Painting

Getting Started

Enable Painting objects by clicking on the Paintbrush icon in Paint mode.

1. Select a Tilemap to paint on in the left column.
2. Select a source of Objects from the center column: a Palette, the Favorites List, a TileFab, or a Bundle.
3. Select a specific Object in the right column (usually not needed for TileFabs or Bundles).
4. Select the Paint action button if it isn’t automatically selected.
5. Move the mouse to the painting position.
6. Click to Paint.

Overwrite Protection: this prevents you from accidentally replacing a TilePlus tile. This is controlled in the Settings panel, or you can toggle this on/off with an option button at the bottom of the window.

• Active: “Protected” is displayed when a tile is under the cursor position. Hold the ‘1’ key to temporarily unprotect.
• Inactive “Will Overwrite” is displayed when a tile is under the cursor position. Hold the ‘1’ key to temporarily protect.

TPT tiles also have inclusion and exclusion lists that specify which Tilemap or Tilemaps are allowable to paint on for specific tile assets. See the TilePlus Toolkit documentation for more information.

• Overwrite protection is ignored when painting TileFabs, Bundles, Multiple-selection Picks, or Prefabs. Normal Unity tiles do not use overwrite protection.

Click on the mouse to paint a single Object. Shift-Dragging will repeatedly paint the same Object. Ctrl-dragging repeatedly paints on a single row or column. You can use the six transform-modifying shortcuts prior to clicking.

• Transform modifications and Shift/Ctrl-dragging can’t be used with TileFabs or Bundles.
• Shift/Ctrl-dragging can be used with multiple-selection picks. The result can be a bit strange depending on the exact composition of the pick.

Paint Tool and Grid Selection

Recall from the Grid Selection Mode discussion that you can hold down the Marquee Drag shortcut key, click the mouse and drag a marquee to create a Grid Selection of a particular size.

This also works when using the Paint tool. If the selected Object for painting is a Prefab or any tile which is not a TPT clone tile, then dragging a Marquee will fill the resultant Grid Selection with the selected Object if the Marquee Drag Shortcut key is held down when the mouse button is released. Overwrite protection is not used.

This only works on single Objects such as tiles or Prefabs, and won’t work for multiple tile Picks, Bundles, or TileFabs. See Chunk Snapping for painting TileFabs on a grid.

If there’s an existing Grid Selection in the Scene View (including a Grid Selection that was made active from the Grid Selection pane) then clicking the mouse within the Grid Selection will fill that Selection area with the selected Prefab or non-clone tile.

The case of a TPT clone tile being unpaintable in this fashion will only occur if the selected tile (i.e., the one in the clipboard) is a ‘pick’ of a TPT clone tile in the scene.

A Grid Selection made while using the paint tool is added to the list of Grid Selections in the Grid Selection pane.

Erase

1. Select a Tilemap in the left column.
2. Click on a tile to delete.

• If Confirm-Delete is active, you’ll be prompted about the deletion. To Drag-Erase, hold down either Shift or Ctrl, but note that Confirm-Delete is ignored.

You can also drag a marquee using the Marquee Shortcut. When you release the mouse button, all tiles on the selected Tilemap within the area are deleted. Again, Confirm-delete is ignored.

Pick

The Pick tool is used differently in Paint and Edit modes.

Picking in Paint Mode

In Paint mode, Pick is used to copy one or more tiles from a Tilemap to the Clipboard or Favorites List. The Shift and Ctrl buttons act as options, as does the “Pick to Paint” option button at the bottom of the window (Pin icon).

1. Select a Tilemap in the left column.
2. Click on a tile to select a single tile or drag a marquee while holding down the Marquee Shortcut.

This creates a “Pick” or a “Multiple-tile Pick”.

Hold Ctrl to place the Pick in the Favorites List rather than the Clipboard. If you hold Ctrl and Shift together the pick operation does not occur. Text at the cursor position shows the various pick options as you select them. Also read “Picking, the Favorites List, and TPT tile cloning” elsewhere in this document.

Make a Multiple-Selection by dragging a marquee while holding down the Marquee Shortcut key. When you release the mouse button, all tiles on the selected Tilemap within the area are picked to the Clipboard. This is called a Multiple Selection or Multiple-tile selection.

To add a pick to Favorites, click the F button in the Clipboard area. An Icon will be added to the Pick. See “About the Icon” elsewhere in this document.

Pick-to-Paint Mode

If the Pick-To-Paint option button is active, then the active tool will change to Paint right after you Pick. If you just want to copy to the Clipboard, then hold down Shift when you click.

If the Pick-To-Paint option button is inactive, then the active tool will not change. If you want to change to Paint right after you pick, hold down Shift when you click.

Note: Pick-to-Paint is only available in PAINT mode.

Picking in Edit Mode

This is much simpler:

1. Select a Tilemap in the left column.
2. Click on a tile to select a single tile to inspect in the rightmost column.

Move

Moves a single tile or a group of tiles from one position to another, on the same or a different Tilemap.

This action has four sequential steps:

1. Click the Move tool button or use the shortcut key.
2. Select a Tilemap in the left column (Can be skipped if a Tilemap is already selected).
3. Picking step: Select the tile to move (you don’t have to use the Pick tool, this is automatic). a. Multiple-select a region by dragging the Mouse while the Marquee Shortcut key is held down.
4. Move: Repaint the tile or selection.

After the first Move, you can continue to Pick/Move repeatedly.

To reset the step to Pick just click the Move button again.

To cancel Move when Picking either click the button again or click the OFF button.

Note that neither Shift nor Ctrl affects the Pick operation when within a Move sequence. If the tile is a TilePlus tile, the Tilemap exclusions operate as usual when you repaint the tile.

For all tiles, Overwrite Protection for TilePlus tiles is active as well except for multiple-selections. You can use any of the transform-modifying shortcuts prior to clicking during the Move phase (which is basically Painting).

Text at the cursor position shows “Move-Pick” during the Pick step.

The center and right columns of the Painter window are disabled during all steps of the Move process to avoid inadvertent selections in those areas.

You can also drag a marquee during the Pick phase by using the Marquee Shortcut. When you release the mouse button, all tiles on the selected Tilemap within the area are copied to the Clipboard and will paint in the Paint phase of the move.

Note that during the Paint phase of the move you can use the Rotate/Flip shortcuts for single tiles or groups of tiles as well applying selected modifiers with ALT+V.

Changing Tilemap After Move-Picking

If you change the Tilemap after the Pick, then you can move the tile or selection to the new map.

If a tile has a GameObject or is a “Rule” tile, then the results might be unexpected.  

Rotate, Flip, and Reset Transform

You must select a Tilemap in the left column prior to using these actions.

Text at the cursor position reminds you which action is currently available.

Note that these actions affect the Tilemap when you select a tile with the mouse, but they affect the transform of the tile or group of tiles (Picks) when applied using shortcut keys during preview (while painting, which includes the Paint phase of a Move).

Reset Transform is also handy if you’ve modified the transform of a tile at a position in a Selection Inspector and you need a quick way to reset it.

It’s important to note that if a tile asset’s Lock flags are set to Lock Transform then none of the shortcuts will work, which is what should happen but the lack of any visual feedback can be unexpected.