Build mode
Lay flooring, drop in objects, and shape your Open Spatial room live.
Last updated:
What is build mode?
Build mode is the in-room editor for Open Spatial rooms. You lay down flooring, add objects from a catalog, place text and signs, and set the lighting, and everyone in the room sees your changes in real time. It only works in Open Spatial rooms, because those are the walkable 3D ones.
Build mode is gated by the canBuildMap permission, so only owners and trusted co-hosts can edit a room. Grant it in Roles & permissions. Start from a map template, then make it yours.
How do I build a room?
Enter an Open Spatial room you can edit and open build mode. The build panel has tabs for adding objects, managing the elements already placed, painting the floor, choosing a vibe, and swapping templates. You drop things in, position them, and the room updates live for everyone.
Nothing you place is permanent until you like it. Select anything to move it, rotate it, scale it, or delete it.
Lay the flooring first
Flooring is a tile grid you paint. Pick a material, a brush size, and a height, then draw tiles onto the ground; an eraser removes them. Brush sizes range from a single 1x1 tile up to 4x4, 8x8, and 16x16 for covering large areas fast.
Each tile has a height: a flat panel, a low wall, or a high wall, so you can raise platforms and block off areas with the same tool. The material palette is deep, with families like grass, water, sand and snow, stone and concrete, wood, glass, metallic and glow, plus bright solid colors and pastels. Mix them to sketch a beach, a club floor, or an office.
Add objects from the catalog
The catalog groups what you can place into categories: Primitives, Elements, Furniture, Nature, Walls & rooms, Outdoor, NPCs, Fun, Interactive, and Landmarks. Furniture, nature, and walls cover most room building, while landmarks and fun add character. Browse a category, click an object, and drop it into the room.
Build with primitives
Primitives are simple building-block shapes for when no premade object fits. flat.social gives you six:
- Brick — a box for walls, steps, and platforms
- Divider — a thin panel to split or screen off space
- Column — a vertical pillar
- Sphere — a ball
- Ramp — a wedge that slopes up, for stages and accessible level changes
- Arch — an archway with two legs and a curved top, for doorways and entrances
Combine primitives to rough out structures, then dress them with materials and furniture.
Move, rotate, and scale
Select any object to edit it. Switch between move, rotate, and scale to reposition it, turn it, or resize it with the on-screen handles. Each transform snaps to sensible steps, so objects line up: move snaps to a 1-unit grid, rotate snaps in 15-degree turns, and scale steps in small increments. You can also align an object to face the camera in one click.
Add text, signs, and images
You can drop 3D text into a room: type your words, pick a font, and set the size, depth, and color, for room labels, welcome messages, or stage signage. Billboards and flags display an image you point them to, with optional support legs, so you can hang a poster, a logo, or a sponsor banner on the floor.
Set the mood with lighting
Lighting comes from vibes, the room-wide lighting presets such as Glowy Day, Island Warm, Soft Night, and Matrix. A vibe sets the ambient and directional light, fog, bloom, and color grade in one click. You can also set a four-corner background gradient for the sky. For finer control, some elements carry their own lights. See Customize rooms for backgrounds, gradients, and vibes in detail.
Many objects support a material picker, so you can recolor or retexture them to match your theme instead of placing a fixed look. Look for the material option when an object is selected.