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kervala, 09/30/2010 09:41 am


Creating A Tile Bank

Notes

Notes on TileBank manager documentation:

  • Images Have Red Highlighted Areas To Give Focus To The Area Of Discussion Or Part Of The Interface You Will Interact With.
  • Various Details On The Formatting Of Data Required For The TileBank Manager Are Located In The Appendices.
  • A Glossary Of Terms Is Provided In The Appendices Of This Document.
  • A .doc file version of this tutorial can be found * HERE *

Step 1 - Adding a Land

Adding a land just needs you to enter the name you want to call the land.

Step 2 - Adding a tile set

Adding a TileSet requires you to enter a name too.

Step 3 - Editing a tile set

This might be the most important part. After you click on the lower edit TileSet button you get the tile bank manager. Here you can add any type of tiles you need for drawing them to a landscape. When you have opened the manager this brings us directly to Step4.

Unable to render embedded object: File (tile_bank_manager_edit_tileset.png) not found.

Step 4 - Adding tiles to a tile set

On the left side of this editor dialog you will find five groups of radio buttons.

  • Texture allows you to select the type of texture you want to add or modify.
  • Size allows you to alter the size the textures are displayed as in the editor.
  • Texte info lets you choose whether you want to see the filename or the index number of the tile displayed under each image.
  • Tiles allows you to switch between the size, alpha and displacement tile types for adding or modification
  • Subtileset is deprecated and can be safely ignored.

NOTE: Transitions are alpha maps for merging and overlapping between different TileSets.

NOTE: Displacements are for making the landscape a bit more non-uniform.

The first you should add some textures start with Diffuse and the size of the texture (128x128 or 256x256) depending on the size of your TGA file.

Now right click on the large empty area of the window and left click the Add option on the menu that pops up.

Using the file dialog that is opened browse for the TGA tile image you want to add to the tile set.

NOTE: The TGA images must be saved as uncompressed!

After we have added the diffuse and additive tiles we need to add transitions for your texture types.

Now you select the tile slot you wish to alter.

tile_bank_manager_add_diffuse_transitions_tile.png

Right click and choose Replace from the menu that pops up.

Using the file dialog that is opened browse for the TGA tile image you want to add to the tile set.

tile_bank_manager_batch_load.png

You add the alpha maps with the same method.

You add the displacement maps with the same method.

Step 5 - Assigning tile set order to a land

After you have successfully edited a TileSet you need to add this TileSet to your land.

Glossary of Terms

  • TileBank : A Group Of Lands
  • Land : An Ordered Group Of TileSet?
  • TileSet : A Group Of Tiles
  • Tile : A 128x128 Or 256x256 Pixel Square Image Block Of Terrain Surface
  • TGA : The Native Format Required For Tiles
  • DDS : The Compressed Converted Form Of Tiles ( Direct Draw Surface )
  • Alpha : A Unit Of Opacity Defining A Level Of Transparency An Image Has

tile_bank_manager_add_alpha_transitions_tile.png (21 kB) kervala, 09/30/2010 09:41 am

tile_bank_manager_add_bank.png (17 kB) kervala, 09/30/2010 09:41 am

tile_bank_manager_add_diffuse.png (17.2 kB) kervala, 09/30/2010 09:41 am

tile_bank_manager_add_diffuse_128.png (17.2 kB) kervala, 09/30/2010 09:41 am

tile_bank_manager_add_alpha_transitions.png (20.5 kB) kervala, 09/30/2010 09:41 am

tile_bank_manager_add_diffuse_transitions.png (20.6 kB) kervala, 09/30/2010 09:42 am

tile_bank_manager_add_displacement.png (19.3 kB) kervala, 09/30/2010 09:42 am

tile_bank_manager_add_menu.png (3.3 kB) kervala, 09/30/2010 09:42 am

tile_bank_manager_add_tileset_to_land_a.png (8.1 kB) kervala, 09/30/2010 09:42 am

tile_bank_manager_add_tileset_to_land_b.png (8.1 kB) kervala, 09/30/2010 09:42 am

tile_bank_manager_add_tileset_to_land_c.png (8.1 kB) kervala, 09/30/2010 09:43 am

tile_bank_manager_add_transitions.png (20.6 kB) kervala, 09/30/2010 09:43 am

tile_bank_manager_batch_load.png (11.2 kB) kervala, 09/30/2010 09:43 am

tile_bank_manager_edit_land.png (10.8 kB) kervala, 09/30/2010 09:43 am

tile_bank_manager_replace_tile.png (3.3 kB) kervala, 09/30/2010 09:43 am

tile_bank_manager_step_xxxx.png (3.3 kB) kervala, 09/30/2010 09:44 am

tile_bank_manager_step_a.png (11.6 kB) kervala, 09/30/2010 09:44 am

tile_bank_manager_step_b.png (7.1 kB) kervala, 09/30/2010 09:44 am

tile_bank_manager_step_c.png (7.5 kB) kervala, 09/30/2010 09:44 am

tile_bank_manager_step_d.png (10.8 kB) kervala, 09/30/2010 09:44 am

tile_bank_manager_step_xxx.png (3.3 kB) kervala, 09/30/2010 09:44 am