Catlike Coding

The Set Terrain Type Job is the next one to become a true Burst job. The specific trick needed in this case is pulling the noise texture sampling out of the job, caching it in a native array beforehand. Hex Map 5.7 - Set Terrain Type Burst Job (Catlikecoding)

We convert our second map generation mock job into a true Burst job! We have to make some changes to make hex coordinates work with Burst and port some grid functionality to Burst as well. Hex Map 5.6 - Create Climate Burst Job (Catlikecoding)

Last time we created an experimental map generator and split it into multiple mock jobs. This time we convert the first job into an actual Burst job. We start with the simplest job, which requires the least amount of changes. We'll tackle the increasingly complex other jobs in the future. Hex Map 5.

It is time that we modernize the map generator. The class that does it is a monolithic thing that does a lot of work. We're going to split it up into mock jobs, which will become true Burst jobs in the future. We also take a look at generation inconsistencies between Mono and IL2CPP builds. Hex Map

We're going back to working on the map, in this case making a small change to how we store the result of pathfinding. It makes upgrading pathfinding in the future easier. Hex Map 5.3.0 (Catlikecoding)

We follow the previous menu upgrade with the final menu to replace: the Save/Load menu. This completes our migration to UI Toolkit. Hex Map 5.2.0 (Catlikecoding)

This time we create a new... New Map menu. We continue with the process of replacing the old uGUI system with UI Toolkit. This is a small tutorial, which will be followed soon by another one taking care of the Save/Load menu. Hex Map 5.1.0 (Catlikecoding)

This time we upgrade Hex Map to use the new input system. We do this because we move on to Unity 6.3 and the old input system is now deprecated. This makes our code input-agnostic. We're working with high-level actions, which we bind to specific user inputs via the input system asset. Hex Map 5.0.0

This time we have a small tutorial, to improve the player experience when editing maps. We make drawing rivers more pleasant. In general, I'd like to do more frequent smaller tutorials going forward, making each one more focused on a single feature. Hex Map 4.1.0 (Catlikecoding)

We finally make the jump and upgrade our Hex Map project to Unity 6... and it just works. We also replace the old uGUI panels with new UI To We finally make the jump and upgrade our Hex Map project to Unity 6... and it just works. We also replace the old uGUI panels with new UI Toolkit ones. Hex Map

We've been on a quest to get rid of the cell objects. Today we complete that quest, by turning the remains of HexCell into a struct type. Hex Map 3.4.0 (Catlikecoding)

We switch to storing cell data in arrays, using a new HexCellData struct type. Then we decouple map generation and visualization from the HexCell class. Getting closer to cells without objects! Hex Map 3.3.0 (Catlikecoding)

We continue the downsizing operation for hex cells. This time we extract the search and visibility data from it, moving all that to the grid. This requires us to refactor all search-related code. Hex Map 3.2.0 (Catlikecoding)

This time we compact cells some more, Storing seven configuration values in 32 bits. We also simplify the cells some more and fix a bug. Hex Map 3.1.0 (Catlikecoding)

The next Hex Map tutorial is here and we've incremented the major version! That's because we've upgraded to Unity 2022. But the big thing is that we've done away with cell game objects, they're now regular serializable classes. That gets us one step closer to making cell compatible with Burst jobs.

It's been a while, but here is a new release of the Hex Map project, with accompanying tutorial. It starts the process of reducing the memory size of HexCell. We're working toward it no longer being a game object. Hex Map 2.3.0 (Catlikecoding)

I have written tutorials to accompany the releases of the Hex Map project, like I did for Custom SRP. The released versions so far are 2.0.0 URP, 2.1.0 Code Cleanup, and 2.2.0 Cell Visuals Upgrade. The last one is a good starting point as it is the first to introduce new functionality while the othe

The Hex Map 2.2.0 release is now available. It brings a few visual improvements: better per-vertex feature visibility, better grid lines, highlighting of cells that are affected by an edit action, and underwater terrain that gets colorized based on submergence. There is also a new Changes documentat

Hex Map release 2.1.0 has refactored code and new code documentation. It brings the code up to more modern standards and paves the way for future changes.

Hex Map version 2.0.0 switches from Built-in RP to URP. I also put in the first bit of documentation.

The repository for the Hex Map project is available! At this moment it contains Hex Map version 1.0.0, which is the last unitypackage of Hex Map 27 imported in a Unity 2021 LTS project and cleaned up a bit. The project will progress from there. The first thing planned is switching from built-in to U

This final installment of my Hex Map series covers the much-anticipated topic of how to wrap your map! Hex Map 27, Wrapping, a Unity C# Tutorial (Catlikecoding)

This tutorial wraps up the map generation algorithm by adding support for rivers and more complex biomes. The rivers are created after the water cycle, so don't actually influence cell moisture. This makes it possible for them to flow through dry regions. Biomes are assigned according to a matrix ba

One thing I failed to mention in Hex Map 25 is that the map debug visualization interferes with the exploration system. We're using the blue channel, which is also used to indicate whether a cell's visibility is in transition. This becomes an problem when moving units around a freshly-generated map.

We're going to create a partial water cycle simulation on top of our generated terrain and use that to determine cell biomes. A simple simulation can already produce an interesting climate. I've also upgraded to Unity 2017.3. Hex Map 25, Water Cycle, a Unity C# Tutorial (Catlikecoding)

A great patron just made we aware of a bug introduced in Hex Map 23. I omitted adjusting the saving and loading code to deal with negative elevation. The result is that cells with negative elevation get stored with very high elevation instead. I have added section 4.4 Storing Negative Elevation to H

In this tutorial we continue with our procedural map generation. We add a water border around the map, cut it into separate regions, and apply a variable amount of erosion. Hex Map 24, Generating Land, a Unity C# Tutorial (Catlikecoding)

We're moving on to procedural map generation! The first step is to push some land up from the ocean floor. Note that the land in this tutorial is rougher than in the screenshots of the last preview post. That's because those maps had erosion applied to them. I left that out of Hex Map 23, because it

This time we're going to enhance our vision! First, we'll make the transition between visible and invisibile cell states gradual instead of immediate. After that, we'll use cell elevation to create more realistic and strategically interesting vision rules. Then we'll make the map edge permanently hi

After adding support for visibility, we take it one step further and support exploration as well. Hex Map 21, a Unity C# Tutorial (Catlikecoding)

Fog of war is a feature in high demand, and now we're going to add it! And we won't use a semitransparent plane. We'll do it by feeding cell data to the shader via a texture, sidestepping triangulation. We'll have to go through some refactoring to get there, but the same technique can also be used t

In this tutorial we're going to replace unit teleportation with actual movement. Our units are going to travel across the map! And we also fix a bug. Hex Map 19, a Unity C# Tutorial (Catlikecoding)

Now that we know how to find our way around a map, we're going to add units so we have something to move around. This tutorial is limited to a single generic unit type that teleport. It lays the foundation for units. In the future, we'll support multiple unit types and actually move them along paths

This time, we'll cover a few more topics related to pathfinding. We'll make movement discrete, cutting it up into turns. Then we'll search more efficiently, arriving at a true A* implementation. Finally, we'll optimize the display of the path, as well as how we clean it up. Hex Map 17, a Unity C# Tu

Not satisfied with just knowing distances, we move on to find the shortest paths between cells. Hex Map 16, a Unity C# Tutorial (Catlikecoding)

Now that we can create nice maps, let's focus on figuring out how long it would take to travel across it. In this tutorial, we'll figure out the shortest distance from all cells to a selected cell. Hex Map 15, a Unity C# Tutorial (Catlikecoding)

People have been asking for it a long time, and here it is! How to texture your terrain. We're going to use a texture array to blend between an arbitrary amount of terrain types. Hex Map 14, a Unity C# Tutorial (Catlikecoding)

Have you enjoyed the ability to save your map? This time, we'll make it possible to save to custom map files. This allows you to create a whole collection of maps! We'll also support multiple map sizes, so you can make them as small or as large as you want. This is the first tutorial of 2017, and I'

Many people have been asking for the ability to save and load maps. This tutorial delivers! We'll dive into the low-level world of binary data streams, to efficiently push our maps into small files. This tutorial is all about code. There are only a few images. If something is unclear, let me know. I

Some essential features were still missing. Wall towers, bridges, and huge special stuff! This installment takes care of that. Hex Map 11, a Unity C# Tutorial (Catlikecoding)