I am making a relatively simple isometric map using SpriteKit. I've tried both using the editor as well as creating it through code, and each time, it seems to have some "weighting" between the various tiles even though they should overlap gracefully given that I'm just setting the styling of a tile.
Here is an example of me using the tiles from https://kenney.nl. The green is just a standard grass patch and the road is the same exact size as it.
When I create this map in the XCode UI or if i iterate through in code and paint them, this continues to occur.
However, if I was to do something like flip the tiles around and paint it all with roads with grass in the middle, it then seems to sort whichever tile there are "more of" like in this example:
If i go and make more of one tile group over another, it seems to overpower it.
So my question is, how can I keep them from using this behavior? I've tried different tilemaps together, nested them inside of eachother etc... But at the end of the day, I cant get different tiles to exist at the same "plane". I've tried with code, the UI, etc. I'd like to use the SKTileMap if possible to use the downstream features as opposed to doing all of the math myself, like in the approach in this article (http://bigspritegames.com/isometric-tile-based-game-part-1/)
Related
Over on the Apple Documents It claimes you can make an infinitely sized SKTileMap
Generating procedural game-world maps resembling natural terrain. You can create game world of infinite size by using procedural noise as its underlying representation, and manage storage and memory efficiently by creating noise maps (and their visual representations) only for the area around a player’s current position. (See the SKTileMap class.)
I can generate realistic terrain with GKNoise like the Apple Documents claim you can.
I cannot, however, make 1 giant infinitely sized SKTileMapNode it would be to intense to run on a device
The Apple Documents say to make an SKTileMapNode only around the players current position (like chunks in minecraft)
how can I achieve this in swift? my RPG needs to be infinitely sized to achieve everything I want to do with this game.
I need the "chunks" to be SKTileMapNodes because I need trees, stone, water, etc. to be added to the map so the player can interact with it.
The solution to your problem begins in making the GKNoise tileable.
You are probably using GKNoiseMap to generate them.
When you use the initializer:
let map = GKNoiseMap(_ noise: GKNoise, size: vector_double2,
origin: vector_double2, sampleCount: vector_int2, seamless: Bool)
Important: Don't forget to set the "seamless" variable to true.
That way you get a tileable map.
It looks better when you make them larger than the screen.
Let's say that a part (tileable) of the map that is your realistic terrain is going to be 2048 by 2048
One map may cover 128x128 tiles, for example. In this case each SKTile would be 16x16 pixels
You make a SKTileMap with 128x128 tiles.
Now the SKTileMap needs a background image, or the tile definitions (in this case, it is the GKNoiseMap, that you generated)
Now you can just use the same GKNoiseMap map, and place next to the first map, in any direction, containing another tile map of 128x128 tiles.
Your map is now 256x128 tiles. When the user scrolls, they can't tell where one image ends and another begins so the whole size of the map can be as large as you want, by repeating the same exercise.
It works well when you generate GKNoiseMap bigger than the screen, when you have to scroll a couple of times before the next GKNoiseMap starts. That way it doesn't get visually repetitive.
The area around "the player's position" can be one map, and then when you scroll, the map can repeat itself, saving you from loading anything else besides the map you already generated. That answers the " and manage storage and memory efficiently by creating noise maps" part of your question.
You should also be careful with Data Storage. If every SKTile needs to store variables different than what the GKNoiseMap will give you, infinite maps can be expensive.
How would I go abouts getting an effect in a view controller like the wonderful work of art attached in the following link?
Circles
I do have some idea, ranging from actually using ASCII text (I know, super wrong way) to a collection view of pictures, to what I suspect is the "right" way, done with core graphics. But I am asking in case there is a super easy/right methodology I will one day discover and facepalm.
You are correct that there are two primary ways for you to draw a grid of circles.
The primary way is to draw them using UIBezierPath or by using a collection view of images of circles.
For simple shapes, it is recommended that you choose the first option simply because your choices of circles aren't restricted by your images.
Here is a link for you to get started.
I need to be able to interact with a representation of a cilinder that has many different parts in it. When the users taps over on of the small rectangles, I need to display a popover related to the specific piece (form).
The next image demonstrates a realistic 3d approach. But, I repeat, I need to solve the problem, the 3d is NOT required (would be really cool though). A representation that complies the functional needs will suffice.
The info about the parts to make the drawing comes from an API (size, position, etc)
I dont need it to be realistic really. The simplest aproximation would be to show a cilinder in a 2d representation, like a rectangle made out of interactable small rectangles.
So, as I mentioned, I think there are (as I see it) two opposite approaches: Realistic or Simplified
Is there a way to achieve a nice solution in the middle? What libraries, components, frameworks that I should look into?
My research has led me to SceneKit, but I still dont know if I will be able to interact with it. Interaction is a very important part as I need to display a popover when the user taps on any small rectangle over the cylinder.
Thanks
You don't need any special frameworks to achieve an interaction like this. This effect can be achieved with standard UIKit and UIView and a little trigonometry. You can actually draw exactly your example image using 2D math and drawing. My answer is not an exact formula but involves thinking about how the shapes are defined and break the problem down into manageable steps.
A cylinder can be defined by two offset circles representing the end pieces, connected at their radii. I will use an orthographic projection meaning the cylinder doesn't appear smaller as the depth extends into the background (but you could adapt to perspective if needed). You could draw this with CoreGraphics in a UIView drawRect.
A square slice represents an angle piece of the circle, offset by an amount smaller than the length of the cylinder, but in the same direction, as in the following diagram (sorry for imprecise drawing).
This square slice you are interested in is the area outlined in solid red, outside the radius of the first circle, and inside the radius of the imaginary second circle (which is just offset from the first circle by whatever length you want the slice).
To draw this area you simply need to draw a path of the outline of each arc and connect the endpoints.
To check if a touch is inside one of these square slices:
Check if the touch point is between angle a from the origin at a.
Check if the touch point is outside the radius of the inside circle.
Check if the touch point is inside the radius of the outside circle. (Note what this means if the circles are more than a radius apart.)
To find a point to display the popover you could average the end points on the slice or find the middle angle between the two edges and offset by half the distance.
Theoretically, doing this in Scene Kit with either SpriteKit or UIKit Popovers is ideal.
However Scene Kit (and Sprite Kit) seem to be in a state of flux wherein nobody from Apple is communicating with users about the raft of issues folks are currently having with both. From relatively stable and performant Sprite Kit in iOS 8.4 to a lot of lost performance in iOS 9 seems common. Scene Kit simply doesn't seem finished, and the documentation and community are both nearly non-existent as a result.
That being said... the theory is this:
Material IDs are what's used in traditional 3D apps to define areas of an object that have different materials. Somehow these Material IDs are called "elements" in SceneKit. I haven't been able to find much more about this.
It should be possible to detect the "element" that's underneath a touch on an object, and respond accordingly. You should even be able to change the state/nature of the material on that element to indicate it's the currently selected.
When wanting a smooth, well rounded cylinder as per your example, start with a cylinder that's made of only enough segments to describe/define the material IDs you need for your "rectangular" sections to be touched.
Later you can add a smoothing operation to the cylinder to make it round, and all the extra smoothing geometry in each quadrant of unique material ID should be responsive, regardless of how you add this extra detail to smooth the presentation of the cylinder.
Idea for the "Simplified" version:
if this representation is okey, you can use a UICollectionView.
Each cell can have a defined size thanks to
collectionView:layout:sizeForItemAtIndexPath:
Then each cell of the collection could be a small rectangle representing a
touchable part of the cylinder.
and using
collectionView:(UICollectionView *)collectionView
didSelectItemAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
To get the touch.
This will help you to display the popover at the right place:
CGRect rect = [collectionView layoutAttributesForItemAtIndexPath:indexPath].frame;
Finally, you can choose the appropriate popover (if the app has to work on iPhone) here:
https://www.cocoacontrols.com/search?q=popover
Not perfect, but i think this is efficient!
Yes, SceneKit.
When user perform a touch event, that mean you knew the 2D coordinate on screen, so your only decision is to popover a view or not, even a 3D model is not exist.
First, we can logically split the requirement into two pieces, determine the touching segment, showing right "color" in each segment.
I think the use of 3D model is to determine which piece of data to show in your case if I don't get you wrong. In that case, the SCNView's hit test method will do most of work for you. What you should do is to perform a hit test, take out the hit node and the hit's local 3D coordinate of this node, you can then calculate which segment is hit by this touch and do the decision.
Now how to draw the surface of the cylinder would be the only left question, right? There are various ways to do, for example simply paint each image you need and programmatically and attach it to the cylinder's material or have your image files on disk and use as material for the cylinder ...
I think the problem would be basically solved.
I'm looking for a library/framework/toolkit that will allow me to render a 2D map from real GeoSpatial data and draw objects on the 2D map.
Requirements:
Map Tiling (when I zoom into the map, i want a more detailed image)
Pan (ability to use the mouse to move around the map)
Read various Geospatial images (satellite, street, etc)
Ability to draw objects onto the map (based on lat/longs) and have them move. For example, I want to be able to put an image of a bird on the map and have it move and rotate correctly.
Primitive shapes. It would be nice if it had built in ability to draw lines, circles, etc.
Complex drawing. For example, I want to draw a compass and have it show the heading of the current heading of the bird.
Mouse input. I want to be able to right click on the map and have a context menu appear. I want to click and hold an shape I draw on the map and drag it easily.
What I have looked at:
OpenSceneGraph with osgEarth. It's great, and fulfills my reqs, but is really slow and I had to do a lot of weird things to get things to work (especially with dragging objects on the map).
Cesium: looks promising, but somewhat slow, and I need it to work as a desktop application. I've seen online that some have managed to use Cesium inside Qt's Webkit, but I'm not sure I would want to take that risk.
EDIT:
I really want to stay away from a web-based framework if possible.
http://imgur.com/52DaJtQ
Here is a primitive picture of what I'm want to achieve. The aircraft icon should move and the degree circle along with it. I want to be able to drag the green waypoints and have the lines redraw as I move a waypoint. The red sensor footprint should adjust to what the aircraft can see.
http://imgur.com/52DaJtQ
Google Maps, Open Street Map, Bing Maps.
I use OpenSceneGraph/osgEarth extensively and am not dissatisfied with its performance.
What kind of weird things did you need to do?
If you want, you can contact me privately to troubleshoot your situation. Me website is AlphaPixel.com and there's a contact form there.
I'm currently making a game where driving a moon lander across the terrain of alien planets. The lander is free moving so you can turn any direction you like.
I've got a camera centred on the player's vehicle and navigation is working well, however...
As the player approaches the horisontal sides (x) of the map I'd like the map to display continuously.
I've used a couple of different approaches so far; I've added an identical sprite as the map to the left of the map and created a method that moves the extended map to the right side if you approach that side instead, and I've also tested with two different extended maps, one for left and one for right. I've then setup physics for the extended maps and changed the landers position from one side of the map to the other as it collides with the extended maps.
My issue is that I'd like to have my enemies spawning and walking around the main map and as you approach the side you will of course not see the enemies on the other side of the map - you'd only see the extended map with no contents.
My preference would be for the world to "bend" so that as you approach the left edge you'd automatically see the right edge and vice versa. I have no idea whether this is even feasible so any suggestions are much appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
I'm not sure I understand your question. Maybe this will further discussion, anyhow.
If you are looking for a scrolling behavior then I would have two backgrounds (or more if you want a wider scrolling field) and your method for swapping the tiles around to make the background feel continuous, use the "camera" tracking technique and shown in Apple's sprite kit demo to follow your player (which it sounds like you are doing). Then when aliens move offscreen in either direction relocate them in the same way that you would swap out your background tile(s) with something like position.x += widthOfBackgroundTile.