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Graphics > Need help! (Maps, Tilsets and such stuff)

#42162 - ProblemBaby - Fri May 06, 2005 11:11 pm

Hi, I need some help
I dont know how to solve the whole thing.
I want to have Map Animations in my game, both that kind that updates the tile data and map data.
I want some simple collision data for all my tiles (and frames if animation).
And I want to be able to reuse my tileset and Export as Binary.

And then edit some maps that supports layers, and some kind of Properties that I can customize myself.
I cant find a tool or tools that can do this for me, Do anyone know some nice tools?.

or how is real games created, Ive watched at games that have very complicated systems, with sprites that is a part of the map and so on.

How is it done?=)

help and ideas please!

#42163 - DekuTree64 - Sat May 07, 2005 12:36 am

I don't know of any free tools to do all that. Usually if you want anything more than a basic tile map, you'll either have to write your own tool, or design a data format that you can type by hand.

Map data animation is pretty easy to do by hand, if you swap out larger blocks of tiles at once. Probably the easiest way is to just copy screen data from another part of the map itself. Just make sure the player can never get to your stash of source frames on the map :)
Then set up a table in a .c file that tells the dest and source positions in the map, size of each 'frame', number of frames (line them up left to right or such), time between frames, etc.. Just a struct with all the info you need, and make an array of them for each map.

For char swapping, you could do something similar, like drawing the tiles you want to animate at a specific place in the map, so you can just grab those and check the tile number in the screen data.
Maybe draw all the animated tiles in a strip left to right, and then put a matching strip of the 'frame 2' tiles below that, frame 3 below that, and so on.
Again, make a hand-typed table telling the position where you drew the tiles, number of tiles in the strip, number of frames, time between frames.

Sorry that's not exactly what you asked for, but there really seems to be a lacking of free map editors, and more advanced things like animated map data usually have too specific of requirements to do in a generic tool.
_________________
___________
The best optimization is to do nothing at all.
Therefore a fully optimized program doesn't exist.
-Deku

#42165 - ProblemBaby - Sat May 07, 2005 1:08 am

Thanks for the general ideas!
In fact Ive already started to make my own tools.
My windows programming skills sucks.
But I think its a lot of learning and then I get exactly as I want!