Vertical vs horizontal hex grids, pros and cons [closed]

Question

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 north-south axis.

Horizontal or pointy-side-up hex grid:

Vertical or flat-side-up hex grid:

According to this page, the vertical alignment is "by far the most popular" in pen-and-paper RPGs, but it doesn't explain why. This blog post also mentions both varieties, but again gives no reason to use one or the other.

And if you look at some PC games using hexes, it seems both have their adherents:

• Horizontal: Heroes of Might and Magic series (except V), Civilization V...
• Vertical: Panzer General and many similar wargames, Battle for Wesnoth...

But what are the main reasons for choosing a vertical or a horizontal layout of hex grids?

I'm looking for objective advantages and disadvantages in terms of data structures, graphics, gameplay, etc, not personal preferences. Or is it really inconsequential which orientation you choose?

Answer 1

I have been able to come up with a few reasons myself, but I'd really like to hear more.

1. Horizontal layout matches the layout of the keyboard. You could use WEADZX for movement, similar to WASD on square grids. On the other hand, I have also found suggestions that QWEASD is a natural fit for vertical hexes.

2. Horizontal hexes seem to be better suited for 3D/isometric perspective, where the bottom row is closest and the top row is farthest. In this layout, high sprites won't obscure the center of the tile behind it, but just the edges. This would possibly make the vertical hex arrangement better suited for top-down views.
   Compare to square vs diamond ("isometric") grid, as in Simcity Classic vs Simcity 2000.

3. For an NxN grid, the horizontal layout results in a grid that is wider than it is tall, just like PC monitors. In other words, with horizontal hexes the view of the map that fits on your widescreen has a slightly more equal row/column ratio. Depending on the display area available and the size of the map, this could give the player a better view, and it might require less scrolling.

Answer 2

I would go with vertical layout if you are using any sort of bird's eye perspective, as in the image above.

Why? Because more walls will be visible. If you use horizontal layout, and you have walls that run along the vertical lines, you will not be able to make out details on them very well (such as doors or gates). Furthermore, if you are using the aforementioned perspective type, your hexes will look a lot better, because you will probably have to squash them half way. If you squash a horizontal hex halfway, it has very low slope on its points (roughly 1/8) vs a 1/2 slope for a squashed vertical hex. In other words, if you are simulating bird's eye perspective and/or using pixel art, vertical tiles will give you a better look.

Answer 3

Sounds like you're leaning toward horizontal as having more advantage. For what it's worth, bees agree with you when they build their honeycombs:

The axes of honeycomb cells are always quasi-horizontal, and the nonangled rows of honeycomb cells are always horizontally (not vertically) aligned. Thus, each cell has two vertical walls, with "floors" and "ceilings" composed of two angled walls(disparity with image "Honeycomb-Process"). The cells slope slightly upwards, between 9 and 14 degrees, towards the open ends.

Try as I might, I couldn't find a theory as to why bees do it this way. (Don't get me wrong, there are various theories as to why they use the hexagonal geometry, but that doesn't appear to explain why horizontal rather than vertical.)

Anyway, thought I'd add to the list of horizontal advantages/disadvantages: "It's how bees do it." If your game is some kind of bumble-bee sim, that would be a persuasive reason to go with horizontal hex.

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Alternate benefit of the horizontal approach: By using a horizontal (or pointy-side up) alignment for the hex-grid, you make your grid conform to the instructions for setting up a tent.

Answer 4

If you are building a strategy game, the game requirements and design itself should dictate which orientation you choose. Note that defensive lines are more easily held with the grain than against it, so your choice of grid orientation relative to map orientation will affect game play. To emphasize defence, such as in WWI, align the hex grid with the natural defensive lines; to emphasize offense as in WWII, do the opposite.

Answer 5

Your hex orientation will influence both your general aesthetics and your asset production.

If you choose vertical tiles, you can make your hexes twice as wide as they are tall and have pixel-perfect accuracy. Here are some 64x32 hexes.

Note that the diagonal edges are at 45 degree angles, making them easier to render in pixels.

The narrow height of the hexes relative to their widths can suggest depth, especially when you pace objects on them that can overlap with hexes behind them.

Another example of how the hex orientation can affect your asset production is with objects placed on horizontal tiles. On horizontal tiles you can only go roughly left or right. You can not go directly up or down. (Similarly, you can only go roughly up or down on vertical tiles). You could therefore possibly get away with only using a single side-facing image for objects on horizontal tiles.

With vertical tiles you'd have to make dedicated front and back images for the objects at the very least if you want different orientations, while on horizontal tiles you can use a single image that gets flipped.

Answer 6

From a technical and programming perspective, there should be no fundamental difference in data structure between the two orientations - any reasonable scheme should be easily modifiable to work well with either setup.

Design-wise, in the end it will come down to preference — as you've noted, there are multiple games using either scheme, which is pretty clear evidence that neither is technically superior. One thing that's worth noting is that Western text flows horizontally rather than vertically; because of this, Western players are likely to latch on to the horizontal elements of a design more quickly and more strongly than the vertical elements, because they're wired to look for horizontal structure. In the case of hexes, this means what you're calling the horizontal hex grid will draw attention to its horizontal straight lines more readily than the vertical hex grid draws attention to its vertical straight lines, and so if you want to emphasize the straight-line movement then the horizontal grid is likely to do a better job of that.

Contrariwise, though, if you want to de-emphasize the straight lines in the grid (which is one good reason for choosing a hex grid over a square one in the first place!) then you may want to use the vertical hex grid over the horizontal, since the lighter weight given to vertical lines will minimize the overall sense of straight lines in the grid for players.

One caution, though: note that this is a culturally-trained trait, not an inherent one, and that if you want to introduce your game into Japanese or other markets then you may want to reevaluate the decision, since the natural flow in those cultures is often vertical rather than horizontal (compare, for instance, Japanese 4-koma vs. American comic strips).