DrawMap and TileStudio Help

[Jhysaun]

Thats not what you want!?!?!?

Oh well then your problem is the map. Each pointer the map points to is a 6x8 tile. Your tiles are 32x32. So its only displaying a fraction of the tile. Give me a few minutes...


EDIT: The problem is you need 6x 8 tiles, what you should do is open Tile Studio and goto the map editor. Goto File> Export Map as Image.
Then import the image as 6x8 tiles.

[soshimo]

Thats not what you want!?!?!?

Oh well then your problem is the map. Each pointer the map points to is a 6x8 tile. Your tiles are 32x32. So its only displaying a fraction of the tile. Give me a few minutes...

Ah, 6x8, okay. Let me redo my map using smaller tiles (I'll have to figure out how to break it up somehow). That also explains why the 8x8 tileset almost worked using your changes. I feel an Ah Ha moment comming on. Thanks so much for all your help.

[soshimo]

Sweet success! Thank you so much for all your help. You've gotten me past this hurdle - plus I learned along the way. I'll have to check out these screen sections. They sound interesting.

[Jhysaun]

Sweet success! Thank you so much for all your help.

Don't Mention it.

I'll have to check out these screen sections. They sound interesting.

......yeah....interesting...thats one word for them

[soshimo]

EDIT: The problem is you need 6x 8 tiles, what you should do is open Tile Studio and goto the map editor. Goto File> Export Map as Image.
Then import the image as 6x8 tiles.

I actually stumbled upon this technique by accident last night when I discovered you could export a map (Tile Studio Rox BTW). The one caveat - make your original tiles dimensions a multiple of 6x8. It makes laying out so much easier as you don't have strips of tiles that are only partially filled (due to the dimensions not being a product of 6x8). I found that 24x36 works the best and you can get the most detail in without having a huge amount of tiles produced (4x4 or 16 tiles per "square" on the original map). You could also import them as 1x1 tiles I suppose (though I haven't tested this yet) or 2x2 if the dimensions are even, but that would be more of a headache to work with the tiles - even at 6x8 they are a pain. I can barely see them with my old eyes. Then you just use that tool "Fill With Subsequent Tiles" and viola you have your nice pretty map with 6x8 tiles! Now to figure out vertical scrolling - I do love my shooters.

[uze6666]

Wow, I missed that thread, you guys started that very late yesterday it seems.

even at 6x8 they are a pain. I can barely see them with my old eyes.

Yeah, kinda. The new V4 (WIP) engine in SVN uses a new sprites mode with 8x8 tiles and 240x224 resolution. However scrolling is not implemented yet... Also Dave made a high-res, tiles-only mode with 16x16 tiles @ 288x224...with scrolling too! Could be good candidates to alleviate that pain...

ll have to check out these screen sections. They sound interesting.

If you've seen Clay's MoonPatrol demo, you've seen them in action. It allow multiple, arbitrary, split screens each with it's own position and tile bank. And there's also priority against the sprites too (they can be over or under a section).

Uze

[soshimo]

Wow, I missed that thread, you guys started that very late yesterday it seems.

Yeah, I was up burning the midnight oil. I just couldn't put it to rest until I got some decent output. I had my wife yelling at me all night

Yeah, kinda. The new V4 (WIP) engine in SVN uses a new sprites mode with 8x8 tiles and 240x224 resolution. However scrolling is not implemented yet... Also Dave made a high-res, tiles-only mode with 16x16 tiles @ 288x224...with scrolling too! Could be good candidates to alleviate that pain...

Nice, I'll definitely have a look at that. I have to remember to keep this in perspective. It's not like it's XNA with every function you would ever need ready for you (and some you will never need), but it's also not fat and bloated like XNA. I use XNA for Zune game development.

If you've seen Clay's MoonPatrol demo, you've seen them in action. It allow multiple, arbitrary, split screens each with it's own position and tile bank. And there's also priority against the sprites too (they can be over or under a section).

So that's how he get's that parallax effect. Very nice!

[Jhysaun]

I use XNA for Zune game development.

ZUNE HAS GAMES!?!?!?!?! huh... interesting, you learn something new everyday.

Anyway for vertical scrolling you need something like this:

Code: Select all

while(1)
{
      screensections[i].scrollY++;
      if(screensections[i].scrollY == 208)
      {
                 (screensections[i].scrollY =0;
       }
}

[soshimo]

I use XNA for Zune game development.

ZUNE HAS GAMES!?!?!?!?! huh... interesting, you learn something new everyday.

Anyway for vertical scrolling you need something like this:

Code: Select all

while(1)
{
      screensections[i].scrollY++;
      if(screensections[i].scrollY == 208)
      {
                 (screensections[i].scrollY =0;
       }
}

Nice, thanks for the code - I'll definitely give that a shot.

Yes, you definitely can write games for the Zune. You have to use .Net though so you are relegated to C# (or, shudder VB.Net). I'm not sure of the constraints - I think something like 1MB memory which isn't too bad. I've been able to port most of my original mobile titles (and some that I don't own IP for but have source ) over to the Zune. You can write a Tetris game in about 500 lines of code (I know, I did it) and use media from the device (so you can have people choose their own background music if you want). The content pipeline is pretty awesome - uses xml files (not a new technology for sure as I've been using it for content description for years, but they have nice well rounded libraries). You can also write your own content handlers in case you don't like xml for some reason or you have custom content. All in all, Zune development is actually nice, especially coming from mobile land where nothing is as it seems.

EDIT:
I forgot to add, not to beat the Zune horse (I am a convert), but it also has integrated source level debugging on the device, so you can step through code while it's executing without complicated gdb setup. A very handy feature indeed. Here are some screenshots from my 1945 WIP:

CIMG1815.JPG (164.02 KiB) Viewed 6580 times

CIMG1820.JPG (159.83 KiB) Viewed 6580 times

[sxdemon]

144x224 resolution, 6x8 pixels tiles, 32x32 vram

6x8 is the size of each tile.

What is the 32x32 vram?

and the 144x224 resolution?
Is it the size you are going to get on your screen?

What map size should I take?

Thanks