[SirAlaran]

I noticed on the blog that you have plans for a tile map editor. Do you have a list of features or an idea of what the output format of that would be? I ask because I'm writing a map editor for my game project (Which I will likely end up using Arclib for). This seems like a good opportunity to avoid duplicating effort. The editor is written using Python and PyGTK. Screenshot

[clayasaurus]

Hi,

The map editor I'm using is just one that I'm building into my WarCoders game project.

http://svn.dsource.org/projects/arclib/dev/warcoders/

It is all hotkey based, and currently only allows you to place tiles, but I will have objects being placed in it shortly.

I'm saving the map into an XML file format

http://svn.dsource.org/projects/arclib/dev/warcoders/trunk/game/maps/map.xml

It just saves the tiles that were changed from the default tile. It also allows you to place 'lights' in it. It is pretty much custom designed for a game I'm going to make.

Your map editor looks like it might be farther along then mine. We could try to combine efforts, then a map editor would really have to be a swiss army knife type tool to accommodate different styles of games. What were you thinking?

[SirAlaran]

[clayasaurus]

Cool,

Yea, the way I work is I put all the beta features into the games I'm currently making, and then if I can easily generalize them put them into ArcLib.

I'd be happy to add your map editor as an ArcLib extension, however. This goes to anyone who has useful game programming codes they want to share

~ Clay

[SirAlaran]

Version 0.2 of the map editor is done.

Features:

• Create tile maps from png tile sets
  
• Layers
  
• Saving information for a single paralax background
  
• XML file output
  
• Creation of polygon-based collision information
  
• Placement of lights
  
• Written in Python with GTK+ and Cairo. No need to re-compile for other operating systems (It was written on 64-bit Linux)
  
• "Mostly" Gnome HIG compliant. (It's not user-hostile...)
  

Limitations:

• Cannot move shapes
  
• Cannot preview the effects of background images
  
• Cannot add entities
  
• Cannot move or edit lights once placed without manually editing XML
  
• Cannot open files from command-line
  
• Cannot remove tiles
  
• Not anywhere near complete
  

Screenshot

Download


Bug reports and feature suggestions (especially feature suggestions) welcome. (Report bugs by PM... At least until I get a project site set up for my game here at dsource)
_________________
Current projects: Project Fermitas, Arctographer tile map editor, Arclib game library.
Gentoo | Textadept

[SirAlaran]

Version 0.2.1 is done. Nothing new except bug fixes.

Download

Please give it a try and leave some feedback, especially on the topic of what you'd like to see in a tile map editor.
_________________
Current projects: Project Fermitas, Arctographer tile map editor, Arclib game library.
Gentoo | Textadept

[clayasaurus]

Alright, I'll give it a try once I get the chance to download python + pyGTK

[clayasaurus]

I got it running on a *nix machine : )

However, I can't quite figure it out. Is there an example file that I could load?

~ Clay

[SirAlaran]

[clayasaurus]

Yes, how is this coming along so far? I'm keeping an eye on this still. Probably won't start to do much with it until I get myself a dedicated linux box, which should be sometime around August or so.

I'm going to start developing other tools (Sprite Editor, GUI Editor) as my next step and it would be nice to have a map editor.

Would it interest you at all if I do come up with a design for a map editor, except using ArcLib's GUI? Or are you pretty set on using pyGTK?

Ideally I would be able to have a map editor use Arc's GUI, but the GUI Editor + more GUI features are going to be required for this to happen.

[SirAlaran]

I haven't done much of anything on the map editor, or any of my other hobby projects for that matter, since the 0.2 release. I'm currently a full-time college student and a part-time flight instructor. My schedule is a mess.

You'd be making the ArcLib-based map editor for the purposes of a real-time preview of things like lighting and physics, right?
_________________
Current projects: Project Fermitas, Arctographer tile map editor, Arclib game library.
Gentoo | Textadept

[clayasaurus]

I'm not going to be making a map editor anytime soon, other editors will come first (GUI + Sprite).

I'm pondering whether a generalized map editor should be made, but it might be better to have many map editors for many different styles of games and then folks can just use custom editors, or build on an existing one.

[SirAlaran]

[SirAlaran]

I just thought I'd let you all know that this project isn't dead. I'm in a bit of a bug-killing and refactoring phase. I do have some fun plans for the next release though: parallax backgrounds, animated tiles, and physics exporting (Blaze static shapes and fluids).
_________________
Current projects: Project Fermitas, Arctographer tile map editor, Arclib game library.
Gentoo | Textadept

[clayasaurus]

Ok.