panda3d-tmx

A lightweight Tiled Map Editor integration for the Panda3D game engine. Load TMX and JSON map files and render them as optimized Panda3D scene graphs with minimal setup.

panda3d-tmx is based on the panda3d-tiled project by the Kitsune One team.

Features

• TMX & JSON map loading via pytiled-parser
• Tile layers rendered as atlas-textured cards, flattened into a single draw call per layer
• Image layers displayed as full-image sprites with transparency support
• Object layers with points, rectangles, polygons, and ellipses extracted as data
• Layer groups with recursive processing and proper draw ordering via fixed cull bins
• Object registry — map Tiled class names to factory functions for automatic game-object instantiation
• Per-layer configuration for scaling, offsets, custom sprite classes, and hit-box algorithms
• Pixel-art friendly — nearest-neighbor filtering applied by default

Installation

pip install panda3d-tmx

Dependencies

• panda3d
• panda3d-vfs
• panda3d-toolbox
• pytiled-parser

Quick Start

from pathlib import Path

from direct.showbase.ShowBase import ShowBase
from panda3d.core import Filename, get_model_path, loadPrcFileData

# Prevent Panda3D from rescaling non-power-of-2 tile atlases
loadPrcFileData("", "textures-power-2 none")

from panda3d_tmx.tilemap import TileMap


class Game(ShowBase):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()

        map_dir = Path(__file__).resolve().parent
        get_model_path().prepend_directory(
            Filename.from_os_specific(str(map_dir))
        )

        self.tile_map = TileMap(map_file=map_dir / "level.tmx", scaling=1.0)
        self.tile_map.reparent_to(self.render)


app = Game()
app.run()

Object Registry

Use ObjectRegistry to automatically instantiate your own game objects from Tiled's class field:

from panda3d_tmx.tilemap import TileMap
from panda3d_tmx.objects import ObjectRegistry, TiledObject


class SpawnPoint:
    def __init__(self, tiled_object: TiledObject) -> None:
        self.x, self.y = tiled_object.shape[0], tiled_object.shape[1]
        self.facing = (tiled_object.properties or {}).get("facing", "north")


registry = ObjectRegistry()
registry.register("SpawnPoint", SpawnPoint)

tile_map = TileMap(map_file="level.tmx", object_registry=registry)

# Access created instances by layer name
for layer_name, instances in tile_map.object_instances.items():
    for inst in instances:
        print(inst)

Layer Options

Per-layer settings can be passed via the layer_options dict:

tile_map = TileMap(
    map_file="level.tmx",
    layer_options={
        "Platforms": {
            "use_spatial_hash": True,
            "scaling": 2.5,
            "offset": (-128, 64),
            "custom_class": MyPlatformSprite,
            "custom_class_args": {"health": 100},
        },
    },
)

Available options per layer:

API Overview

TileMap

The main entry point. Loads a Tiled map and builds the scene graph.

TiledObject

A NamedTuple containing data for a single Tiled object:

TileSprite

A lightweight sprite backed by an atlas-textured card. Supports position, size, rotation, and custom properties.

NodeGroup

A group of nodes that can be flattened into a single draw call via flatten().

Examples

Working examples are in the example/ directory:

• basic-01 — Load and display a desert tilemap with camera panning and zoom
• objects-02 — Use ObjectRegistry to auto-create game objects from Tiled class types

Requirements

• Python >= 3.9
• Panda3D
• Orthogonal maps only (isometric/hexagonal not supported)
• Infinite maps are not supported

License

MIT — Copyright (c) 2026 Digital Descent, LLC / Copyright (c) 2025 Yonnji.