3D worlds using 2D tiles

berarma

Hi.

I'm new here and it's the first time I'm using Godot although I have done a lot of programming.

I'm trying to create a 3D world using 2D tiles. I'm using MeshInstance, creating a PlaneMesh, using the image containing the tiles as a texture for SpatialMaterial and using the UV parameters to select the tile.

This involves creating a lot of MeshInstance nodes. Also, I have to set the UV parameters manually for each tile, then I can resuse them with ctrl-D but... It's pretty diferent and a lot more work than using TileMap in the 2D editor. Is there some other way to do it with less manual work and/or less nodes?

I don't know Blender or any other 3D editor that could help with this. Learning Blender could be an option but this is just for a prototype.

The final goal is creating the world procedurally from GDScript but I want to test the idea in the editor before trying the procedural implementation. So I'd like to know a faster way to do it in the editor that also translates well to generation from a script. In the end, I want to learn to do it manually as efficiently as possible and apply what I've learned to write the generation script.

Thanks.

GlyphTheWolf

Hi,

I'm not sure why you need to create 3D world from 2D tiles, but anyway whatever reason it is I would for sure use MultiMeshInstance (even just because of performance, since all your tiles will be quads is ideal for that). I'm pretty sure with mentioned MultiMeshInstance and some custom shader is easy to write class working really similar to TileMap at least from code, because if you want to have similar features also from editor you will need write some plugin for that.

Edit: ah, stupid me. In 3D you can just use GridMap for that. You can create MeshLibrary from your tiles and then use it very similar to TileMap just out of the box.

berarma

GridMapsolves a part of the problem, creating the MeshLibraryfrom the tiles is another one. I think I can do it manually the same way I was laying out the scene without the GridMap then converting it to a MeshLibrary, I wish it could be a little more automatable, creating a TileMap is easier, but it's enough.

The other reason to post is to know whether this would be a good approach for a procedural word generated from GDScript. The script would be writing to the GridMap using the MeshLibrary that I've created.

@GlyphTheWolf said: I'm not sure why you need to create 3D world from 2D tiles

It's not that I need to but rather that I want to. I have no 3D skills and I want to use 2D art to also convey a certain aesthetic. I'm still just planning though.

Thanks.

GlyphTheWolf

@berarma said: I wish it could be a little more automatable, creating a TileMap is easier, but it's enough. Well, it depends how much automatable you want it to be?

You will always need to define tiles somehow, but in case of GridMap you can create scene with your tileset once and then convert it to MeshLibrary. Later if you need add some new tiles it should be easy enough.

Only faster way I can think of would be write tool script that will setup all tiles for you after supplying texture, tile size and tiles count or something like that? But I never used own tool script yet, so not sure how it can be done (like I'm not sure what actually tool script can and can't do, but I have idea how creating that tileset could be done easy way from script)

3D doesn't support creating tiles like TileMap because GridMap is supposed to be used for more advanced 3D meshes where each will probably need totally different setup anyway.

@berarma said: The other reason to post is to know whether this would be a good approach for a procedural word generated from GDScript. The script would be writing to the GridMap using the MeshLibrary that I've created.

I used GridMap in my project where I created dungeons procedurally and it was working fine, at least for me.

berarma

Thanks. I'll keep creating the meshes manually, will pack them in a MeshLibrary and try the GridMap. It's not bad. I just wished there was a tool for painting using a Tilemap in a 3D world by creating the meshes at the same time but I understand that it's a very specific need that I should have to address by myself. And that wouldn't work so well for procedural generation.

Thanks again for your help.

berarma

I've found that AtlasTexture can help me map the textures to the meshes but it doesn't seem to work as it should. I've opened another discussion: https://godotforums.org/discussion/26141/using-atlastexture-in-meshes