Drawing actions

Normally in each step of the game, for each instance, its sprite is drawn in the room. You can change this by putting actions in the draw event. (Note that these are only executed when the instance is visible!) The following drawing actions are available. These actions only make sense in the drawing event. At other places they are basically ignored.

Draw Sprite
You specify the sprite, the position (either absolute or relative to the current instance position) and the subimage of the sprite. (The subimages are numbered from 0 upwards.) If you want to draw the current subimage, use number -1.

Draw Background
You indicate the background image, the position (absolute or relative) and whether the image should be tiled all over the room or not.

Draw Text
You specify the text and the position. A # symbol in the text is interpreted as going to a new line. (Use \# to get the # symbol itself.) So you can create multi-line texts. If the text starts with a quote or a double quote, it is interpreted as an expression. For example, you can use

'X: ' + string(x)

to display the value of the x-coordinate of the instance. (The variable x stores the current x-coordinate. The function string() turns this number into a string. + combines the two strings.)

Draw Scaled Text
This action is similar to the previous action but this time you can also specify a horizontal and vertical scaling factor to change the size of the text and you can specify an angle to rotate it. This action is only available in the Pro Edition.

Draw Rectangle
You specify the coordinates of the two opposite corners of the rectangle; either absolute or relative to the current instance position.

Horizontal Gradient
This action also draws a rectangle but this time using a gradient color that changes from left to right. You specify the rectangle and the two colors to use. This action is only available in the Pro Edition.

Vertical Gradient
This action also draws a rectangle but this time using a gradient color that changes from top to bottom. You specify the rectangle and the two colors to use. This action is only available in the Pro Edition.

Draw Ellipse
This action draws an ellipse. You specify the coordinates of the two opposite corners of the surrounding rectangle; either absolute or relative to the current instance position.

Gradient Ellipse
Again an ellipse is drawn but this time you specify a color for the center and the boundary. This action is only available in the Pro Edition.

Draw Line
You specify the coordinates of the two endpoints of the line; either absolute or relative to the current instance position.

Draw Arrow
Draws an arrow. You specify the coordinates of the two endpoints of the line and the size of the arrow tip.

Set Color
Lets you set the color used for drawing shapes, lines, and text. (It does not influence the way sprites and backgrounds are drawn.)

Set Full Screen
With this action you can change the screen mode from windowed to fullscreen and back. You can indicate whether to toggle the mode or whether to go to windowed or fullscreen mode.

Take Snapshot
With this action you can take a snapshot image of the game and store it in a .bmp file. You specify the filename to store the image in. This action is only available in the Pro Edition.

Create Effect
With this action you can create all sorts of effects in a very simple way. You specify the type of effect, e.g. an explosion or smoke, its position, its size and its color and whether it should be shown below the objects or on top of them. For the rest it works automatic. (For rain and snow the position is irrelevant as it always falls down from the top of the screen. To get continuous rain you should create it in each step.) This action is only available in the Pro Edition.