Tiled to GBA export

These are a set of extensions/export plugins for the Tiled map editor that add the following types to the "Export As" menu:

• GBA source files - affine (*.c, *.h)
• GBA source files - regular (*.c, *.h)

These options generate C arrays of hexadecimal tile IDs*, that can be loaded directly into GBA VRAM for use as affine or regular tiled backgrounds. This is a simple and easy to use format for Game Boy Advance development.

_{* Blank tiles are defaulted to 0x0000}

Regular backgrounds

Strictly speaking, valid map sizes for regular backgrounds are 32x32, 64x32, 32x64 and 64x64. However, this extension allows you to export maps of any size as long as the width and height are a multiple of 32.

Each tile layer is parsed in 32x32 chunks - a screenblock on GBA.

Affine backgrounds

Valid map sizes for affine backgrounds are 16x16, 32x32, 64x64 and 128x128. Each tile layer is parsed linearly, unlike regular backgrounds.

Installation

This extension requires Tiled 1.4 or newer. Get the latest version here.

To add this extension to your Tiled installation:

• Open Tiled and go to Edit > Preferences > Plugins and click the "Open" button to open the extensions directory.
• Download tiled-to-gba-export.js and tiled-to-gba-export-affine.js in this repository and copy them to that location. The scripts can be placed either directly in the extensions directory or in a subdirectory.

Output

The export plugins generate a .c source file and associated .h header file.

Below you'll find example output for a 64x32 regular map with two tile layers. Do note that the array entries here are shortened with "..." and "etc." for demonstration purposes only. The real output would contain 1024 entries per screenblock.

example.h

#ifndef EXAMPLE_H
#define EXAMPLE_H

#define EXAMPLE_WIDTH  (64)
#define EXAMPLE_HEIGHT (32)
#define EXAMPLE_LENGTH (2048)

extern const unsigned short Tile_Layer_1[2048];
extern const unsigned short Tile_Layer_2[2048];

#endif

example.c

#include "example.h"

const unsigned short Tile_Layer_1[2048] __attribute__((aligned(4))) =
{
    // Screen block 0
    0x0000, 0x0001, 0x0002, 0x0003, ...
    0x001E, 0x001F, 0x0020, 0x0021, ...
    0x003C, 0x003D, 0x003E, 0x003F, ...
    0x005A, 0x005B, 0x005C, 0x005D, ...
    etc.

    // Screen block 1
    0x0000, 0x0001, 0x0002, 0x0003, ...
    0x001E, 0x001F, 0x0020, 0x0021, ...
    0x003C, 0x003D, 0x003E, 0x003F, ...
    0x005A, 0x005B, 0x005C, 0x005D, ...
    etc.
};

const unsigned short Tile_Layer_2[2048] __attribute__((aligned(4))) =
{
    // Screen block 0
    0x00F8, 0x00F9, 0x00FA, 0x00FB, ...
    0x0116, 0x0117, 0x0118, 0x0119, ...
    0x0134, 0x0135, 0x0136, 0x0137, ...
    0x0152, 0x0153, 0x0154, 0x0155, ...
    etc.

    // Screen block 1
    0x00F8, 0x00F9, 0x00FA, 0x00FB, ...
    0x0116, 0x0117, 0x0118, 0x0119, ...
    0x0134, 0x0135, 0x0136, 0x0137, ...
    0x0152, 0x0153, 0x0154, 0x0155, ...
    etc.
};

License

This work is licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.