dynamically creating a 2d array

hello, i am trying to write a simple tile map editor for my 2d game.

i want the user to input the number of tiles in the x and y directions for a map.

i have a map class and a tile class

i want my map class to contain a member that is a 2d array of objects of the tile class.

i am having trouble dynamically assigning the size of this array..

i thought the map class could contain a pointer to a tile object

Code:

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cTile*m_tile;

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and then later on in the code do something like:

Code:

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cout<<"x: ";
cin>>x;
cout<<"y: ";
cin>>y;

m_tile = new cTile()[x][y]

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however this gives an error,

what is the proper way to i achive this?

Code:

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cTile**m_tile;

---

Code:

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m_tile = new cTile[x][y];

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how about using vectors instead?

Yes, my preferred way in this case would be something like that:

Code:

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std::vector<std::vector<Tile> > tile_map(x, std::vector<Tile>(y));

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With appropriate typedefs this could be made prettier:

Code:

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typedef std::vector<Tile> TileLine;
typedef std::vector<TileLine> TileMap;

TileMap tile_map(x, TileLine(y));

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Edit: One post short of a sin :(

Why does everyone insist on making tiles objects when they are not? Tiles are numbers. Tile maps are paint by the numbers. Any other way will cause you to store every tile in memory regardless if it is identical to any other tile on the map.

Store the information once, use it multiple times.

Instead of using a vector which is very good for arrays that can dynamically change size use a linear array like tilemap[mapwidth*mapheight] and store the ID of the tile in the array. Now if you wanted to create layers you could use a vector like so:

Code:

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class CTileLayer
{
  protected:
    UINT *m_pMap;
    UINT m_uHeight;
    UINT m_uWidth;
    UINT m_uSize;
...
};

class CTileMap
{
  protected:
    std::vector<CTileLayer *> m_vLayers;
  public:
    CTileMap();

    UINT Add();
    bool Remove(UINT uLayer);
    ...
};

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Just my two cents from my experiences with tile maps.