Feedback Feature Request: Ability to Have Different Grid Sizes per Room

[Zeralith]

Hi GMS2 Team,

First off, thanks for the wonderful software. I'm having a good time with it and hope this will be an awesome addition to the world of game making.

I do have 1 feature request though, for now, which I hope hasn't been requested already (I did try to do a search, but too many results for "grid" to look through).

I know we can set a default for Grid Sizes in Preferences -> Room Editor -> Grid Settings, and then all future Rooms that the user creates/goes to will always be at that Grid Size, but then after you change the Grid Size in just that Room, it'll only stay that way until you close the Window/Tab/Program.

I am requesting to give us the ability for each Room to remember what you set the Grid Size to, forever, until you change it.

An example style of game where this could be helpful would be if a user was making a game like Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. What if they want the "Overworld" portion of the game to run in Rooms with a 16x16 Grid and then they wanted the "Platformer" parts to run in Rooms with a 32x32 Grid?

Currently, GameMaker Studio 2 Beta is fighting this type of paradigm.

Thanks again guys. I hope I'm not just missing something here... and if not, then I hope this feature is something that can be easily added.

Best wishes for GMS2 success!

 

[Nocturne]

See where it says grid X and grid Y? Just click the little arrow beside the grid view toggle and you can set the grid values to anything you wish.

 

[makas]

but those values are locked when working with tiles... maybe that is what he is asking for... I know I want to able to change the grid size when using the tiling system... which is amazing but is introduced with this limitation

 

[Nocturne]

What do you mean you want to change it for tiles? The tilemap grid will depend on the tileset attached... so if the tileset is 16x16 then so will the the tilemap layer grid be. You need different sizes then make different sized tilesets - this has nothing to do with the room editor and everything to do with the highly optimised and correct way that tiles are now being created and rendered. Tiles are now PROPER tiles and not that crappy (and slow) legacy way of doing things where tiles were almost instnaces and could be placed off the grid and stuff...

 

[makas]

What do you mean you want to change it for tiles? The tilemap grid will depend on the tileset attached... so if the tileset is 16x16 then so will the the tilemap layer grid be. You need different sizes then make different sized tilesets - this has nothing to do with the room editor and everything to do with the highly optimised and correct way that tiles are now being created and rendered. Tiles are now PROPER tiles and not that crappy (and slow) legacy way of doing things where tiles were almost instnaces and could be placed off the grid and stuff...

Ok maybe I just dont know the correct definition or use of real tiles, and you are probably right, my problem with this is because the way GMS:1 handled this, I wanted to use a hexgrid tile and failed miserably because of this, in GMS:1 I could set the grid with different height and this helped me to get my isometric tilesets really easy, I know there are new ways of doing this(with sprites), I will try to explore them...

 

[Zeralith]

View attachment 4108

See where it says grid X and grid Y? Just click the little arrow beside the grid view toggle and you can set the grid values to anything you wish.

Hey Nocturne, thanks for this, but I already know what you're saying.

What I am asking for is that the IDE actually SAVES the Grid Size information (what you are showing in your screenshot above), per Room.

If you change the setting that you are describing, let's say it starts on 32x32 and then say you change it to 24x24... then you close GMS2 completely. Then, reopen your project again... it will reset back to 32x32, when you last changed it to 24x24.

This becomes an issue, as well, when dealing with MULTIPLE Rooms and you want DIFFERENT Grid Sizes to be SAVED with the Room data of each individual Room. Having to constantly fight the IDE, which is changing everything back to a "default" every time is super annoying.

Game types that could need this, for example, could be:

1. Zelda II: The Adventure of Link style games where you might want the "Overworld" and "Platformer" parts to use different Grid Sizes, per Room.

2. RPG Puzzle style games (Puzzle Quest/Wizorb) where you might want to have completely different kinds of Rooms and varying Grid Sizes for the "Puzzle" parts vs. the "RPG" parts.

3. Tactical Strategy style games (Disgaea/Final Fantasy Tactics/Front Mission/Fire Emblem/Shining Force) where you might want to have completely different kinds of Rooms and varying Grid Sizes for the "RPG" parts vs. the "Battle" parts. Some of these games can get crazy with going back-and-forth between Isometric view and a normal top-down "In the Village RPG" view, as well. Having the flexibility of a different Grid Size, saved with each individual Room's data, can help the developers deal with this stuff easier within the project.

Does that make more sense?

 

[Nocturne]

If you change the setting that you are describing, let's say it starts on 32x32 and then say you change it to 24x24... then you close GMS2 completely. Then, reopen your project again... it will reset back to 32x32, when you last changed it to 24x24.

Yeah, okay, that seems like something it should do. File a bug. (help > file a bug in the IDE).

 

[Mike]

This isn't a bug, it's by design - but file a suggestion and we'll add it to the list. I personally wouldn't want grid settings to be saved with the room, so it's not something we'd just do, it would have to be an option.

Also, grid sizes should in fact change for each layer your on. Tiles will always have a grid size of the tile size - this will never change. However, there is nothing stopping you having multiple tile layers, one with 32x32 tiles and another with 16x16 tiles. Or having a collision layer that is - well, whatever size you want it to be. If your tile sizes were 32x32, you could have a tile collision layer of size 8x8 so you can collide more accurately. These layers don't have to drawn, so won't slow anything down.

As I said... I personally don't see the need, but file it as a suggestion by all means.

 

[Zeralith]

This isn't a bug, it's by design - but file a suggestion and we'll add it to the list. I personally wouldn't want grid settings to be saved with the room, so it's not something we'd just do, it would have to be an option.

Also, grid sizes should in fact change for each layer your on. Tiles will always have a grid size of the tile size - this will never change. However, there is nothing stopping you having multiple tile layers, one with 32x32 tiles and another with 16x16 tiles. Or having a collision layer that is - well, whatever size you want it to be. If your tile sizes were 32x32, you could have a tile collision layer of size 8x8 so you can collide more accurately. These layers don't have to drawn, so won't slow anything down.

As I said... I personally don't see the need, but file it as a suggestion by all means.

Hey Mike, thank you for your reply and feedback.

I'm new to these forums and to GMS1 and 2, in general (I come from a C#/Objective-C/XNA/Cocos2D background).

Anyway, I did post this thread as a "Feature Request" with the "Feedback" Tag, but where is the proper place to file these things? I know within the IDE a user can get to a "Bug Report" Form. Is that the best place to file all our "Suggestions" as well?

 

[Mike]

Just just use that, we'll categorise it.

 

[makas]

This isn't a bug, it's by design - but file a suggestion and we'll add it to the list. I personally wouldn't want grid settings to be saved with the room, so it's not something we'd just do, it would have to be an option.

Also, grid sizes should in fact change for each layer your on. Tiles will always have a grid size of the tile size - this will never change. However, there is nothing stopping you having multiple tile layers, one with 32x32 tiles and another with 16x16 tiles. Or having a collision layer that is - well, whatever size you want it to be. If your tile sizes were 32x32, you could have a tile collision layer of size 8x8 so you can collide more accurately. These layers don't have to drawn, so won't slow anything down.

As I said... I personally don't see the need, but file it as a suggestion by all means.

ty mike that is the last time I mention that thing I will try to play with what you suggest and see how it works