Build cliffs, walls, boxes, roofs, fences, bridges, stairs and waterfalls in a Diorama map, then dress it in one step.
Diorama Build Mode
Build mode is how you shape a Diorama map: pick a part (a cliff, a wall, a box, a roof, a fence, a bridge, stairs, a waterfall) and drag it onto the map. Every part is drawn with your project's own tiles, and every drag is one undo step. When the shape is there, Dress can finish the map for you with grass, flowers, rocks and trees.
Build mode is in every map of a top-down project with Diorama on. It has no switch and no feature flag of its own.
Where to Author It#
| What | Where |
|---|---|
| Diorama (needed first) | World → Rendering → View Mode → Top-Down, then Diorama (height and perspective). See Diorama View |
| Build mode | Map Editor → open a map → Build, the tab right after Floor in the top bar |
| Lock or unlock it | Click Build in the top bar: its Lock / Unlock button shows on the tab |
| The parts | The parts palette in the side panel (on a phone: Show Sidebar opens it as a drawer) |
| Shapes, the Height stepper, Dress | The Build bar on the map, beside Stamps |
| A placed part's settings | Its card at the bottom right (a sheet along the bottom on a phone). Right-click it (long-press on a phone) for its menu |
| Paint single faces, doors and windows | Face paint & block settings › at the foot of the palette |
| Ready-made buildings | The Stamps chip on the map → Buildings |
How To Build#
- Make sure the project is Top-Down and Diorama is ticked under World → Rendering.
- Open a map and click Build in the top bar.
- Check the Art set list at the top of the palette. This map's own follows the tiles the map is painted with; pick another set to build this map from it.
- Pick a part from a section, or type in Search parts…. The chips (All, Terrain, Cliffs, Stairs, Build, Water, Dress) show one section at a time.
- Set the stepper on the Build bar: Height for cliffs, walls, boxes, waterfalls and Set height; Lanes for a bridge.
- Pick a shape on the Build bar (each part offers only the shapes it takes) and drag on the map. A toast says what was placed; Ctrl+Z takes it off.
- Pick Select on the Build bar and click any face of a part to open its card. Right-click it for its menu.
- When the shape of the map is right, pick Dress to dress it (see below).
A new map you make with New map opens covered in your project's ground tile, ready to build on.
The Parts#
Each section shows its main parts first; More … under a section shows the rest of it. Parts come from your project: a cliff for every RPG Maker A4 top-and-wall pair you imported, a fence for every fence object, a waterfall for every A1 water.
| Section | Parts | What a drag does |
|---|---|---|
| Terrain | Raise, Lower | Lift or sink the ground one tile per stroke |
| Flatten | Drag out from a plateau: the ground takes the height of the cell you start on | |
| Set height | Puts the ground at the height on the stepper (0 to 16) | |
| Cliffs & walls | Grass cliff, Dirt cliff, Sand cliff, Snow cliff, Stone wall, Brick wall, Hedge, Forest, and more under More | Drag an outline: raised ground with that cliff (or a wall) as tall as the stepper, walkable on top |
| Stairs & slopes | Stairs | Drag from the ground toward a cliff: a flight of steps stands in front of it |
| Cut-in stairs | Drag toward a cliff: the steps are cut into the raised ground | |
| Slope | Drag toward a cliff: a ramp rises one tile in front of it | |
| Ladder | Click the cell at the foot of a cliff: a ladder climbs to the top | |
| Build | Box | One solid box of the stepper's height: a pillar, a crate, a house body |
| Roofs (Terracotta roof, Slate roof, Thatch roof …) | Drag over walls, or click a box: a whole roof with its corners and ridge | |
| Fences (one per fence object) | Drag from post to post; start on the last post to turn a corner | |
| Bridge | Drag from bank to bank across water or a gap: a plank deck with railings | |
| Water | Waterfall, Canal fall, Cliff waterfall, Boulder fall | Drag where the water falls: a block of water whose sides are a waterfall. See Diorama Water |
| Dress | Dress | Dresses the ground you drag over (see below) |
The Build Bar#
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Select | Click a placed part to see and change it; right-click it for more. One click selects the whole part |
| Pencil | Paint cell by cell |
| Rectangle | Drag a rectangle (a straight line for fences and bridges) |
| Ellipse | Drag a round area |
| Eraser | Take it away again. Hold Shift to take away every level |
| Height | Cliffs, walls, boxes and waterfalls: 1 to 8 tiles tall (starts at 2). Set height: 0 to 16 (starts at 2) |
| Lanes | A bridge's width: 1 to 4 (starts at 1) |
| Dress | Picks the Dress part |
The Palette#
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Art set | The tile set every Build part and Dress use on this map. This map's own follows what the map is painted with; the others are the sets your project has (RPG Maker MZ Outside, RPG Maker MV Outside, Starter set …). Remembered for each map in this browser |
| Search parts… | Finds parts by name or by a word such as cliff, roof, fence or river |
| Section chips | Show one section and every part in it |
| More … / Fewer … | Show or fold the rest of a section |
| Face paint & block settings › | The finer tools: paint a single face (a door, a window, a sign, cliff art), pick block art, stack, walk-through. ‹ Back to parts returns to the palette |
Change a Placed Part#
Pick Select and click any face of a part: its top, a wall, a cliff face. Its card opens.
| Card field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Top / Sides | The tiles on a cliff's or wall's top and sides. Change picks another from your cliffs and walls. A box has Sides only |
| Roof tile | The tile on a roof |
| Deck | A bridge's planks. Its Height (the height its deck is walked at, the banks it joins) and Lanes are shown; drag a new bridge to change them |
| Height | Cliffs, walls and boxes: 1 to 8 tiles |
| Walk-through | On: people pass through the part (a curtain, an arch); it still draws. Off: solid again |
| Delete | Removes the part. One undo brings it back |
Right-click a part (long-press on a phone) for its menu. It only offers what that part can do:
| Part | Menu |
|---|---|
| Cliff or wall | Taller (Ctrl+↑), Shorter (Ctrl+↓), Change the top tile, Change the side tile, Walk-through, Add or remove tiles, Duplicate |
| Box | Taller, Shorter, Add a roof, Paint its walls, Add doors and windows, Walk-through |
| Roof | Change the roof tile, Walk-through |
| Bridge | Change the deck tile, Walk-through |
| Fence | Walk-through |
| All of the above | Cut (Ctrl+X), Copy (Ctrl+C), Paste (Ctrl+V), Delete (Del) |
| Stairs, slope, ladder | Remove these stairs (Ctrl+Z puts them back), Draw new stairs |
With a cliff or wall part picked and a wall selected, the arrow keys move it one tile and Ctrl+↑ / Ctrl+↓ make it taller or shorter. Otherwise the arrows pan the map. Build mode has no keys of its own beyond these: the map editor's usual keys work (Ctrl+Z / Ctrl+Y, copy and paste, Esc to drop the selection, Delete).
Dress: Finish a Map in One Go#
After you build, a map is one grass tile everywhere. Dress paints the details a mapper adds by hand: tall grass at the feet of cliffs and fences and along the water, looser patches of tall grass in the open, tufts along their edges, flowers in little clusters, a few rocks and plants, small groups of trees, a path if you want one, and the same grass on top of your raised ground. Everything comes from the map's art set, and everything it places is an ordinary tile or object you can repaint or delete.
- In Build mode, pick Dress (the palette's last part, or the Dress button on the Build bar). The Dress card opens.
- Choose how much: Light, Normal or Lush.
- Drag a rectangle over the ground you want dressed, press Whole map, or select a placed part and press Selected part to dress its top and the ground round its foot.
- Look at the preview: the map shows where everything would go and the card counts it ("Preview: 34 tall grass, 5 flowers…"). Nothing is written yet.
- Press Re-roll for another arrangement, or change the amount.
- Press Apply. The whole dress is one undo step: Ctrl+Z takes all of it off. Cancel drops the preview.
To lay a path, switch on Draw a path and drag from where the path starts to where it ends. The path is two tiles wide and bends round water, stairs and objects.
| Field | What it does |
|---|---|
| Light / Normal / Lush | How much to dress. Normal is the default |
| Repaint | Off: Dress only paints plain ground and leaves what you painted alone. On: it also dresses tiles you painted and redoes earlier dress |
| Draw a path | Your next drag lays a path two tiles wide |
| Whole map / Selected part | Dress the whole map, or the selected part's top and its foot |
| Re-roll | Another arrangement of the same area |
| Apply / Cancel | Write the preview (one undo step) or drop it |
Dress never covers stairs, slopes, ladders, bridges, blocks, shapes, water, a cliff face, events, doors or objects. It keeps the cells round stairs and doors clear, never dresses the rim of a raised top, and never paints over a patch you drew by hand in RPG Maker unless Repaint is on.
Ready-made Buildings#
The Stamps chip on the map has a Buildings group in Diorama projects: a Plaster cottage, a Stone house, an L-shaped inn, a Plank barn and a Fenced garden plot, each made of the same parts you build with. Press Place on one, turn or mirror the ghost, and click: it stands on the highest ground under it, with foundations under the lower parts. As saved on the banner places it exactly at a level instead. A red outline with Cannot stand here says why it does not fit. Save a building of your own as a stamp the same way: select it and Save it in the Stamps panel. See Stamps.
Things That Catch People Out#
| What you see | Why, and what to do |
|---|---|
| There is no Build tab | The project is isometric, or Diorama is off. Build mode shows only in top-down projects with Diorama on |
| "Build is locked — unlock it on the Build tab" | You locked Build. Click Build and choose Unlock |
| "There is no ground under part of that outline." | Parts stand on ground. Press Fill this map with grass in the message to lay ground on every empty tile (one Ctrl+Z takes it off), or paint ground there on the Floor tab, then drag again |
| No Bridge in the palette | A bridge needs a plank tile for its deck and a fence object for its railings. Import or add a fence object |
| "Both ends are on the lowest ground…" | A bridge runs from bank to bank: start and end the drag on raised banks or cliff tops, at least one block up. It is straight, 3 to 48 tiles long, and cannot rest on stairs |
| "No higher ground within 48 cells: drag toward a cliff." | Stairs, cut-in stairs and slopes climb to higher ground: drag straight toward the cliff. A rise of half a block can be walked already and needs no stairs |
| You made a cliff taller and the stairs no longer reach | Stairs keep their height. Right-click them, Remove these stairs, then draw new ones |
| "There are no walls under the roof." | A roof goes over walls: draw a box first, or click a box with the roof part. A roof outline must be at least 2 tiles wide |
| A part's handles do not answer | While a shape (Rectangle, Pencil …) is picked, handles and the selection chip ignore clicks. Pick Select first |
| No Dress part | Dress knows RPG Maker's outdoor sets (MZ Outside and the MV Outside set). Pick one of those in Art set, or paint by hand |
| "Every tile here is already painted or taken." | The area has no plain ground left. Turn on Repaint to dress over earlier dress and your own painting |
| "The map changed since the preview…" | Something changed after the preview. The card now shows the dress for the map as it is: press Apply again |
| Trees never appear in a dress | Trees come from your art set's standing objects. An RPG Maker MZ import has them; an MV set imported from RPG Maker U2U has the ones your maps used |
| Add or remove tiles, Paint its walls or Add doors and windows asks for a tile or an object | Open Face paint & block settings › at the foot of the palette to reach the tile and object palettes |
- Everything is saved in the map. Blocks are solid for players on the server, also in an export. Heights and blocks play only on a game server and game client from this release on.
- Stairs show your RPG Maker stair picture. A flight is painted with the stair tile that matches the cliff it climbs (meadow stairs on a grass cliff, paved stairs on a stone wall), when your project has the RPG Maker A5 sheet; without it the steps show the tile under them.
Studio Copilot#
The Copilot does the same with tools that each take a dry run, which saves nothing and tells you what would happen:
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| build-parts-list | Lists the Build parts this project offers and the tiles each one uses |
| wall-region-place | A cliff or wall of any outline: height 1 to 16 whole tiles, its top and side tiles, decoration on its top |
| box-place, box-resize, box-carve | Place a box, give it a new rectangle, cut a notch or a courtyard out of it |
| block-stack-height | Makes walls taller or shorter |
| block-roof | A hip or gable roof over walls |
| fence-run | A fence from post to post (2 to 64 posts) |
| bridge-place | A bridge from bank to bank, 1 to 4 lanes, up to 48 tiles |
| height-paint, height-lift, shape-paint, height-stairs-flight | Set, raise or lower ground; lift an area with what stands on it; slopes, stairs and ladders; a whole flight of stairs |
| face-paint, block-paint, block-erase | Paint faces of raised ground and blocks; place or remove single blocks |
| dress | Dresses a rectangle of up to 64 × 64 tiles at Light, Normal or Lush, with an optional path |
| stamp-place | Places a stamp or a ready-made building |
Without Diorama they answer "Blocks need Diorama (World → Rendering)" (or "Heights in blocks need Diorama" for the ground tools) and change nothing.
Feature Flag#
None. Build mode is part of the per-project Diorama setting under World → Rendering. See Feature Flags.