Light Editor — Real-Time Realistic Lighting for RPG Maker MV and MV

About the plugin

Takki Light Editor is a standalone RPG Maker MZ plugin that adds a live, in-game lighting editor. Place torches, windows, lamps and crystals on the map, tune color, radius, intensity and shadow in real time, and save the result with one click — no external images or other plugins required.

Light respects your map's walls: it does not pass through tiles tagged as roof, wall or block, so torches and windows cast real shadows instead of leaking through everything.

Key features

• Live visual editor — press F7 during a playtest to place, select, drag and duplicate lights directly on the map.
• 4 ready-made presets — Torch, Window, Crystal and Lamp, all fully adjustable.
• Map atmosphere — ambient color and overall darkness, with one-click Day/Night.
• Realistic shadows — light is blocked by walls, roofs and blocks tagged via Terrain Tag; wall-mounted torches still light up normally instead of self-shadowing.
• Wall spread glow — a subtle glow on surfaces near the light, without leaking to the other side.
• Optional soft shadows — adjust the light source size for penumbra, or leave it at 0px for hard-edged shadows.
• Directional lights — cones with adjustable angle and spread, alongside the classic radial mode.
• Distance falloff — linear (classic) or inverse-square (more realistic, with adjustable virtual height).
• Animated flicker — intensity variation for torches and fire.
• Full undo/redo, automatic map backups and browser JSON export.
• 100% standalone — no external images, no dependency on other plugins.

How it works

1. Start a playtest and press F7 on the map.
2. Choose Night to reveal lighting.
3. Choose a preset, select Place and click the map to add a light.
4. Adjust color, radius, intensity, shadow and direction — the preview updates live.
5. Click Apply to light to commit the properties.
6. Click Save map (desktop) or Export JSON (browser) to save.

Drag a selected light to move it. Duplicate copies its settings into a new light ready to place. Erase removes one light per click.

Setting up walls

In Database > Tilesets, mark the tiles that should block light with Terrain Tag 5, 6 or 7 (roof, wall or block — all three block light equally). This only applies to the ground layer (layer A) of the tileset; upper layers and passage settings do not affect light blocking.

Requirements

• RPG Maker MZ.
• No other plugins required.
• Works in desktop builds (NW.js) and in browser. Direct map saving is desktop-only; in browser, you export the JSON and replace the file manually in your project.

InstallationCopy

1. Takki_LightEditor.js into your project's js/plugins folder.
2. Enable the plugin in the Plugin Manager.
3. Start a playtest and press F7 on the map.

Keep the plugin enabled when you deploy your game — it renders the saved lighting.

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
F7 (or F10, configurable)	Open/close the editor
Esc	Close the editor
Arrow keys	Pan the editor camera
Ctrl+S	Save map / export JSON
Ctrl+Z	Undo
Ctrl+Y / Ctrl+Shift+Z	Redo

Current version — v1.3.2

• Now supports RPG Maker MV