Tidy Tile Mapper: Paint tile-maps from the Editor [Released]

JFFM, a little thing that's bothering me is the editor window. You can see it in your videos where buttons like "Block Editor" and "Publish" are slightly cut off and no matter how much you extend the window, it doesn't change to make you see the whole button, the scrollbar doesn't even move.. Again, its just a minor UI thing that bothers me a little.

And thanks for the response.

 

Also, when adding variants, I'm guessing the icon for each of my blocks shouldn't be fully black, as in I don't see what the block looks like. What did I do wrong?

EDIT: Guess they are called block previews, but yeah, its not making icons for my flat plane blocks.

 

Unity is also throwing this error:

 

OK, I am a little annoyed right now since I am running into a problem like every second:

1. When I add a level and try to paint nothing happens?
2. Why can't I navigate around my scene anymore? (Actually the mouse is completely unuseable in scene view)
3. Why is the chunk that I create rotated diagonally?

EDIT:
4. It's creating blocks rapidly now. One click and there is like a thousand blocks in the scene in one spot, slowing up Unity. This is weird, ugh...

 

After playing with TTM a bit more, I would say my #1 wish is for an "undo" button. It's pretty easy to make mistakes, but sort of hard to correct them.

 

Err, help??

No one else is having problems? This is slowing my dev time trying to figure things out...JFFM??

 

Hi Jrricky,

I'll address your problems in order. As you have a few, could you please respond to my email with your answers to avoid derailing the thread.

1. When I add a level and try to paint nothing happens?

You'll need to be a little bit more explicit with me for this one. Could you give me a rundown of your workflow? Are you following the tutorial video?

2. Why can't I navigate around my scene anymore? (Actually the mouse is completely unuseable in scene view)

When you have a tool active (the button glows green and the Scene View tells you that the tools are active). Deactivate your tool (by clicking the disable button) to resume usual function.

3. Why is the chunk that I create rotated diagonally?

Chunks are created and aligned to the Camera - Upward-growing blocks grow along the Camera Y-Axis, Outward-growing blocks grow along the Camera Z-Axis. You can freely rotate your source Map to suit whatever rotation you desire.

4. It's creating blocks rapidly now. One click and there is like a thousand blocks in the scene in one spot, slowing up Unity.

This sounds like something has crashed internally. Are you getting any red errors?

-JFFM

 

Hi Neal,

Ah coincidence of all coincidences, I've got an Undo system in development, I'm just making sure it doesn't behave in an aberrant manner across all functions.

Thanks for the feedback!

-JFFM

 

Hi Jrricky,

To create previews, TTM places the block in front of the Camera, and then aligns itself diagonally to the top and front of the block.

If you are using planes, I am guessing either:

-The normal on the plane is reversed (the Camera cannot see the plane when the Z-axis is pointing toward the Camera)
-The rotation of the plane is such that the Camera cannot see it (looking directly side-on to a 2D plane).

When you reply to my email, feel free to send me a screenshot of the object you are using in Unity (with the movement transform handles showing) and I can give you more info.

-JFFM

 

Oh don't worry about this one (I'll actually remove these messages in the next release). They're yellow, so they're just warnings.
This is related to the manner in which TTM generates previews.

-JFFM

 

Hi Everybody,

Just another message to say:

I check this forum thread once daily (at 10.30am Sydney time).

If you require realtime Tidy TileMapper help, please feel free to email the address in the readme.txt file located in your Tidy TileMapper package. This address syncs to my phone, so unless I'm driving or otherwise incapacitated, you'll hear back from me very quickly.

-JFFM

 

Hey thanks for getting back to me.

Here are 3 screenshots:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4585058/CM%20Capture%201.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4585058/CM%20Capture%202.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4585058/CM%20Capture%203.png

 

Hi Jrricky,

I've sent you an email with a few clarifications. I'll update this thread when we've resolved your issues so everybody can be on the same page.

The hierarchy in the third screencap looks good (25 blocks for a 5x5 block chunk, 9 chunks for a 3x3 map) - but large chunks are irregular and I'm not 100% on their source (we'll debug this via email and I'll update this thread).

One issue I see in your third screencap that everybody should be aware of:

The planes in this screenshot do not face forward, but upward - this won't work correctly for an upward-growing (forward-facing) map, as we require the planes to face the camera (they are bound on the Z-axis).
I've sent you a forward-facing plane FBX with which to test, this should resolve a few of your problems (including the preview issue).

I'll include this FBX in the next update, so everybody can use it. (I've sent it to a few other people from the forums, I really should have included it a while ago but it slipped my mind).

-JFFM

 

This makes sense now with the preview not showing, I'll fix my fbx files, ill send you one in the email.

But this still leaves me with these questions:
1. Do I have to click on the gameobject level name to start painting.
2. Why would multiple tiles be created with one click.

Here are some screen grabs of test level size:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4585058/CM%20Capture%204.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4585058/CM%20Capture%205.png

 

Hi Jrricky,

Edit: Just to note, I'm developing and testing on Pro. Since I notice you're using Indie, give me a little bit to upgrade my other machine to 3.5 and I'll test to see if there are any 3.5 Indie issues that may be causing you grief.

Edit Again: Done and dusted. I've installed TTM and 3.5 Indie on my other machine and tested it with both normal cubes and the upward planes, everything appears to be good. I'd even go so far as to say it's looking beautiful

1. No need to select the gameobject level name to paint, just click "Paint" and click on either the Map Chunk (the large white square) or a Map Block (the small white square / your tile) and it will paint. Be sure to check out the videos on the blog to get a feel for the painting process.

2. When you click on a chunk (the large white square) multiple tiles are created - the number of which are specified when you create the map (Chunk Width, Chunk Height). This is for two reasons: To improve painting performance (making groups of tiles in chunks feels faster from an interface perspective than making them one-at-a-time) and to allow the painter to set a defined "work area" as they paint.

Also a note to everybody:

I'm just uploading an update to the kit that will:
-Remove the warning about texture importers
-Correctly generate previews for Y-up planes
-Corrects an issue with collider generation on irregularly-sized planes.
-Include the mentioned forward-facing plane FBX.

-JFFM

 

Sent a video, sorry for crappy phone quality.

 

Just a quick update to keep you all abreast of the turbulent Unity adventures Jrricky and I have been on:

After creating a new project and importing the TTM package, TTM is working for Jrricky.

I'll update this post here if we find a conflict that was causing the issue.

A big thanks to Jrricky for the video and the feedback.

-JFFM

 

Hello JFFM,

in Tile Editor , can you add a feature Layers like in photoshop ; it will be helfull for painting :



Thanks.

NB: OOps, i just find the Layers visibility.; sory for my idiot request.

 

Hey JFFM,

I am trying to replicate how you set your upwardfacing plane. I opened up my 3d program and did just that, brought it back into Unity and my previews still didn't work. I saw that the upwardfacing models x rotation was set to -90 so I did that to mine, still no preview. Then I noticed this in the import settings:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4585058/CM%20Capture%206.png
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4585058/CM%20Capture%207.png
How did you change the rotation for the import settings?? You can see the difference between my normal plane and the upward facing.

 

love this wonderful asset.

 

Hi Jrricky,

I've released an update (which is live right now) that should fix previews on different rotations of planes.

As for the rotation from the 3D program - I think I set the upward axis to be Y-up when I exported to FBX (this is a vague memory sorry, it was a while ago) and when it came into Unity is was correct.

-JFFM

 

Thanks Hoegbo!

I love waking up to compliments

-JFFM

 

(Maybe in your last release ?)
Could you add a standard 2D complete block ? We have a complete 3D block but I would like to see how the different prefabs + textures are on a 2D block...

6R

 

Hey JFFM, everything is working great now, TTM is awesome!! Thanks for the awesome and fast support too!!

 

Hey JFFM, can I control how zoomed in the camera is to the object to create previews?

 

Also, JFFM, I thought you could hold the left mouse down and 'paint', but I have to constantly be clicking...is there something wrong or am I doing it wrong?

Only the default "Empty Block" works like this...

Also, big suggestion, Hot Keys!!!

There are a lot of times where I just want to hit something like Shift to select "cycle tile" button instead of directly clicking on it, same for the "empty blocks' button.

 

OK, JFFM, I found a huge glitch, happened to me twice now when messing around with my custom blocks and trying to figure out where to place them in the orientations.

My custom block set gets removed from the selection block panel, but it's still shows up in the block editor. Kind of a pain since I have to make a new block set when this happens.

EDIT: It happened again, I think preview mode is crapping out, since I saw a preview object that was supposed to be deleted but still in the scene...

You can see for yourself, the is no preview for my block set anymore, but it is still shown in the block editor:

 

@ jrricky : Did you have this problem after you have deleted on eof your block to add another one ?
I had this issue too !!!

6R

 

Yes probably, since I'm trying to understand orientations so I delete and add tiles that fit what I want.

 

Edit: I've had a look at this - It's related to the refreshing of the "Default" tagging on a blockset. To work around this for now, just turn the Default box off and then on within the Block you are experiencing issues with, and save your changes. It will refresh the block. I'll add a fix in the next release.

Hi Jrricky,

I have a theory on this but I can't be 100% without knowing what is inside the DP_Planes object in this case:

I believe (since the DP_Planes object is not showing up in your swatches panel) that the DP_Planes object contains either no tiles, or has no tileset marked as Default - as such there is no object to preview or paint with.

If you could walk me through what you did to get to this stage (what was deleted / added and how) I will be able to narrow it down.

-JFFM

 

Hi Jrricky,

Definitely, it should be 'hold to paint'.

Do you have the most recent TTM update? It could be an issue with colliders on irregularly-sized blocks.

-JFFM

 

Hi Jrricky,

At present you can't - it's set automatically based on the size of the object (1.5x the object radius outward, 1.5x the object radius upward)

But after I've finished my current round of dev I'm going to revisit it to make a few changes

-JFFM

 

I did that (turn the default block off and save) and it worked. Hope for a fix soon though I have a workaround.

Thanks.

 

I'm pretty sure it's the latest version. Also I used the example blocks to see if it was my meshes but it does the same thing, no 'painting', have to click. I also tested in new project, same...

 

It seems to be kind of buggy when changing the prefabs that blocks are made of after creating the block. Generally it seems I have to remove the object from the block then re add it, which also messes up the order.

What about some kind of rebuild function that will go through and refresh everything?

 

Hey JFFM, you know what else would perfectly fit with TTM, an edge border creator, to create invisible barriers instead of me manually making them

Something akin to using the draw path to draw what the barrier collider would be created from...I'd buy it as a separate plugin too!

 

I am looking to paint with 2 different tile sizes on top of each other. I have one large tileset which is 2 units and one small tileset which is 1 unit (width, height, depth). I have created two tile maps and placed them at the same depth.

It would be VERY useful if you could only paint on the selected map. I am finding that I am always painting on the wrong map.

Is there a workaround that I am not aware of?

Cheers

 

Hi Alex,

Definitely, you read my mind.

Originally blocksets were references to prefabs (so you can change the base prefab as often as you like) - however when painting, this was breaking the Block's relationship with the block prefab parent (which meant that changes to your Block configuration wouldn't propagate to the map).

I've not experimented 100% with the changes made to prefabs in 3.5, but in any case "Rebuild block" will be added to the list.

-JFFM

 

Hi Numberkruncher,

That's a tricky one. I don't really have a workaround in mind for you, sorry.
If you use layers on both maps, activate / deactivate your layers while painting (using Layer Visibility) this could allow you to have both maps aligned but avoid painting between maps.
However, this would not really be the "dual painting" you're looking for.

Let me ponder it.

Good luck!

-JFFM

 

Sigh!!

JFFM, I don't know if it's me again, but changing the tile set size only changes the the chunk size...it makes no sense...

Also keep in mind the pic uses the default tileset you shipped with TTM, and in the pic you can see the tile width,height and depth and also the chunk width/height... I didn't touch that so the chunk size shouldn't be changing...

 

Hey JFFM,

I figured out the first glitch I had with the chunks not working right. The scale factor. I had a model processor script the sets the scale factor to 0.1 not the default 0.01. Is there any fix around this? Or I'm going to have to work with TTM's scale factor for the chunks. My models are imported with the 0.1 scale since I believe the the default is too tiny.

 

Hi Jrricky,

The tile size (depth, width, height) parameters will not scale the tiles themselves - they're used to cater for differing model sizes.

For example: The default tileset is 1x1x1 so it would be used on a map with width/depth/height 1x1x1, but if you were to make a tileset with models 2x1x1, it would size the chunks and empty-blocks to cater for this.

-JFFM

 

Hello Everybody,

Thought I should add a message that's just from me to our nicely-active forum thread.

I'm on the cusp of releasing a new update (today) that will clear a few things off my list:

• Added a "Delete Chunk" button
• Fixed (I think) an issue with Blocks being painted without mouse-down
• Added tiling for "Act Empty" blocksets
• Added a "Stripping Level" selector to allow various levels of stripping of the map upon Publish
• Added five new Block Orientations (for T intersections)

I'm just waiting on a few support emails to resolve, and once everything looks on the up-and-up, that will be out in the wild.

Also: I'm about to put the cherry atop the Pathing addon (for having AI scripts manoeuvre over the map) - so if anybody has any suggestions for this, please email me or message me here. I've not settled on how it should be presented yet (e.g: as a set of scripts that you just drag onto your characters, as a class that you can override and do whatever you like with, or something in-between).

-JFFM Away!

 

Thanks, I understand. Plus I just watched the video of how to properly prepare my level to be painted. I wasn't placing chunks down for the space I wanted to use to paint, so just holding the left mouse button down to paint did not work. I was actually trying to "paint" when the grey chunks were not set down...

 

Ah, that makes sense

I'm glad everything worked out.

Enjoy!

-JFFM

 

hey JFFM,

great add ons you are adding so far. I think time has come to purchase it.

One thing, is it possible to have different geometries for the orientations? So we can add slopes, so to build a big pyramid without steps for example. I'm really looking forward to having this feature

 

Hi b3y0nd3r (that was a hard name to type!),

You can use any geometry or object you like within your orientations - whether they be the rounded blocks that come as default, 2D planes, bushes, trees or anything your heart desires.

So hopefully your pyramid dreams will be easy to realise! (easier than the Egyptians had it, anyway )

-JFFM

 

Hello everybody!

The new Tidy TileMapper update is now live on the Asset Store.

I am 99% sure it won't break anybody's projects, but on the off chance, please backup your work before updating your tools.

As always, if you have any issues, please feel free to email me.

For the rest of the week, I'm finishing up the Runtime API and hopefully finishing up the AI character controllers which I am running quite late with.

If anybody has any suggestions for either of these things, please message / email / Tweet me - I like to build with a good amount of use-cases in mind.

Thanks for the support everybody!

-JFFM

 

Hey JFFM, did you miss my post about a feature request?

TTM Edge Barrier creations anyone?

 

BTW JFFM, how do you use layers?