Suggestion to expose TileMap Pattern indices and all Sprite2D region rects

[fresh4]

I'm new to Godot, but I've stumbled across some headaches and issues regarding the Patterns API. Here's my use case that brought me to this point:

I want to, as a player in my game, set down tiles on an existing tilemap, replacing tiles that are already on the given layer. But I don't want to do it one tile at a time, and want predefined tile shapes and patterns the player can set down. I also want to have the tile shape follow the cursor as a "preview" of what they're going to set down.

Tile Placement and TileMap Patterns

Currently, as far as I'm aware, the Pattern API allows you to simply:

• Call the set_pattern function, which takes a layer, position, and a TileMapPattern object
• Call the get_pattern function, which allows you to programmatically create a pattern for a layer(?) and drawn out via an array of vectors.

Currently, get_pattern is rather niche. I understand its use is to go to a layer and manually create a TileMapPattern from what's available in the game world, and then allowing you to use that pattern. But this is extremely roundabout in many cases.

What is sorely needed is a way to extract the available, saved patterns in the TileMap Node in the editor. In the TileMap tab, under the Patterns tab where you can draw and paint using those patterns, these patterns each already have indices and are clearly stored as variables somewhere. I think I should be able to, in code, call something like $TileMap.patterns[0] to get the 1st pattern defined in that Node, of type TileMapPattern that could then be used in the set_pattern function.

Tile Preview and Sprite2D Region Rects

NOTE: Quick edit, as I'm realizing that the following only applies to auto-defined regions. Since it gives you multiple rects to "select" from but otherwise don't exist. In this vein, I do think this should change, but it may sound very similar to an Atlas at that point. So feel free to disregard this part if it makes no sense.

My attempt at solving the preview is currently using a sprite2d node that follows the cursor and has the texture that is a tileset of my available shapes (yes, I have bounced between using patterns or just a tileset shape for each shape because of this issue). So I'm using the spritesheet as the texture and making it a region rect where I select all the regions and pick which one I want.

The issue is there's no way to programmatically switch between the rects 'saved' in the sprite2d. You can access the currently active region rect, but there's no way to say "okay, this sprite2d has 4 saved regions with these coordinates" and change the current region rect between them on the fly. I think this could look similar to the above.

Conclusion

Again, I'm new, have no knowledge of the Godot codebase, and maybe these issues are better solved with other patterns or methods. But I do think these are valid suggestions given that I've found myself stuck and unable to implement something in a way that seemed intuitive to me.

[DaZang]

Regarding TileMapPatterns: Those patterns that you can apply in the TileMap are part of the TileSet that is used by the TileMap.
So you should be able to get the pattern with
your_tile_map.tile_set.get_pattern(0)

[fresh4]

Thanks! I was made aware of this while futzing around in a totally different context since making the post. I will say, though, this is very hard to intuit, especially if someone is new to the engine. The fact that TileMap and TileSet both have different pattern methods of their own doesn't help.

I don't know that this can really be helped with how things are built out, but I do think it's important to point out from a usability standpoint. For some reason the workflow just isn't intuitive until it's explicitly pointed out.