unity-game-enginetiled

Is there a built in way to simulate isometric tilemap without the perspective change for a 2D top-view?

NOTE: I am very new to game development and don't know if I'm using the right terminology here, so will try showing what I am trying to achieve.

Consider the image below. I want to be able to draw a cave-like level using auto-tilling (levels will be procedural). My goal is to draw the blueprint on the left and get the output on the right. Notice how the tiles have the illusion of height, yet they're 2D. The one in the middle is the one I'm struggling to achieve as I need both the top tile of the bottom leg and the bottom tile of the upper leg (blueprint tiles marked in green)

So far, here's what I learned:

  1. Z as Y requires Isometric cameras but I want it to be 2d top-view (is this correct?)
  2. I tried Tiled and was able to achieve some of it, but can't find a way to export it to unity as a tile rule, even if I did, I wasn't able to solve the problem above
  3. I tried the default tile rules from Unity and it doesn't seem like I can output tiles neighboring the input base tile, even with Custom Tile Rule.

I could create a code from scratch to iterate over a given tilemap and draw the individual objects myself, but it seems like I am reinventing the wheel here, and I'm trying to check if there's a better/recommended/conventional/built-in way to achieve the same result.

enter image description here

Solution

  • Your desired look and workflow is easily achievable with the default tools that Unity provides.

    Take your rectangular sprite sheet, set Sprite Mode to Multiple and slice it up and adjust the pivot point if you like.

    Rectangular Tilemap in Editor

    Add these new sprites to a tile pallet and start drawing on a Tilemap with a rectangular grid. You'll probably have to change the sort order to Top Left or Top Right.

    View in Unity showing the reconstructed example

    Looks a bit ugly, cause I did it very quickly and by stealing your assets, but it's just a proof of concept.

    You have mentioned that you want to make it procedural. There is plenty of material that goes into all the ins and outs about making procedural tile maps. I trust that you can take it from here.