder picker so you can try a different folder.
• Go Back: Returns to your previous project (or to the welcome screen if this was the first launch).

This replaces the previous behaviour where picking a non-game folder left the editor in an empty / stuck state.