Elmanager

Advertise your levels, contests, sites etc.

Moderator: Moporators

Post Reply
User avatar
Mrrrr
Kuski
Posts: 225
Joined: 28 Aug 2010, 22:17
Team: BAP
Location: +∞
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 3rd September 2010

Post by Mrrrr »

Thanks for the update Smibu. It's my first time using the program, but I'll post feedback. :wink: :beer:

I love the level maker... it has such great facilities.

Cold :beer: on me!
RiP Mawane ((
RiP Devin ((
wtf mans?!
User avatar
Ali
39mins club
Posts: 98
Joined: 23 Oct 2004, 19:21
Location: Czech repablick
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 3rd September 2010

Post by Ali »

great, thanks for the effort, smibu!

few ideas:
- "move" cursor to better navigate the lev, you know - click & drag the view
- cool features with quickgrass and delete all grass, autograss still needs some tweaking...
- make "smooth edges" ALE feature on the grass edges where adjacent wall goes upwards (corners, loops etc.) and make sure grass doesn't overlap into corner
- make the grass overlap the edge where adjacent wall goes downwards (pits, hangs etc.) so that it's grassed all the way to the end
- like this

i hope it's comprehensible :D
Czech Across Racing Team member --> http://www.homer.kbx.cz/cart
</signature>
User avatar
Bismuth
Kuski
Posts: 2777
Joined: 26 Feb 2008, 07:11
Team: <3
Location: Not on lauta
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 3rd September 2010

Post by Bismuth »

this program is becoming pure win
:mrhat:
Smibu
Kuski
Posts: 476
Joined: 15 Jun 2007, 13:17
Location: Finland

Re: Elma manager - Updated 3rd September 2010

Post by Smibu »

I knew the AutoGrass isn't perfect yet, and it's kinda hard to make it bug-free. For example, ALE fails when grassing this polygon:

http://up.k10x.net/lgkgfbxzmoblt/grassfail.png (the grass looks bad ingame)

So it's not enough to check if the adjacent vertices go up/downwards, you have to check every polygon in the level to make sure the grass won't touch other polygons/vertices and look stupid. I'll try to make AutoGrass better somehow anyway.

Click & drag -feature is easy to do but I think it's slightly inconvenient having to switch between View -tool and Select -tool, for example. I was thinking about being able to scroll the view with arrows. That sounds good for me at least.

More suggestions for features are accepted (grid has been suggested and I'll try to make it too sometime).
User avatar
Ali
39mins club
Posts: 98
Joined: 23 Oct 2004, 19:21
Location: Czech repablick
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 3rd September 2010

Post by Ali »

Yeah, I was just talking about the grass visual style, still needed to fix the bangoing ALE does... Arrows for movement are ok, maybe dragging with middle mouse button would be convenient.

Some other features, just off the top of my head:
  • - ALE transformation feature with predefined 90 and 180 degrees rotate and possibility to enter values, not do it bango manually
    - "select" cursor changes when hovering over vertex/polygon/picture/object, preferably in a different way and object highlights, "create vertex" cursor same thing with vertices only
    - X and Y axis, optional grid, round mouse position to 2 decimals
    - perhaps some infobox with info about created polygons (width of pipe, centerpoint/height/width of rectangle/ellipse...)
    - insides of polygons colored with light grey/blue for better orientation
    - "color polygon" - textures would automatically apply to whole polygon, not overlapping over other ones
    - implement elma physics for testing :)
edit: hmm now i see transformation is in context menu, nevermind

Keep up the good work :beer:
Last edited by Ali on 7 Sep 2010, 14:33, edited 1 time in total.
Czech Across Racing Team member --> http://www.homer.kbx.cz/cart
</signature>
User avatar
totem
39mins club
Posts: 328
Joined: 26 Dec 2007, 14:04

Re: Elma manager - Updated 3rd September 2010

Post by totem »

Ali wrote: maybe dragging with middle mouse button would be convenient.
- ALE transformation feature with predefined 90 and 180 degrees rotate and possibility to enter values, not do it bango manually
- "select" cursor changes when hovering over vertex/polygon/picture/object, preferably in a different way and object highlights, "create vertex" cursor same thing with vertices only
- X and Y axis, optional grid, round mouse position to 2 decimals
- perhaps some infobox with info about created polygons (width of pipe, centerpoint/height/width of rectangle/ellipse...)
- insides of polygons colored with light grey/blue for better orientation
copycat ?
User avatar
Ali
39mins club
Posts: 98
Joined: 23 Oct 2004, 19:21
Location: Czech repablick
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 3rd September 2010

Post by Ali »

I had no idea you made a level editor. It's not like you have to reinvent wheel whenever you make program for the same purpose, these features are kinda obvious. Also you could be little less of an asshole..

NEW is pretty good, but kinda bugged. Can't really figure out transformation and objects are added when i don't want to. If you keep working on features it could be quite nice little prog.
Czech Across Racing Team member --> http://www.homer.kbx.cz/cart
</signature>
Smibu
Kuski
Posts: 476
Joined: 15 Jun 2007, 13:17
Location: Finland

Re: Elma manager - Updated 12th September 2010

Post by Smibu »

-Improved AutoGrass
-Move screen by clicking and holding middle mouse button (usually the wheel)
-New polygon operation: difference (subtracts the area of second polygon from the first polygon)
-Highlight level elements under mouse cursor (optional)
-Select colors for the editor

Note that from now on, you have to reconfigure Elmanager after each update (the configuration file's name is different). I do this to avoid problems that could come when new version loads an old configuration file.

Also note that Microsoft.VisualBasic.PowerPacks.Vs.dll is not needed in this version anymore, you can just delete it.
User avatar
totem
39mins club
Posts: 328
Joined: 26 Dec 2007, 14:04

Re: Elma manager - Updated 3rd September 2010

Post by totem »

Ali wrote: It's not like you have to reinvent wheel whenever you make program for the same purpose, these features are kinda obvious. Also you could be little less of an asshole...
fair enough you're right (and sorry smibu for off-topic'ing)
User avatar
pawq
38mins club
Posts: 6547
Joined: 24 Aug 2008, 19:56
Team: TR
Location: Southampton, UK

Re: Elma manager - Updated 12th September 2010

Post by pawq »

megamax Smibu!!!
what could you add/improve: ability to set width of pie and default thickness of autograss :)
Smibu
Kuski
Posts: 476
Joined: 15 Jun 2007, 13:17
Location: Finland

Re: Elma manager - Updated 12th September 2010

Post by Smibu »

Width of pipe can be adjusted with +/- buttons while making the pipe (it should read at the bottom of the program). And ye, I'll add thickness for autograss in next version (next weekend). :)
User avatar
pawq
38mins club
Posts: 6547
Joined: 24 Aug 2008, 19:56
Team: TR
Location: Southampton, UK

Re: Elma manager - Updated 12th September 2010

Post by pawq »

woww!! cool :D there's really nothing else i can think off :P
User avatar
FinMan
36mins club
Posts: 2038
Joined: 13 Feb 2007, 11:14
Team: dat
Location: Jyväskylä, Finland

Re: Elma manager - Updated 12th September 2010

Post by FinMan »

Default patterns for naming levels, like this:

Filename, set pattern, it checks how many levels you made named in teh, it firstly suggests next nonexistent.
And for the actual level name, it could suggest the level name or a given pattern name.

For the lazy people. ;) And I'm one of those.
Image
User avatar
Ali
39mins club
Posts: 98
Joined: 23 Oct 2004, 19:21
Location: Czech repablick
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 12th September 2010

Post by Ali »

"Delete" function would be nice :)

edit: hah, now i see my keyboard just wasn't working. would be nice to have teh in context menu :)
Last edited by Ali on 16 Sep 2010, 22:02, edited 1 time in total.
Czech Across Racing Team member --> http://www.homer.kbx.cz/cart
</signature>
User avatar
Mrrrr
Kuski
Posts: 225
Joined: 28 Aug 2010, 22:17
Team: BAP
Location: +∞
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 12th September 2010

Post by Mrrrr »

How about a rectangle button?
I know a rectangle can be drawn with the vertex button, but still... :roll:

Oh... and I think somebody else said it before... how 'bout a grid?
It would be very useful to be able to draw help lines. Just lines to help aligning things up. Like axes in AutoCAD.
removed the cut only lines
And think it would be great to be able to lock lines. When trying to manage a point both lines change shape.
I can't change ground/sky type. Only default ground/sky seem to work.
Last edited by Mrrrr on 16 Sep 2010, 12:16, edited 2 times in total.
RiP Mawane ((
RiP Devin ((
wtf mans?!
User avatar
FinMan
36mins club
Posts: 2038
Joined: 13 Feb 2007, 11:14
Team: dat
Location: Jyväskylä, Finland

Re: Elma manager - Updated 12th September 2010

Post by FinMan »

Feature: cant set anything else than default background, only setting ground texture should work.

Mrrrr, how would cutting a line out would work? What do you mean in fact, do you mean temporary cutting of a line or do you want it stay to the level? Thats not possible at least..

Completely agree with that "lock lines" thing. Sometimes it is annoying not to be able to just make a vertex longer.

Also, it would be max to have randomness in pipe/hang tool. These current ones just are boring and look too perfect, just look at any levels that were manually, they are better to play and look much more familiar. ;) Same I can say for rectangles. MUCH better if they are manually done. No, don't say you want those ugly 90° corners and horizontal and vertical lines.

Also, when you select a bunch of polys, you should be able to see how many vertexes, polys, apples etc you selected. And after this, ez make buttons where you can unselect e.g. apples, kuski, killers or all the non-grass polys.

Would be cool if you couldn't smoothen your polygon too much that it has "OVER 9000!!!" vertexes and then you cant play before ctrl + z or some similiar mongo thing.

Half-manual grass too! Just select the vertexes and it grasses everything you selected. Much cooler if you can do this instead of autograssing the whole poly and then cutting for "half an hour"..

pizdec and blya) :beer:
Image
User avatar
The_BoneLESS
38mins club
Posts: 4604
Joined: 7 Sep 2003, 00:30
Team: HHIT
Location: Dangerously close to the St-Lawrence River
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 12th September 2010

Post by The_BoneLESS »

FinMan wrote:Also, it would be max to have randomness in pipe/hang tool. These current ones just are boring and look too perfect, just look at any levels that were manually, they are better to play and look much more familiar. ;)
How about making pipes manually then instead of making a proper tool and fucking it up?
Website || TT:38:05:33 || WC5:15th || HHIT for life || 9th world wide ... BAP is next
User avatar
Ali
39mins club
Posts: 98
Joined: 23 Oct 2004, 19:21
Location: Czech repablick
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 12th September 2010

Post by Ali »

NO randomizing please... that's ez death of proper levels :S
Czech Across Racing Team member --> http://www.homer.kbx.cz/cart
</signature>
User avatar
Mrrrr
Kuski
Posts: 225
Joined: 28 Aug 2010, 22:17
Team: BAP
Location: +∞
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 12th September 2010

Post by Mrrrr »

When trying to transform something and mirror it (I tried to make an arrow point the other direction - the arrow is not horizontal, it's at an angle) the vertex goes upside-down all the time... :(

Oh... and there's no copy or transform for ellipses or pipes. The only possibility I get is grass. It would be great to have the possibility to dupe pipes/ellipses or to change their angle, dont'cha think?
Last edited by Mrrrr on 16 Sep 2010, 12:18, edited 1 time in total.
RiP Mawane ((
RiP Devin ((
wtf mans?!
User avatar
ville_j
Kuski
Posts: 1506
Joined: 17 Aug 2002, 15:45
Team: IS
Location: on the roof
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 12th September 2010

Post by ville_j »

I haven't had time to test this before now, and wow, the level editor is super! Gonna try designing some levels with it soon. I am only missing keyboard shortcuts especially for Select and Vertex tools, why not for the others as well. Also would be nice to be able to smooth only a selected part of a polygon, not the whole polygon... Can't think of other things now, maybe I'll come up with something later. Good job!

Edit:
A bug: When I select to transform a polygon, press delete, then start transforming the empty area, another polygon disappears and the polygon I chose to transform comes up again.
< roopemies> horror and frustrating and can't play, sounds just like you
Beer battle winner 2014 and 2015
Smibu
Kuski
Posts: 476
Joined: 15 Jun 2007, 13:17
Location: Finland

Re: Elma manager - Updated 12th September 2010

Post by Smibu »

Good ideas here - filename pattern and randomizing can be made and those other small tweaks. For Mrrrr: you cannot transform while making pipe/ellipse, but after creating them (select the polygon and then right-click some selected vertex). And thanks Ville_J for finding that bug - deleting shouldn't be possible while transforming :)

About lock lines, do you mean that the adjacent lines (of the selected vertex) won't change (3 vertices should be moved totally)?
Smibu
Kuski
Posts: 476
Joined: 15 Jun 2007, 13:17
Location: Finland

Re: Elma manager - Updated 20th September 2010

Post by Smibu »

Updates:
Replay manager:
-Improved "Save to textfile" -function performance A LOT
-Improved replay list performance somewhat
-Added possibility to include old filename in Rename pattern -function. For example, the pattern "FT" simply attaches the time of the replay to its current filename.

Level editor:
-Mirror level -function
-Info about current selection is shown at the bottom
-Filename suggestion according to the given pattern (regular expression)
-Set default level title, or use filename
-Fixed the bug that was found by Ville_J :)
-Other small tweaks (fixed tab order for tools and others...)
User avatar
Mawane
Kuski
Posts: 3299
Joined: 15 Apr 2007, 01:05
Team: SV
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 20th September 2010

Post by Mawane »

great update, love the FT function!
Website || TT:41:45:64 || Team Image
Image[url=steam://friends/add/76561198025490048]Image[/url]
Smibu
Kuski
Posts: 476
Joined: 15 Jun 2007, 13:17
Location: Finland

Re: Elma manager - Updated 28th September 2010

Post by Smibu »

Replay viewer: Changed the fullscreen shortcut key to F11 (because Enter interfered with things).

Level editor:
-Fixed small bug in Undo/Redo
-Optional grid + snap to grid
-Improved Smoothen -function: you can adjust smoothness with +/- and another parameter with +/- when holding left Ctrl.
-AutoGrass thickness is adjustable in config window, as well as grid size

Now the filename is different (Elmanager.exe) so you have to re-associate .rec and .lev files with the program. I recommend to remove invalid associations with CCleaner after deleting the old file.
User avatar
Ali
39mins club
Posts: 98
Joined: 23 Oct 2004, 19:21
Location: Czech repablick
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 28th September 2010

Post by Ali »

Already suggested Jappe's idea, would be max feature... no editor can do it yet.
Also pls make selection grabbable by polygon side (if both its edge vertices are selected). Same with context menu (for copy/transformation).
Last little annoyance is the "copy" function, it would be max if copied stuff was immediately selected (like in ALE).
Czech Across Racing Team member --> http://www.homer.kbx.cz/cart
</signature>
User avatar
ville_j
Kuski
Posts: 1506
Joined: 17 Aug 2002, 15:45
Team: IS
Location: on the roof
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 28th September 2010

Post by ville_j »

This is a bit off-topic, but I have always wondered why wasn't Elma programmed so that you could choose a texture for each polygon. To me it sounds even simpler than having some masks to lay around o,o
< roopemies> horror and frustrating and can't play, sounds just like you
Beer battle winner 2014 and 2015
User avatar
Igge
38mins club
Posts: 6393
Joined: 7 Apr 2007, 12:15
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Re: Elma manager - Updated 28th September 2010

Post by Igge »

I see no reason to simplify the editor; I like it the way it is. I actually think giving a polygon a new texture and grass is fun. Hell, I even enjoy working around the "right-corner grass bug" manually.

I've loved grassing and making textures for as long as I've loved making levels. It's a part of level-making that I would not like to see fade, although I guess it's already kinda fading with ALE grass etc.

As most of you know I usually don't grass or texture my levels, but you'll notice that I do so when I'm proud of one of them. It's kinda like, if I make a level I really enjoy playing, I will spend more time to give it that extra touch to make it just a tiny bit better than it already is. Such a tiny improvement wouldn't make a difference on some random 13 second hoyla random vertex stupid fakc, but when you play a level with carefully added textures and grass, it really warms your heart. And yes, telling manual grass and ALE grass apart is extremely easy. Basically, grass and textures just show me that the designer put extra effort into making the level, and that he erally likes it. That will encourage me to play it a bit more to try to see what he sees in it. However, if I see some mongo with just plain ALE grass I go "Huh, I guess he didn't put much effort into it, so I guess I won't either".

FAKC I stop myself before I kill someone with my wall of text. o,o
John: lol hittade ett popcorn i naveln
(19:52:06) (@Madnezz) The Golden Apple Award goes to.....
(19:52:36) (@Madnezz) ib9814.lev by igge!!!
Zweq wrote:99.9999% of nabs haven't even opened the book yet and most of those that have are still on the first pages
User avatar
Zweq
34mins club
Posts: 4055
Joined: 28 Nov 2002, 15:54
Location: suo mesta

Re: Elma manager - Updated 28th September 2010

Post by Zweq »

but, dear igge, it's only decoration, for example i havent had grass etc visible for roughly 8 years and used default ground sky for maybe 5 years
Image
User avatar
Igge
38mins club
Posts: 6393
Joined: 7 Apr 2007, 12:15
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

Re: Elma manager - Updated 28th September 2010

Post by Igge »

I fail to see your point.
John: lol hittade ett popcorn i naveln
(19:52:06) (@Madnezz) The Golden Apple Award goes to.....
(19:52:36) (@Madnezz) ib9814.lev by igge!!!
Zweq wrote:99.9999% of nabs haven't even opened the book yet and most of those that have are still on the first pages
User avatar
ville_j
Kuski
Posts: 1506
Joined: 17 Aug 2002, 15:45
Team: IS
Location: on the roof
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 28th September 2010

Post by ville_j »

As we can read from your post, you only spoke for yourself =) so maybe you don't need it, but I think it would be nice feature. And ofc you don't have to use it, just like autograss. I have never used autograss (except in one level when I tested Smibu's editor), but putting and ordering those small masks can be very frustrating sometimes.
< roopemies> horror and frustrating and can't play, sounds just like you
Beer battle winner 2014 and 2015
User avatar
Ali
39mins club
Posts: 98
Joined: 23 Oct 2004, 19:21
Location: Czech repablick
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 28th September 2010

Post by Ali »

Seriously, graphics system is supermongo in elma. Some automatic texturing/grassing should have been included in original editor in the first place, with manual stuff optional for igges of our world.
Czech Across Racing Team member --> http://www.homer.kbx.cz/cart
</signature>
User avatar
Grace
38mins club
Posts: 4843
Joined: 19 Nov 2005, 10:45
Location: Deep in your Imagination, Twirling your Dreams and Weaving your thoughts.

Re: Elma manager - Updated 28th September 2010

Post by Grace »

I am the same as Igge - the manual grassing and making everything perfect is a part of what i love in designing (you can see it in my levels)

I do agree that being able to use lev manager to do auto texture on certain polygons would be nice though, it can be highly annoying at times.
Image Cyberscore! Image
___________________________________________________
Image
Targets: 6 Legendary, 23 WC, 20 Pro, 5 Good | AvgTT: 39:59:96
Smibu
Kuski
Posts: 476
Joined: 15 Jun 2007, 13:17
Location: Finland

Re: Elma manager - Updated 28th September 2010

Post by Smibu »

Jappe wrote:possible to implement a feature that would fill area with texture? like you choose some area and it fills it with texture mask. its annoying to place textures on objects that are close to each other and you dont want the textures to overlap. also filling in triangular corners is pain in the ass. this would make texturing much faster when making detailed textures
This "fill polygon with textures" -tool feels pretty hard to make... I mean it definitely needs some thinking about how to do it. I tried to look from net if someone has some ready algorithm for this kind of problem but I couldn't find anything. The hard part in this is that the textures shouldn't touch any other polygons than the one you want to be textured, and it's not possible input arbitrary values for the size of mask (usually only 3 sizes). If the polygon has sharp corners and is small and is surrounded by other polygon that is close to it, it may not be even possible to do so.

I should implement support for pictures and textures in the first place at first.

The other small things that Ali suggested shouldn't be hard to make. :)
User avatar
Mrrrr
Kuski
Posts: 225
Joined: 28 Aug 2010, 22:17
Team: BAP
Location: +∞
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 28th September 2010

Post by Mrrrr »

And about that lock lines? Is it possible? Thanks :beer:
RiP Mawane ((
RiP Devin ((
wtf mans?!
Smibu
Kuski
Posts: 476
Joined: 15 Jun 2007, 13:17
Location: Finland

Re: Elma manager - Updated 12th October 2010

Post by Smibu »

Replay viewer:
-You won't need internals as externals anymore (they're as an embedded resource now in the program).
-Drag screen by clicking and holding middle mouse button.
-Fixed the apple indexing bug (this was max annoying). Now all replays should play fine.
-Fixed smaller bug that caused pictures not load in some cases.

Level editor:
-Edge bending: While in Select -mode, hold left shift and then click and hold some edge to bend it! Simple and nice feature, really useful for me at least.
-Fixed the small annoyances mentioned by Ali.

No lock lines feature yet because it needs some more coding maybe than I thought at first. I plan to add support for pictures and textures in the next version.

NOTE!!! Two DLL files were updated too (ObjectListView.dll and OpenTK.dll). You have to download them too!
culinko
38mins club
Posts: 1551
Joined: 29 Dec 2002, 19:17
Location: Bratislava, Slovakia
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 12th October 2010

Post by culinko »

thanks for great work. i have sum questions. is it possible to rename a file without using the rename pattern? for example if i simply want to rename a file to shit.rec or sach, didn't find simple rename function (didn't have much time to find teh). and second question: when playing rec and trying to delete teh file, it says i have to stop rec at first. could you add a checkbox ar whatever, so it automatically stops teh rec, won't ask a thing and deletes teh. it would be awesome for me :)
Image
Smibu
Kuski
Posts: 476
Joined: 15 Jun 2007, 13:17
Location: Finland

Re: Elma manager - Updated 12th October 2010

Post by Smibu »

Yep you can rename recs by pressing F2 when a rec is selected (this is not very obvious yeah, gotta add this to context menu too). And yeah I'll try to make a fix for that problem too in next version. :)
User avatar
Mawane
Kuski
Posts: 3299
Joined: 15 Apr 2007, 01:05
Team: SV
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 12th October 2010

Post by Mawane »

from 600kb to 1mb, is that caused by the levels integrated in the program?
and yeah, good idea for context menu to rename single rec, but keep F2 as hotkey :)
Website || TT:41:45:64 || Team Image
Image[url=steam://friends/add/76561198025490048]Image[/url]
culinko
38mins club
Posts: 1551
Joined: 29 Dec 2002, 19:17
Location: Bratislava, Slovakia
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 12th October 2010

Post by culinko »

didn't find those options in replay viewer settings, so requesting teh.

- use "zoom fill" by default
- do not select any player by default
- maximize the window of replay viewer by deafault (not fullscreen)
+ sum checkmark right under "get snapshot" to "unselect" a player, too lazy to go to the bottom of the list to click below list

and plox if you could increaze the vertical size of upper left part, it would be max coal :D i mean the list of replays in viewer. many thanks! btw replay viewer marks deaths in killers as "finished" :F
Image
Smibu
Kuski
Posts: 476
Joined: 15 Jun 2007, 13:17
Location: Finland

Re: Elma manager - Updated 12th October 2010

Post by Smibu »

CuLiNo wrote: - use "zoom fill" by default
- do not select any player by default
- maximize the window of replay viewer by deafault (not fullscreen)
+ sum checkmark right under "get snapshot" to "unselect" a player, too lazy to go to the bottom of the list to click below list

and plox if you could increaze the vertical size of upper left part, it would be max coal :D i mean the list of replays in viewer. many thanks! btw replay viewer marks deaths in killers as "finished" :F
All those can be done, except that checkmark is unnecessary because you can hold Ctrl and then click the selected player to unselect it. And those killer death replays are hard to fix because the recfile looks just as if the player had finished...
culinko
38mins club
Posts: 1551
Joined: 29 Dec 2002, 19:17
Location: Bratislava, Slovakia
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 12th October 2010

Post by culinko »

Smibu wrote:
CuLiNo wrote: - use "zoom fill" by default
- do not select any player by default
- maximize the window of replay viewer by deafault (not fullscreen)
+ sum checkmark right under "get snapshot" to "unselect" a player, too lazy to go to the bottom of the list to click below list

and plox if you could increaze the vertical size of upper left part, it would be max coal :D i mean the list of replays in viewer. many thanks! btw replay viewer marks deaths in killers as "finished" :F
All those can be done, except that checkmark is unnecessary because you can hold Ctrl and then click the selected player to unselect it. And those killer death replays are hard to fix because the recfile looks just as if the player had finished...
thanks for quick reply, didn't now about that ctrl+click :) ah, okay then.
Image
Smibu
Kuski
Posts: 476
Joined: 15 Jun 2007, 13:17
Location: Finland

Re: Elma manager - Updated 11th November 2010

Post by Smibu »

Quite big update now!

Level editor & replay viewer:
-A lot more flexible rendering settings: you can choose to show ground/grass polys/fill ground polys/pictures/textures/picture frames/vertices/objects and so on! Settings are separate for level editor and replay viewer, of course.

Level editor:
-Support for pictures and textures. LGR file must be specified to enable this.
-Improved context menu.
-Selection filter. Useful for example if you want to delete all textures/pictures from a level.
-Ability to start creating vertex from polygon edge too (earlier you had to click some vertex).
-Ability to have apples placed automatically when creating pipe (press Space to switch between modes). Adjust the other parameter with Ctrl + +/-.
-Combined Merge and Difference tools into one (press Space to switch the mode).
-Combined Apple, Killer and Flower modes into one (use Space here too for switching).

Replay viewer:
-Added those what CuLiNo suggested.

I may not remember all updates that I did because I don't really keep list of them. At least I did some optimizations for level loading (triangulation algorithm in particular).

Note that in level editor, visibility doesn't affect the selection filter so don't wonder if it allows you to select something "invisible".

Go, dl and test!!! Here's a pic: http://users.jyu.fi/~mikkalle/Elma/pict ... editor.png
User avatar
Markku
38mins club
Posts: 299
Joined: 5 Jun 2003, 22:48
Location: Lizard lounge

Re: Elma manager - Updated 11th November 2010

Post by Markku »

Great update! I especially like the real-time clipping of textures and pictures.

Even when just trying out the new features (or maybe because of that), I found myself constantly changing the rendering settings. So maybe, if more people agree, there could be a panel/button/dropdown menu/whatever for a more convenient access to the most often used rendering settings (see the pic for a very quick panel mockup) and/or for changing between pre-defined states (for instance, between the current view and a fully rendered preview). I think ALE has a combined button/dropdown menu in the main window for these features.

By the way, in ALE I can move pictures also by just dragging the actual picture instead of the picture frame, I think this addition would make working with pictures a bit more user-friendly.

Another suggestion I have is adding some esc shortcuts for cancelling operations. For example, if I'm moving a vertex and decide I don't want to move it after all, I could just press esc instead of having to first left click and then undo. The same thing would apply to creating new polygons and maybe some other features. I know I can do this in some cases by a right click (not when moving an existing vertex though), but somehow esc feels more intuitive to me, so would be nice to have also that option.

I suppose you're planning to eventually integrate level manager into this program, but one thing in particular that I'm missing here is a quick way of checking the top10 or best time of a level. I'll refer again to ALE; when I open a lev there, it shows the best time below the main drawing area (and I can check top10 and some other stats with ctrl+T).
Smibu wrote:At least I did some optimizations for level loading (triangulation algorithm in particular).
Feels like there's a nice improvement in the loading time (when opening the editor via an associated .lev straight from the file explorer), cheers! :beer:

Edit: When adding or modifying a texture and choosing a different mask, the preview picture in the dialog is not changed but remains as maskbig. I suppose it should change as it does for normal pictures?
Prestigious member of 14.6x Tutor14 club
Smibu
Kuski
Posts: 476
Joined: 15 Jun 2007, 13:17
Location: Finland

Re: Elma manager - Updated 11th November 2010

Post by Smibu »

Yea Markku, I agree that there must be some shortcut keys for some settings that the user wants to change often. Possibly keyboard shortcuts or drop-down list like in ALE or even both, dunno yet.

Picture dragging is possible to do as you described. Actually ALE has quite intelligent dragging: it drags only where the picture has been painted, not the rectangular area. I don't know how to do that, but this rectangular style is easy.

Best time (and top 10) display is not hard to do :) same for level stats (amount of polys etc).

The picture properties -dialog cannot unfortunately show the mask of the texture correctly (because I don't draw the pic with OpenGL but with GDI). I can look forums if it's possible to apply a mask to a bitmap or something... and pictures cannot have masks (Mask -combobox should be disabled when picture type is selected o,o).
culinko
38mins club
Posts: 1551
Joined: 29 Dec 2002, 19:17
Location: Bratislava, Slovakia
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 11th November 2010

Post by culinko »

thanks for great update!

i just wanted to say a few things:

- remember maximizing of "replay manager" too
- why has a driver invisible body?:)
- the picture of driver remains at start - didn't find a setting to remove that
- got one weird error: in replay viewer, when clicking at "apple x" checkpoints, everything is ok, when clickng at "flower", some weird error pops up, i'll post further info if needed
Image
User avatar
Markku
38mins club
Posts: 299
Joined: 5 Jun 2003, 22:48
Location: Lizard lounge

Re: Elma manager - Updated 11th November 2010

Post by Markku »

Smibu wrote:The picture properties -dialog cannot unfortunately show the mask of the texture correctly (because I don't draw the pic with OpenGL but with GDI). I can look forums if it's possible to apply a mask to a bitmap or something... and pictures cannot have masks (Mask -combobox should be disabled when picture type is selected o,o).
Yep, it is disabled when picture type is selected. I just meant that in "Picture" mode I can see the actual output (because pictures are just pictures), but in "Texture" mode the preview pic doesn't change when I change the shape of the mask. Anyway, it is not a big deal, I was just again expecting ALE-like behaviour, without considering any implementation details. (It seems that ALE uses DirectX, so maybe the ALE source code isn't directly helpful for GDI issues.)
Prestigious member of 14.6x Tutor14 club
Smibu
Kuski
Posts: 476
Joined: 15 Jun 2007, 13:17
Location: Finland

Re: Elma manager - Updated 11th November 2010

Post by Smibu »

Ok Markku :)

And culino yeah I haven't bothered to code kuski's body drawing yet... it's annoying with the transformations and stuff, needs lots of trial and error testing to make it display correctly. I guess I'll hide the start object in replay viewer because it's only necessary in lev editor. And if you mean you got an "unhandled exception", pls give the "exception text" -part to me (pm or post here).
culinko
38mins club
Posts: 1551
Joined: 29 Dec 2002, 19:17
Location: Bratislava, Slovakia
Contact:

Re: Elma manager - Updated 11th November 2010

Post by culinko »

yes, unhandled exception. i have it in czech, hope it helps.

http://up.k10x.net/wvyjoowjqwkyr/exception.txt

btw, i noticed some "good" difference between replay viewer and replays in elma. no more this: http://up.k10x.net/lkgfzpvgrfbpm/snap00.pcx when braking+turning :)
Image
User avatar
Lousku
Kuski
Posts: 2925
Joined: 5 Feb 2010, 00:25
Team: BAP
Location: expensive land of dads

Re: Elma manager - Updated 11th November 2010

Post by Lousku »

ALE has a tool called "Cut/connect polygons". Cut tool in Elmanager is much nicer than in ALE, but could you also add connect?
then again i don't know anything
maybe easier not to think abouut alöl things thought than not things thought ... or something..=?
User avatar
Markku
38mins club
Posts: 299
Joined: 5 Jun 2003, 22:48
Location: Lizard lounge

Re: Elma manager - Updated 11th November 2010

Post by Markku »

Got an unhandled exception "Object reference not set to an instance of an object".

Steps to reproduce:
1. open lev
2. choose "Object", but don't move the object into the main drawing area yet
3. press space to change the object type

Code: Select all

************** Exception Text **************
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
   at Elmanager.ObjectTool.ExtraRendering()
   at Elmanager.LevelEditor.CustomRendering()
   at Elmanager.ElmaRenderer.DrawScene(Boolean ZoomToDriver, Boolean ShowDriverPath)
   at Elmanager.ElmaRenderer.FA4kgqTtoNAUvJKj0MY(Object A_0, Boolean ZoomToDriver, Boolean ShowDriverPath)
   at Elmanager.ElmaRenderer.DrawSceneNoDriverFocus()
   at Elmanager.ElmaRenderer.RedrawScene(Object sender, EventArgs e)
   at Elmanager.ObjectTool.KeyDown(KeyEventArgs Key)
   at Elmanager.LevelEditor.KeyHandlerDown(Object sender, KeyEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.OnKeyDown(KeyEventArgs e)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.OnKeyDown(KeyEventArgs kevent)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ProcessKeyEventArgs(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ProcessKeyMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.ButtonBase.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.OnMessage(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.Control.ControlNativeWindow.WndProc(Message& m)
   at System.Windows.Forms.NativeWindow.Callback(IntPtr hWnd, Int32 msg, IntPtr wparam, IntPtr lparam)
Prestigious member of 14.6x Tutor14 club
Post Reply