Background Layers¶

Background layers build the visual scene around the gameplay space. Each scene can have several layers, and each layer holds static images and animation references.

A scene with no layers of its own reuses the art of the closest previous scene that has some, back to the last scene with an exit, as the game does. The preview draws that art for it too, though its layers stay listed under the scene that owns them.

Layer Properties¶

Property	Meaning
Layer Name	Identifies the layer in the layer list. Editor-only.
Z Order	Drawing order. Layers with a higher value are drawn in front of those with a lower one.
Position Offset	Shift applied to everything on this layer, in pixels.
Parallax	How fast the layer scrolls compared to the camera.
Auto Scroll	Speed at which the layer keeps scrolling on its own, in pixels per second, independently of the camera.
Scroll Loop Limits	The range over which the layer repeats. Once it scrolls past these limits it wraps, tiling endlessly.
Update Type	Special runtime update behaviour.
React to Quake	Makes the layer shake along with the screen during a quake.

Parallax Values¶

Parallax is the depth cue, and its scale is easy to remember once stated plainly:

1 — moves exactly with the camera. This is the gameplay plane.
Below 1 — moves slower. Reads as further away. Skylines, distant buildings, sky.
Above 1 — moves faster. Reads as nearer than the action. Foreground railings, pillars, foliage.

The further a value sits from 1, the stronger the depth effect. Very low values suit things that should feel effectively infinite, like a horizon.

Position Offset is a placement correction, not a depth cue — use it to align art to the world instead of re-exporting the PNG.

Auto Scroll and Looping¶

Auto Scroll moves a layer continuously regardless of whether the player advances. It is what drives water, conveyor belts, drifting clouds, and passing scenery on a moving vehicle.

Auto-scrolling art almost always needs Scroll Loop Limits as well, or it scrolls away and leaves a gap. Set the loop range to the art's repeat size so the seam falls where the art tiles.

Looping is equally useful without auto scroll, for long stretches of repeating road or skyline that the camera pans across.

Quake Reaction¶

React to Quake is per layer, which lets you shake selectively. Shaking the gameplay-plane layers while a distant skyline stays still reads as a convincing earthquake; shaking everything equally tends to read as the camera wobbling.

Visual Script¶

Visual Script attaches a view-only Lua script to the layer. It can hide the layer, offset it, or drive its palette animation clock, and it never affects gameplay. Pick the script from the mod's Scripts/ folder, with an optional Mod; X removes the reference. See Scripted stages.

Indexed Tilemaps¶

A layer can carry an indexed Genesis tilemap (tilemap in the art file), usually written by ROM import tools. The preview draws it at the layer's top-left corner, with its palette as the stage starts (the first frame of each palette cycle, or the base colours where Keep Base is set); the cycles' animation and visual scripts only play in game. The Inspector shows its size and palette cycles, and edits:

Field	Meaning
Scale	Size multiplier of the tilemap around the layer's top-left corner. `0` is the same as `1`.
Keep Base	Per palette cycle: keep the base palette until the first cycle step is due, instead of starting on the first cycle frame.

The tile art, cells and palettes are kept exactly as they are when the level is saved.

Classic Reskin Layers¶

In Classic Reskin mode, a new replacement level can copy its layer structure from the original SOR2 reference data. That preserves layer names, parallax, auto scroll, loop limits, update type, quake behaviour, offsets and z order — you supply only the replacement art.

Start from the copied structure. The original values encode how the stage was designed to move, and matching them is most of what makes a reskin feel like the stage it replaces.