Hey all,

As Zodiac wraps up, I'm taking a class in Allegro and C++ so my next project will not be dependent on another person's engine. So far, I'm up to being able to define my own 2-d integer array and have that draw blocks on the screen that a little dude can run and jump around on. Hooray!

In between learning the API and strange little things like how to pass 2D arrays in C++, that you need a ";" at the end of struct definitions, and so forth, I'm also starting work on the tilesets and sprites. I see there are utilities like Mappy and Tiled that allow you to draw tilemaps similar to what Zelda Classic allows. They even have a rough approximation of ZC's "combo" editor, as far as I can tell, that allows you to store data with the graphics.

What they do NOT appear to be able to do is re-arrange tiles on the tilesheet. As anyone who has used Zelda Classic knows, drawing a screen without an organized combo list is a nightmare. You need to group walls and corners next to each other so the designer can FIND the damn things. I'm making my own tileset at 32x32 in Aseprite, so I can export large sprite sheets of any dimension easily. However, I'm drawing them on 64x64 canvasses so that larger walls and objects line up for me to view as a group. When I export the sprite sheet from Aseprite and then load it into Mappy, I get a mess that looks like it has its own algorithm for just loading whatever into the "tile palette" (for lack of a better word.)

I'd like to avoid having to copy and paste my way to victory by manipulating the spritesheet directly in like, MS Paint, and then using trial and error to arrange it. I'd like to be able to use a mapping utility that lets me re-organize an already loaded tile sheet, like how ZClassic lets you C and P combos.

So, that's the question. Anyone know how this is done in a utility like Tiled or Mappy? Or, failing that, is there an easier way to do this? Are there utilities that let you just cut a .png into 32x.32 squares and click to move them around?

I guess coding my own such utility would be good practice... still...