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tags: Guide, Frontend, Greyscale
---
# Troubleshooting GAGS

As much as possible GAGS is designed to quickly break in visible ways when used incorrectly, but issues can still easily arise in strange ways. Before asking for help try troubleshooting the problem with the following steps.

### Check for errors

A large portion of user errors have an associated runtime error that explains the problem and what needs to be fixed. Check the error log or the exception viewer in game. If there is an error message that you don't know how to deal with, upload the entire error log file and include it in any questions you have regarding it. **Please do not post the entire file contents into a chat message directly.**

### Check the debug tools

Oftentimes something that looks like an error is intended behavior and some misunderstanding snuck its way into the icon configuration or sprite design. Open up the right click menu for the object you want to debug and select 'View Variables'. At the top right of the window that just opened in a dropdown select 'Modify greyscale colors'.

If this option is not available then the object you have selected is currently not being colored by the GAGS system and needs to be given a configuration and default colors.

| Example | |
| -------- | -------- |
|  | The controls for the configuration file to use. The name displayed is the same as the configuration type's name. |
|  | The color control for the above configuration. The palette icon can be used to open up a standard color dialogue and the dice icon can be used to randomize the color. |
|  | Shows what icon states get generated by the configuration and allows you to choose one to view that affects the later parts of this menu. |
|  | Some controls for the menu as a whole. If you are unable to troubleshoot the issue on your own you will likely be asked for a screenshot of this full menu with 'Full Preview' enabled and/or the icon file output from 'Save Icon File'. Please provide these when asking for help. |
|  | The icon generation preview with 'Full Preview' enabled. The first section controls the direction being viewed and the icons displayed will only be for the selected direction. Many sprites only have a single direction and do not change based on facing, these icons use the southern direction.<br><br>Further down to the grid of preview images is where every step of the generation process *for the selected icon state and direction* is shown. The left column is the sprite newly created in that step and the right column shows the combined sprite from all layers up to that point. If you want a sort of order of operations, read it left to right and top to bottom. |

Take a look around this menu to see how your sprite is being generated, you'll often be able to see exactly where the generation process is going wrong from the full preview and you can then double check your configuration for that layer.

### Ask for help

If after the above troubleshooting attempts you still don't know how to fix the problem, feel free to ask for help in the coding channel on discord including as best a description of the issue as you can and screenshots showing the issue. To save time you should also provide the output dmi file from the debug menu and a screenshot of the full preview. If any errors are in the logs, you should provide the entire error log via pastebin or however you want to upload the log file. **Do not copy the entire log contents into chat directly or people will get annoyed.**