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 FR: Rectangle and line tools for instances

Z

zendorf

Guest
Would love to see the rectangle and line tools that work with tiles, also work with instances in grid snap mode. Is there any chance that this is on the roadmap?
 

Mike

nobody important
GMC Elder
anything is possible.... but I'm not a fan. doing this would imply you're making long lines or zones with instances - presumably for collision. I'd like to move people away from this as it's incredibly slow.

if its not for this, then in what cases are you wanting it for?
 

GMWolf

aka fel666
Its true that instances are becoming less and less useful.
I making a platformer game with all the things like one way platforms, moving platforms, etc, and only have 2 objects. The rest is all tilemaps.

I can it being useful if you want to create a line of enemies, that then start moving independently. But those are so rare, probably best not to clutter the editor too much.
 
Z

zendorf

Guest
anything is possible.... but I'm not a fan. doing this would imply you're making long lines or zones with instances - presumably for collision. I'd like to move people away from this as it's incredibly slow.

if its not for this, then in what cases are you wanting it for?
I am creating a puzzle platformer and using instances (as opposed to tilemaps) as most instances are physics objects that need to collide with other instances. I am having no performance problems at all using this approach. It just can get tedious to lay out a grid block of say, 10 x 20 instances. These instances have their sprite content changed procedurally in the create events. So even though I may use many of the same type of instance to lay out a level, these are swapped out at the start of the game.

No doubt I could create a system that uses a tilemap to layout these "guide" blocks that would then be swapped out for dynamic instances at runtime...but that wouldn't effect my game performance. Anyway, I guess my use-case is probably fairly unique.

The main problem when painting out a large grid of instances is that it is easy to accidentally put 2 on top of each other and there is no way of knowing this has occurred. Will this be changed in future so that laying down a new instance will automatically delete an existing instance at the same grid location?
 

GMWolf

aka fel666
I would strongly recommend you use a single object, that you scale up or down on the room editor as opposed to multiple instances.

Then rather than changing sprites, just create a tilemap and set tiles procedurally.

The reason for that is both for logical and graphical performance, as well as maintainability. Its far easier to move / remove one large instance rather than many.
 
B

boomie

Guest
Its true that instances are becoming less and less useful.
I making a platformer game with all the things like one way platforms, moving platforms, etc, and only have 2 objects. The rest is all tilemaps.

I can it being useful if you want to create a line of enemies, that then start moving independently. But those are so rare, probably best not to clutter the editor too much.
Can you explain how do you make moving platforms with tilemaps?
 

GMWolf

aka fel666
Can you explain how do you make moving platforms with tilemaps?
That's not the point.
You don't usually place 20 moving platforms in a line do you?

Since the OP is using physics, tile maps won't do, as you need objects to have fixtures.
if you are using objects, and need a 20*10 tile platform, don't place 200 instances. Instead, place 1 instance and scale it to fit 20*10.
If you want your large platform to still have multiple 'sprites', the easiest way to do so is with a tilemap.
 
B

boomie

Guest
That's not the point.
You don't usually place 20 moving platforms in a line do you?

Since the OP is using physics, tile maps won't do, as you need objects to have fixtures.
if you are using objects, and need a 20*10 tile platform, don't place 200 instances. Instead, place 1 instance and scale it to fit 20*10.
If you want your large platform to still have multiple 'sprites', the easiest way to do so is with a tilemap.
I wasn't trying to talk about the point of the post, so maybe here is not the place, but I wabt to know how to make it work with tile maps cause I want moving platforms and a bunch of other stuff in my platformer.
So it would be great if you have the time to explain how to do it.
 

GMWolf

aka fel666
I wasn't trying to talk about the point of the post, so maybe here is not the place, but I wabt to know how to make it work with tile maps cause I want moving platforms and a bunch of other stuff in my platformer.
So it would be great if you have the time to explain how to do it.
I'm currently working on a platformed engine for GMS2.
I'm making it work with both tile maps and objects. Moving platforms are made with objects, but its surprising justvhow much you can do with tile maps. With the right sort of collision checking, you can get an awful lot of behavior out of them.
 
yes.... you are. very :)
Hey, I edited it, right? Not that it matters when I'm dealing with forum admins, I guess. :'D

To be clear, my original sentiment still stands. I only edited it to make sure my information was accurate, hahah. I'm loving GMS2 overall, though, as much as I'm complaining.

But again, please don't remove or hold back features just because you think some people will abuse them. You're making a screw driver. Please make it out of steel, not styrofoam. Let us worry about whether we poke our eyes out or not. :p
 
Z

zendorf

Guest
I would strongly recommend you use a single object, that you scale up or down on the room editor as opposed to multiple instances.

Then rather than changing sprites, just create a tilemap and set tiles procedurally.

The reason for that is both for logical and graphical performance, as well as maintainability. Its far easier to move / remove one large instance rather than many.
I have very specific reasons for doing it the way I am. Most of these instances can be destroyed during the game, so I cannot use a large proxy object to cover them. The player is dynamically destroying earth sections made up of large tiled physics based instances. Imagine a physics based DigDug mixed with some Bomberman to give you a general idea.

Anyway, it would be nice if this feature was added at some point, a I am sure others would also find it useful :) Not everyone wants to make a tile based pixel art game with GMS2, so it is a pity if the toolset is aimed purely at those users. There are a ton of more modern platformer styles (ala Braid, Limbo, Ori, Season after the fall, etc) that use a different approach. It would be good if GMS2 can cater to those styles as well.

I hope that at least the overlapping instances issue will be sorted out...
 
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