The maps tag has no wiki summary.
55
votes
19answers
7k views
Level Design Tips [closed]
What are some pitfalls or pieces of good advice when designing levels or maps for a (presumeably 3D but not necessarily) game?
27
votes
3answers
6k views
Random map generation
I'm starting/started a 2D tilemap RPG game in Java and I want to implement random map generation. I have a list of different tiles, (dirt/sand/stone/grass/gravel etc) along with water tiles and path ...
27
votes
4answers
2k views
Is there an algorithm to detect the “mainland” on a 2D map?
On this map, the "mainland" is all the land that can be connected to the center of the map in the four cardinal directions (north, south, east, west -- not diagonally).
I would like to detect the ...
25
votes
3answers
1k views
Algorithms for rainfall + river creation in procedurally generated terrain
I've recently become fascinated by the things that can be done with procedurally terrain and have started experimenting with world building a bit. I'd like to be able to make worlds something like ...
23
votes
6answers
1k views
Vertical vs horizontal hex grids, pros and cons
With hex grids, you can choose to arrange the tiles with the pointy sides up, so that you can move along the west-east axis, or you can arrange them with an edge up, so that you can move along the ...
22
votes
3answers
4k views
Difference between orthogonal map and isometric map
I am laughing at myself ignorant on this. Google didn't produce an obvious answer. Could someone explain what orthogonal map and isometric map are, and how they are different?
22
votes
6answers
4k views
A way to store potentially infinite 2D map data?
I have a 2D platformer that currently can handle chunks with 100 by 100 tiles, with the chunk coordinates are stored as longs, so this is the only limit of maps (maxlong*maxlong).
All entity positions ...
19
votes
9answers
3k views
When mapping the surface of a sphere with tiles, how might you deal with polar distortion?
It's easy to deal with the way locations interact on a clean Cartesian grid. It's just vanilla math. And you can kind of ignore the geometry of the sphere's surface for a bunch of it if you want to ...
15
votes
3answers
1k views
How can I identify feature regions in a procedurally generated world?
I'm building an Island. I use the classical heightmap solution : with a hill-building function, avoiding the corners of the map, I make altitude. Then, perlin noise give me some climatic variables to ...
14
votes
3answers
1k views
A simple map, four biomes, and how to distribute them
Here's the basic idea: I've got a Rogue-ish, perhaps Dwarf Fortress-ish game, with a randomly generated overworld and several dungeon entrances scattered around it. I already have the dungeons ...
14
votes
4answers
475 views
Spherical map representation
My latest game will take place on a small planetoid. I am looking for good data structure for representing cells on the surface of a sphere.
Triangles, squares, pentagons, hexagons? Which one ...
14
votes
1answer
4k views
Creating a 3D map for XNA?
Is anyone aware of a nice 3D map tutorial (how to import and use the map) using XNA without any engine but not limited to an external application (like Tiled for 2D maps) ?
I did a search arund here ...
13
votes
2answers
711 views
Partially observable game map — is A* appropriate?
I know very little about game development and I'm trying to wrap my head around pathfinding algorithms.
Consider this setup: an agent is on a 2D map and must find the shortest path to a globally know ...
13
votes
4answers
3k views
2D non-tile based map editor
I am currently developing a relatively simple 2D, topdown oriented adventure game for the iPhone and was wondering what would be the easiest way to create the maps for my game. I figured I would need ...
12
votes
2answers
672 views
How do you handle uneven tiles while rendering a tile map?
Here is what I want to do with my tile map that I am unsure of. As you can see the top walls are way larger then the bottom and side ones (this is also an issue with my corners which are odd shapes ...
12
votes
8answers
2k views
How do I create tileable solid noise for map generation?
Hey guys, I'm trying to figure out how to generate tileable fractals in code (for game maps, but that's irrelevant)
I've been trying to modify the Solid Noise plug-in shipped with GIMP (with my ...
11
votes
3answers
7k views
How can I create a random “world” in a tile engine?
I am designing a game that is working on a classic tile engine, but whose world is generated randomly. Are there existing games or algorithms that do this?
The procedural generation algorithms I have ...
11
votes
4answers
9k views
Best Way to Create A Map for a 2D Game?
I apologize for the subjective "best" keyword.
My friend and I have started creation of a 2D adventure game. It will be top-down in the style of pokemon or zelda (just the perspective). We have been ...
10
votes
5answers
3k views
2D Level design/editing/saving questions
I thought about making a simple 2D Sidescroller game like SuperMario.
Then i wondered about how to save, load or create the levels for the game. The first thing i thought of was drawing a simple ...
10
votes
2answers
981 views
'Zoning' up areas on a large tile map, as well as dungeons
My game is having a map like that of Minecraft, in the way it's pseudoinfinite and randomly generated. And big. Say the user has explored a 1000x1000 zone (2D here), so that's 1,000,000 tiles.
...
10
votes
3answers
732 views
RTS on a 3D map e.g. a globe
How can you 'tile' a 3D globe if your existing artwork and maps are simple 2D grids?
Are there approaches that can re-use much of the artwork and such?
9
votes
5answers
522 views
Increasing the probability for similar tiles to generate next to each other
I'm working on a tile map system, which insofar looks like this (green is grass, air is white, stone is grey, and blue is water):
It uses a simple random number generator so that there's a 45% ...
9
votes
3answers
583 views
2d top-down map: normalisation or not?
I am an absolute beginner with game programming, should this question be poorly formulated, be aware it was not sloppiness by my side, but lack of game programming experience.
The game I am planning ...
9
votes
3answers
363 views
Data Structure to Represent Connections Between Countries on a Map
In a game I'm developing for a client a key game concept involves moving around on a map. In this case the sizes and shapes and such of the various countries are irrelevant: moving from one country to ...
9
votes
2answers
314 views
What kind of environment is expected in elevated, hot areas?
I'm creating an "exploration" game where the overworld map will be randomly generated.
The biomes are generated using the data given by a "temperature map" , a "humidity map", and an elevation map for ...
9
votes
4answers
227 views
Generate equal regions in a hex map
Taking for example large (X by Y) hex map, how can I divide the map into N regions of connected hexes to simulate countries?
The goal is to generate a hex map that looks like a real life map with ...
9
votes
2answers
508 views
.PNG tiles to .PNG map
I was wondering how I can get my 110+ .png map tiles conveniently into a 1:1 pixel ratio size map .png. Ive been scrolling through google and such, and the forum's for the free ware game that I am ...
9
votes
3answers
486 views
How can I make “falling away” 3D terrain like Animal Crossing?
Animal Crossing has a unique way of scrolling the world map: When the character moves down, the the world rolls around and over at the top, like it's stuck to a cardboard tube:
This video shows how ...
9
votes
3answers
2k views
Lighting in a Minecraftian World
Minecraft is a game that is largely based on a heightmap and uses that heigtmap information to flood the world with light. From my understanding the highest point in the heightmap is the end of the ...
9
votes
2answers
581 views
Common pattern to scale “real units” to pixels?
This is a follow-up question to this other one.
I would like to know if there is a common/typical/best pattern to scale my representation of the world (currently 160Kmx160Km) to fit it to the drawing ...
9
votes
2answers
592 views
How to manage dependencies between tile map and units
I have a 2D tile-based strategy in the works. I'm wandering how to handle the relationship between the map and the units on the map.
Given a tile coordinate I'll need to be able to get the unit ...
8
votes
2answers
681 views
How a 3D game map is stored and handled
I'm a programmer but have not yet developed any games.
I have played various 3D games and always wondered how the Map of the field is stored and rendered.
I know some acceleration card is a ...
8
votes
2answers
466 views
Random Zelda-style map generation
Im trying to randomly generate a map of rooms connected by doors, and I've succeeded in generating one using this code:
public void generate(GameContainer gc) {
rooms = new ...
7
votes
3answers
1k views
What is a good flat file format for storing a 2D tile map that can grow infinitely in any direction?
I am creating a simple map engine that will automatically expand in any direction with procedurally-generated content as needed.
What is a good way to store map data, anchored at a 0,0 origin so that ...
7
votes
3answers
429 views
Routes on a sphere surface - Find geodesic?
I'm working with some friends on a browser based game where people can move on a 2D map. It's been almost 7 years and still people play this game so we are thinking of a way to give them something ...
6
votes
3answers
2k views
2D Top down view maps
I was wondering how this works.
Do you load the complete map when the game starts up, or do you load parts of the map at runtime?
And how would you save the maps? Would it be in XML or some binary ...
6
votes
3answers
3k views
Whole map design vs. tiles array design
I am working on a 2D RPG, which will feature the usual dungeon/town maps (pre-generated).
I am using tiles, that I will then combine to make the maps. My original plan was to assemble the tiles using ...
6
votes
2answers
232 views
Algorithm to select all cells inside rooms/regions
I have a 2d game map consisting of several 'rooms'
For example, here is a 2D map grid: (Brown cells = wall tiles)
If I click on a tile (that isn't brown), I would like to obtain an array of all ...
6
votes
3answers
541 views
Represent planet surface in 2d
I'd like to make game, where one part is managing planet (building cities, factories, roads, etc.) but I'd like to avoid 3D - only what I want is nice 2d. But if I represent planet's surface as a ...
6
votes
1answer
1k views
2.5D game development
2.5D ("two-and-a-half-dimensional"), 3/4 perspective and pseudo-3D are
terms used to describe either:
graphical projections and techniques which cause a series of
images or scenes ...
6
votes
3answers
1k views
Is there a library that handles hexagon tiled 2D maps?
It would represent a map that is semi-square of arbitrary size. It would have a simple system for representation of the map coordinates such as 0101 (first column, 1st hex). I'd want the map to be ...
6
votes
1answer
1k views
Making organic 2D tilemaps for tile based games
So I have always wondered how one makes a nice (not so squarish) 2d tile map, is it possible? all games now days I think use textured polygons...but my game engine (and engine) doesn't support that ...
6
votes
2answers
814 views
Is frustum culling necessary in a Flash/AS3 game?
I'm making a 2D game where the map will be scrolled frequently, and only a small part of it will be visible at any time.
Which implementation would run faster?
The naive way: Make the map a single
...
6
votes
3answers
623 views
What is the best way to render a 2d game map?
I know efficiency is key in game programming and I've had some experiences with rendering a "map" earlier but probably not in the best of ways.
For a 2D TopDown game: (simply render the ...
6
votes
3answers
921 views
isometric drawing order with larger than single tile images - drawing order algorithm?
I have an isometric map over which I place various images. Most images will fit over a single tile, but some images are slightly larger. For example, I have a bed of size 2x3 tiles.
This creates a ...
6
votes
1answer
471 views
What structure is best used to model maps for games like Bard's Tale / Dungeon Hack?
I would like to create or use an existing JavaScript engine to build a game in the spirit of Dungeon Hack, Eye of the Beholder and older Might & Magic games. Going off my memory playing these ...
6
votes
1answer
349 views
What is the general strategy to pre-load game data(entities/map)
I'm new to games programming and am wondering what tactics games use to pre-load entity and map data. Will a game initialise with the fundamental map data stored in memory?
6
votes
2answers
1k views
How do I rotate a structure of hexagonal tiles on a hexagonal grid?
My 2D isometric game uses a hexagonal grid map. In reference to the image below, how do I rotate the light blue hexagon structures by 60 degrees around the pink hexagons?
EDIT:
Main hex is (0,0). ...
5
votes
8answers
925 views
What are some good tools for prototyping map layout and design?
I'm curious as to what the best method for sketching out and prototyping a map is, and if there are any tools available to facilitate this.
Pen and paper is probably a good place to start, but I ...
5
votes
5answers
3k views
Alternative to 2D array in a tiled-map structure
After searching for a long time, I'm surprised this question was not asked yet. In a 2D, tiled-map game, how do you handle the map ? I'd be glad to have your point of view in any languages, though I'm ...
