Is it worth it to make a built in tile editor?

[scissors61]

@Zorg @Jasoco. I can imagine how it works. It looks very easy, definetly going to use it. Thanks.

I remember using inkscape to grab the position of some patterns I created with inkscape's grid and align tools. Then I exported them to tiled to then make an object in each figure of the pattern. If I knew better back then.

[DanielPower]

Creating your own tile editor will certainly be a learning experience, but also takes quite a bit of time and knowledge. My personal recommendation is to use something like Tiled, which is quite powerful and exports to a Lua file that you can load with STI, or by writing your own map loader.

Only write your own tile editor if:
A) You want to do it for the learning experience, or for fun.
B) You want to have the tile editor run inside your game engine for live editing and faster testing.
C) You want to have the editor built-in / more user-friendly / more attractive, so that your players will more easily be able to build maps.

For the majority of cases, I'd just recommend Tiled. But if you're willing to put the time and effort in, you can do some interesting things with your own editor.

[MasterLee]

For the majority of cases, I'd just recommend Tiled. But if you're willing to put the time and effort in, you can do some interesting things with your own editor.

Or it is use full when you map format is not supported by tiled. Using for example double indexed color tables (one index in map one in actual tile data) instead of direct color tables seems to be not possible in tiled.

[zorg]

For the majority of cases, I'd just recommend Tiled. But if you're willing to put the time and effort in, you can do some interesting things with your own editor.

Or it is use full when you map format is not supported by tiled. Using for example double indexed color tables (one index in map one in actual tile data) instead of direct color tables seems to be not possible in tiled.

It indeed may be useful.

[fyregryph]

I think this is an example of when a custom editor would be applicable, I made a (really bare bones) test of cutting each tile into 4 corners and choosing which ones to use based on their neighbors to get the right transitions. I think Tiled might actually do something similar for terrain, but I don't think you can do weird things like subtiles with it.

[MrFariator]

Typically for something like that you'd only store what the tile is supposed to be (dirt, grass, etc), and then at run time split the tile into four chunks to get the tiling right. So you'd use some sort of a "magic/master" tile in Tiled, which your game then automatically auto tiles based on surroundings.

I happen to be implementing this four-way split feature, too.

[fyregryph]

Yeah, I remember thinking that magic tile sort of approach might be a lot easier now that you mention it. Maybe I'm looking for an excuse to make some sort of little editor :p

I happen to be implementing this four-way split feature, too.

Oh cool! I'm actually thinking along the lines of making a common interface for handling tiles, and having a bunch of different types that it can use, so that whatever format you feel like making when drawing (or you can just splice other assets in) and just making that a library.