Getting information from a class using a struct

Question

I'm trying to minimize the size of a tile object when creating a 2d grid like tilemap. I create an array of short[,] and each [y,x] location corresponds to a id for a tile. To do this I create a class called TileType and have a struct Tile access the information from TileType about itself based on Its id. Like this:

struct Tile
{
    short typeId;
    public TileType Type
    {
            get
            {
                    return TileType.Get(typeId);
            }
            set
            {
                    typeId = value.Id;
            }
    }

}

class TileType
{      

    public short Id;
    public string Name;
    public Texture2D Texture;
    public Rectangle TextureSource;
    public bool IsObstacle;


    static List<TileType> types;
    static TileType()
    {
            types = new List<TileType>();
            var type = new TileType();
            type.Name = "Dirt";
            //initialize here

            types.Add(type);
    }

    public static TileType Get(short id)
    {
            return types[id];
    }

}

I found this by reading a post about how to efficiently store data for a map like this. I didn't write this and its just an example. But my question is how would I draw a tile onto the screen using this method? I would set up a way that the Texture would correspond to a source rectangle(TextureSource) in a tile atlas. But I dont understand how I would actually draw this. IE draw(Tile.Type.Id)? But Id is just a short.

Answer 1

First of all, you should fix a bug in initialization - when you create a type you should set an identifier in it. Like this:

var type = new TileType();   
type.Id = 0; // This is unique identifier that we are using in Get method.    
type.Name = "Dirt";
type.Texture = new Texture2D(...); //Here you assign your texture for Dirt tile
//Initialize position and size for your texture.
type.TextureSource = new Rectangle(dirtStartX, dirtStartY, dirtWidth, dirtHeight);
types.Add(type);

type = new TileType();   
type.Id = 0; // This is unique identifier that we are using in Get method.    
type.Name = "Water";
type.Texture = new Texture2D(...); //Here you assign your texture for Dirt tile
//Initialize position and size for your texture.
type.TextureSource = new Rectangle(waterStartX, waterStartY, waterWidth, waterHeight);
types.Add(type);

After this you can use Get by identifier method.

I'll explain the main idea of drawing all tiles in the screen (This is not a working code but it shows what you should do. Its simple:)):

for (int id=0; id<TileTypeCount; id++)
{
   TileType tileType = TileType.Get(id); //Get tile by its identifier.
   //Now we have current texture and rectangle (position). Draw it
   DrawRectangleWithTexture(tileType.Rectangle, tileType.Texture);
}

The implementation of DrawRectangleWithTexture depends on what developer environment do you use. Anyway, in this function you have all information to draw your image:

1. Rectangle is using for storing information about position and size of your image.

2. Texture is just a picture that you should draw.