Well, here we go, UhfEdit map/level editor to date.  I had to work on a list box for selecting different tilesets.  Which are basically different images that when I select the tiles, it stores their source location on the map.  Anyways the first version of the list box.  It had a few little bugs.

So I gutted it and reworked it and it works great now.  You can select, or scroll up or down (with the mouse).  I decided to only use mouse support at the time, I still have yet to add keys to the list box.

So here’s a full vid with Tileset (notice not tile selection, but tileset, in other words the image itself).  At this point in time you could just select a new set and it would switch automagically.

By this time I needed a “file browser” of sorts so you could load up different maps and save different maps.  So I added code to bring up the Guide (in xna, for windows it’s windows live, for xbox 360 it’s essentially the dashboard).  Anyways before I did that I decided I couldn’t just have it automatically try to load a map so I needed some sort of “ok” button.  So I implemented it on the tileset list box first.  You can see it in action in here I believe.  But as the title of this video is error, there was an error.  Not in the listbox but sort of a defect rather than an error.  See if you got a different sized tileset image say bigger than the others, then when you switched to another tileset that was smaller, the map would become sort of garbled.  I had an image that was twice as wide as the others.  As a result it extracted tiles from every other line because the previous image was twice as wide.  I figured the only way to fix the problem is to make sure all my images are the same size (in resolution) per map.  The ability to switch images on a map means I could change the look of a level by simply substituting a different image.  Let’s say we’re showing the four seasons, spring, summer, autumn, and winter.  All I need to do is make 4 tileset images that represent that.  Say for summer everything is dry and bright, but for winter, it looks like it has snow and everything is blue.  Anyways here’s the vid.

This brings us to our final vid, the usage to date.  It shows you the message/confirmation box when you load a level, and a list box showing you the map files.  I’m about to make a major change in the look though, so stay tuned for the next few videos.

Please note with the exception of the first 2 videos most of these can be seen in HD on youtube, since I’m usikng xna and eventually targeting the xbox360 the videos are 1280×720 or 720p.

Thanks for watching.

I’ve also changed it so that the map is only in the upper left corner (as I mentioned above) via viewports.  It was kind of screwy dealing with at first, but I finally got it.  Next you’ll be able to use a tileset that’s preloaded, and copy tiles from it to the map.  It’s got to be preloaded because of the way xna treats data.  It will compile your image/sound files into it’s own format.  In the level/map editor, you’ll be able to choose from various tilesets that are pre-loaded.  The point will be in the future allowing user created content on the xbox 360.  Of course this doesn’t mean you can make a game with my system on the xbox, but rather making levels for an existing game (and hence existing graphics).  In any case here’s a quick look.

Click on the image to enlarge, the red area is a “brush” (or group of tiles).  That little small bright red square is the cursor, which doesn’t have graphics right now.  On the right you’ll be able to check different things, maybe set map properties, etc.