# ASCII/Retro tilesets
**URL:** https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/ascii-retro-tilesets/3676
**Category:** The Lab
**Created:** [October 27, 2013, 5:19pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/ascii-retro-tilesets/3676 "2013-10-27T17:19:28Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@kevin.granade](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/kevin.granade)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2013, 6:38pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/ascii-retro-tilesets/3676/61 "2013-11-04T18:38:05Z")
This looks so awesome I could cry, I’m having C64 Ultima flashbacks.
It sounds like the biggest things you need are a way for new entities to have a default tile based on their category, and a way to enumerate the entities, their symbols, and their tiles. Does that sound right?
Also I hate to be that guy, but if we’re going to incorporate this into the main release, we need a license from the guy on [csdb.dk](http://csdb.dk), not just “yea sure use it”. CC-BY or CC-BY-SA would be ideal, -NC and -ND would not work. I’m sure there are other licenses that would work as well, but I’m not redistributing without a license.
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### Author:  [@GlyphGryph](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/GlyphGryph)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2013, 6:49pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/ascii-retro-tilesets/3676/62 "2013-11-04T18:49:58Z")
> [@HRose](#):
>
> Yes, but I can’t make “categories”.
Kevin basically beat me to it, but my response was essentially going to be “Ah, but I can, if I knew it was needed and we had a list of what should go in what category”.
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### Author:  [@Tsu](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Tsu)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2013, 6:52pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/ascii-retro-tilesets/3676/63 "2013-11-04T18:52:43Z")
the “Unknown” tile currently tiles on anything that is missing a tile declaration in the game, could it be possible to tile things to groups? Because that would make maintaining a tileset far easier.
Atleast for me I would use that for item groups, rather than writing the hundred lines of different id’s and linking them to the same tile.
Additionally it might be interesting to have a way to figure out what is not currently tiled in a readable format that presents you with the missing Id’s
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### Author:  [@HRose](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/HRose)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2013, 8:02pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/ascii-retro-tilesets/3676/64 "2013-11-04T20:02:31Z")
> [@Tsu](#):
>
> the “Unknown” tile currently tiles on anything that is missing a tile declaration in the game, could it be possible to tile things to groups? Because that would make maintaining a tileset far easier.
I guess it could be done in the sense that you can redefine a tile twice and the last definition takes priority. So code-wise you could have categories on top, and then specific definitions.
So specific definitions come after and take priority, then falls back to categories, and then to “unknown”.
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### Author:  [@HRose](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/HRose)
#### Post date: [November 4, 2013, 8:07pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/ascii-retro-tilesets/3676/65 "2013-11-04T20:07:11Z")
> [@Kevin Granade](#):
>
> Also I hate to be that guy, but if we’re going to incorporate this into the main release, we need a license from the guy on csdb.dk, not just “yea sure use it”. CC-BY or CC-BY-SA would be ideal, -NC and -ND would not work. I’m sure there are other licenses that would work as well, but I’m not redistributing without a license.
Of course. And I don’t think the guy will really have issues.
In any case I’m using probably not more than 10 tiles or so from the original tileset. Most of the stuff is tweaked or redone by me. What’s currently copied: some vegetation, sidewalk and some of the monsters and animals.
Even the “dots” on the ground are “mine” since the tileset is 8x8 and I’m using 10x10, so nothing tiles well and I had to redo those dots.
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### Author:  [@Miloch](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Miloch)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2013, 6:40am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/ascii-retro-tilesets/3676/66 "2013-11-05T06:40:02Z")
Can this get added to the main build? 😛
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### Author:  [@jokaro](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/jokaro)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2013, 7:23am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/ascii-retro-tilesets/3676/67 "2013-11-05T07:23:15Z")
I can’t really tell from the conversations in this thread. But is it possible to play with this tile set? Or will things missing in the tileset be invisible?
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### Author:  [@kevin.granade](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/kevin.granade)
#### Post date: [November 5, 2013, 3:38pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/ascii-retro-tilesets/3676/68 "2013-11-05T15:38:43Z")
There’s a fallback tile that gets displayed, so you can see something is there, but not what it is.
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### Author:  [@ramesesniblet](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/ramesesniblet)
#### Post date: [November 6, 2013, 3:56pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/ascii-retro-tilesets/3676/69 "2013-11-06T15:56:23Z")
I’ve been playing with it for a few days and it’s really nice. Some videos if anyone wants to see how it is in motion:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnlH4dRwsO0](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnlH4dRwsO0)
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f-yEfjo7AE](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6f-yEfjo7AE)
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### Author:  [@Wayfarer](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Wayfarer)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2013, 4:02am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/ascii-retro-tilesets/3676/70 "2013-11-07T04:02:34Z")
Ooh, looks cool. A bit different.
Might give it a whirl at some point.
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### Author:  [@system](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/system)
#### Post date: [November 7, 2013, 10:55am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/ascii-retro-tilesets/3676/71 "2013-11-07T10:55:42Z")
Wow, I am impressed. Usually I never use tilesets. Neither in DF nor CDDA. Because I learn the game with ascii and had to “re-learn” all the symbols when installing a tile set.
But this… this is sooo adorable! If you will keep it updated frequently, I will use that one form now on. Nice job!
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### Author:  [@wad67](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/wad67)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2013, 12:02am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/ascii-retro-tilesets/3676/72 "2013-11-09T00:02:31Z")
This looks amazing, Well done and keep up the good work.
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### Author:  [@jcannon98188](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/jcannon98188)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2013, 1:08am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/ascii-retro-tilesets/3676/73 "2013-11-09T01:08:11Z")
> [@Natures Witness](#):
>
> I mean like a Batch file or something that looks through the game code and prints up a list of every tile ID it finds. Then we just work our way down the list and add in which tile goes to which ID.
Is there still a want for this? I could maybe code something up for it.
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### Author:  [@TheNineRings](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/TheNineRings)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2013, 1:23am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/ascii-retro-tilesets/3676/74 "2013-11-09T01:23:03Z")
Yeah, that’d be really useful.
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### Author:  [@GlyphGryph](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/GlyphGryph)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2013, 3:34am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/ascii-retro-tilesets/3676/75 "2013-11-09T03:34:48Z")
HRose - Release Candidate for 0.9 is out.
If you wanted a single, stable, unmoving target, you’ve got it, at least for a little while.
Hopefully you can get this up to par and figure out the rights stuff because I would absolutely love to ship this packaged into the actual release.
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### Author:  [@jcannon98188](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/jcannon98188)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2013, 4:26am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/ascii-retro-tilesets/3676/76 "2013-11-09T04:26:43Z")
[https://app.box.com/s/yukbjsotsui7stcra8m2](https://app.box.com/s/yukbjsotsui7stcra8m2)
I wrote this up. It uses C# .Net 4.0 (sorry linux/mac guys)
Usage is more or less simple. Run the Program. Click “Select original tile\_config.json” and point it towards the gfx/tile\_config.json file. Then click “Select your tile\_config.json” and point that towards the tile\_config.json file you are writing. It will compare the two, and list all missing id’s in a file called “missing.txt” which it will ask you to place. Let me know if something doesn’t work right or if additional functionality is requested. I can also recode this in python if needed in case cross platform functionality is required. I probably won’t be checking this post for replies though, so feel free to pm me.
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### Author:  [@HRose](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/HRose)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2013, 11:06am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/ascii-retro-tilesets/3676/77 "2013-11-09T11:06:13Z")
[quote=“GlyphGryph, post:75, topic:3676”]HRose - Release Candidate for 0.9 is out.
If you wanted a single, stable, unmoving target, you’ve got it, at least for a little while.
Hopefully you can get this up to par and figure out the rights stuff because I would absolutely love to ship this packaged into the actual release.[/quote]
I’d rather see this and other fixes, actually: [https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/pull/3883](https://github.com/CleverRaven/Cataclysm-DDA/pull/3883)
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### Author:  [@HRose](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/HRose)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2013, 11:20am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/ascii-retro-tilesets/3676/78 "2013-11-09T11:20:57Z")
Also, I’m not sure it’s possible to contact that guy.
His name doesn’t seem locked to an account (can’t click on it), and I tried registering but you have to pass through some moderation process AND I HATE THAT.
P.S.
The best hope to see me updating the thing is to post savegames with stuff broken or looking wrong.
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### Author:  [@GlyphGryph](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/GlyphGryph)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2013, 1:39pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/ascii-retro-tilesets/3676/79 "2013-11-09T13:39:56Z")
I’ll see if I can get ahold of him then.
Edit: His name IS locked to an account on Tig Forums, and he’s been active fairly recently - I’ll try there. He also frequents the #rgrd chat, so I’ll try hanging out there for a while as well.
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### Author:  [@HRose](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/HRose)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2013, 2:06pm UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/ascii-retro-tilesets/3676/80 "2013-11-09T14:06:11Z")
Ok, here a thing.
I just spent a VERY long time going through all “books.json” to add ALL entries to the tileset. It’s insane work.
This is something that needs to be refactored and that is more important than categories: we need a way to bind tiles NOT through IDs, but through ASCII colors.
It’s just not remotely possible to bind every single ID. The real problem here is that there are like 50 books that have different IDs but that are all shown as a pink “?”. So I don’t want to use 50 entries IDs in my tile file. I just want to bind the pink “?” ASCII to a tile.
So, basically, we should build tiles for ASCII+color combinations. There should be an automatic method/output file that lists every combination and what it is associated to. Something like the green “/” represents this list of objects. And then let tiles bind one tile to the green “/” and not IDs (unless overridden with a specific ID).
So the tile\_config.json should first have a block where you bind all ASCII and colors. THEN an optional block where you bind single IDs, if you want.
But that way every time you add stuff to the game, you ALWAYS have tile mode working perfect, because it can always output that ASCII+color combination by default.
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