Giving physics to tiles of SKTileMapNode in Xcode 8

Question

I am learning Swift, and as a project I am working on a tile based 2D game similar to super mario where my character will walk and jump on tiles.

The latest version of X

Answer 1

I spent two days trying different ideas but could find nothing better than what I posted in my other answer. As mentioned there, it is the way recommended by an Apple staff member and as far as I know it's the most efficient way to have SpriteKit automatically add physics bodies to all your tiles. I've tested it and it works. (Although I'm still holding my breath for Apple to add a straightfoward way of putting physics bodies on tiles).

But there are other considerations. If you are having performance issues because there are too many physics bodies in your scene, you might want to try one of these other approaches. However, they are both more time-consuming than the approach described above. The only reason that may justify using one of these more labor-intensive approaches is if you need to reduce the number of physics bodies in your scene due to performance issues. Otherwise, I think the "automatic" approach mentioned above is the best option we have.

So I won't go into detail here because I think the automatic option is the best. These are just ideas for alternate approaches if your game needs to be extra stingy with system resources.

Alternate Approach #1 - Use Fewer Physics Bodies

Create your tile map in the editor. Then keep working in the editor to drag Color Sprites (SKSpriteNodes) over parts of your map that need a physics body. Shape the nodes to make the largest rectangle possible for areas that need physics bodies. This works best for for large, flat surfaces like walls, floors, ceilings, platforms, crates, etc. It's tedious but you end up with far fewer physics bodies in your simulation than if you had used the automatic approach mentioned above.

Alternate Approach #2 - Use No Physics Bodies

This idea would probably require even more work, but you could potentially avoid using physics bodies altogether. First, create your tile map in the editor. Analyze your map to identify which tiles mark a barrier, beyond which the player should not cross. Assign a user data identifier to that type of tile. You would need different categories of identifiers for different types of barriers, and you may also need to design your artwork to fit this approach.

Once your barrier tiles are sufficiently identified, write code which checks the user data value for the tile currently occupied by the player sprite and restrict the sprite's movement accordingly. For example, if the player enters a title that marks an upper boundary, your movement code would not allow the player sprite to move up. Likewise, if the player enters a tile that marks the leftmost boundary, your movement code will not let the player travel left.