Auto-Tiles in Tiled : Parallax Mapping made easier

[Deldel]

Hi!
This is a short tutorial to show you how to work with RPG Maker's autotiles in Tiled to make pre-rendering mapping easier. If you do not know what Tiled is, it's a program that allows you to create maps with Tilesets (like RPG Maker) but with the added bonus of an unlimited number of layers, unlimited tilesets per map and the possibility to extract multiple PNGs from your map so that you can edit its lighting in photoshop (if you want to) among other things.

Pre-requesits:

1. Softwares: a graphic editor (Photoshop, gimp or whatever); Tiled, RPG Maker XP/VX/Ace/MV.
   
2. A basic understanding of Tiled mapping: There's an excellent guide right here in these forums! Click here to read it then come back to know more about using auto-tiles with it!
3. A basic understanding of a graphic editor (Photoshop or gimp) : All you need to know is how to create a grid and copy/paste. If you already have the autotiles in Tiled format, there's no need to edit the images.
4. And that's all!

Part 1 :Making the autotiles compatibles with Tiled:
If you have already made -compatile auto tiles, skip to part 2
This is really easy, and once you know how to do it it will only take a few minutes to transform a VX/XP/MV autotiles to a Tiled one. The hardest part is figuring out where to put each part but I already figured out that for you
I will be working with this set of autotiles from VX Ace:

Outside A2- RPG Maker VX Ace​

Note the Guides, I advise you to make a grid of 32px with 2 subdivisions. If you are using RMMV, that will be 48px
For this tutorial, we will be transforming the second autotile : The grass -> dirt one.
Here's the template I made:

Note that the main part of the autotile works perfectly as is! As for the corners, it uses a 2x2 grid. It might sound complicated but simply watch the images and the color coded template. There's nothing complicated here, just moving around parts of the default autotile to make a new one.
If it's still not clear, don't hesitate to ask questions. I might make a quick video to explain this even more visually.
End result:

Part 2 : Import to tiled and setup
First of all, import your Tileset into Tiled. Import it as a 16x16 tileset (or 24x24px for RMMV). This is explained in the basic tutorial so you should know how to do it.
To make the autotile act like one, click on the 'terrains' icon and click on 'new terrain':

: Terrain icon

You are now in terrain mode. You should see small blue corners when you hover over your tileset. To set up the tilesets, simply click in this way (it's easier to demonstrate than to explain lol):

Note that I did NOT click on the middle of the corner tiles. Truth be told, the grass tiles in the middle is not necessary at all, but I thought the Tileset looked prettier with it ahah.
And now ... You're done! It was that easy

Here's how it works in real time:

You might notice that the path on the left is slightly larger. That is because by default, Tiled uses the whole autotile to draw (yes, the whole 64x64px). To draw a smaller path (RM's default 32px) simply hold CTRL while drawing the paths

Also, to avoid weird terrains collisions, follow this simple advices:

• Create a new layer when you want to use an autotile.
• Put all your autotiles in the same tileset (Like Rpg maker does), this advice is from Tiled's documentation. I did work with multiple autotiles tilesets and never had any problem, but I'm saying this anyway in case it causes a problem for you

And here are some of my own Tileset for RMMV transformed for Tiled, so you have a better idea:

Voilà! I hope you find this useful ♥
DelDel

 

[Quanee]

Hey man, thanks for the tutorial, this is exactly what I've been looking for. The thing is, I'm having an issue doing this in RPGMV. I import my tileset as a 24x24 and pick up one frame as a terrain, draw the edges with blue circles as yourself (identically to the video), yet when I try drawing anything on the map with the tileset, I get something like the pic attachment below, care to help? Thanks in advance.

 

[Deldel]

Hi! Glad you liked it ^-^
For your problem, the map should use a 24x24grid too

 

[Quanee]

Oh yeah, that helped in one case, although, I'm still struggling to get the desired effect. I've made some examples on square shapes to show what I'm achieving + the current settings, any ideas?

 

[Deldel]

Well, in your autotiles, you don't seem to have the good corner tiles. They are all just dirt, which they shouldn't (it should be a square of grass in the inside and the dirt in the outside like this

In other words, your autotile isn't Tiled-compatible yet.
This tutorial is, you can say, about making this particular corner tiles from the default RMMV Autotile, please read the first part carefully and follow along
This diagram sum's it up:

 

[Quanee]

Ah yeah, I get it now. I'd have to customize them a bit to make it work then. Thanks a lot ^^

 

[HintonR]

Thank you for this.

 

[Finnuval]

This will be helpfull

 

[Tea++]

Thank you for this, it was very helpful : )

 

[tengutap]

What happened to the images?

 

[Eliaquim]

Thank you so much!
I managed to do it, besides it's a lot of work to make for all tiles.
I'm using Rm Mv.
But there's something that bothers me, that is the fact that has the map with a 24x24 grid in tileD.
So there is a way to make it work with a 48x48 grid? Maybe changing the size of the auto tile while I made it?

 

[Tea++]

The same principle works for 48x48. You can choose your grid size.

If fact it will be easier to set the terrain and autotile features if you use a bigger grid.

 

[Eliaquim]

I think I don't explain very well what I'm trying to say.

I know it is the same principle, and I manage to do it for Rm Mv working perfectly like the tutorial. But, because the Rm mv is 48x48, in tileD I have to create the AutoTile with the grid of 24x24.
And because of that, my map in tileD has to be 24x24 too, for the auto tile work, otherwise it will look like the guy above.
But that confuses me a bit while I'm drawing.
I would like to work with the grid size of 48x48 inside the TileD too.

 

[Tea++]

Why do you have to use 24x24 for autotiling? You have to arrange the graphic using 24x24 squares, but when you set up the auto tile in TileD just select 48x48 as your grid size. Once the graphic is done, it doesn't matter what size you used to create it, the two aren't connected.

 

[Eliaquim]

Why do you have to use 24x24 for autotiling? You have to arrange the graphic using 24x24 squares, but when you set up the auto tile in TileD just select 48x48 as your grid size. Once the graphic is done, it doesn't matter what size you used to create it, the two aren't connected.

That's what I want, but unfortunally it does not work this way. After I made the graphic, inside TileD I have to put the map grid to 24x24. Other,wise the auto tile will look like that:

Hey man, thanks for the tutorial, this is exactly what I've been looking for. The thing is, I'm having an issue doing this in RPGMV. I import my tileset as a 24x24 and pick up one frame as a terrain, draw the edges with blue circles as yourself (identically to the video), yet when I try drawing anything on the map with the tileset, I get something like the pic attachment below, care to help? Thanks in advance.View attachment 96128 View attachment 96129

Hi! Glad you liked it ^-^
For your problem, the map should use a 24x24grid too

 

[Tea++]

That's what I want, but unfortunally it does not work this way. After I made the graphic, inside TileD I have to put the map grid to 24x24. Other,wise the auto tile will look like that:

Ahh, right of course, I see, that makes sense.

I used 24x24 so I guess I didn't give it that much thought. I suppose to use autotiles in that size you would have to arrange the graphics to suit. I wouldn't know how to do that.

 

[Deldel]

Thank you so much!
I managed to do it, besides it's a lot of work to make for all tiles.
I'm using Rm Mv.
But there's something that bothers me, that is the fact that has the map with a 24x24 grid in tileD.
So there is a way to make it work with a 48x48 grid? Maybe changing the size of the auto tile while I made it?

Theorically, you could modify the autotiles to make them 48x48px and then use 48x48 maps.
It shouldn't be too difficult, it will basically look like RMXP autotiles, I tried something as an example (32x32):

Instead of (16x16):

Just tested it in Tiled, works perfectly!

Terrain Tool:

In Tiled:

 

[Eliaquim]

Theorically, you could modify the auto tiles to make them 48x48px and then use 48x48 maps.
It shouldn't be too difficult, it will basically look like RMXP auto tiles, I tried something as an example (32x32):

Instead of (16x16):

Just tested it in Tiled, works perfectly!

Terrain Tool:

In Tiled:

I will give it a try!! Thanks for the reply.
I tried to resize the tiles before but didn't work xD
I will try your method!

 

[Tea++]

You de man @Deldel : D

 

[Eliaquim]

Theorically, you could modify the autotiles to make them 48x48px and then use 48x48 maps.
It shouldn't be too difficult, it will basically look like RMXP autotiles, I tried something as an example (32x32):

Instead of (16x16):

Just tested it in Tiled, works perfectly!

Terrain Tool:

In Tiled:

No luck for me
Tried using your example too, but can't make it work.
I guess I will do my mapping like the A5 tiles.
Thanks for trying to help! ^^