Map is way better and components::Tile is _vastly_ improved by switching to a wchar_t on display and letting nlohmann::json auto convert it for me.

systems.cpp

@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@
 #include "sound.hpp"
 #include "ai.hpp"
 #include "ai_debug.hpp"
+#include "shiterator.hpp"
+#include <iostream>
 
 using std::string;
 using namespace fmt;
@@ -332,21 +334,45 @@ void System::plan_motion(DinkyECS::World& world, Point move_to) {
  * This one is called inside the MapViewUI very often so
  * just avoid GameMap unlike the others.
  */
-void System::draw_entities(DinkyECS::World &world, Map &map, const Matrix &lights, const Point &cam_orig, size_t view_x, size_t view_y) {
+std::wstring System::draw_map(GameLevel level, size_t view_x, size_t view_y) {
+  DinkyECS::World &world = *level.world;
+  Map &map = *level.map;
+
+  auto player_pos = world.get<Position>(level.player).location;
+  Point cam_orig = map.center_camera(player_pos, view_x, view_y);
   auto &tiles = map.tiles();
 
-  world.query<Position, Tile>([&](auto, auto &pos, auto &tile) {
+  // make a grid of chars to work with
+  auto grid = shiterator::make<wchar_t>(view_x+1, view_y+1);
+
+  // first fill it with the map cells
+  for(shiterator::each_cell_t it{grid}; it.next();) {
+    size_t tile_y = size_t(it.y) + cam_orig.y;
+    size_t tile_x = size_t(it.x) + cam_orig.x;
+
+    if(tile_x < tiles.$width && tile_y < tiles.$height) {
+      grid[it.y][it.x] = tiles.at(tile_x, tile_y).display;
+    } else {
+      grid[it.y][it.x] = ' ';
+    }
+  }
+
+  // then get the enemy/item/device tiles and fill those in
+  world.query<Position, Tile>([&](auto, auto &pos, auto &entity_glyph) {
     if(pos.location.x >= cam_orig.x && pos.location.x <= cam_orig.x + view_x
         && pos.location.y >= cam_orig.y && pos.location.y <= cam_orig.y + view_y) {
-      Point loc = map.map_to_camera(pos.location, cam_orig);
-
-      float light_value = lights[pos.location.y][pos.location.x] * PERCENT;
-      const Tile& cell = tiles.at(pos.location.x, pos.location.y);
-
-      (void)loc; // not used yet, this after ripping out map so needs rewrite
-      (void)light_value;
-      (void)cell;
-      (void)tile;
+      Point view_pos = map.map_to_camera(pos.location, cam_orig);
+      grid[view_pos.y][view_pos.x] = entity_glyph.display;
     }
   });
+
+  // then generate the string to display, but this goes away soon
+  std::wstring result;
+
+  for(shiterator::each_row_t it{grid}; it.next();) {
+    result += grid[it.y][it.x];
+    if(it.row) result += '\n';
+  }
+
+  return result;
 }