Tiled Tile Map Editor

Automapping allows you to automatically place or replace tiles based on user-defined rules. The system scans your working map for tiles that match a rule's input and automatically places the corresponding output tiles. This is useful for automating repetitive decoration or correcting placement mistakes.

Key usage modes:

• Manual: Apply rules via Map > AutoMap.
• Dynamic: Enable Map > AutoMap While Drawing to apply rules automatically as you paint tiles.

Important Note for New Rules: If you are creating new rules, do not use regions layers. Using regions layers will trigger the legacy Automapping system, which may cause rules to behave unexpectedly. For corner and edge tile automation (like terrain shapes), consider using Terrains instead.

Tiled is a 2D level editor supporting various map types and annotation methods:

Tile Maps

Supports straight rectangular, projected isometric, staggered isometric, staggered hexagonal, and oblique layers. Editing is primarily done via a stamp brush for painting, drawing lines/circles, and using automatic terrain transitions or pattern-matching (automapping).

Object Layers

Used for annotating levels or placing images. Unlike tile layers, object placement is not restricted to the tile grid. Supported object types include:

• Rectangle
• Point
• Ellipse
• Polygon
• Polyline
• Tile objects

Objects can be scaled and rotated to provide high flexibility for game data and visual elements.

Tiled supports two distinct tileset models, chosen at creation time:

1. Based on Tileset Image: Defines a fixed tile size and a single source image. It supports margin (space around the whole image) and spacing (space between tiles) to handle extruded borders or gaps.
2. Collection of Images: Each tile refers to its own individual image file. This is ideal for tiles of varying sizes or when texture packing is handled by an external process.

Note: It is recommended to save tilesets as external files (rather than embedding them in a map file) so that meta-information is shared across all maps using that tileset.

Tiled supports property inheritance to simplify data management for repetitive assets.

Tile Property Inheritance

When you add properties to a tile, those properties are inherited by any object instance of that tile.

• Inherited properties are displayed in gray (disabled text color).
• Overridden properties (set specifically on the object instance) are displayed in black.

Typed Tiles

To avoid setting properties on every single object instance, you can use Typed Tiles:

1. Define a custom class (e.g., "NPC", "Enemy", or "Item") with properties like health or weight.
2. Set this class on the tile itself.
3. When you place that tile as an object, the predefined properties are automatically available, and you can override them for specific instances if needed.

Each Tiled project is associated with a *.tiled-session file stored alongside the project file.

Key characteristics of session files:

• Purpose: They store your last opened files, the last editor state for those files, and the last used parameters in various dialogs.
• Sharing: Session files should generally not be shared with others.
• Behavior: When you switch projects, Tiled automatically switches to the associated session file so you can resume your previous work. If no project is loaded, Tiled uses a global session file.

Tiled tile layers are mapped to GameMaker features based on their configuration:

• Standard Tile Layers: Exported as tile layers when possible. However, because GameMaker supports only one tileset per tile layer, if a single Tiled layer uses multiple tilesets, it will be exported as a group containing a child tile layer for each tileset.
• Asset Layers (Fallback): A tile layer will fall back to an asset layer if:
  • The tileset tile size does not match the map grid size.
  • The map orientation is not orthogonal (e.g., isometric or hexagonal).
  • The layer uses tiles from a 'collection of images' tileset (these export as sprite graphics).
• Note on Rotation: Asset layers in GameMaker do not support rotation for tile graphics. If 90-degree rotation is needed, use standard tile layers. For free rotation, use a collection of images tileset to export as sprite graphics.

For extremely large worlds that cause memory or rendering issues, you can instruct Tiled to only load the current map and its direct neighbors.

To enable this, add "onlyShowAdjacentMaps": true to the top-level JSON object in your .world file.

Note: When using this mode, you must define the size of each map in pixels so Tiled knows which maps are neighbors:

• For manual maps: Use "width" and "height" properties.
• For patterns: Use "mapWidth" and "mapHeight" properties (these default to the values of your multipliers if not specified).

{
    "onlyShowAdjacentMaps": true,
    "maps": [
        {
            "fileName": "map1.tmx",
            "x": 0,
            "y": 0,
            "width": 1024,
            "height": 1024
        }
    ],
    "type": "world"
}