Creating rule tiles for other tilemaps

[sreshtiyer]

As I had access to many other tilemaps, I tried many iterations and attempts to get a decent rule tile for these sprites, only to get something that wasnt remotely useful. (Although I DID get Tilevania’s tilemap to work correctly). I was also still unsure as to which directions one marks as ‘open’ while mentioning that there are tiles in other directions and saying there are no tiles in a particular direction while defining rules for rule tiles. I just thought it would be extremely helpful if I got pointers/hints on how to define rule tiles for block maps that arent precisely in the form of blocks, such as the tilemap below:

As you can see in the image, I did slice it in a manner I thought made most sense, but it was rather hard to even start defining a rule tile for this tilemap. What would be the approach if say, I wanted to use this tilemap? Kindly do let me know and thanks!

[Nina]

Hi,

I’m afraid I did not understand your problem. Do you have an example in your screenshot which shows the problem you would like to solve? Or could you arrange the concerning tiles on your tilemap?

Generally, rule tiles are not a natural law, so you will have to define them yourself according to your personal preference. If tiles do not match, there is no way to make them match with rule tiles.

[sreshtiyer]

Hello!

So sorry about that, I suppose I was vague in how I phrased my question and was unsure of how to phrase my question! I suppose in short I was bummed that I could not generate a rule tile for the sprites I had. As you said, each sprite sheet is different and have different kind of tiles (for example, in the one I posted above, there are no tiles for when you only have a single tile by itself)

I suppose I was looking for places/resources that had a few examples of defining rule tiles for different kind of sprite sheets, especially those that are ‘more complex’ than the one shown in the lecture. That way, I can get a knack for how you define the rules with your own sprites.

I understand that perhaps at this point, I shouldn’t really be looking to make things complicated but I thought it might be nice to know

Thank you for your help once more!

[Nina]

The only requirement for the tilemap is that the sprites are squares because the sprites get rendered on a grid with square-shaped tiles. Other aspect ratios might look weird. It does not matter if the resolution of the sprite is 10x10 px or 5,000x5,000 px.

The rule tiles also do not have anything to do with the resolution. They just define which tile is supposed to come at a predefined position.

The only place where the resolution becomes relevant is the tilemap grid itself. I currently do not know if you are able to define how many pixels are supposed to get rendered on one tilemap tile.

However, even if you cannot edit the tilemap grid itself, you can definitely adjust the Pixels Per Unit (PPU) value in the Texture Import Settings to define how large a sprite of your spritesheet is supposed to be relative to a grid tile. The grid tile (unit) does not have any pixel dimension itself.

A 10x10 px sprite with a PPU of 10 is as large in the game as a 5,000x5,000 px with a PPU of 5,000.

[DoctorFaux]

I think you’re overthinking. You should do a rule tile for each tile type you plan on reusing.

forming a square you can see most of the rules right away. For say the top right corner, you know you don’t want anything above it or to the left. you could leave the top left as a maybe (don’t change the selection) (not a check or an x) but you most likely wouldn’t be putting a block there. now working out way down you know you need a block above and below or it would be a corner. Etc. Try laying them out first and then creating rules visually and tweak them until you get exactly what you want.

ps. I would do this for groups of pixels like walls/floors etc. Things that would make sense being tiled next to each other frequently. The goal is to increase workflow and adding too many rules just so you can include a few extra tiles in an automatic brush might not be worth it.

pps. You can use this to block out your level and go in and replace individual tiles/sections that you don’t like. Hope this helped!

these are the tiles I would have used for the “inbetweens” for your middle floor

[sreshtiyer]

Thanks a lot! I think I have a much better understanding of rule tiles now after watching a bunch of other videos as well as explanations from Nina and you as well. I haven’t gone back to my 2D platformer game yet, since I’m completing other game dev courses, but this is really handy to remember when I do get back to them.