Gameplay Selector Tiles

Main tile processing module - handles path-based navigation, grouping, clustering, filtering, and sorting for the gameplay grid.

Overview

ui_gameplaySelector_tiles is the core tile processing engine. It routes navigation paths to handlers, groups items by mode (system/type/level), applies clustering, manages special groups (favourites/recent), and sorts results for the UI.

Extension path: lua/ge/extensions/ui/gameplaySelector/tiles.lua

Dependencies: Dynamically discovers tile generators in tileGenerators/ folder.

Exports (M)

Internals

Path Routing

All Gameplay Path

1. Filters items via backend.passesFilters()
2. Groups items by groupMode (system, type, level, none)
3. Creates special Favourites/Recent groups if enabled
4. Applies clustering within each group via tileClustering
5. Sorts tiles per group using tileSorting
6. Sorts groups by system order or alphabetically

-- Group mode determines the primary grouping key
local groupModeFunctions = {
  Type = function(item) return item.type or "Other..." end,
  System = function(item) return item.system or "Other..." end,
  -- ...
}

Special Groups (Favourites & Recent)

Display modes for special groups:

• hidden - not shown
• reducedClusters - items added directly to the group
• completeClusters - cluster tiles duplicated into the group
• unclustered - individual items without clustering

Recent groups are limited to 15 tiles and sorted by recency.

Detail Gameplay Path

Handles drill-down into a specific cluster. Path format:

detailGameplay / clusterMode / clusterKey / groupKey / groupName / metaMode

Items are filtered by cluster/group membership plus optional Favourites/Recent meta mode. A default tile is selected (default spawnpoint or first item).

Tile Generator Discovery

Generator files are auto-discovered from tileGenerators/ and registered as dependencies:

local generatorFiles = FS:findFiles('lua/ge/extensions/ui/gameplaySelector/tileGenerators/', '*.lua', 1)

How It Works

1. UI calls getTiles({keys = {"allGameplay"}}, backend)
2. Backend reference is set, clustering module gets backend for favourite queries
3. Items are filtered → grouped → clustered → tiles created
4. Each group's tiles are sorted (automatic, name, or date)
5. Groups are sorted and empty groups removed
6. Result is a list of {key, label, tiles, order} groups for the grid UI

Additional Exports

The following exports are available but not yet documented in detail:

• M.dependencies
• M.getTiles
• M.getUiData