Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Hexagonal Grids (2013)

redblobgames.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 77 posts

Re: Hexagonal Grids (2013)

#41

Post by aidenn0 »

dragonwriter wrote: post #31
aidenn0 wrote: post #15

FWIW, I strongly prefer square grids for tabletop games. Hexagonal grids give you precise measurements in exactly 6 directions. If you approximate sqrt(2) as 1.5 then square grids give you pretty darn accurate measurements in 8 directions, including 2 pairs of directions that are orthogonal, which is good for rectangular features like buildings. Furthermore the distance between two points can be quickly calculated wi…

> Hexagonal grids give you precise measurements in exactly 6 directions. Square grids give you precise measurements in exactly 4. > If you approximate sqrt(2) as 1.5 then square grids give you pretty darn accurate measurements in 8 directions, including 2 pairs of directions that are orthogonal If you approximate sqrt(3) as 1.75, then hex grids give you pretty darn accurate measurements in 12 directions, including 3…

I haven't seen the 1.75 approximation; I'll have to work that out on paper later.

Re: Hexagonal Grids (2013)

#42

Post by aidenn0 »

rrobukef wrote: post #26
aidenn0 wrote: post #15

FWIW, I strongly prefer square grids for tabletop games. Hexagonal grids give you precise measurements in exactly 6 directions. If you approximate sqrt(2) as 1.5 then square grids give you pretty darn accurate measurements in 8 directions, including 2 pairs of directions that are orthogonal, which is good for rectangular features like buildings. Furthermore the distance between two points can be quickly calculated wi…

On the other hand, for movement along the 8 directions the distance is 41% short, for movement along the 4 main directions, the taxicab distance is 41% longer than the actual distance. For a hexagonal grid, the distance is approximated by counting the number of cells of the shortest path. This has <10% relative error (IIRC) from the actual distance.

Diagonal moves equal to horizontal/vertical moves is horrible. I don't remember which D&D suggested that, but "circles" being square is just terrible.

Re: Hexagonal Grids (2013)

#43

Post by privatemonkey »

amitp wrote: post #38

A surprise to be on HN! Tech notes for the curious: I started the page in 2013 based on notes I had been collecting for ~20 years before that. I update this reference page as I come up with better visualizations and explanations. The last major update was in 2018 when I rewrote it from using d3.js to using vue.js. It greatly reduced the amount of code I was writing, and also let me make the page more interactive. I t…

This is a wonderfull source. Very well written. I'm happy to see it on Hacker News. A few years since I used it last. Didn't know you had rewritten it but I see now the updates you've done, especially in interactivity. I'll continue to use this as my main reference point for hex grids, especially now that I've picked up pace on my virtual tabletop project. Good work!! Thanks

Re: Hexagonal Grids (2013)

#44

Post by Calloutman »

amitp wrote: post #38

A surprise to be on HN! Tech notes for the curious: I started the page in 2013 based on notes I had been collecting for ~20 years before that. I update this reference page as I come up with better visualizations and explanations. The last major update was in 2018 when I rewrote it from using d3.js to using vue.js. It greatly reduced the amount of code I was writing, and also let me make the page more interactive. I t…

Thanks for the resource. I'm pretty sure I used it for some of my simulations of C60 molecules hexagonal packing, during my physics PhD a few years back.

Re: Hexagonal Grids (2013)

#47

Post by rendall »

aidenn0 wrote: post #41
dragonwriter wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Hexagonal grids give you precise measurements in exactly 6 directions. Square grids give you precise measurements in exactly 4. > If you approximate sqrt(2) as 1.5 then square grids give you pretty darn accurate measurements in 8 directions, including 2 pairs of directions that are orthogonal If you approximate sqrt(3) as 1.75, then hex grids give you pretty darn accurate measurements in 12 directions, including 3…

I haven't seen the 1.75 approximation; I'll have to work that out on paper later.

No need. I got you fams

sqrt(3) = 1.73205080757

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=sqrt+3&ia=calculator

Re: Hexagonal Grids (2013)

#48

Post by rendall »

aidenn0 wrote: post #15

FWIW, I strongly prefer square grids for tabletop games. Hexagonal grids give you precise measurements in exactly 6 directions. If you approximate sqrt(2) as 1.5 then square grids give you pretty darn accurate measurements in 8 directions, including 2 pairs of directions that are orthogonal, which is good for rectangular features like buildings. Furthermore the distance between two points can be quickly calculated wi…

I prefer Penrose tiling for all tabletop games. Sure, the number of directions for each tile vary, but distances are incalculable
Post reply on HN