Can we create our own tiles? I'd like to see how easy or complex that part is. What is sawn here it's truly astonishing, but I'd like to also know how much effort the dev or artist has to put before being able to paint tiles.
Yes, creating your own tilesets is easy. More complex tilesets (like the ones shown) can be tedious to create though, because of the shear number of unique meshes they use.
The rule system uses a logic-based approach with various actions that can be performed, e.g. “Set Mesh”, “Set Collider”. MAPGrid also contains documentation that explains the rule system further.
I see, I guess it's similar as with 2D tilemaps, good tilesets require a lot of work but then it's worth the effort.
On another note, for reasons I don't remember, I sent you a email to team@mightyandpowerful.games instead of commenting that here. I could comment here but to not confuse you, I prefer to notify of that mail, it would be weird if I copy and paste it here and then you find the email later
One advantage this has over 2D Tilesets is that textures can easily be swapped. You can very easily reskin the default tiles and make is look completely different. For example I used the grass tiles for both grass and sand in my project.
is there a timeline on the update for the multi-threading of the mesh calculation for combining? also would it be possible to have a documentation be hosted online?
The actual combining of the mesh is multi-threaded, but the process of evaluating the ruleset is not. I fully plan to make it much faster at solving tiles, but I have a lot on my plate for the time being. An indie studio contacted me asking about allowing for much larger tilemaps, and sense they're paying extra for it, that's what I'm working on as of writing this.
I may host documentation online at some point, but it's not a priority as of now.
I'm about to start working on a new game, we want to let the player edit tiles (at runtime)— for example, changing a grass cube (or texture) into a path, like in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Does your tool support or could it support that kind of feature?
As of writing this, MAPGrid does support real-time editing of tiles. The only concern is that depending on your target platform, like mobile, the performance may or may not be acceptable. I simply haven't tested on mobile yet, so I can't say, but I plan to optimize it for mobile in the future.
I created a demo for a game in which you CAN remove tiles with minimal performance overhead. You can try it out for free here!
There are certain ways you can limit the performance impact of editing tiles:
Use separate Tilemaps. Editing tiles is a lot faster if you separate the editable tiles from the static tiles. Using a separate Tilemap for your editable tiles means less has to change when you add/remove a Tile.
Use simple meshes. Use as few vertices as you can. Fewer vertices = Faster chunk rebuilding.
Disable the fancy stuff. MAPGrid has certain features that improve the look of tiles, but also slow down real-time editing. "Smooth Mesh Seams" is one of these. Again, if you can get away with using it, then by all means go ahead, but it can impact performance.
If removing many tiles at once, don't rebuild after every tile. Manually rebuild after removing all the tiles. The functions for Adding/Removing tiles have an optional parameter "rebuildChunk" which determines whether or not the chunk will be rebuilt. If not, after you've removed your tiles, call "RebuildPendingChunks" on the same tilemap to rebuild the chunk.
Smaller Chunk Size. This one is a trade-off between overall performance, and the performance spike of editing a tile. Typically, you can get away with reducing the Height of the chunk, because many games don't utilize it anyway. When you edit a tile, the whole chunk is rebuilt, so a smaller chunk means less has to be rebuilt. But, this also means more, separate chunks in your scene, potentially slowing down the rest of your game. Always test solutions for your specific use-case.
The documentation on the API for MAPGrid is in development, but I can assist you on discord @mightyandpowerfulgames
Really nice project! i just picked it up and it's been good :) Just a note, on Unity 6.0.30 i had to change "Unity.Plastic.Newtonsoft.Json" and "Unity.Plastic.Newtonsoft.Linq" with "Newtonsoft.Json and "Newtonsoft.Linq" to have it working
This looks really nice and is something that would fit my needs. Do you have any roadmap for what/when you plan to have some of the features you mention such as path painting? Is there any documentation provided?
Hey, Thanks for taking interest in our project! I don't have a roadmap or definite release dates for these things, but I am working on them. For example, I'm experimenting and finding which pathing solution fits well with the way MAPGrid works, as well as working out the kinks in the default tileset templates, to make it as easy to use as possible without sacrificing functionality.
MAPGrid is being developed along side a game, so I have to prioritize the features required by that game.
Minimal documentation is provided as of writing this, but I plan to fully document the system when it's complete, but that's a LOT of stuff so I decided it's best to put that effort towards finishing the system first.
If you decide to use MAPGrid pre-release, feel free to ask me anything at the support email provided in the readme.
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Can we create our own tiles? I'd like to see how easy or complex that part is. What is sawn here it's truly astonishing, but I'd like to also know how much effort the dev or artist has to put before being able to paint tiles.
Yes, creating your own tilesets is easy. More complex tilesets (like the ones shown) can be tedious to create though, because of the shear number of unique meshes they use.
The rule system uses a logic-based approach with various actions that can be performed, e.g. “Set Mesh”, “Set Collider”. MAPGrid also contains documentation that explains the rule system further.
I see, I guess it's similar as with 2D tilemaps, good tilesets require a lot of work but then it's worth the effort.
On another note, for reasons I don't remember, I sent you a email to team@mightyandpowerful.games instead of commenting that here. I could comment here but to not confuse you, I prefer to notify of that mail, it would be weird if I copy and paste it here and then you find the email later
One advantage this has over 2D Tilesets is that textures can easily be swapped. You can very easily reskin the default tiles and make is look completely different. For example I used the grass tiles for both grass and sand in my project.
the tool feels great to use!
is there a timeline on the update for the multi-threading of the mesh calculation for combining? also would it be possible to have a documentation be hosted online?
I'm glad you like it!
The actual combining of the mesh is multi-threaded, but the process of evaluating the ruleset is not. I fully plan to make it much faster at solving tiles, but I have a lot on my plate for the time being. An indie studio contacted me asking about allowing for much larger tilemaps, and sense they're paying extra for it, that's what I'm working on as of writing this.
I may host documentation online at some point, but it's not a priority as of now.
Thank you for buying MAPGrid!
Phenomenal tool, miles ahead of anything like it in unity or unreal engine and man have I looked.
Hi! The tool looks super cool!
I'm about to start working on a new game, we want to let the player edit tiles (at runtime)— for example, changing a grass cube (or texture) into a path, like in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Does your tool support or could it support that kind of feature?
Thanks !
Hey, thanks for the question!
As of writing this, MAPGrid does support real-time editing of tiles. The only concern is that depending on your target platform, like mobile, the performance may or may not be acceptable. I simply haven't tested on mobile yet, so I can't say, but I plan to optimize it for mobile in the future.
I created a demo for a game in which you CAN remove tiles with minimal performance overhead. You can try it out for free here!
There are certain ways you can limit the performance impact of editing tiles:
The documentation on the API for MAPGrid is in development, but I can assist you on discord @mightyandpowerfulgames
Hi! Thanks for your quick response :)
I'm going to think it all through in detail — the tool really seems to fit our needs!
Thanks for the great work!
Really nice project! i just picked it up and it's been good :)
Just a note, on Unity 6.0.30 i had to change "Unity.Plastic.Newtonsoft.Json" and "Unity.Plastic.Newtonsoft.Linq" with "Newtonsoft.Json and "Newtonsoft.Linq" to have it working
Hey, I’m glad to hear it’s working well for you! Thank you for the heads up, I will implement your fix in the next update.
The next update should also include better documentation, so hang in there!
This looks really nice and is something that would fit my needs. Do you have any roadmap for what/when you plan to have some of the features you mention such as path painting? Is there any documentation provided?
Hey, Thanks for taking interest in our project! I don't have a roadmap or definite release dates for these things, but I am working on them. For example, I'm experimenting and finding which pathing solution fits well with the way MAPGrid works, as well as working out the kinks in the default tileset templates, to make it as easy to use as possible without sacrificing functionality.
MAPGrid is being developed along side a game, so I have to prioritize the features required by that game.
Minimal documentation is provided as of writing this, but I plan to fully document the system when it's complete, but that's a LOT of stuff so I decided it's best to put that effort towards finishing the system first.
If you decide to use MAPGrid pre-release, feel free to ask me anything at the support email provided in the readme.
Sounds great, will pick it up and look forward to updates :)
Thank you for your support!