image_children(3)

💖 NAME 💖

okay so welcome to image_children(3), bestie — yes, that’s the page name, and it lives in the Arcan Lua API manual. this function is here to list the objects in a context that has the specified object as a direct parent. slay. ✨

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

vidtbl or bool
image_children( vid, searchvid )

the return vibe is vidtbl or bool, and the call is literally image_children( vid, searchvid ). 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so here’s the tea, no cap: this function provides either a list of immediate descendants — the images linked TO vid — or, when searchvid is provided, it recursively scans and tests if vid is related to searchvid. that’s the whole mechanic, periodt. 💅

🎀 EXAMPLE 🎀

first one: three null surfaces walk into a bar — jk, it’s a, b, and c — then it links b to a and c to b. after that it grabs image_children(a) into tbl and prints every v from ipairs(tbl). iconic behavior:

function image_children0()
      a = null_surface(1, 1);
      b = null_surface(1, 1);
      c = null_surface(1, 1);
      link_image(b, a);
      link_image(c, b);
      tbl = image_children(a);
      for i,v in ipairs(tbl) do
            print(v);
      end
end

🌈 EXAMPLE 🌈

second one: now there are four null surfaces, a, b, c, and d. it links c to b, links b to a, then does image_children(c, a) into positive and image_children(d, a) into negative. then it prints both. the whole flex:

function image_children1()
      a = null_surface(1, 1);
      b = null_surface(1, 1);
      c = null_surface(1, 1);
      d = null_surface(1, 1);
      link_image(c, b);
      link_image(b, a);
      local positive = image_children(c, a);
      local negative = image_children(d, a);
      print(positive, negative);
end

💀 MISUSE 💀

okay bestie, do not do this one. this is the misuse block, and it’s exactly as written — including image_childen(BADID), so watch that spelling:

function image_children0()
      image_childen(BADID);
end

🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

• image_parent(3) — go give it a read too, bestie, it’s right there in the see-also list. 💖

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and that’s the whole page, bestie: image_children(3), from the image source/version, dated October 2026. now go forth and link those images. mwah 💋🦋