Monday 18 August 2014

Another Widget Day

The introduction of the widget has the potential to upset quite a few users as we fundamentally change the interface used to select, place, modify and delete entities. This transformation could be even greater when we consider adding the ability to 'mouse roam' over the terrain in edit mode, which will remove the top down restriction currently present. You could almost call the top-down way of editing a signature feature of FPSC and the potential could be that we make the editor 'more difficult' as we create more of a 'modeller' flavor.  To this end we are being very careful how to re-design the editor controls and taking extra time to do this.

A year ago I would have shown you a current screenshot, but as some users might take offence at programmer art and early design, you will simply have to imagine the state of play from the nuggets written here.  At present the system calls up the widget which allows the entity to be positioned, rotated and scaled, and to call up the properties panel. The right mouse button was being used to extract the entity from the map, and duplicate the entity, and also to delete the entity once finished.  The new suggestion is that we re-purpose the right mouse button for a mouse-look to control the navigation of the camera through the editor, and move the controls over to the widget buttons. Time and testing will tell if this is the right course to take.


Managed to get a few other tweaks sorted today so it was not 'all' widget stuff, including fixing the vertex corruption of the shotgun soldier, and also reducing the size of his weapon a little. As you can see in the shot, the gun is a little too big for him!

Ravey and Simon have performed Stirling work today with the conquest of the Steam SDK and the introduction of layers to the Construction Kit.  Again, too early for screenshots but exciting advances in functionality happening.

My next task over in my last hour of the day is to get the ragdoll system to include hierarchically correct bones for non-standard custom character models, such as those converted from ANIMER so you can bring in more characters without waiting for the core Reloaded team to produce a new set of characters. Expect these improvements to be part of the V1.009 build due later this month (if things go as well as today).

14 comments:

  1. The ConKit is looking ready to go (in the most recent Youtube video I saw). Will it be in V1.009? I'm really looking forward to seeing if I can finally get some custom characters to work when this build is released. ;-)

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  2. Not planned for V1.009 as it will require a lot of UI testing before it's ready for alpha testing, but might make an appearance for V1.010 or V1.011.

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  3. Lee, introducing the new entity placement/modifier widget is the best move. Now I believe FPSCR will be on par with some of the professional tools available. Thanks to you and the team for introducing this!!!

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  4. The top down editing view suited Classic for painting down segments, it is definitely time to change this as Reloaded requires more advanced editing features. I think you will find that most take to it easily.

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  5. I would prefer to leave the right mouse button as is, and add holding the middle mouse button for view changes. It would help keep you speedy rather than having to click things on the widget for properties or removing the current selected entity.

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  6. Hi Lee

    Great work on the interface and widget etc. I think ambient occlusion mapping should still be very high on the priority list so hope this is still going well.

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  7. Changes to the editing, mouse control, and addition of widgets is much appreciated. Although the top-down mode and mouse controls are a staple of FPSC classic, it is time to step it up a notch and leave it behind. Don't forget to include a full set of mouse controls typical of a 3D editor such as panning, rotating, and zooming. I would say right click drag for rotating the view, middle click drag for panning left/right/up/down, and mouse wheel for zooming in/out.

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  8. I would one of the up set user he is talking about. I see not point of changing the editor. it is fine the way it is. i have use unity and udk editor and dislike them which is the reason why i enjoy using fpsc. it seem to me there is going to be a lot to get use to with reload. i was only looking forward to reload as a improvement from fpsc but now I'm holding back any plans and promo support until i see what reload is going to be like by october.

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    1. If the editor doesn't change then people are not going to be able to make best use of the engine. As it is, the setup is frustrating at best and infuriating at its worst. These features are going in in order to make the product more usable and give more power and precision to experienced users. But maybe Lee can put some sort of toggle switch in there to revert to "classic" mode editor for users like you. But please don't promote the stifling of increased usability for people like me who need power and precision.

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    2. one of the turn offs about reloaded was the inability to have precision. So any possible ways to improve that in the editor is a must for me.

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    3. I agree, the editor need changes. Today there is a lot of frustation when creating maps etc. Let us at least try the changes before judging them :)

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    4. There needs to be an option to edit the map in Classic mode. There isn't actually that much wrong with the top down view and a significant change will a) put some users off and b) put FPSCR in the direct firing line of bigger competition.

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    5. A top down mode is great and most engine editors have it, but it shouldn't mean that's all we ever have. It's good for what it does and horrible for what it doesn't do.

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  9. Sound very interesting. When will these changes in the editor be implemented? 1.009? :)

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