User blog:Alpha654/The Editor Freeze Glitch

Many of you have had that annoying experience, where you're editing a level, you play-test it a few times, and all of a sudden, the editor stops working properly. You can still use many of the buttons, thankfully, so you can exit out of the editor mode and then go back in to fix the issue.

This effect is the result of a glitch that I call "Editor Freeze", and it's a glitch that I have been looking into for the past while. Below are the results of my experiments; you may be able to use this to help you when you next encounter the glitch.

Recreating Editor Freeze
Being able to recreate the glitch is one of the best ways to avoid it. Though, for Editor Freeze, it's easy to unintentionally perform the glitch. However, there's a way to undo it, but I'll get into that later.

Anyway, Editor Freeze occurs when you hold down on the screen (or any button that isn't in the same group as the Play-Test button), tap the Play-Test button, and release the screen. Once you stop play-testing the level, you'll find that the element you were holding down on doesn't work properly.

How Editor Freeze Works
The editor mode and the play-test mode are two different modes. Inputs in one mode cannot translate into inputs in another mode.

When Editor Freeze is performed, the game does not recognize that you no longer making an input in the editor mode, as it is focusing on inputs made in the play-testing mode. When you return to the editor mode, the input from before is still there.

Normally, you would still be able to control this input. However, there's one more thing in play: Grouping. Many of the buttons in the editor mode are part of a group. This is important because the game will only register an input on one button at a time, for every group of buttons.

This is why, when Editor Freeze is performed on the screen, you are unable to move the screen around. Another screen input already exists, and the game won't let you overwrite it with a new input.



The buttons are grouped like so:


 * The Pause, Level Settings, Copy, Paste, Copy+Paste, Edit Special, Edit Group, Edit Object, Copy Values, Paste State, Paste Color, Edit Color, Go To Layer, De-Select, and layer manipulation buttons are in the same group.
 * The Delete Object, Undo, Redo, Play Music, Play-Test, Zoom In, Zoom Out, Group, Ungroup, Swipe, Rotate, Free Move, Snap, and editor menu section buttons are in the same group.
 * The Build menu buttons are in the same group.
 * The Build menu manipulation buttons are in the same group.
 * The Build menu section buttons are in the same group.
 * The Edit menu buttons are in the same group.
 * The Edit menu manipulation buttons are in the same group.
 * The Delete menu buttons are in the same group.
 * The Delete menu manipulation buttons are in the same group.
 * The slider at the top of the screen is in its own group.
 * The screen is in its own group.

Reverse Editor Freeze
Most elements of the editor will not cause any problems if Editor Freeze is performed on them, and will usually return to normal on their own or through tapping them. Of course, the screen is the exception to this. Fortunately, the screen also happens to be one of very few elements to carry over between modes. This allows us to undo the Editor Freeze glitch very quickly, with a process I call Reverse Editor Freeze.

If you play-test the level, hold the screen, and then stop play-testing the level, the game will recognize this input as the same one you made to trigger the Editor Freeze glitch, and will give you control over that input, ending the glitch.

However, depending on how you executed the inputs needed to trigger the Editor Freeze glitch, you may have to do this a bit differently.

If you hold the Play-Test button, then hold the screen, then release the Play-Test button, then you'll enter a sort of different state of Editor Freeze, one which hasn't yet been fully explored. In this state, the method of performing Reverse Editor Freeze described above won't work.

To fix this, you'll have to perform Reverse Editor Freeze the same way you performed that Editor Freeze glitch: Holding the Exit Play-Test button, holding the screen, then releasing the Exit Play-Test button.

Though, in most cases, you won't know how you activated the Editor Freeze glitch. The solution here is simple: Just use the other method if your first choice doesn't work.

Conclusion
So, now that you know a lot more about the Editor Freeze glitch, it should be a lot easier to deal with it whenever it comes up. Just use the two Reverse Editor Freeze procedures I mentioned above, and the glitch will go away.

Thank you for your time.