Tiles and Sources

Introduction

Tiles and Sources are the foundation of Tilesetter. Although the basic idea of tiles is self-explanatory, Tilesetter also features the concept of Sources, which play a major role in tileset generation. It’s important to know the distinction between these two, and how they work together.

Sources

In Tilesetter, a tile’s appearance is not something inherent to the tile. Instead, image data is stored in Sources, which are then used to make up a tile’s final look.

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This detachment allows for the same image to be reused throughout different tiles, as multiple tiles can reference the same Source for its visuals. This is especially useful when generating tilesets, as edge textures are often the same in different border tiles.

Another benefit provided by Sources is quick editing of a large number of tiles. By changing a Source’s image, all tiles that are currently referencing it will be updated to reflect the new design, saving time that would otherwise be spent editing each tile individually.

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Tiles

Tiles are the building blocks for tile-based environments, and are the focus of Tilesetter.

Their appearance is composited from a collection of Sources. A basic tile will use a single Source for its image, however, generated tiles may combine multiple Sources to achieve their look.

Aside from visuals, tiles can also have a defined behavior used for auto-tiling (More information at ‘Tileset Behavior’).