Tileset Slicer / Re-Assembler

This dialog (accessed by selecting "Assembe/Slice Tilesets" from the Tools menu) allows you to do a number of things with tile graphics:

• Change the number of columns in an existing tileset bitmap. New rows may be added and tiles are wrapped to fit the new number of columns.
• Specify a new tile width/height and slice the bitmap into tiles according to the new width/height.
• Combine a series of bitmap files into a single tileset bitmap file.
• Split a tileset bitmap file into a series of files.
• Remove padding around the edges of tiles in a series of files or tileset bitmap.

All actions in this window are performed purely on files and do not affect the currently loaded project in any way, unless the output file is one of the tilesets in the current project. Even then, you will have to re-load the tileset for the project to be affected.

Parameters

The following sections will discuss the various parameters that can be entered.

Step 1 - Source Graphics

Here you specify parameters that indicate where the source graphics of the operation are found. The description of the meaning of these parameters will be split into two sections, one for separate files and one for a single bitmap.

For a series of files, the padding indicates the unused space above and to the left of the graphic in each of the bitmap files that will be loaded. The number specified for Padding Left will be cropped off the left side of each bitmap and the number specified for Padding Top will be cropped off the top of each bitmap before considering its addition to the output. Parameters for right and bottom padding are unnecessary because the next two parameters specify exactly how big the tile is. Width and Height under Tile Size specify the size, in pixels, of the tile in this file. The final two parameters accross the top do not apply to a series of files (see below for Pitch information in a single bitmap operation).

For a single bitmap, the padding again indicates the unused space above and to the left of the graphic. But this padding applies only to the top and left of the entire bitmap. The Pitch parameters are effectively used to determine the padding between tiles. The tile width and tile height are used to determine how much to copy for each tile in the process (as you'd expect). The pitch is used to determine the distance to the next tile. The pitch includes the tile width plus any padding that may separate one tile from another. For example if there are tiles starting at (8,8), (48,8), (88,8), (8,48) etc. (each 32x32 pixels) you would probably specify the following parameters for this 3-column bitmap of tiles:

• Padding
  • Left = 8
  • Top=8
• Tile size
  • Width = 32
  • Height = 32
• Pitch
  • Horizontal = 40
  • Vertical = 40

Here is a more visual example of the input parameters:

A tileset without any padding or spacing between tiles would have padding values of 0 and the pitch would equal the tile size.

Below the numeric parameters that indicate graphic position and sizes are parameters that indicate filenames. If you want your graphics to come from a series of files in a directory, select the first option and specify some pattern that matches the filenames you want to include in the operation. For instance, if you have files Tile1.bmp, Tile2.bmp, Tile3.bmp and Tile4.bmp in a directory C:\Graphics\Tiles, you can enter C:\Graphics\Tiles\*.* or C:\Graphics\Tiles\Tile?.bmp for the pattern to include all those files. The files will be sorted alphabetically, but if they end with a number, the numeric part will be sorted by number. For instance, Tile10.bmp comes before Tile9.bmp when sorted purely alphabetically, but the tileset re-slicer will put Tile10.bmp after Tile9.bmp.

If you want to use a single bitmap as the source for the graphics, select the other option and enter the path to the bitmap or browse for it.

Step 2 - Destination Graphics

In this area you specify where and how the graphics will be output after the tiles are extracted from the source. You can output to either a series of files or to a single bitmap.

If you output to a series of files, you should specify a name that includes a directory and a filename prefix, but no extension or mask or number. For each image that is extracted from the source, a numbered file will be generated. The number will be zero-padded so that all filenames are the same length. If you have 101 tiles, for instance, the suffixes on the files will range from 000.bmp to 100.bmp, and if you have 100 tiles, the suffixes will range from 00.bmp to 99.bmp.

If you output to a single bitmap, you must specify how many columns of tiles you want per row in the bitmap. The number of rows is determined by the number of files extracted from the source divided by the number of columns per row. Fractional rows will leave unwritten space at the end of the tileset bitmap being written for the tiles in the remainder. There will be no padding or spacing between tiles. Note that your output bitmap should not be wider than 640 pixels if you intend to use it in Gamedev.

Step 3 - Execution and Review

Here you can run the re-slicing/assembling process and see a log of the results.

The button at the top of this step allows you to start the process going. Press it once all the parameters have been entered correctly. If parameters are missing or incorrect you may get an immediate error message or you may see an error message at the end of the log. After pressing this button, each graphic adds a line to the log indicating where it is coming from and going. Make sure there were no errors at the end of the log after pressing the button. The last line should read "Done."