README.md

js-map-generation

Map generation script for dungeon crawler-like games

This is a work in progress around map generation and this article.

What's working ?

• Random base map generation
• Room detection
• Room removal
• Creating pathes between rooms
• Place random objects
• Render with jQuery

Demo

For now, there is a codepen as a demo. It may be out of sync, but i'll try to keep it up...

How it works

The map generator creates arrays of data and functions to work with. The map is an array of rows made of cells. Basically, a map is something like this:

[
  ['wall', 'wall',  'wall', 'wall',  'wall'],
  ['wall', 'floor', 'floor','floor', 'wall'],
  ['wall', 'floor', 'wall', 'floor', 'wall'],
  ['wall', 'floor', 'floor','floor', 'wall'],
  ['wall', 'wall',  'wall', 'wall',  'wall']
]

At this stage, there are floors and walls, but any cell type should be handled in the future.

Dependencies

For now, the library has no dependency, but if you want to display the generated map, a function using jQuery is available.

Usage

Javascript

To include the generator in a webpage, simply load the script js/mapgen.js and create a new MapGen object.

<div id="destination"></div>

<script src="mapgen.min.js"></script>
<script>
  var options={};
  // Will create an empty object.
  var map=new MapGen(options);

  // Map generation
  map.createMap();

  // jQuery renderer
  map.jQueryRender('#destination');
</script>

MapGen options

The class can be created with optionnal options. If you don't use one, a default value will be used.

// Options and their default values
var options={
  // Base map width
  x:5,
  // Base map width
  y:5,
  // Number of subdivisions
  passes:4,
  // Cleaning level (0-5)
  cleanLevel:2,
  // Percentage of walls
  wallPercent:50,
  // When creating sub-cells, percentage of chances to have the same type:
  sameSubCellPercent:80,
  // Css prefix for classes
  cssPrefix:'map-'
};

Styling

If you use the jQuery render function to render the map, you should take a look at the scss/style.scss file. It will give you hints on the rows and cells styling.

Note that for debugging purposes, this file generates a lot of classes used to outline rooms (.#{$prefix}room-#{$i}-overlay{} and .#{$prefix}room, ##{$prefix}pathes{}).

Methods

For now, all the methods are public, but a lot should become private later. Same for variables.

These are the following main methods to be used :

createMap

/**
  Creates a map of size base*(passes^2).
  Calling this function with no params will use the defaults values.

  Note that if you want to skip a specific param in the list, you should make it `undefined`
  (ie: `createMap(5,5,4, undefined, 2,5)` Note that the last param was omited)

  @param int x - Base width of the map
  @param int y - Base height of the map
  @param int passes - Number of passes for map refinement
  @param int cleanLevel - Whether or not clean the map (remove lonely cells. Value from 0 to 5, 0 being no cleanup and 5 the max.
  @param int wallPercent - Wall/floor ratio
  @param int sameSubCellPercent - Chances for a cell to be of its predecessor type, while subdivising the map
*/
function(x, y, passes, cleanLevel, wallPercent, sameSubCellPercent){}

createMapFromSample

/**
  Converts a sample array into a base grid.
  array should be like:
  [
    '000',
    '010',
    '000'
  ]
  where 0 is a wall cell and 1 is a room cell
  @param array sample - Sample data
*/
this.createMapFromSample=function(sample){}

Some samples are present in js/room_samples.js. This method is meant to replace createMap(). You should not use removeSmallRooms() too, as it will modify your sample.

A typical use will be:

var sample = [] // The sample

var map=new MapGen;
map.createMapFromSample(sample);
// If you need rooms data:
map.createRooms();

createRooms

/**
  Finds all the rooms in the map and fills this.rooms and this.cellsData.
*/
this.createRooms=function(){}

removeSmallRooms

/**
  Remove really small rooms
  @param int minSize - Minimum size for a room to be kept.
*/
this.removeSmallRooms=function(minSize){}

This must be called after createRooms().

jQueryRender

/**
  Renders the map using jquery in the given target.
  The rendered lines/cells can have a prefixed id.
  @param string target - Target id, with the # for jQuery.
  @param string prefix - Prefix for css classes. Default is `map-`
*/
this.jQueryRender=function(target, prefix){}

Variables

grid

It's an array representing rows and cells like :

var grid=[
  ['wall', 'wall',  'wall',  'wall',  'wall'], // Row 1
  ['wall', 'floor', 'floor', 'floor', 'wall'], // Row 2
  ['wall', 'floor', 'floor', 'floor', 'wall'], // Row 3
  ['wall', 'floor', 'floor', 'floor', 'wall'], // Row 4
  ['wall', 'wall',  'wall',  'wall',  'wall'], // Row 5
]

For now, there are two types of cells, but this should be extendable in the future.

rooms

It's the list of rooms created by createRooms.

var rooms=[
  {
    // Room id
    id: 0,
    // Unordered cells list
    cells: [
        // row, cell
        [1, 34],
        [9, 22],
        [...], // other cells
        [7, 31],
        [6, 31]
    ],
    // Bounding box
    box: {
        xMin: 22,
        xMax: 35,
        yMin: 1,
        yMax: 9,
        // Box center
        cX: 28,
        cY: 5
    },
    // Not used yet
    pathesTo: []
  }, {...} // Other rooms
]

cellsData

List of cells and their corresponding Id. This is created by createRooms.

var cellsData={
  "1:34":0,
  "9:22":0,
  "...":0, // Other cells
}