relink_image(3)

✨ relink_image — the Arcan Lua API one ✨

okay so bestie, we're talking about relink_image from the Arcan Lua API. it's the glow-up sibling of link_image, and it does exactly what it says on the tin: reassigns and translates the property-space so it's relative to another object. no cap. 🎀

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💫 SYNOPSIS

nil
relink_image( vid:id, vid:newparent )
relink_image( vid:id, vid:newparent, int:panchor )
relink_image( vid:id, vid:newparent, int:panchor, int:anchor_opt )

four ways to call it, zero returns (it gives you nil, queen of not making a scene) 🫶

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🌸 DESCRIPTION

so this one is a specialized variant of link_image — pls go read that function's docs first if you want the full breakdown of the arguments, because relink_image reuses them all, fr fr. 📖

the ONE thing that makes it different? it preserves the relative resolved world-space position between id and newparent. literally the whole personality. 💅

here's the vibe check, side by side:

• with link_image, if id is at 100,100 and newparent is at 100,100, the post-link world coordinate of id will be 200,200. yeah. it stacked them. 😭
• with relink_image, the post-link world coordinate will be 100,100, and its local properties will put it at 0,0. slay. ✨

so it's roughly equivalent to resolving id and newparent before linking, calculating the relative position difference, and moving the object to that new position. same energy, way less code on your end. 👑

ngl this is the one you want when you're reparenting something and you don't want it to teleport across the screen like it got caught in a glitch. 🔥

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🦋 EXAMPLE

function relink_image0()
      a = fill_surface(64, 64, 255, 0, 0);
      b = fill_surface(32, 32, 0, 255, 0);
      move_image(a, 100, 100)
      move_image(b, 110, 110)
      relink_image(b, a);
      show_image(b);
      blend_image(a, 1.0, 50);
      move_image(a, VRESW, VRESH, 100);
      rotate_image(a, 100, 100);
      expire_image(a, 100);
end

two surfaces, a 64×64 red one and a 32×32 green one, both moved off to their little corners, and then relink_image(b, a) snaps b under a without yeeting it. iconic behaviour. then it does the whole show: show_image(b), blend_image(a, 1.0, 50), move_image(a, VRESW, VRESH, 100), rotate_image(a, 100, 100), and finally expire_image(a, 100). main character energy from start to finish. 🌈⭐

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mwah 💜 this page came to you from the image section, snapped in October 2026, and it's forever filed under relink_image(3) — go forth and reparent responsibly, bestie 🧚‍♀️