Tileset Creation for VX Tutorial

Ill leave my tutorial for tile creation here too, dont forget i added my resources for the complete XP map creation for vx

This part of the tutorial is for Tile creators, it explains how the autotiles work in RMVX



Ok here we go.

VX has a new tileset system. It works with LIMITED tiles it means that theres a limit in the number of tiles available so u must plan what to put in each Tile set.

First you must import the files to modify them, go to resource manager of ur RMVX and go to Graphics/System and import all the tiles to the folder so we can modify them, there are 9 files, TileA1, TileA2, TileA3, TileA4, TileA5, TileB, TileC, TileD and TileE

Im gonna explain how each Tile works and how to modify them to make em work

TileA1

Spoiler for:

Im gonna separate each part with a number for a better understanding



First of all, all of these are animated autotiles except the number 2 and 6

number 1 is linked with number 2 5 and 6, so u must have in mind that they can work together, meaning that while mapping u will be able to put 2, 6 or 5 on the 1 without deforming. ill use an example:

The rocks' and iceberg's transparence is available only for area 1, so if u use them alone it creates ocean automatically. those areas and area 5 do not transform what you make  with area 1 (ocean) but if u try with something else, its gonna be modified like the fence example, it forces the autotile to make edges and it doesnt fit. and in the example of the dark water in the lower part, its autotile of water with grassy edges, the autotile didnt show its edges because the autotiles are not linked.



another thing u must have in mind is that number 1 is made so you can use the boat on it, number 6 is made for the ship so in a normal game these 2 pieces of the layer are gonna be for the ocean in the worldmap. unless u have another idea in a space game or something like that in mind for the vehicles.

Now with photoshop were gonna divide this with a grid of 32 pixels with 2 divisions. for instructions of the usage of grid and snap read my grid tutorial http://www.hbgames.org/forums/index.php?topic=20828. in the case of VX we use an extra of the 2 divisions of the grid because VX uses the exact center of the tiles in the autotiles to make patterns so it will be useful, with the grid you must have something like this




And we will start working with the numbers 1, 3, 5, 7 ,9, 11, 13 and 15, these are normal animated autotiles as seen in XP but now they are shorter. Im gonna explain the difference between the ones from XP and these ones: And were gonna call these autotiles Terrain Autotiles (T-Autotiles) and animated T-Autotiles (AT-Autotiles)

this is an XP AT-autotile:



It has 4 T-autotile sets. RMXP takes each of those 4 sets and follow a sequence 1 per frame to animate it. Now im gonna explain how the at-autotile works



areas 5, 7, 9 and eleven were to keep a straight sequence when mapping 4, 6 10 and 12 were corner (pretty obvious) and the area 3 was divided in 4 corners made to create the curves formed by the corners from inside.



Now The same AT-autotile but now for VX



As you can see now there are only 3 sets of t-autotiles and areas 2, 5, 7, 8, 9 and eleven are gone, so if you want to make an XP autotile fit in VX you just have to remove those areas and in the case of animated autotiles just remove the areas mentioned and put them all together then just crop. and u have an AT-Autotile or T-autotile

How does it work without the areas 2, 5, 7, 8 and 9? you might be wondering, well its almost the same, as i said before, VX T-autotile programming is simplier and at the same time more complex:



they just discovered that there was a lot of space that wasnt needed, and area 2 was useless, so now it works this way, thats why i told you to make 2 divisions on each 32 pixel square, to edit these T-autotiles you will need the halves because this VX editor uses them

Now when you create a T-Autotile u must make sure that the area 8 is solid and can make patterns because its the area that makes all the area of your mapping, u must make sure that all the edges can be linked.

I made this T-Autotile, its not an AT-Autotile but as a T-Autotile it works the same way



as you can see the area 8 is solid and the edges match, that will make the patterns fit when i create my maps with this.

Now you're able to create AT-Autotiles and T-Autotiles

Now we can modify the autotiles 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 11, 13 and 15, now the other ones. the autotiles 2 and 6 are not Animated T-Autotiles they are just T autotiles, and to modify use the same method i mentioned, just as i did in my last example of the mud T autotile

the autotiles "4, 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 work in a different way, these are completely new autotiles. Im gonna call them F-Autotiles, (falling water autotiles)



the way this tiles work is easy in a way but the creation is hard. so i hope this help spriters to create new F-autotiles



It is a 2 tile animation, it just changes it frame from 1 to 3 and repeats, so the sequence must be made manually, it uses half of the tile to create edges (the halves to the right and to the left and doesnt modify other autotiles. the other 2 halves (the ones in the center) create the patterns if you want the waterfall to be larger so u must make sure they fit up and down and letf and right in a sequence.

This is an example of a waterfall for XP



Now this doesnt work for a F-autotile because it uses only 2 horizontal tiles in sequence so theres no way you can put the source and the water falling.

i solved this problem with 3 diferent autotiles, 1 for the source one for the water falling and 1 for the river getting the watter

and my whole TileA1 ended up like this



I just adapted XP autotiles because I like them but you can create your own autotiles. In the case of the ocean autotiles i didnt touch them because im gonna use them for the world map. Its not possible to use XP oceans with the waves because it uses 3 linked autotiles and we can only link 2 autotiles.

And were finisheed with the TileA1

TileA2

Spoiler for:

Tile a2 is way simplier, so we re gonna go fast



its basically done with T-Autotiles, i divided in 4 areas that have columns, the first 2 contain 4 diferent set of T- Autotiles and each set (the set is made of 3 auto tiles from left to right) is linked to the non transparent autotile. It means that when u use one of the transparent autotiles in the set, VX will automatically create a lower layer with the floor in the first autotile of the set, so the trees and the mountains of the first set will have a grassy area.

The first column was designed for WORLDMAPS. it has and edge that matches the edge of the ocean autotile in A1 so when you put them together they merge making the beach. but if you dont have intentions of having worldmaps with VX looks you can exchange them for other autotiles.



or you can create terrains adding the edges of the sand wich are made of a solid colr. like the one i did, i just made a mud tile and added the edges of the sand to match the oceans

Now for the transparent autotiles that are linked to the first in the set, you can exchange them for non transparent autotiles, VX creates a lower layer so the transparency is shown but if theres no transparency you will see your terrain.

the 3rd column just have non transparent autotiles that you can use as you wish, for non transparent autotiles of course.

the 4rth column has table autotiles it has transparency set and you can put any kind of floor tile from any TileA number but the transparency is kinda useless because its only set for the lower edge. but if u find any use like brirges for example you can do it, The transparency is for the lowest half of tile of the autotile

and thats it.

I made 1 myself with XP adapted autotiles and ended up like this



I changed the trees of the first set in the first column. i didnt like the 3rd mountains so i replaced it with a non transparent autotiles same for the grassy areas in second column. and i like the fences so i just planned which autotile will fit for them in order to have the autotiles i like here too. remember that the tiles are limited in VX so u must take in mind that when choosing what to put in them

TileA3

Spoiler for:

This one is even easier it contain another new kind of autotile, the W-Autotile (wall autotile) and everithing in this tileA3  creates an automatic shadow to the right so take that in mind too

This is based only in wall autotiles, you can see walls and roofs here but theyre all the same



both the wall and roof work in the same way



1 the upper bar will be made in the highest part of your composition, 2 will be for the left edge, 4 will be for the right edge, 5 will be for the lower edge and everything will be filled with the 3 as a pattern

this is how mine ended up as an example



i just added walls and roofs from tilesets.

thats it for A3

TileA4

Spoiler for:

A mixture of W-Autotiles and T-Autotiles just read tileA1 and tile tileA3 if u wanna edit it this wont make automatic shadows so basically u can fill it with whatever u want, but only terrains and walls.

this is how my edit looks like



I use indoor roofs from xp in terrain autotiles and some floors i like.

TileA5

Spoiler for:

In this just simply put the floor tiles u want, theyre just layer 1 floor tiles, no autotiles here



this is how mine looks so far. just replaced some floor tiles, some tiles have transparency for paralaxes.

For the other tiles B, C, D, E  they all work the same, they have a size you mustnt change and u just add there the tiles u think u will use in your whole game so be careful when choosing.

when edditing passability just set * (the star thingie) if u want the tile to be above characters.

WAIT FOR MY VX PRO MAPPING TUTORIAL

Here you can find all the XP tilesets edited by me

http://www.hbgames.org/forums/index.php?topic=43724.msg411892#msg411892

Great tutorial!

Thank you very much i hope ppl here find it useful. now im looking for a script to be able to link more autotiles like in xp, the ocean in xp was done with 4 autotiles, here we can only link 2 and that sux, but for now this is how VX works

Ah, hmm... I don't really know a good way to do that - certainly not in the map editor, since scripts only run when the game runs and they don't affect the editor at all.

The only way I could think of is to do a scan at the beginning of a map and switch all tiles that are adjacent to each other, but that would be laggy. 

I c so its practically impossible? yeah and i know scripts dont affect the editor but for example the kill autoshadow scrips do it when the game runs and i loved it. but if the game is gonna be laggy that would suck

It wouldn't make it lag in general, just when you first enter a map and it probably wouldn't make it lag that much either. It depends on the size of the map. There might even be an easier way to do it then my first impression of the problem. I might take a look at it later, but I don't make any promises.

Ok that would be great Thank you so much.    im adding my new version of XP for VX

I've thought about the problem and for some reason this never occurred to me before - there's absolutely no need for a script. Just make the other layers of ocean have as their surrounding the previous layer. Then for everywhere along the border of the two layers, all you will need to do is go to the shallower tile and hold shift and run the tile along the shallower side of the border. That ought to solve the problem.

ok i c, one of the problems is solved but then how u make the 3rd animated autotile make edges ? because with shift u only remove the edges of the second level animated autotile