Maps

I want to make a simple 2D game engine. All I want it to do is load in a map, convert the character at each place in the map, 1 character with 36 differnt characters possable, into a tile, and have a picture of a player that can be moved around the map but only on some of the tiles. Some tiles may be land while others are water. I also want the map to be larger than one screen. Exmaple: Screen: 50 tiles by 50 tiles Map: 100 tiles by 100 tiles.

How can i do this? And Fox, I have already asked this(name: *Super Sniper*) so please don't give me the link to your download or to that old thread.

For storage purposes, you can load your Map in a 2D-Array. It will save a lot of time.

Code:

---

Dim Map(100, 100) As Byte

---

Before you move your Character, check the direction he is going in. If it's a wall (1 on the Map, for example) then don't move him.

In my game the map() array points to a set of tiles, where the tile defines if you can move there or not. That's also a ways, but if you're new to game programming it maybe hard to understand..?

Okay, I've heard everyone talk about making maps in 2D arrays and stuff, but can someone actually show how to do this? Like to I assign a value to each point to say which picture goes where? So if 55,55 = 1 then its grass, but if it = 2 then its water?

Yep. Like I said, you have ie. a tile array which really holds the graphics. Like this:

Code:

---

Type TILE
  LONG DC;
  BOOL Collides;
End type

TILE Tiles(100);

Type MAP
  LONG Tile;
End type

MAP Map(10, 10);

---

So the MAP(x,y) just points to an index in the Tiles() array.

Hi, I'm making a game where I use Maps of 500 x 500 where I only use 9 pieces for each screen like this:


ooooo
oxxxo
oxxxo
oxxxo
ooooo


I load In memory only 25 pieces and I rotating it, depending of where he (the player) moves. I made an Array like this:

Code:

---

Dim World (1 to 500, 1 to 500) as Byte

then I read a Text File and I load it to my Array:
Open ...... as #1
For I = 1 to 500
  For J = 1 to 500
....
  Input #1, Piece
  World (I,J)=  val(Piece)
...
...

---

Piece can be Numbers from 1 to 255 then you can have the pieces loaded in a Sprite and get it from there.

I hope you find this usefull. (sorry my english)

[Edited by Lepe on 07-18-2000 at 01:34 PM]

If you declare many Array's that require 1 as the starting point, you can shorten your code by using Option Base 1. Eg:

Code:

---

Option Base 1
Public World(100, 100) As Byte
Public Weapons(10) As Byte
Public Items(50) As Byte

---

This saves you from typing (1 To number).[/i]

Hey, Fox... that thing you said that might be a bit too complex... I'm interested ;)

Is it like instead of detecting tiles, detecting pixels (like a round obstacle)? That's what I wanted... so every square of terrain would have a "mask" so the game knew what parts of the tile must be considered obstacles!

Bye,

-Jotaf98

[email protected] - ICQ#60784495 - http://jotaf98.cjb.net

Well, I think I understand how to do it. Now, does anyone fell up to making me a tileset? For now I just need 10 tiles and 1 Character.

Hum, it depends -- what do you mean by "tileset"? For me, a tileset is a set of terrain images used in a game (ice, jungle...) -- so the tiles used vary depending on the tileset (so you won't need too many bytes to define a tile in a map). So if what you need is temporary images, I can get ya some :p

Bye,

-Jotaf98

[email protected] - ICQ#60784495 - http://jotaf98.cjb.net

Fox? ...That looks a little bit like C/C++ mixed with VB and Java. Or is it? Correct me if i'm wrong, but I don't think that'll run in VB....

Indeed :) It's C++ and VB mixed. I didnt want to write [DC as Long] and so on, takes too much time ;)

Sorry about that, but that was not really code, only the idea how it works ;)

The array I have found to be the best is

MAP(0 to 50,0 to 50,0 to 1) AS INTEGER

The First Part "0 to 50" is the X

The Second Part "0 to 50" is the Y

The Third Part "1" is the Walkable Check
The Third Part "0" is the TILECHECK

Then when the map is loaded make it check the
tile, if it is a block tile then it sets the 3RD
value1 to 1, or 0 if walkable. This may help
a little since it saves everything into an ARRAY.

So an example would be
TILE = map(10,10,0)

BLOCK = MAP(10,10,1)