Powerful Editing Tools and Assets for Game Development

Getting started with 2D Tilezone

In the Unity editor you will find the main tile editing window under Windows > Tileset Editor. This window can be docked with other windows to save space. Your window should look something like this.

To start using the tileset editor you must first set up a material for the tiles. Create a new material (Assets > Create > Material) and assign a shader to it. The recommended shader to use is Unlit/Transparent Cutout for scenes that aren't affected by lighting, or Standard with the render mode set to cutout if you want to add in lights to the scene. Set the main texture of the shader to the tilesheet image you want to use. If you don't want to set up a material there is a material already set up called SpritesetMat.

Once you have a material set up, drag it into the box beside Material in the Tileset Editor window and you will see the tiles appear. Before you can create a layer to work on you must set up the tile size and spacing to match the tilesheet image used. You will know you have done this step correctly when the grid matches up with all the tiles in the image.

You can now click on Create New Layer to create a layer to work on. Note that you can extend the map size after you have created it, so don't worry if it is too small. You will now see that the box beside Layer to edit has the layer you just created in it. If you want to edit another layer then either drag the gameObject from the hierarchy to the box under Layer to edit or click the circle beside the box and select the layer from the list. You can now start editing using the tools provided.

The Tools

Various tools are at your disposal for editing the tile map in the scene view.

If you have the Paint Brush Tool, the Box Tool, or the Fill tool selected and you hold down shift and click and drag a box on the scene view you will select those tiles for use.

Collisions

Clicking on a tile in the Tileset Editor window with Collisions selected will toggle through either full collision, slope up right, slope up left, platform, or none. Platform (Top half of the square is blue) will set up the colliders to use Unity's built in Platform Effector 2D component and will set it up for one way collisions.

The collision mesh doesn't get automatically get updated, instead you need to click on Update Colliders. This may take a few seconds with larger maps.

Using the Auto Tile feature

The Auto Tile feature is a powerful feature that allows groups of tiles to connect up with each other in a logical way without you having to individually select each tile image. The Auto Tile feature has been set up in a way that works with most tile formats.

To start using Auto Tile set the Number of Auto Tiles to 1 or higher. An image will appear with a bunch of light grey tiles. These tiles are a general guideline as to what type of tile to place there. To place a tile select a tile or group of tiles from the tilesheet image in the tileset editor window, and click on the appropriate tile in the Auto Tile image. Tiles in the Auto Tile can also be flipped and rotated so you can easily get the tile needed without having to edit the tilesheet image in an external editor.

Notice that in the above image not all the tiles are filled in in the Auto Tile image. This is ok as 2D Tilezone will pick the next best tile. The tiles in the image above is the minimum needed to get good looking results.

Once you have set up your Auto Tile you can select it with the tick box beside the image and draw on to the scene. You can use any of the drawing tools to place Auto Tiles.

In the inspector view with a layer selected there are a list of references to other layers. These are for joining layers together and having the Auto Tiles link up between layers.

Other Features

To use either Update 3D Walls or Export To PNG the texture used in the material must have read/write checked in the Texture Import settings. This setting can only be seen if you set the texture type to advanced.

Setting up a Pixel Perfect Camera

To set up a Pixel Perfect Camera select the camera you wish to set up and go Add Component > 2D > Pixel Perfect Camera.

Setting up a Parallax Background

To set up a Parallax Background select the Game Object tou wish to set up and go Add Component > 2D > Parallax Background. Once the component Parallax Background is attached you can no longer modify the position of the Game Object usint Transform, instead use Start Position.

If you add a Parallax Background component to a Tile Layer then the only way to edit it is to not have the Parallax Background selected, Otherwise it won't snap to grid.

Setting up a Random Dungeon.

The Random Dungeon feature of 2D Tilezone is aimed at creating random dungeons for a top down Isometric view dungeon, although with some tweaking of settings could also work for other situations like platformer games.

To add a Random Dungeon either create a new layer and select the checkbox for Create Random Dungeon, or add a Random Dungeon object to an exsisting tile layer by going Add Component > 2D > Random Dungeon.

In the inspector in Unity with the Random Dungeon layer selected you will see a bunch of options.

To add the Floor, Roof, or Wall tiles select the tile or Auto Tile wanted and click on the space below the text. The wall tile looks best as an Isometric Wall Auto Tile if the height more than one for an isometric view, or any tile for a top down view with the height at 1.

If the roof or wall tiles are not needed then just leave the tiles as blank, or click Remove.

Floor Objects are objects to be randomly placed on the floor. The chance is the chance that the object will be generated, with 0 being no chance and 1 being certain.

If Must Be Reachable is checked then the object will spawn on any reachable floor space, otherwise the object will spawn on any floor tile.

Setting up a Random Platformer.

The Random Platformer feature of 2D Tilezone is aimed at creating random platform levels.

To add a Random Platformer either create a new layer and select the checkbox for Create Random Platformer, or add a Random Platformer object to an exsisting tile layer by going Add Component > 2D > Random Platformer.

The Random Platformer can be split in to chunks, and to generate a level the bottom left chunk must be selected.

In the inspector in Unity with the Random Platformer layer selected you will see a bunch of options.

Floor Objects are objects to be randomly placed on the floor. The chance is the chance that the object will be generated, with 0 being no chance and 1 being certain.

If Must Be Reachable is checked then the object will spawn on the solution path only, otherwise the object will spawn on any platform.

The width for a floor object is the amount of space that the object will take up so objects can't overlap.

Tile Prefabs

To set up Tile Prefabs add the TilePrefabs component by going AddComponent > 2D > Tile Prefabs.

You can add a prefab by clicking on the “+” button beside Tile Prefabs in the inspector, and add tiles to this prefab by clicking the “+” beside Tiles in the inspector.

You can also choose if the tile gets drawn to the tile layer. If the tile doesn't get drawn and the tile has a collision type other than none then the collider will still be created.

Once a tile prefab is set up the prefab will automatically be created and destroyed both in game and in editor when tiles are added or removed.

Using Scriptable Tile Layer

You can add a Scriptable Tile Layer Component to a Tile Layer by going Add Component > 2D > Scriptable Tile Layer or by creating your own script which derives from ScriptableTileLayerBase and adding it to the Tile Layer. You will find some options in the inspector.

Once created you can resize the bounds and chunk size. Your layers will automatically be seperated in to chunks and Autotiles will automatically connect between chunks.

You can also set up additional layers for example a background layer by clicking Add in the inspector, and you can easily switch between which layer you are editing in using the buttons either side of the layer name in the scene view.

Changing tiles in game.

ChangeTile(int x, int y, int index, Tile tile, bool addToChangeList)
ChangeTile(Vector2 worldPos, int index, Tile tile, bool addToChangeList)

In game you can call the method ChangeTile to change a tile.

If you want to easily access tiles in script add a public Tile object. There is a property drawer for the Tile object so you can easily add a tile or Autotile in the inspector in the editor.

Procedural Generation

To gererate a procedural level you must create a new script which derives from ScriptableTileLayerBase or NetworkScriptaleTileLayer and override the GenerateMethod eg

public class WorldGenerator : ScriptableTileLayerBase {

    public override void GenerateMethod (ITilezoneTileDataStream dataStream) {
        
    }
}

From within GenerateMethod you can edit the dataStream object to generate your level.

Within the ScriptableTileLayerHelper class you will find a bunch of useful static functions for procedural generation.

To use any of these functions you need to create a function which matches the delegate for TileFunctionDelegate or TileFunctionBoolDelegate.

TileFunctionDelegate returns a Tile and requires int x, int y, and up to 3 parameters of any type.

TileFunctionBoolDelegate returns a bool and requires int x, int y, and up to 3 parameters of any type.

An example of a function is the NoiseFunction which is in the ScriptableTileLayerHelper class and can be used for FillTiles, FillAllTiles, CarveTiles or CarveAllTiles.

public static bool NoiseFunction ( int x, int y, Vector2 scale, Vector2 offset, float chance ) {
    if( Mathf.PerlinNoise( ( x + offset.x ) * scale.x, ( y + offset.y ) * scale.y ) < chance )
            return true;
        return false;
}

An example of how to use the NoiseFunction and FillAllTiles

public class WorldGenerator : ScriptableTileLayerBase {

    public Tile groundTile;
    public Vector2 scale = new Vector2( 0.2f, 0.2f );

    public override void GenerateMethod (ITilezoneTileDataStream dataStream) {
        Random.seed = seed;
        Vector2 offset = Random.insideUnitCircle * 100000;
        ScriptableTileLayerHelper.FillAllTiles(
            dataStream,
            0,
            groundTile,
            ScriptableTileLayerHelper.NoiseFunction,
            scale,
            offset,
            0.5f,
            false
        );
    }
}

When you click Clear and Generate in the inspector or call Generate() from script the level will be generated. Also you can call GenerateSerializedTileData() which will generate the data and return it as a SerializedTileData object. This will not generate the level.

Saving and Loading data.

You can easily save any changes made in game to a file by calling SaveChangesAsDataFile and load by calling LoadChangesDataFile.

For example:

SaveChangesAsDataFile(
	Application.persistentDataPath + "/MyLevel.dat", true
);
LoadChangesDataFile(
	Application.persistentDataPath + "/MyLevel.dat"
);

A Tile Layer can also be saved as a Unity Asset in the editor, and then later be stamped on to a procadural layer by calling StampTileData from ScriptableTileLayerHelper.

Continuous Loading of levels.

If you are generating a large procedural level it might be best to use the Continuous Load feature, which will only load the chunks within view of any players. To use this feature you must have a script which derives from ScriptableTileLayerBase or NetworkScriptaleTileLayer and impliments the ITilezoneContinuousLoad inteface. For examle:

public class WorldGenerator : ScriptableTileLayerBase, ITilezoneContinousLoad {

    Transform[] m_players;
    SerializedTileData m_tileData;

    #region ITilezoneContinousLoad implementation
    public Transform[] players {
        get {
            if( m_players == null || m_players.Length == 0 ) {
                m_players = new Transform[] {
                    GameObject.FindGameObjectWithTag("Player").transform
                };
            }
            return m_players;
        }
    }
    public int viewDistInChunks {
        get {
            return 3;
        }
    }
    public ITilezoneTileDataStream dataToLoad {
        get {
            if( m_tileData == null ) {
                m_tileData = GenerateSerializedTileData();
            }
            return m_tileData;
        }
    }
    #endregion

If you have been generating levels in the editor and are using Continuous Load then don't forget to clear the level before compiling and testing the game, otherwise there will be a pause at the start of the game while it loads the whole level that was saved in memory.

Using Network Scriptale Tile Layer

The NetworkScriptaleTileLayer class can be used in the same way as the ScriptableTileLayerBase class. When using the NetworkScriptaleTileLayer class all tile changes made using ChangeTile are automatically sent over the network and updated on the client.

You can override the method OnRecievedInitialTileData() which gets called on the client once the server has sent the initial tile data. The base implimentation of this method calls UpdateTilesContinuous if ITilezoneContinousLoad is implimented.

Technical Information

When it comes to programming your game you are likely to want some basic information about the tiles. The TileInfo class contains access to a bunch of information and functions to help you. Also contained are functions to modify tiles in game.

Tile class

The Tile class contains information about a single tile.

The Tile class can also be compared to a Vector2 and returns equal if xIndex = Vector2.x and yIndex = Vector2.y. Also Tile can be cast as a Vector2.

TileInfo class

The TileInfo class is automatically attached to any Tile Layer created in the Tileset Editor. The TileInfo class contains information about the whole map and contains an array of Tile objects.

Variables:

Functions:

PixelPerfectCamera class

PixelPerfectCamera.SnapToPix( Transform transform ) can be called on any transform to snap it to a pixel.

2D Tilezone - Copyright © 2015 David Watts