Working with tiles

[The Sprinkler]

So, I'm trying to make the inside of a tent for a map, but I can't find any good tiles for the map walls or floors.
I found something I kind of want to use, but it's part of another tile set group. Why can't I choose what tiles I want to use freely? Is there a way to use a particular tile from another group?
As well, where can I find free tile resources to use?

[JohnDoeNews]

You can make as many tilesets as you like. You can use a different tileset for each single map if you like. You can combine then freely in the database.

[Caethyril]

Yep, can only use one tileset per map, and each tileset is limited to pages A~E.

Assuming it's not an A-page tile, X's suggestion is probably the easiest way to go. The default tilesets have pages to spare, so you can just stick the new page in one of the empty slots of your map's tileset.

Otherwise you'll need to open up an image editor that can handle alpha-channel transparency (i.e. pretty much anything except MS Paint). I use GIMP (free); all you really need is copy, paste, export as png. Autotiles (A1~A4) can get a little complex if you want to do more than copy + paste them; full details under Help > Contents > Documentation > Asset Standards.

Community-made tilesets are often free if you credit the user, e.g. whtdragon's got some awesome stuff over here: whtdragon's tilesets addons, fixes and more![forums.rpgmakerweb.com] RMW's resource boards are generally a good place to start looking for resources. ^_^

[The Sprinkler]

Okay, so I'm trying to use the same ground tile as outside for the floor of the inside of this tent, but I can't figure out how to correctly adjust the database to let me use that one floor tile. When I tried adding it to the database, all of the images for the floor tile were shrunken down.

[JohnDoeNews]

Schrunken down? What do you mean by that?
Are you sure you selected the floors in the section A2 of the tileset?

Here is a tip: Look at the tileset, where the outside tile is already used. See how the A2 tileset is included there, and just do exactly the same in your costum tileset.

[The Sprinkler]

Well, when I tried adding a tileset to use (for the inside of the tent), I selected '0003 Inside', and selected an empty box. In this case it was 'A3 Buildings', and from the empty drop down box I selected 'Outside_A4' (since that looks like it has the ground tile that was being used outside)
Anything beyond that is over my head as to why it looked and appeared shrunken down.

[JohnDoeNews]

outside_A4 should be in slot A4. Autotiles (A1, A2, A3, and A4) are all made up in different ways. So if you put outside_A4 is slot A2, it will not work. Also, what you thought was grounds, is most likely ruffs. :) Use outside_A2 instead and it will run fine

[Caethyril]

Like X says, the A-pages are all differently formatted. A4 uses an extra two "tiles" per tile type compared to A3, for specifying wall-tops like ground tiles. And A2 is different again: like A4 without the wall tiles. It means you can't just mix and match them without a little editing. >_<

If you're prepared to edit the images, autotiles are fairly easy to just copy+paste. Remember to backup the original image in case something goes wrong!

• Open up the source (e.g. Outside_A4) and target (e.g. Inside_A2) images,
  
• Select and delete an unused block in the target image if necessary,
  
• Select and copy a tile block from the source to paste into a gap in the target image.

GIMP (along with many other image editors) has a "snap to grid" feature that can make precisely selecting tiles a lot easier. You may find it helpful to set the grid size to either 48x48 px (full tile) or 24x24 px (quarter-tile). =)

[The Sprinkler]

This is all very confusing to me.
It sounds like A1, A2, etc are all different from one another in how they all work.

[Caethyril]

That's correct. It's not only the image layout, there are some differences with how they're treated in-game, too. A1 are animated, A4 has "wall-top" tiles with special passability settings, and A5 aren't even autotiles. o_o

If you want to demystify the autotile thing a little, I found a RMW blog post (with gifs) explaining how ground autotiles go together, i.e. A2 and the wall-tops of A4. You might find it easier to understand than the help file. Here's a link in case you're interested: http://blog.rpgmakerweb.com/tutorials/tutorial-making-an-autotile/ ^_^

[The Sprinkler]

Oi, this is going to kill me, trying to sort all of this information out. My prototype map is slowly coming along, but I am feeling really constrained on what I am able to do so far with world building. I'll check out that link tomorrow though, right now my head is throbbing from game development. Thank you again for all your help, guys!

[Hajami]

This Shift Click Tutorial will help you make your Maps more awesome:
https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/shift-click-mapping.14387/


In this Thread one User listed the Tileset Sizes, if you dont want to search the Helpfile.
https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/index.php?threads/tileset-dimensions.47064/

MV
A1 and A2 are 768 x 576 pixels (Both are same size but different in function, so dont switch them)
A3 is 768 x 384 pixels
A4 is 768 x 720 pixels
A5 is 384 x 768 pixels
B-E Tilesets are 768 x 768 pixels. (B to E can be exchanged with each other, it doesnt matter)

1 Maptile is 48x48 Pixel.

[JohnDoeNews]

Originally posted by The Sprinkler:

This is all very confusing to me.
It sounds like A1, A2, etc are all different from one another in how they all work.

Yes you're right. They are very different.

A1 is animated tiles, for water for example. The way they are set up, are completely different than any other auto tile.

A2 to A4, are floors, walls and buildings. They work mostly the same, however, they all have their own layout.

If you simply make sure, you load the right type into the right slot, there shouldn't be a problem. If you go edit the tilesets, you need to understand how they work. If you won't edit them, all you need to understand, is that you can nt load them in the wrong slot.

[Hajami]

I forgot in VX-Ace the Top left tile of B Tileset needed to have Star passability, and at best being empty, but besides that you could exchange B, C, D and E with each other.

[JohnDoeNews]

Originally posted by Hajami:

I forgot in VX-Ace the Top left tile of B Tileset needed to have Star passability, and at best being empty, but besides that you could exchange B, C, D and E with each other.

In MV too, right? Maybe I am confused with Ace, but I thought if you change it to an X in MV, you won't be able to walk anywhere.

[Caethyril]

Originally posted by BigFatX:

Originally posted by Hajami:

I forgot in VX-Ace the Top left tile of B Tileset needed to have Star passability, and at best being empty, but besides that you could exchange B, C, D and E with each other.

In MV too, right? Maybe I am confused with Ace, but I thought if you change it to an X in MV, you won't be able to walk anywhere.

Not sure which version it was changed, but it seems that now if you try to change that tile's passability in the database, nothing happens: it stays locked on star.