advice on tilemaps & level editor

[cs6505]

Hi all. I am a newbi to GE, I just bought it this past weekend. I love this tool and can't wait until I actually make something half way decent.
I realize that GE has built in tile mapping and scrolling. I wanted to make a small scrolling game with a level editor included to add replay value. I am thinking I could store the levels in a simple text file and then load them into an array and then render them to the screen. Is this possible with GE and if so, what is the best way to go about it? Thanks for any advice.

cs

[makslane]

I realize that GE has built in tile mapping and scrolling

The use of tiles is just an option that you can use. You can make your game without tiles by using a single image in your actor.

I wanted to make a small scrolling game with a level editor included to add replay value. I am thinking I could store the levels in a simple text file and then load them into an array and then render them to the screen.

You can't change tiles in game mode, but you can simulate by using normal actors:

1) Create an actor "parentTile"
2) Create an actor "tile"
3) Make the parentTile parent of actor tile. This will help you to move the tiles
4) Add your tile animation in the tile actor
5) In the "Create Actor" event stop the animation with the "Change Animation Direction" action
6) Make a clone array with tile actor (like 20x16)

Now, make a txt file with the map info like this:
0 0 0 0 0 .... 0
1 0 0 0 0 .... 0

Make an array to hold the map info (in the Global Code editor):
int map[16][20];

Create a function to read the map (in the Global Code editor):

Code: Select all

void readLevel(char *file)
{
  int value, i, j;
 
  if(!levelRead)
  {
 
    FILE *fp = fopen(file, "r");
 
    if(fp)
    {
        levelRead = 1; //Don repeat reads
 
        for(i = 0; i < 16; i++)
        {
            for(j = 0; j < 20; j++)
            {
                fscanf(fp, "%d", &value);
                map[i*20 + j] = value;
            }
        }
 
        fclose(fp);
    }
  }
}

And read the map in the view "Create Actor" event:
readLevel("level1.txt");

Download the complete sample here:
http://game-editor.com/examples/tile_map.zip

[cs6505]

Thanks for quick response and answer.
Is it possible to scroll using this technique if the map is bigger than the screen? Thanks again.

cs

[makslane]

Just make the map bigger than the view actor and move the view actor to make the scroll

[Chai]

WOW!! that is very awsome. >_< I LIKE IT

[CdaMarinersFan]

Heh heh, Makslane, you're like a prophet of 2d game building! lol

[DilloDude]

What is a good way to do this with different types of actors and using text instead of numbers? For example, cycle through each code in the tex file while updating x and y coordinates and checking a section of string and if it is MT, create actor mountain at those coordinates, if it is R|, create actor river with animpos = 1 and so on. Also, a way of going through positions and finding actors and saving them in a text file would be good.

[Fuzzy]

A little known trick is that you can use a graphics file as a font; its refered to several times in various tutorials.

Instead of using unicode characters, you use pictures instead. So the number one might look like a fish, and the letter A could be a tree, rather than looking like a 1 or A symbol.

from there, you just have to load a text file into a text actor, and you have a type of tiled actor, which CAN change dynamically in game.

The limitation of course, its that it cannot easily be animated.

[DilloDude]

I considered this before, but thought maybe it wasn't exactly what I wanted, but now, I think it might be. One problem - I have two types of actors that need to have thier specific x and y coordinates, mainly for determining distance. Is there a way I can search a string for a character, and then find its position in the string (in which line and which character in that line). I was also thinking about automatically determining height and width of the map, but I think it would be easier to determine it manually, and save the variables with the string.

[DilloDude]

I am thinking of a level reading system that either saves a variable or reads text, and creates actors from an array like in the breakout demo. The thing I'm considering is performance. If I have a lot of clones instead of tiles, how much is the performance difference likely to be, considering that most of them will only have create actor events, but other actors might have collisions with them?