Cells & Walls

Paint cell types. Click walls to cycle states. Direct manipulation — no dialogs for the fast stuff.

The Four Editor Modes

DM keeps the editor surface small by splitting it into four modes. Press SPACE to cycle through them, or click the mode name in the Mode Guide panel (top-left).

Cells and Cell Types

Every octagon and connector starts inactive — geometry exists, but it's not floor. Click in Select mode to activate. An active cell is floor that renders, has walls, and can hold content.

Each cell has a cell type — a semantic label describing what the cell is, which drives floor texture, trim, and content rules. DM ships a 44-type catalog organized in seven categories:

The full catalog and its room-sizing guidance live in ADR-022.

Cell types aren't cosmetic. A Shrine or Entrance is a safe zone — the Content tool will refuse to place enemies or traps there. A Boss Throne raises the Physical axis on the Challenge Compass even before you place anything. A Puzzle cell implies a Mental challenge. The catalog means things.

Wall State Cycling

Walls are the fastest thing to edit in DM. Switch to Walls mode, click a wall edge, cycle. One click advances one state. The full cycle:

The order is deliberate. SOLID is the starting state because that's the safe default. OPEN is last because removing a wall is the most drastic action — you have to cycle past five other options to get there. You rarely open walls by accident.

What the states mean

• SOLID — full wall. Blocks movement, blocks line of sight.
• DOOR — hinged door. Closed by default, openable by the player.
• GATE — lockable portcullis or gate. Blocks until unlocked.
• GRATE — blocks movement but allows line of sight and projectiles.
• WINDOW — transparent but blocks movement. Useful for observation rooms.
• SECRET — rendered as a solid wall until discovered, then behaves as a door.
• OPEN — no wall at all. Cells flow into each other.

Octagon Walls vs. Connector Walls

Octagons have 8 walls (indices 0–7, clockwise from N); connectors have 4 walls (indices 0–3, TL / TR / BR / BL). Even-indexed octagon walls are long edges shared with neighbor octagons; odd-indexed are short edges shared with connector diamonds. See The Octile Grid for the full addressing.

Practical consequence: when you open a wall between two octagons (a long edge), the two rooms merge directly. When you open a wall between an octagon and a connector (a short edge), you're opening a passage into the 3.6 m corridor diamond — the connector's other three walls may still be solid, so the corridor can dogleg or dead-end.

Themes and Textures

Every cell has a theme (natural_cave, ancient_stone, crystal, etc.) that picks the floor and wall texture set at render time. Themes are set per-layer by default so each dungeon floor has a coherent look, but individual cells can override. The full texture manifest (82 PNGs across floor and wall variants) is committed alongside the app at public/textures/manifest.json.

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