Question How do I load tiles at runtime?

Hi all, I'm trying to make a turn-based tile strategy game, and I'm currently trying (and failing) to figure out how to efficiently create a ground system without just doing a bunch of duplicating. Is there a good, simple guide out there on how to do this?

 

You can create them all by hand and save them in a scene, always the simplest fastest way to start.

Or you can Instantiate<T>() things at runtime, which is "a bunch of duplicating."

News flash: pretty much the ONLY thing a computer actually does is "a bunch of duplicating." Even with a pre-made scene, it's just using the data stored in the scene file to duplicate everything into being for you. That's it. It's all just data.

 

Thanks. I guess I could've been more specific but by duplicating I meant essentially just clicking and pressing Ctrl + D, which would make a huge mess in the hierarchy with something like "Cube, Cube (1), Cube (2), Cube (3), etc

 

Then write a cheesy quick editor script to do it for you!

You can find a quick starter example in my MakeGeo project, specifically in the

Bitmap2Grid

scene and script.

Code (csharp):

1. using System.Collections;
2. using System.Collections.Generic;
3. using UnityEngine;
4.  
5. #if UNITY_EDITOR
6. using UnityEditor;
7. using UnityEditor.SceneManagement;
8. #endif
9.  
10. // to use:
11. //    create blank GameObject in scnee
12. //    put this Bitmap2Grid script on it
13. //    create texture
14. //        - no compression
15. //        - non power of two : NONE
16. //        - mark read/write enabled
17. //        - slot texture into Bitmap2Grid script
18. //    create B2GConfig scriptable object
19. //        - select colors and prefabs
20. //        - slot B2GConfig instance into Bitmap2Grid script
21. //    choose dimensional spacing (defaults to 1,1)
22. //    go to inspector window for this script, hit GENERATE
23. //
24. // @kurtdekker
25. //
26.  
27. public class Bitmap2Grid : MonoBehaviour
28. {
29.     [Header( "Texture to use for layout.")]
30.     public Texture2D Bitmap;
31.  
32.     [Header( "B2GConfig to use.")]
33.     public B2GConfig Config;
34.  
35.     [Header( "Dimensional spacing.")]
36.     public Vector2 Spacing = Vector3.one;
37.  
38.     // do your own axis remapping here if you want X/Z for instance
39.     Vector3 ComputePosition( int i, int j)
40.     {
41.         float x = i * Spacing.x;
42.         float y = j * Spacing.y;
43.  
44.         // optionally center?
45.         x -= (Bitmap.width - 1) * Spacing.x / 2;
46.         y -= (Bitmap.height - 1) * Spacing.y / 2;
47.  
48.         return new Vector3( x, y, 0);
49.     }
50.  
51.     void RegenerateGrid()
52.     {
53.         // TODO: destroy the old one... I'll leave you to do this by hand!
54.  
55.         Transform parent = new GameObject( "Bitmap2Grid-Generated").transform;
56.         parent.SetParent( transform);
57.         parent.localPosition = Vector3.zero;
58.         parent.localRotation = Quaternion.identity;
59.  
60.         for (int j = 0; j < Bitmap.height; j++)
61.         {
62.             for (int i = 0; i < Bitmap.width; i++)
63.             {
64.                 // if you get an error here, check your texture import settings to be read/write
65.                 var c = Bitmap.GetPixel( i, j);
66.  
67.                 var prefab = Config.LookupColor( c);
68.  
69.                 if (prefab)
70.                 {
71.                     var copy = Instantiate<GameObject>( prefab, parent);
72.                     copy.transform.localPosition = ComputePosition( i, j);
73.                 }
74.             }
75.         }
76.     }
77.  
78. #if UNITY_EDITOR
79.     [CustomEditor( typeof( Bitmap2Grid))]
80.     public class Bitmap2GridEditor : Editor
81.     {
82.         public override void OnInspectorGUI()
83.         {
84.             Bitmap2Grid b2g = (Bitmap2Grid)target;
85.  
86.             DrawDefaultInspector();
87.  
88.             EditorGUILayout.BeginVertical();
89.  
90.             if (GUILayout.Button( "REGENERATE GRID"))
91.             {
92.                 b2g.RegenerateGrid();
93.  
94.                 EditorSceneManager.MarkSceneDirty(
95.                     UnityEngine.SceneManagement.SceneManager.GetActiveScene());
96.             }
97.  
98.             EditorGUILayout.EndVertical();
99.         }
100.     }
101. #endif
102. }

MakeGeo is presently hosted at these locations:

https://bitbucket.org/kurtdekker/makegeo

https://github.com/kurtdekker/makegeo

https://gitlab.com/kurtdekker/makegeo

https://sourceforge.net/p/makegeo