Tilemap Editor Feature Wishlist

Feature requests
#1

  1. Display tile coordinate of mouse position in bottom left or right of viewport. This would be extremely helpful for figuring out the coordinates of key tiles that will be used with tilemap.get_tile(url, name, x-coordinate, y-coordinate)

  2. Bucket fill, similar to photoshop or gimp where all connected spaces of the same tile are replaced by the selected tile.

  3. Export map as PNG or JPG. Screenshots work for small areas, but an exported image would be helpful for larger areas.

  4. Allow the addition of multiple layer folders, with world space z offset per folder. The current method for having a foreground and a background requires two tilemaps. I saw another forum post suggesting that layer z positions should be in world space. However, I think it would be more helpful to keep z positions by layer within a folder local, and instead allow multiple folders within the same grid to have z positions that are global. This is how I picture it:

Grid
----Layers_1 (world space z = -1)
--------Background
--------Detail_1
--------Detail_2
----Layers_2 (world space z = 1)
--------Foreground
--------Detail_1

1 Like
#2

Thank you for the feedback! I can really see how #1 and #2 can be of use. What would you use the PNG export feature for? I haven’t worked with tilemaps complex enough to see the benefit of #4 either, but yeah, it might be useful.

In any case, your suggestions should be evaluated by the team working on our new editor. @Ragnar_Dahlen and @Erik_Angelin, could we make some of the feature requests into tickets in JIRA?

#3

Thanks for the response! I will try to elaborate on #3 and #4. But I look forward to seeing #1 and #2 in a future defold build.

3 would be helpful for coordinating with artists who are not directly interacting with the defold project. In my project, I designed the grid-based layout of a level, and a separate artist created the tile sheet. I then applied his art in defold. It would be useful for art detailing if I could share the completed map in full resolution with this artist.

  1. At the moment, to have a foreground and a background in world space, you must have two different tilemaps. Because you cannot view the foreground on top of the background in the tilemap editor, making changes can be painstaking process of figuring out the right coordinate. The easiest process I have found atm is to create one tilemap with everything, duplicate it, and delete every layer except the foreground. This process is repeated any time there is a change in the background that is reflected in the foreground.