Mapping Creating maps outside of editor

[Beefy Kasplant]

Hi all, 

 

I'm about to get started on the main hub / area where players will spend most of their time. 

 

I want it to be very nice so I'm thinking about creating the maps outside of the editor and just creating tilesets out of these maps. 

 

The area will span a couple of maps so I have a few questions: 

 

1. Is this a stupid idea? 

2. Anyone have experience with this? -> Please give me some tips

3. I'm thinking about making 2 layers, under player and over player. That way I can really just copy paste the whole thing into the engine. Smart or no? 

4. What do you think is a good way to test if the tiles work? 

 

Anyway, hoping to get some input/feedback from you guys before I start with this. Thanks! 

[AccurateNoodle]

Can't you make a nice main area in the editor? 😛

[Beefy Kasplant]

1 hour ago, Jay_Taliel Studios said:

Can't you make a nice main area in the editor? 😛

 

Clearly, but that's not the point of this post. 

 

I want to be able to pixel place elements without having to go back and forward in the editor all the time

[Kibbelz]

I would just personally make a hub out of preexisting tiles like any other map. Lets say you decide to change your map in a year or however long, its a lot hard to do by editing the image files than just editing the map slightly...

 

No main advantage here personally. Unless you were copying maps from another game aka a pokemon clone just to save time and they would never change in the future.

[Xeno]

I really dont see how this is beneficial, unless the map editor is restrictive to what you're visually trying to display. What are you gaining visually from doing it this way?

Here are a couple issues that come to mind:

When you want to do edits you have to update the tileset each time instead of piece by piece 
If you only use two layers you're gonna have a hard time editing the tileset, unless of course youre using another map editor which seems redundant
 

[Beefy Kasplant]

So the idea is that I can place tiles pixel perfect a lot easier. Breaking this up into tiles will probably result in tiles that I will use only once anyway. 

 

It makes sense though that it's probably easier to just add the tiles separately. 

 

However, I would keep a layered file of course, in which I can easily edit the maps.

 

 

[jcsnider]

3 downsides:

 

Game size in terms of download will be bigger.

 

Number of textures/graphics the graphic card has to load and keep track of is higher. 

 

Some (very few nowadays) lower end pcs are bad at rendering larger textures. 

 

If you’re fine with all that then go for it. 

[Beefy Kasplant]

Based on all these reactions Ive opted for a middle ground. 

 

Gonna design the map outside and the split up the tiles. 

 

 

Thanks all! 

 

(Will keep the thread updated with progress  )