How do I load tiles at runtime?

Unity Engine
,
1

Hi all, I’m trying to make a turn-based tile strategy game, and I’m currently trying (and failing) to figure out how to efficiently create a ground system without just doing a bunch of duplicating. Is there a good, simple guide out there on how to do this?

2

You can create them all by hand and save them in a scene, always the simplest fastest way to start.

Or you can Instantiate() things at runtime, which is “a bunch of duplicating.”

News flash: pretty much the ONLY thing a computer actually does is “a bunch of duplicating.” Even with a pre-made scene, it’s just using the data stored in the scene file to duplicate everything into being for you. That’s it. It’s all just data.

3

Thanks. I guess I could’ve been more specific but by duplicating I meant essentially just clicking and pressing Ctrl + D, which would make a huge mess in the hierarchy with something like "Cube, Cube (1), Cube (2), Cube (3), etc

4

Then write a cheesy quick editor script to do it for you!

You can find a quick starter example in my MakeGeo project, specifically in the Bitmap2Grid scene and script.

using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;

#if UNITY_EDITOR
using UnityEditor;
using UnityEditor.SceneManagement;
#endif

// to use:
//    create blank GameObject in scnee
//    put this Bitmap2Grid script on it
//    create texture
//        - no compression
//        - non power of two : NONE
//        - mark read/write enabled
//        - slot texture into Bitmap2Grid script
//    create B2GConfig scriptable object
//        - select colors and prefabs
//        - slot B2GConfig instance into Bitmap2Grid script
//    choose dimensional spacing (defaults to 1,1)
//    go to inspector window for this script, hit GENERATE
//
// @kurtdekker
//

public class Bitmap2Grid : MonoBehaviour
{
    [Header( "Texture to use for layout.")]
    public Texture2D Bitmap;

    [Header( "B2GConfig to use.")]
    public B2GConfig Config;

    [Header( "Dimensional spacing.")]
    public Vector2 Spacing = Vector3.one;

    // do your own axis remapping here if you want X/Z for instance
    Vector3 ComputePosition( int i, int j)
    {
        float x = i * Spacing.x;
        float y = j * Spacing.y;

        // optionally center?
        x -= (Bitmap.width - 1) * Spacing.x / 2;
        y -= (Bitmap.height - 1) * Spacing.y / 2;

        return new Vector3( x, y, 0);
    }

    void RegenerateGrid()
    {
        // TODO: destroy the old one... I'll leave you to do this by hand!

        Transform parent = new GameObject( "Bitmap2Grid-Generated").transform;
        parent.SetParent( transform);
        parent.localPosition = Vector3.zero;
        parent.localRotation = Quaternion.identity;

        for (int j = 0; j < Bitmap.height; j++)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < Bitmap.width; i++)
            {
                // if you get an error here, check your texture import settings to be read/write
                var c = Bitmap.GetPixel( i, j);

                var prefab = Config.LookupColor( c);

                if (prefab)
                {
                    var copy = Instantiate<GameObject>( prefab, parent);
                    copy.transform.localPosition = ComputePosition( i, j);
                }
            }
        }
    }

#if UNITY_EDITOR
    [CustomEditor( typeof( Bitmap2Grid))]
    public class Bitmap2GridEditor : Editor
    {
        public override void OnInspectorGUI()
        {
            Bitmap2Grid b2g = (Bitmap2Grid)target;

            DrawDefaultInspector();

            EditorGUILayout.BeginVertical();

            if (GUILayout.Button( "REGENERATE GRID"))
            {
                b2g.RegenerateGrid();

                EditorSceneManager.MarkSceneDirty(
                    UnityEngine.SceneManagement.SceneManager.GetActiveScene());
            }

            EditorGUILayout.EndVertical();
        }
    }
#endif
}

MakeGeo is presently hosted at these locations:

https://bitbucket.org/kurtdekker/makegeo