0.5.0-beta – LDtk: it’s about tile!

New app name!

Level Designer Toolkit (LDtk) is now the new app name :) I hope you’ll like it! The logo was updated, as well as source code, GitHub repo and various other things.

Because of the renaming, users of the Haxe API will have to run the following commands:

haxelib remove led-haxe-api
haxelib install ldtk-haxe-api

You might also need to manually uninstall any previous installation of LEd.

App changes

• Tiles flipping: in Tile Layers, you can mirror tiles before painting them by pressing X or Y (or Z). This also works from group of tiles.
• Tiles stacking: you can now optionaly stack multiple tiles in a single cell of a Tile layer, reducing the need for multiple layers. For example, you could paint a brick wall, then enable stack mode (T), and add details like cracks or vines over the same wall. Be careful though: erasing of stacked elements can be tricky, so you should use a mix of multiple layers and stacking to get the best results.
• New editing options bar: Grid locking, Single layer mode and Empty space selection moved to a new more streamlined button bar.
• File association: project files now use the extension *.ldtk instead of *.json. Therefore, on Windows, double-clicking such files will open the app accordingly. If you prefer the .json extension, you can force it in each project settings (but will lose benefit of the file association).
• Auto-layer rule preview: when you move your mouse over a rule, you will now see which cells in the current layer are affected, making their testing MUCH easier.
• Tiled (TMX) export: this optional export now generates proper standard tile layers. However, to support LDtk stacked tiles feature (see above), multiple Tiled layers might be generated per single LDtk layer. Also, IntGrid layers are now properly exported to Tiled (as standard tile layers, with an auto-generated tileset image).
• New color picker: it supports copy/paste, manual hex value editing and a much better UI (thanks to simple-color-picker).
• Flood-fill fixes: if you hold SHIFT while clicking in a Tile layer, it will flood-fill the area using currently selected tiles (randomly, or by stamping group of tiles, depending on the current mode).
• Flood-fill erasing: just use SHIFT+Right click to erase a whole contiguous area.
• The layer Rule editor now overlaps left panel and allows level editing while being open (makes rule testing much easier). Press Escape to close it.
• In Tile layers, you can press L to load a saved tileset selection (using S key)
• Renamed the Level panel to World (for the 0.6.x future update).
• It’s now possible to change the tileset or even the source layer of an Auto-Layer without loosing your rules.
• Auto-layer baking: turn a complex Auto-Layer into a standard Tile layer (think of it as the flatten feature in Photoshop). Be careful, it’s a one-way operation.
• Unified “Show/hide grid” and “Grid locking” options. You can now just press G to toggle grid (which also implies “grid locking” in supported layer types).
• All options (such as “Grid on/off”, or “Compact panel mode”) are now saved to a JSON file in your app folder, in userSettings/.
• Help window is now a side panel.
• Opaque tiles are detected in tilesets for use in various optimizations (mostly related to the new tile stacking feature).
• Fixed a crash when deleting IntGrid layer while an AutoLayer uses it as source.
• Added some colors to UI buttons
• New exit button icon.

Json format changes

• The pixel coordinates of AutoLayer tiles no longer include the layer pxOffsetX/Y values. They should be added manually on display.
• In auto-layers, all tiles that are hidden (ie. behind an opaque tile) are discarded from the autoLayerTiles array.