BlockyRenderer:FAQ

The preview does not open by itself

• Check that blockyRenderer.autoOpenPreview is true.
• The automatic preview opens only once per file. If you closed it, open it again with Ctrl+K V or the title bar button.
• It does not open for a file that already has a Blocky Editor or Blocky Preview tab.
• It does not open for files that are not on disk, for example the old side of a Git diff.

Ctrl+Shift+V opens the Blocky preview instead of the Markdown preview

In .blockymodel and .blockyanim files, Ctrl+K V and Ctrl+Shift+V open the Blocky preview. In other files they keep their usual meaning.

The model shows no texture

The model file does not name its texture, so the preview looks for it by name in the model folder. See Preview for the order. If your texture has a different name, pick it in the Texture list. Only PNG files in the model folder and in <Name>_Textures/ are offered.

Some faces are missing

Faces without an entry in textureLayout are not drawn. A quad uses only the front layout. A shape with a stretch of 0 on any axis is hidden.

The model looks different in the game

The lighting is only approximated. Only fullbright is drawn self-lit, all other shading modes get the same simple light. Shape, UVs and proportions should match.

The animation plays on the wrong model

Pick the right model in the Model list, or use Other model…. The choice is stored for this animation in the workspace. See Animations for how the model is chosen.

"n of m nodes missing"

The animation has tracks for node names the model does not have. Those tracks are skipped. Many vanilla animations do this, so it is not always an error. Hover over the hint to see the names.

My edit in the 3D view was ignored

If the JSON is broken or the text changed in the meantime, the 3D view does not match the file. The command is then discarded instead of changing the wrong node. Fix the JSON, and the view loads the current state.

The Nodes view still shows a model I closed

The Nodes view switches only when another .blockymodel tab becomes active. Closing the tab does not clear it, and an active .blockyanim tab does not change it either.

The Models view is missing a model

Files excluded by files.exclude are not listed. Click ↻ (Refresh Model List) to search the workspace again.

How do I get files to open as text again?

Set blockyRenderer.openFilesIn to text, or choose Text with preview beside it in Open Blocky Files In…. This removes the extension's entries from workbench.editorAssociations. See Renderer Only.

Does the extension change my files?

Only when you ask it to: commands in the Blocky Editor and the Nodes view, New Blocky Model…, Start with a Cube, and filling an empty .blockymodel created in the Explorer (blockyRenderer.newModelTemplate). The preview and the Blocky Preview only read files.