Note: This page is out of date and only relevant for 1.3 tModLoader. Modders using 1.4+ should rely on the documentation instead.

Tile Class Documentation

This page lists methods and fields pertaining to the Tile class. If you are working directly with Tiles, you can consult this page for an understanding of various things. If you want to create a Tile in your mod, this is not relevant, see Basic Tile Guide for that. See also Main.tile[]. It is good to remember that Main.tile[] can have null values in it, null values are empty/air tiles. Non-null values could also be empty/air tiles as well.

Index
Fields
Methods
Bitfield Data

Fields and Properties

The Tile class is structured to be very compact and efficient. You usually don't want to modify many of these fields directly. All values default to 0.

Field	Type	Description
type	ushort	Corresponds to the TileID of this tile. Since the dirt tile has the value of 0, you need to check other values to know if this tile has a tile or not. `Tile.active()` can be used to check if the `Tile` is air or not.
wall	ushort	Corresponds to the WallID of this tile. A value of 0 means no wall.
liquid	byte	Represents how much liquid is in the tile. Ranges from 0, no liquid, to 255, filled with liquid.
sTileHeader	ushort	A bit field. Don't touch this directly, use the methods. Stores: Wires, Actuator, Slope, Color, and HalfBrick data.
bTileHeader	byte	A bit field. Don't touch this directly, use the methods. Stores: LiquidType, WallColor, and Wire4 data.
bTileHeader2	byte	A bit field. Don't touch this directly, use the methods. Stores: FrameNumber, wallFrameX, and WallFrameNumber data.
bTileHeader3	byte	A bit field. Don't touch this directly, use the methods. Stores: SkipLiquid, CheckLiquid, and wallFrameY data.
frameX frameY	short	Corresponds to the coordinates of the 16x16 (usually) area in the spritesheet this Tile uses. For a Framed tile, this value is set automatically as the world loads or other tiles are placed or mined nearby. See Framed vs FrameImportant for more info. For FrameImportant tiles, this value will not change and will be saved and synced in Multiplayer. In either case, `frameX` and `frameY` correspond to the coordinates of the top left corner of the area in the spritesheet that this Tile should draw. Some Tiles such as Christmas Tree and Weapon Rack use the higher bits of these fields to do tile-specific behaviors. Modders should not attempt to do similar approaches, but should use `ModTileEntity`s
collisionType	int	Get only property. Unused.

Methods

public Tile()

Constructor, all values default to 0.

public Tile(Tile copy)

Constructor that clones another Tile

public object Clone()

Creates a clone of the Tile. Tile clone = (Tile)Main.tile[x,y].Clone()

public void CopyFrom(Tile from)

Copies fields from another Tile.

public void ClearEverything()

Clears all fields.

public bool active()

public void active(bool active)

Sets or checks if the Tile has a tile present or not.

public bool nactive()

Returns true is Tile is active but not actuated. Equivalent to tile.active() && !tile.inActive().

public bool inActive()

public void inActive(bool inActive)

Sets or checks if the tile is actuated.

public void liquidType(int liquidType)

public byte liquidType()

Sets or checks liquid type. 0 water, 1 lava, 2 honey.

public bool lava()

public void lava(bool lava)

public bool honey()

public void honey(bool honey)

Sets or checks liquid type.

public bool wire()

public void wire(bool wire)

public bool wire2()

public void wire2(bool wire2)

public bool wire3()

public void wire3(bool wire3)

public bool wire4()

public void wire4(bool wire4)

Sets or checks presence of individual wires.

public bool actuator()

public void actuator(bool actuator)

Sets or checks presence of actuator on tile.

public byte color()

public void color(byte color)

Sets or checks tile color.

public byte wallColor()

public void wallColor(byte wallColor)

Sets or checks wall color.

public byte frameNumber()

public void frameNumber(byte frameNumber)

Framed tiles usually have 3 choices (alternate images), this sets or checks that value.

public int wallFrameX()

public void wallFrameX(int wallFrameX)

public byte wallFrameNumber()

public void wallFrameNumber(byte wallFrameNumber)

public int wallFrameY()

public void wallFrameY(int wallFrameY)

Various wall framing related methods.

public bool checkingLiquid()

public void checkingLiquid(bool checkingLiquid)

public bool skipLiquid()

public void skipLiquid(bool skipLiquid)

Various Liquid movement related methods.

public bool topSlope()

public bool bottomSlope()

public bool leftSlope()

public bool rightSlope()

public bool HasSameSlope(Tile tile)

public bool halfBrick()

public void halfBrick(bool halfBrick)

public byte slope()

public void slope(byte slope)

public static void SmoothSlope(int x, int y, bool applyToNeighbors = true)

Various slope related methods.

public override string ToString()

Prints debug info about a Tile.

public void ClearTile()

public bool isTheSameAs(Tile compTile)

public int blockType()

public void ResetToType(ushort type)

internal void ClearMetadata()

public Color actColor(Color oldColor)

Various methods.

Bitfield Data

In order to store its data efficiently, each Tile uses several "header" fields as bitfields.

A bitfield is a variable used for a sequence of bits instead of an actual value. Accessing and modifying the bits is usually done through the bitwise operators: | (bitwise-OR), & (bitwise-AND), ^ (bitwise-XOR), ~ (bitwise-NOT), << (shift left logical) and >> (shift right logical).

An example of uses for each operator is shown below:

Operator	Value 1	Value 2	Expression	Expression (binary)	Result	Result (binary)
`\|`	35	68	`35 \| 68`	`0010 0011 \| 0100 0100`	103	`0110 0111`
`&`	39	68	`39 & 68`	`0010 0111 & 0100 0100`	4	`0000 0100`
`^`	47	68	`47 ^ 68`	`0010 1111 ^ 0100 0100`	107	`0110 1011`
`~`	68	n/a	`~ 68`	`~ 0100 0100`	187	`1011 1011`
`<<`	35	2	`35 << 2`	`0010 0011 << 0000 0010`	210	`1000 1100`
`>>`	35	2	`35 >> 2`	`0010 0011 >> 0000 0010`	8	`0000 1000`

Operator	Explanation
`\|`	If the bit in Value 1 or the bit in Value 2 is set, the bit in the result is also set.
`&`	The bit in the result is set only if the bit in Value 1 and Value 2 is set.
`^`	The bit in the result is set only if the bit in Value 1 or Value 2 is set, but not both.
`~`	Every 1 bit becomes a 0 bit and vice versa.
`<<`	Every bit in Value 1 is shifted to the left Value 2 times. Zeros are filled in from the right and any bits that overflow past the most significant bit (the first one) are removed.
`>>`	Every bit in Value 1 is shifted to the right Value 2 times. The most significant bit is filled in from the left and any bits that overflow past the least significant bit (the last one) are removed.

The Tile class has four bitfields: sTileHeader, bTileHeader, bTileHeader2 and bTileHeader3. These bitfields should NOT be modified directly. Instead, use the various methods in Tile.

For reference, here's what every bit in the bitfields represent and where they are normally accessed:

sTileHeader

-SSS UHGB RTAC CCCC

-: Unused.

SSS: Where the slope type for this Tile is stored. Accessed from tile.slope() and tile.slope(byte). 0 is no slope, 1 is down-left slope, 2 is down-right slope, 3 is up-left slope and 4 is up-right slope.

U: If this Tile has an Actuator on it. Accessed from tile.actuator() and tile.actuator(bool).

H: If this Tile is a half-brick. Accessed from tile.halfBrick() and tile.halfBrick(bool).

G: If this Tile has a Green Wire on it. Accessed from tile.wire3() and tile.wire3(bool).

B: If this Tile has a Blue Wire on it. Accessed from tile.wire2() and tile.wire2(bool).

R: If this Tile has a Red Wire on it. Accessed from tile.wire() and tile.wire(bool).

T: If this Tile is actuated. Accessed from tile.inActive() and tile.inActive(bool).

A: If this Tile is active (not air). Accessed from tile.active() and tile.active(bool).

C CCCC: Where the paint color type for this Tile is stored. Accessed from tile.color() and tile.color(byte). Value ranges from 0 to 30.

bTileHeader

YLLW WWWW

Y: If this Tile has a Yellow Wire on it. Accessed from tile.wire4() and tile.wire4(bool).

LL: Where the liquid type for this Tile is stored. Accessed from tile.lava(), tile.lava(bool), tile.honey() and tile.honey(bool). 0 is water, 1 is lava and 2 is honey.

W WWWW: Where the paint color type for this Tile's wall is stored. Accessed from tile.wallColor() and tile.wallColor(byte). Value ranges from 0 to 30.

bTileHeader2

WWNN XXXX

WW: Related to wall framing. Accessed from tile.wallFrameNumber() and tile.wallFrameNumber(byte). Values range from 0 to 3.

NN: The alternate frame number for this Tile. Accessed from tile.frameNumber() and tile.frameNumber(byte). Values can range from 0 to 3, but vanilla only uses 0 to 2.

XXXX: Where the frameX for this Tile's wall in its spritesheet is stored. Accessed from tile.wallFrameX() and tile.wallFrameX(byte). The values range from 0 to 15. tile.wallFrameX() returns this value * 36 when called, and tile.wallFrameX(byte) sets this value to the parameter / 36.

bTileHeader3

---S CYYY

---: Unused.

S: A flag used for liquid updating. Accessed from tile.skipLiquid() and tile.skipLiquid(bool).

C: A flag used for liquid updating. Accessed from tile.checkingLiquid() and tile.checkingLiquid(bool).

YYY: Where the frameY for this Tile's wall in its spritesheet is stored. Accessed from tile.wallFrameY() and tile.wallFrameY(byte). Values range from 0 to 7. These bits are handled in the same manner as the XXXX bits in bTileHeader2.