SpriteTile, a fast dynamic tile system (RELEASED)

So that limitation is for scene and not for the entire game, right?

Thanks for you time, btw

 

I can't think of any game that use more than 32K 2D tiles, even big tile-based RPGs. 32K is pretty massive already IMHO. If you need more than 32K tiles, I think it's better to use a different implementation.

 

It's amazing if they use more than 256 different tiles per map tileset. You're repeating a lot of tiles most of the time, so 32k isn't really a limit as such

 

It's for the project; all tile data is stored in the TileManager asset. You'll note that the TileEditor is the same regardless of what scene you have open, or if you have any scene loaded at all, which is the expected behavior (you wouldn't want to re-do all your tilesets just because you changed scenes). But even something like Terraria, which has an insane number of tiles, doesn't come that close to 32K.

--Eric

 

Hey Eric, any plan to add isometric import support for tiled tmx maps?

 

Unlikely, since I'd have to add isometric support to SpriteTile in general, which isn't really what it's built for.

--Eric

 

Hey Eric in a post here you mention about isometric tiles, now I've seen why I got confused, can you point me out to more info about how to make the isometric system you talk about work with SpriteTile.
Isometric tiles in the end are not much different then orthogonal, I think it would be really interesting to have support for the different types(hex, iso, ort), do you see this happen in a near future? Do you see a high implementation cost for this?

 

A confusion of terminology; if you mean diamond-shaped tiles, then no, that's not likely to happen.

--Eric

 

Hey Eric,

I'm pretty new to Unity so I'm probably missing something obvious, but how do I get my level into my scene? I couldn't find it in documentation.
So I created a level in the editor and saved it in the asset folder in my project. But how do I actually add that to the scene so the level pops up there?

Thanks

 

Tile.LoadLevel()

http://www.starscenesoftware.com/files_spritetile/SpriteTileReferenceGuide.pdf

 

The "coding basics" section in the regular docs explains it, in the section called "loading a level". I would also recommend looking at the demos so you can see how things work in context.

--Eric

 

Hello,

I have a question related to UI overlay interaction on Android devices. Is there a way to use EventSystem interfaces with tiles?

I have a manager object that captures all clicks and touches. It will take the position vec and check to see if there was a tile at that location. This works great. I use EventSystem.current.IsPointerOverGameObject to determine if the pointer is over a canvas UI element. This works for the mouse but fails on my test Android device (Nexus 7). It still fails when specifying the specific fingerID when checking TouchPhase.Ended.

As a work around, suggested by Fattie, I check if there is a selected EventSystem object, EventSystem.current.currentSelectedGameObject. This works but is not ideal.

Is the only way to interact with the tile map through a vector position? Is there any way to implement EventSystem interfaces to specific sprite objects added to a scene? (too heavy? issues with caching?)

I know this is not specifically a SpriteTile issue and only relates due to how one interacts with SpriteTile.

Touch UI pass through topic
http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/784617/how-do-i-block-touch-events-from-propagating-throu.html

 

Tiles aren't GameObjects, so they can't use scripts and so on. Instead you can use Tile.ScreenToMapPosition with Input.mousePosition (or any other screen position).

--Eric

 

Yeah I know. I was thinking more along the lines of adding the script to the generated sprites that are added to the scene.

 

That's not possible since tiles aren't GameObjects. There's a pool of sprites created for the tiles, but they don't "belong" to any particular tile and are recycled as needed. That's why you can have a level with 5 million tiles and it performs the same as a level with 5,000 tiles.

--Eric

 

Yeah, I figured something like that would be the case. Thanks. Love SpriteTile btw, great performance on PC and Mobile platforms.

 

Thanks a lot for the fast reply, I'll give it a go today!

 

Hey guys,

My level is loading fine now, but for some reason when it runs all the tiles have no sprites assigned to them, do you know the issue here?
In the TileManager everything looks fine and all elements have sprites plus I didn't move them anywhere in the project, which I saw you warned against in the documentation.

Also is it possible to view the level in the scene somehow? Or is it only possible to view it during runtime? Since I would like to add behavior to some elements (like moving a platform on the x-axis) during gameplay, it would be great to be able to see it in the scene.

Thanks!

 

There's a preview button in the upper left.

 

The docs say it's fine to move sprites around in the project. The only thing they say not to move is the TileManager object. I would assume your camera isn't positioned where it can see any tiles.

--Eric

 

At first I thought it was the camera position too, but it's not the case. If I run the game I can see that all the tiles are there, but they have no sprites assigned to them, so they're invisible to the camera. However, if I manually assign a sprite to the tile it will show up on the camera.
In the SpriteTile tool all the sprites are there and looking fine when I make my level in the grid, but for some reason when I load level at runtime the tiles have no sprites assigned to them.

 

I'm pretty sure it's because of the camera position. The tiles are always all there, because that's how SpriteTile works—it creates a pool of sprites that fills the screen, so they exist whether the camera can see any tiles or not. Make sure the camera is moved back (e.g., not 0 on the z position). Use the preview to position the camera where you can see the tiles in the game view.

--Eric

 

Eric5h5, I have two question:

1. Why when I use scene preview and go into play mode TileEditor reset my level. It is very bad for debuging, because I must to load level from .bytes file again and again.
2. Can I always show my level in scene view if I have a small level? Without it is very difficult to put gameobjects on level.

 

Save your level before going into play mode (just hit Alt-S), and check "Auto" next to the Open button. SpriteTile works by creating a pool of sprites that fills the screen, which are recycled as needed, so large levels are efficient; this can't be changed for small levels.

--Eric

 

So what I have is a 300 by 300 hex sprite map (each tile 1by1). I'm trying to break that map down into individual regions so i'm using your other product vectrosity to draw a square every N number of hexes. For this demo i'm doing 15 by 15 and drawing a box.

I'm trying to get the worldcoordinates for the int2 locations of the sprites so I can draw the squares properly in world space. I'm using MapToWorldPosition but it does not appear to give me worldcoordinates. It's drawing all the squares in the bottom left of the screen and not properly where the regions should be demarcated.

The pdf for maptoworldposition says - Returns the world position in units that corresponds to the specified cell. But looking at the source that does not appear to be the case.

Sorry if I sound like a tard, this is one thing i keep stumbling over and i'm assuming it's a simple thing i'm overlooking.

 

MapToWorldPosition definitely does exactly that. What about the source makes you think it doesn't? It multiplies the tile position by the layer tile size (and adds any layer offset that might exist), which results in the world position. I'm not sure what you mean by hexes, since SpriteTile doesn't support that.

--Eric

 

Ah I'm thinking worldposition is World Coords and it appears that is not the case. When i say hexes i mean squares .

 

Hexes are six-sided. World position is in fact world coordinates; that's the same thing.

--Eric

 

yea i know hexes are 6 sided it goes back to my roots of wargaming. And when i say world position i mean real world coordinates like Input.mouseposition not the vector2/int2 representation of the grid.

 

Input.mousePosition is not world coordinates at all, it's screen coordinates.

--Eric

 

I'm having issues with the GrabSprite function. I have 4 SpriteTile layers, but specifying any layer besides 0 results in the error:

"Invalid layer id. Please use the unique id of the layer (which is not the same as its index in the list)."

I'm unsure of what that means. Specifying a layer in any other SpriteTile function works correctly.

 

Unity changed the way layers are handled at one point, and it looks like I neglected to update the GrabSprite function. It's fixed for the next version, but in the meantime you can fix it with the source: in line 3150 of the Tile.cs file, replace

Code (csharp):

1.         sprRenderer.sortingLayerID = layer;

with

Code (csharp):

1.         sprRenderer.sortingLayerName = sortingLayerNames[sortingLayerIndices[layer]];

--Eric

 

Am I the only one who can get up in the morning and code that worked the night before now doesn't?

I'm getting this error in my CharacterController script:

Code (CSharp):

1. NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
2. SpriteTile.Tile.WorldToMapPosition (Vector2 p, Int32 layer)
3. CharacterController.SetMapPosition () (at Assets/Scripts/CharacterController.cs:59)
4. CharacterController.Start () (at Assets/Scripts/CharacterController.cs:51)
5.  

The line of code that's throwing the error is this:

Code (CSharp):

1. mapPos = Tile.WorldToMapPosition (transform.position, layer);

I'm not sure where to start looking for the answer -- any tips? Thanks.

Jay

PS - The CharacterController script is not the one that comes with SpriteTile, but it's based off that code.

 

I would guess you're trying to use transform.position on an object that's been destroyed?

--Eric

 

That script is attached to a game object called Hero and it's still showing in the Hierarchy after the error is thrown -- I'm relatively new to Unity, but that should mean the game object hasn't been destroyed, yes? Also, right before that line of code I can print out the .x and .y of the transform.position and get actual values.

Jay

 

Just for the fun of it I hard-coded values into that line and get the same error.

Code (CSharp):

1. mapPos = Tile.WorldToMapPosition(new Vector2(-2.095f, 0f), 0);

 

The only way that could happen is if you didn't have any level loaded, so SpriteTile wasn't set up at all.

--Eric

 

The level shows up even after the error happens -- but could my CharacterController be loaded/run before the SpriteTile stuff? If that's a possibility, is there some way I can make sure SpriteTile comes first?

Thanks.

Jay

 

I found where you can change the script execution order and set my character controller to load later than normal and the error has gone away.

Jay

 

LOL Forget I even asked for help. I'm going to forget I asked you for help because it would hinder my desire to buy your products going forwards. Being pedantic is very poor support. Have a good one.

 

I'm sorry you're upset, but I'm not sure I can see why. You asked about MapToWorldPosition not returning correct coordinates, but in fact it does work correctly. You're apparently confused about the coordinates returned by Input.mousePosition, which are screen coordinates, not world coordinates, which is why you can't use them with MapToWorldPosition. I'm not sure how this is "poor support"? It should answer your question. Or, are you not aware of the difference between screen and world coordinates? It's an important distinction, since those are two different and incompatible things, not me being pedantic. If you need further elaboration, please ask.

--Eric

 

Uhh, what?? I think it is very good support if they point out mistakes I'm making etc.

 

Hi,

today I started working with SpriteTile asset and because I have to create procedural world I tried start with ground and from script only without build-in editor.

Here is code which works in second option only, but in doc is function for create level via NewLevel from LayerData array, maybe I have something wrong, but doesn't work for me.

Code (CSharp):

1.     private void Start()
2.     {
3.         this.mapSize = new Int2(mapWidth, mapHeight);
4.         TileInfo layer0Info = new TileInfo(0, 8);
5.         TileInfo layer1Info = new TileInfo(0, 0);
6.  
7.         this.layers = new LevelData[2];
8.         this.layers[0] = new LevelData(mapSize, 2, Vector2.one, 0f, LayerLock.None);
9.         this.layers[1] = new LevelData(mapSize, 2, Vector2.one, 0f, LayerLock.None);
10.  
11.         Tile.SetCamera();
12.  
13.         // (1) ERROR
14.         Tile.NewLevel(this.layers);   // < ----- LOG: ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Argument is out of range. Parameter name: index
15.  
16.         // (2) WORKS correct
17.         /*
18.         Tile.NewLevel(mapSize, 2, Vector2.one, 0f, LayerLock.None);
19.         Tile.AddLayer(this.layers[1]);
20.         */
21.  
22.         Tile.SetTileBlock(Int2.zero, mapSize - Int2.one, 0, 0, 8);
23.         Tile.SetTile(Int2.one, 1, 0, 0);
24.     }

Note: I have added SortingLayers in to unity editor (L-Background/L-Middle/L-Front) and fixed with Assets/Set SpriteTile Sorting Layer Names.

Best Regards,
AndyGFX.

 

Your code is fine; that's a SpriteTile bug, sorry about that. I've fixed it for the next version. Let me know via PM if you want an updated Tile.cs script in the meantime.

--Eric

 

Hi bwheatly,

I think you misunderstood Eric5h5's response. I have asked for support a couple of times and he has helped straightaway. If you look at all his products you'll see they are constantly updated. If you look into his code you'll also see he knows what he's doing so any advice is worth listening too.

thanks

 

Hi,

I have a classic issue with tiles and I can't find solution for correct rendering. (Sorry, I found solution, but don't make me sense, why so)

1) Tiles are separated image and to ST are loaded from folder. Scene is created manualy via script and result is OK.



2) Tiles are as single tileset and to ST are loaded from as sprite sheet. Scene is created manualy via script and result is WRONG with gaps.



1) Is this problem Unity only or I have something wrong with map painting?
2) Is possible create tiles from code as single mesh or convert to single mesh, similar to created map in editor?

Note: Technicaly i need change during gameplay some tile or destroy him.


Andy.

 

You'd need padding between tiles when using a spritesheet. SpriteTile only uses sprites, not meshes. It wouldn't have any effect on the issue anyway.

--Eric

 

Thanks,
now I understand.

A.

 

Any news on this front? (hope hope) I'm going to need pathfinding at some point in the next few weeks and if I don't have to write it from scratch, I'd be very happy.

If your internal version isn't close, do you (or anybody) have tips on an existing asset that could be shoehorned into place with minimum frustration?

Jay

 

Sorry, I haven't done anything with that yet, so it won't be within the next few weeks.

--Eric