DF-21 Forums

[lucius]

[Tsophika]

I'd suggest incorporating an XYZ cursor along with highlightable elements such as verteces, faces and edges that one would find in most 3D applications.

[BlazingPhoenix]

I...Don't really agree with that, since that's why it's extremely complicated to map in 3D games nowadays anyway..

[lucius]

The way I look at it, controls should be as simple as possible. For 2D you'll have simple free-form movement - since you have the (optional) snap to grid its quite easy to make or move in straight lines. Even in 3D mode you're limited to specific planes when moving level geometry. For example, if you're moving walls or vertices you're still limited to the 2D plane. So you still have free-form movement on the projected 2D grid. For heights you have 1D movement, which is handled well with keys and/or simple verticle mouse movements - as its implemented now.

I can see the value of the translation and rotation controls when placing certain floating/flying objects, because you can place them it 3D (atleast the initial height). But this would only apply to the 3D mode, 2D mode would still be free-hand placement.

I appreciate the suggestion (keep 'em coming) but in this case I think it just makes the interface a little more complicated for no real benefit - with the exception of manipulating objects in 3D mode.

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DarkXL....http://darkxl.wordpress.com

[Burning Gundam]

I agree, keeping things fairly simple makes it easier and more fun to use.

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I don't think outside the box... I customize it.

[Tsophika]

Well, I fail to see why a translate cursor is complicated, Phoenix. The idea is to give more control, which makes modeling easier in the end.

The crosshair dot in 3D mode seems lacking to me... but perhaps you had something else in mind, lucius?

[lucius]

In order to debug some problems, I've done some more work on the editor. Basically I've been working on the selection and movement tools for geometry. Before I continue, take a look at these screenshots (sorry they're big to make text/lines visible but still compressed):

With nothing selected:


With a sector selected:


A couple of things to notice:
*A vertex, wall and sector are all selected at the same time.
*Yellow squares which are movement handles.
*Information about which features are selected along with highlighted shortcuts.

Basically the way it works is that when you right-click in the 2D mode, it selects the appropriate sector (the one you clicked on in the current layer) and then the closest wall and vertex.

If you hit 'S' (or click on "Sector"), then the sector dialog will show up on screen and stay there until you close it or open up another dialog. Wall and Vertex controls work the same. So you can get information on any feature at any time.

Similarly, if you left-click on a movement handle (or vertex) and hold then you can move around that feature. If you move around a sector, it'll move around all the subsectors/holes as you would expect.

And finally if you left-click outside a sector, anywhere when no sector is selected or anywhere where there is no movement handle then it'll start the draw mode - and continue drawing until you finish the sector/subsector/hole/split line(s) or cancel.

This means that so far there are no seperate level editing modes other then 2D and 3D.

Incidentally, as you probably already figured out, the two numbers in the lower left corner are the cursor position in world space in DFUs. Also note that the UI will look "prettier" before its done.

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DarkXL....http://darkxl.wordpress.com

[lucius]

[Patrick Haslow]

That's crazy easy. I could have built my levels in a fraction of the time using something like that. I can't imagine what I could have made like that without having to worry about subsector related HOM effects. Without those limitations, levels can be made that will look nothing like those before. This is now pretty much an entirely different game using the old assets.

[sheepandshepherd]

[klasodeth]

[Burning Gundam]

Hence why I have this huge dilemma over the matter.

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I don't think outside the box... I customize it.

[Fenwar]

This looks great!

If selecting the "nearest" wall fails to get the one I want, (say my sector has a few little fiddly walls) do I have to click random areas until I hit the magic spot, or will there be WDFUSE-style next/previous wall keyboard navigation?

Additionally, would editor keyboard controls be rebindable in the same way as game controls?

[lucius]

[sheepandshepherd]

Speaking of wall selection - one of the annoyances of WDFUSE was not being able to see the end of one wall and the beginning of the next on a long straight side while in sector or line mode. Being able to toggle small circles for vertices in 2D mode would be helpful, both for selection and just viewing of split walls.

[Jimmy Chicken]

[Marley]

Now the rendering and collision are more are less finalised - where does this leave the editor? At which point might we see it implemented?

[lucius]

[tnoyce]

Lucius, not knowing about such things, I'd say it looks pretty sweet!

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Tim Noyce