Best practice for stacking TileMapLayer nodes with YSort in Godot 4.4?

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Godot Version

4.4

Question

Hello everyone,

I’m working with Godot 4.4 and trying to figure out the best practice for creating vertical structures with TileMapLayer that also sort correctly with a player character using YSort.

I understand that in recent versions, TileMap has been deprecated, and using multiple TileMapLayer nodes is now the recommended approach.

My scene setup is as follows: I have a parent 2D node, and its children are the Player and several TileMapLayer nodes (e.g., wall1, wall2).

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My goal is to have wall2 render on top of wall1 to create a taller wall, while also having the Player sort correctly behind this combined wall structure.

Here is the issue I’m facing:

  1. If I enable YSort on the Player and both TileMapLayer nodes, the layers do not stack correctly. They are all sorted individually against the player’s Y-coordinate.

  2. If I disable YSort on the TileMapLayer nodes, they stack correctly on top of each other, but then the Player no longer sorts behind them.

So, my question is: what is the correct workflow in Godot 4.4 for stacking TileMapLayer nodes vertically while ensuring they work as a single unit with a parent YSort node?

I feel like I’m missing a key concept about how YSort interacts with multiple TileMapLayer nodes. Any guidance on the best practice for this would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

2

You should alter the y-sort origin on the TileMapLayer that should be one level up. Set it to whatever the height of the wall is. It will then offset the y-sort for the tiles within that layer by that value and give you the effect you’re looking for.