=== TMX Map Tools ===

A set of tools for manipulating TMX map files.

After using any of these tools, load the map in Tiled and save it again; until this is done the game may not be able to load the file (see Bugs for an explanation).


=== TMXCopy ===

Tmxcopy is a little tool that allows to copy parts of one TMX map to another map. This will make it much easier to match the border areas of maps. The program is command line based. The usage is:

 tmxcopy [-c] [-n] srcFile x y width height tgtFile x y [outfile]

Here an example: 
When you want to copy the lower right corner (20x20 tiles) of mapA.tmx to the upper left corner of mapB.txt you would open map A with tiled and check at which coordinates the area you want to copy begins. Let's say mapA is 120x130 tiles. Then the area you want to copy would begin at 100:110 and would be 20x20 tiles large. So the first part of the command is:

 tmxcopy mapA.tmx 100 110 20 20

Then you open the target map to check the coordinates where you want to put the copied map part. We want the upper left corner, so the coordinates are 0:0. That means the next part of the command would be:
 
 mapB.tmx 0 0

The command is now complete:

 tmxcopy mapA.tmx 100 110 20 20 mapB.tmx 0 0

But when you enter this command the mapB will be overwritten. This could be a problem when you made an error in the command. So it is saver to write the output to a new map file so we can look at the result in Tiled before we replace the original map:

 tmxcopy mapA.tmx 100 110 20 20 mapB.tmx 0 0 temp.tmx

Now we can check temp.tmx to see if the copying worked correctly. 


Which layer gets copied to which:
By default layers are copied to layers of the same name.  The -n option will make it copy by layer number instead.

  mapA: Ground, Fringe, Over, Collision, Object
  mapB: Ground, Fencing, Fringe, Over, Collision, Object
  The default copies Ground->Ground, Fringe->Fringe, Over->Over, Collision->Collision (the object layer is not affected)
  -n copies Ground->Ground, Fringe->Fencing, Over->Fringe, Collision->Over (mapB's collision and object layers are not affected)

  mapA: Ground, Fringe, Over, Collision, Object
  mapC: Ground, Fringe, Overhead, Collision, Object
  The default quits with an error
  -n copies Over->Overhead

The -c option creates layers as needed.  Using it to copy mapB to mapA will add a Fencing layer to mapA.


=== TMX Random Fill ===

This is for generating big areas of woodland (or other things that want lots of randomly-placed patterns).

Usage: tmx_random_fill mapFile destLayer x y width height templateFile [-o outfile]
    -c create layers, if they don't already exist in the target
    -o save results to outfile, instead of overwriting the original

Fill a rectangular area of mapFile's layer 'destLayer' with a random selection from the templateFile.

The template is a map where each layer is a pattern.  For example, to make a woodland:
  Create a new 2x1 tile map (yes, this is tiny, and only the base of the tree will be visible).
  Add the Woodland_x3 tileset, using the correct height (96 pixels).
  Make a layer, add a tree.
  Make a layer, add the second tree.
  Make a layer, add the third tree.
  Save this as template_trees.tmx
  Run tmx_random_fill with the appropriate options (destLayer will be "Fringe")

It will then randomly place trees, but only in places where they won't overlap with other things on that layer.  The size of the template map is the size of the area which must be empty in the destination layer.

Running it several times (without specifying an output file) will add more objects.  After considering ways to specify the number of objects to add, I think the easiest is to just reload the map in Tiled each time until it looks right (you don't need to quit Tiled while running tmx_random_fill).


=== TMX Collide / Translate ===

A big woodland with lots of randomly-placed trees needs a complex collision layer, most of which can be generated from the visible layers.
This tool does that automatic generation.

It's not limited to adding collision tiles; it can be used for any task where tiles are added to one layer based on the tiles present in other layers.

Usage: tmxcollide [-c] mapFile destLayer templateFile [-o outfile]
    -c create layers, if they don't already exist in the target
    -o save results to outfile, instead of overwriting the original

To fill the collision layer, "destLayer" should be "Collision".

As with TMX Random Fill, this tool takes a template map; for this tool it should have exactly two layers.
  Upper layer: tiles to translate to (collision tiles)
  Lower layer: tiles to translate from (visible tiles)
Blank tiles in the lower layer will be ignored (put a blank in the upper layer too).


=== Bugs (for all these programs) ===

The programs work so far but there are still some minor problems:

-Only tested for Mana-compilant maps. I don't guarantee that it works with Tiled maps that are made for other games and thus use different features.
-Compressed maps (tmx.gz) can not be handled yet (but compressed or uncompressed layers work properly) 
-When the target map has an object layer it is moved to the bottom of the layer list of the map (no problem for the game but inconvenient for editing). Objects on the source map are ignored. 
-All tilesets included in the srcFile (TMXCopy) or template (TMXRandomFill and TMXCollide) will be added to the output file, even if they aren't needed for the tiles that are added.
-Layer data of output file isn't gzip-compressed yet 
-Created TMX file is a bit malformated (but working properly) 

The last 2 problems can be solved easily by opening and saving the map in Tiled.