TileMapLayer Baker

TileMapLayer Baker is a Godot 4 editor plugin that bakes selected static visual TileMapLayer nodes into PNG-backed Sprite2D backgrounds.

It is designed for decorative or background tile layers that do not need runtime TileMap behavior. Baking large static visual layers can reduce runtime TileMap processing and draw/setup overhead by replacing many tile cells with one or more regular sprites. The original TileMapLayer nodes stay in the scene for editing, and can be hidden after baking.

The editor UI supports English and Simplified Chinese.

Features

• Bake one or more selected TileMapLayer nodes into PNG textures.
• Create matching Sprite2D nodes in the edited scene.
• Combine layers by z_index when they can share one baked image.
• Re-bake hidden source layers.
• Overwrite matching baked sprites and PNG files.
• Register English and Simplified Chinese editor UI text.

Why Bake

Use this when a TileMapLayer is useful while editing but unnecessary at runtime. Background decoration, dense floor details, and other visual-only static layers can often be shipped more cheaply as PNG-backed Sprite2D nodes.

Installation

1. Copy addons/tilemap_layer_baker into your Godot project.
2. Open Project > Project Settings > Plugins.
3. Enable TileMapLayer Baker.
4. Open a 2D scene that contains static visual TileMapLayer nodes.

Usage

1. Select one or more static visual TileMapLayer nodes in the scene tree.
2. Open the TileMap Baker dock.
3. Choose an output directory, or keep the default res://assets/baked.
4. Keep Combine by z_index enabled if layers with the same z_index can be merged.
5. Click Bake Selected TileMapLayer(s).
6. Inspect the generated Sprite2D nodes and PNG files, then save the scene.

Limitations

• Use this only for static visual layers.
• Do not bake layers that provide collision, navigation, triggers, gameplay logic, or dynamic content.
• Axis-aligned tile flips are supported.
• Arbitrary rotated or scaled TileMapLayer nodes should be checked visually after baking.
• Very large layers are guarded by an 8192 pixel texture size limit.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.