Creating mod tilesheet using existing tools

If you want to create a quite extended mod for CDDA and it'll be shipped separately from the main game you need a composed tilesheet.

It is not a problem for mods with a couple of sprites, but if you have a lot of sprites better to use existing tools.

Creating a dummy tileset

First of all you need to create a dummy tileset in the tileset repository and receiving folder in your game.

• Create a my_mod folder under CDDA-Tilesets\gfx (tilesets repository)
• Create a my_mod folder under Cataclysm\gfx (your game folder)

Now you need to create some files in repository. Go to CDDA-Tilesets\gfx\my_mod\ and create tileset.txt and add the following content:

#my_mod

NAME: my_mod_name
VIEW: my_mod_view
JSON: tile_config.json
TILESET: tiles.png

As you can see name and view should be somehow related to your mod name, but actually they can be abything but existing tilesets names.

Copy fallback.png from any other existing tileset into your CDDA-Tilesets\gfx\my_mod\ folder. It is needed only to be checked once and you will delete it later.

Lets assume that you have a number of sprites and sprites size are: x=32 and y=48. Put all of them into the folder and name this folder: pngs_my_mod_sprites_32x48.

Now you need to create the final file: tile_info.json with following content:

[
  {
    "pixelscale": 1,
    "width": 1,
    "height": 1
  },
  {
    "my_mod_sprites.png": { "sprite_width": 32, "sprite_height": 48 }
  }
]

Composing the "tileset"

Use updtset.cmd tool as usual (you may refer to this doc). Your new dummy tileset will appear in the list of source tilesets available for composing.

If you did everything right you will get the composed tileset in your game directory Cataclysm\gfx\my_mod.

You will get: | file | purpose | |--|--| | :bar_chart:fallback.png | to be deleted | | :bar_chart:my_mod_sprites.png | your composed tilesheet | | :memo:tile_config.json | you need to fix it a bit | | :memo:tileset.txt | to be deleted |

Check my_mod_sprites.png - this file should contain all your sprites.

Fixing the json

Resulting tile_config.json supposed to be for a full tileset, so you need to fix it first. Open it in any text editor, copy all content and past it here: CDDA json linter and press "LINT" button below.

Now this file content can be easily readable. You will get something like this:

{
  "tile_info": [
    ...
  ],
  "tiles-new": [
    {
      "file": "my_mod_sprites.png",
      "//": "range from 1 to X",
      "sprite_width": 32,
      "sprite_height": 48,
      "sprite_offset_x": 0,
      "sprite_offset_y": 0,
      "tiles": [
        ...
      ]
    },
    {
      "file": "fallback.png",
      "tiles": [],
      "ascii": [
        ...
      ]
    }
  ]
}

You need to do the following:

1. Remove tile_info section.

2. Instead add the following content before tiles-new section:

     "type": "mod_tileset",
     "compatibility": [
       "Chibi_Ultica",
       "MShockXottoPlus"
     ],
   

3. Remove comma between my_mod_sprites and fallback sections.

4. Remove fallback section. Tileset will handle fallbacks.

5. Wrap all text into square brackets [ ].

6. Fix offset values. In our demostration case sprite_offset_y will be -16.

7. Be sure to include right tileset names into compatibility.

You will get something like this:

[
  {
    "type": "mod_tileset",
    "compatibility": [
      "Chibi_Ultica",
      "MShockXottoPlus"
    ],
    "tiles-new": [
      {
        "file": "my_mod_sprites.png",
        "//": "range from 1 to X",
        "sprite_width": 32,
        "sprite_height": 48,
        "sprite_offset_x": 0,
        "sprite_offset_y": -16,
        "tiles": [
          ...
        ]
      }
    ]
  }
]

Now you can use your mod tilesheet.