Add configurable layer height offset

[bjorn]

Some tilesets allow layers to be stacked to create varying heights. An example of such a tileset can be seen on Lost Garden:

http://www.lostgarden.com/2007/05/dancs-miraculously-flexible-game.html

Or for example this isometric outside tileset:

http://opengameart.org/content/isometric-64x64-outside-tileset

It would be nice if Tiled supported these kind of tilesets, by allowing maps to define a height offset between (tile) layers.

This issue replaces the following issue from the old issue tracker:
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mantisbt/tiled/view.php?id=88

[stefanbeller]

I'd do it more flexibly, by having a layer offset for both vertical and horizontal (positive as well as negative).

[nobody-special666]

In addition to the heightmap offset,
also consider that some tiles are oriented differently (eg: top vs. bottom)
Usually tiles are drawn on top of the floor-level, but if you have a cliff/pit then
the tile should be drawn below the floor-level.

[bjorn]

@nobody-special666, that sounds like an offset option for the tileset rather than the layers. See also issue #16.

[bjorn]

#75 has been closed as a duplicate of this one.

[eropple]

I've begun work on this on eropple/tiled, branch layeroffset. I may need some help finding my way around the Qt bits; I'll be hanging around #tiled while I work.

[noam-c]

Is there any update on this?

For now, I'm working around this by adding a "heightOffset" layer property and then correctly handling it in my engine (offsetting their location in the grid while keeping them drawn in the same place). It would be really nice if Tiled supported it directly, though.

[eropple]

No update, sorry--got frustrated by the poor communication on the
Tiled team and wrote an in-engine editor instead.

-Ed (mobile)

On Jul 21, 2012, at 3:03 PM, Noam Chitayat
[email protected]
wrote:

Is there any update on this?

For now, I'm working around this by adding a "heightOffset" layer property and then correctly handling it in my engine (offsetting their location in the grid while keeping them drawn in the same place). It would be really nice if Tiled supported it directly, though.

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[bjorn]

Sorry to hear that @eropple. I generally try answering questions as fast as possible on both mailing list and IRC, but I'm also busy with my job, family and other projects, which can cause more time-consuming issues to lay around for a long time.

In any case if it was easier for you to write an in-engine editor than to add this feature to Tiled, then this was probably the right approach for you.

[eropple]

Hey, it's no big deal - everyone gets busy. =) Dogfooding in the
engine was probably smarter for this project.

-Ed (mobile)

On Jul 22, 2012, at 3:16 AM, "Thorbjørn Lindeijer"
[email protected]
wrote:

Sorry to hear that @eropple. I generally try answering questions as fast as possible on both mailing list and IRC, but I'm also busy with my job, family and other projects, which can cause more time-consuming issues to lay around for a long time.

In any case if it was easier for you to write an in-engine editor than to add this feature to Tiled, then this was probably the right approach for you.

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#4 (comment)

[prettymuchbryce]

Go easy on bjorn. He has worked hard to bring us a really great editor. :)

[therahedwig]

Any news on this? I would be really happy if there were a feature like this, if only it'd make isometric maps less esoteric and would also really help me as I use tiled to preview isometric tiles for this one weird project where the layers alternate between 20x20 tiles and 32x32 tiles.

[stawii]

Any news on this? :)
I think it will be really nice feature in map editor. Ofcourse one need to do the same in game engine, but map editing will be easier / nicer looking.
Layer offset should be offset to previous layer not to ground! So you can easly change layer order and/or just type ie: 20px offset for ALL layers.
In other words: you dont need to calculate: 0 for bottom, 20 - first, 40 - second, 60 - third layer.. and when you change order.. WOOPS!?

Im also thinking about second way of doing this: global layer height offset - configurable when creating/editing map - so you have enter: tile width, tile height and layer height offset (tile depth?). Default layer offset = tile height. Then it can be changed in layer creation in same way as tile size can be changed in new tileset.

PS: Maybe just add one global layer offset without per-layer offsets as a quick-fix? It should be easy to implement. And if one need layers of "full-height" and "half-height" one can type "half-height" as offset, and use one empty layer over half-height to reserve space for full-height tiles.

PPS: I love this editor!

[bjorn]

@stawii Please be careful with statements like "It should be easy to implement." unless you're willing to have a go at it yourself. While I have an idea of how it could be done, I can see numerous tricky things to solve like grid, selection and brush preview rendering becoming dependent on the currently selected layer and the map view needing extra space.

Also, my spare time is severely limited so I have to make priorities. Implementing features that I don't personally need is not something I can afford to spend time on, unless somebody offers to sponsor it for example.

Still, it's great to hear you love Tiled!

[asermax]

I'm interested in this feature too, so I will give it a go.
I have started reading up the code and tried implementing the easy part: adding the properties to the layers and allowing them to be modified from the GUI. Also reading and writing the properties from TMX files.
Now I'm starting to work on the visual part, and as @bjorn said, it obviously has its quirks here and there; even more difficult if you're not familiar with the code :P
So that probably gonna take a while.

Anyway, I would apreciate if someone could give a look to the fork where I'm working at; this is my first time using C++ and Qt (I'm learning as I go) so I'm afraid I may be doing something unnecesary or wrong.
Any ideas or help into how to improve or where to continue will be welcomed.

Lastly, thanks for the great editor 😄

[asermax]

Hi again. I think I was able to reach an usable state of this feature on isometric maps.
Neverthless, the changes I made touch some "core" (files like the renderer base renderer and the isometric renderer classes) and given that I'm new both to the codebase and the language, I may have changed something I shouldn't, either because it breaks something else or because it distorts the original intent of the design.
For now I will keep testing and trying to implement the feature for the other types of maps.
Plese do check the changes to see if they are good to go!

[bjorn]

@asermax If you feel you would benefit from a code review, please open a pull request. I don't have much time and a pull request makes it much easier to see and discuss changes than digging through the commits in another repository. I see you've done a lot of work so please be patient with me!

[asermax]

Allright, will do 👍

[therahedwig]

Awesome! Next version is gonna be exciting!