Playscene Editor 101

 

 

This is a walk though of how I use the playscene editor to make playscenes for Petz 4.  

This covers prepping the image, as well as the various basic steps of making a scene. That makes this very long.   

Click the smaller images to zoom in and see them full sized. 


1.  I draw my playscenes by hand, so the first step is scanning it into the computer. 

2. After I've scanned the drawing into the computer, I opened it in my favorite image editing program [I'm using Paint.net (available here)]. 

 (This is what the resize menu looks like in paint.net.)

3.  Most of the time scanned in images are huge, so I resize it.

3a. Because this is a scanned image, it's not going to resize down to 1024 x 768 perfectly. To be able to do that make sure that  you uncheck "Maintain aspect ratio".   

3b.   Set width to 1024, and the height to 768.  Petz 4 is old, and this is as big as it will let your image be. 

  

 

3c. This part is optional if you don't mind your playscene's file size being bigger.  My scanner's settings scans my images in at 300dpi. (DPI or Dots Per Inch is to do with how crisp the image will be if printed out on paper and will make the image file larger the higher the number is.)  Generally 72 DPI is recommended for website images, I bumped it up to 96 because that's one of paint.net's defaults for PNGs and it looks really nice in petz without making the file size overly large.  You'll have to play around with it and figure out what you like best. 

4.   In paint.net this is Save As, in Gimp you would need to Export As.  

4b.  Save it as an 8-bit BMP.

5. Move your saved image to the Petz 4\Resource\Playscene Editor folder.

6. Load Petz 4. 

7.  Go to the Editor

8.  If you haven't tried making a playscene before it should look like this.  If it looks different, select "Create New Playscene" from the drop down box, and then click next.

9.  Click Browse

10. Pick out your image, and select Open. 

11.  I usually choose the Stretch option from the drop down. Click Next.

12. The next step is setting where your horizon line is.  This is how far up the screen that petz can walk and the game still consider them on the ground. 

The boxes on either end of the line that have the bolder outline cannot be moved away from the edge of the screen. They only move up and down. While these...

These smaller ones show up when you click the black and white line anywhere in between the edges. You can use them to help set up curves, drops, or high and low places in the horizon. Just keep in mind that the lower it is, the less room you have for your petz to play.  After you're satisfied with your horizon, click next. 

14. Next Step, Ledges.  These are how you set up places like the backyard fence, and tree branch. Where your high climbing kitties love to sit. 

This is what you move around to set up your ledge. To adjust the size of the ledge, grab the squares on the corner of the rectangle.  To move the ledge to where you want, grab the center.  

The right click menu is very useful to delete on ledge without deleting them all. 

15.  This screen is asking if you want to use the advanced settings, or not.  I find the advanced settings easier to understand than the regular menus. Thus I keep advanced check box clicked, and speed on past this by clicking next.

16.   These settings effect the entire playscene as a whole. There are ways to do smaller areas in future steps. 

  

If you want the petz to enjoy rolling around on the ground, check Rollable.
If you want to be able to grow flowers in the playscene click Growable.

Footprint: Fading footprints like at the beach.
Hole: Do you want that Scottie to be able to dig a hole? What color do you want the holes to be?

  

For this playscene there's no adjustments needed in these two sections, so ignore them for now. 

17. This is one of the ones that threw me a lot when I was starting out making playscenes.  The squares at the corners let you resize it just like the ledges.  Also just like the ledges, grab it in the center and move it around.

Clicking the red and white line in between the corner you get another little square to adjust the area's shape with (I have yet to find an upper limit). It works like the horizon line, only more flexable. The right click menu contains lots of options to trick out your playscene inside the lines. 

If you Delete the Area all options go back to whatever you settings you selected in step 15.

18.   This is the step were you can make a spot for your and dogs to stare up into space at (Gazeable), or if you want an area to hang your pictures (Hangable) 

20. These two screens aren't relevant to this playscene... So click Next to pass them. 

21. This is where you can set up bird songs, ocean waves, blowing wind, etc. And in what intervals.  Admittedly I randomly pick things here, trying to make the birds sound as natural as possible... It's hard with such short clips though.  Set them up, or not, and then lets go to the Next step.

22.    Mouse Holes!  Lots of fun for petz... But feel free to skip them if you don't want mouses in your houses.  Again, grab the center of the section to move, use the squares to adjust the size.

23.  I don't  know what the specs are if you want to make a custom Icon.  So far I've just been using the Copy from Background option.

23.  Your name here! Also a small description if you want to. 

24.  Name your Playscene, Click Save... And your Done!   If you quit the playscene editor, or the game, anywhere before this screen you have to start over from the beginning of the editor. 

25.  One last note!  Playscenes save into the Petz4\Resource\Area  folder! Don't go looking for them in the Playscene Editor folder like I did. 😉

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