Beta release 3.1b

Information and change log about the latest ZGameEditor release.

Moderator: Moderators

Post Reply
User avatar
Rado1
Posts: 775
Joined: Wed May 05, 2010 12:16 pm

Post by Rado1 »

VilleK wrote:And yes, the multi-threaded option controls the IDE only. Runtime is always multi-threaded. I want to keep it that way if possible but if many problems are reported I may have to add an option for runtime too.
Ville, probably IDE and runtime should have the same behavior, so no additional option is needed, just apply the existing option also for runtime.
User avatar
Rado1
Posts: 775
Joined: Wed May 05, 2010 12:16 pm

Post by Rado1 »

ZApplication.ShowOptionsDialog is not working in the current beta.

What about to add minimize button to ZGE application window when run in a windowed mode?
User avatar
VilleK
Site Admin
Posts: 2274
Joined: Mon Jan 15, 2007 4:50 pm
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Contact:

Post by VilleK »

Bugfixes:
- ShowOptionsDialog works again
- Properties such as App.CameraPosition can now be passed as vec3 parameter to functions
- BitmapExpression can assign Pixel with function call (such as Pixel=vector4(1,1,1,1)) and it works correctly (however it is slower than assigning Pixel.R etc separately because function calls that returns vectors generate memory that needs to be reclaimed).

http://www.zgameeditor.org/files/ZGameEditor_beta.zip
User avatar
Rado1
Posts: 775
Joined: Wed May 05, 2010 12:16 pm

Post by Rado1 »

Ville, very useful fix and improvements, thanks.
User avatar
VilleK
Site Admin
Posts: 2274
Joined: Mon Jan 15, 2007 4:50 pm
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Contact:

Post by VilleK »

First release in 2015:

Since we will try to make bitmapped games work better with Kjells sprite/tile suggestion, I begun by improving how bitmaps are imported. It has been unneccessary complicated before.

News:

- "File - Import Bitmaps" menu item. You can multi-select bitmaps and they will be imported.
- You can also drag and drop bitmaps from Explorer to the ZGE window and they will be imported.
- If bitmap is not exactly a power-of-two size (8,16,32 etc), it will be imported anyway and the image will be positioned at the top left corner in a bitmap that fits.
- I've also increased the max width/height of bitmaps to 4096.
- And finally I also implemented the RenderParticles.AnimateSize property as suggested by rrTea.

http://www.zgameeditor.org/files/ZGameEditor_beta.zip
User avatar
Kjell
Posts: 1876
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:15 pm

Post by Kjell »

Hej Ville,

Why not change the Width and Height properties into integers? GPUs that don't support non-power-of-two textures are at least 10 years old by now.

For ( a bit of ) backwards compatibility you could introduce a version number attribute / property on ZApplication, that when it's not set ( legacy projects ) the values are converted when loading the project. Obviously, this does "break" projects that for instance update the Width / Height properties of Bitmap components by code .. but those are probably few and far between.

K
Imerion
Posts: 200
Joined: Sun Feb 09, 2014 4:42 pm

Post by Imerion »

Very awesome release! I have been doing a few 2D games as well, and converting bitmaps to power-of-two textures have taken a bit of time, not to mention multi import will save me a lot of additional time. Great stuff! :D
User avatar
jonaspm
Posts: 89
Joined: Fri Jul 06, 2012 3:51 pm
Contact:

Post by jonaspm »

Thank you VilleK!

I'm also working on some 2D Games :)
User avatar
VilleK
Site Admin
Posts: 2274
Joined: Mon Jan 15, 2007 4:50 pm
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Contact:

Post by VilleK »

Kjell wrote:Why not change the Width and Height properties into integers?
Yes I should probably do that soon. For mobile devices with GLES 1.1 power-of-two textures is still a requirement though, as far as I know.
User avatar
VilleK
Site Admin
Posts: 2274
Joined: Mon Jan 15, 2007 4:50 pm
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Contact:

Post by VilleK »

Update:

- In preparing for spritesheets etc. I've reworked how component editors works. Now they can be detached so you can have multiple component editors opened simultaneously. This allows to make edits to components while your game is running in the preview window. See images.

- OGG-files can now be imported with drag-drop from explorer and from new File - Import Audio menu item (just like bitmaps in the previous update).

Note 1: I expect there to be issues with detached component editors. If you notice anything weird let me know.
Note 2: Any suggestion on alternative UI for detaching an editor? The current "Detach editor" button is probably not the nicest looking or most intuitive.

http://www.zgameeditor.org/files/ZGameEditor_beta.zip
Attachments
this is how you detach an editor
this is how you detach an editor
editors1.png (9.46 KiB) Viewed 13855 times
edit content while your game is running
edit content while your game is running
editors3.jpg (49.87 KiB) Viewed 13855 times
multiple editors visible at the same time
multiple editors visible at the same time
editors2.jpg (130.46 KiB) Viewed 13855 times
User avatar
Rado1
Posts: 775
Joined: Wed May 05, 2010 12:16 pm

Post by Rado1 »

Ville, I really like the idea of improving ZGE IDE. Detached editors is a good step towards more effective parallel work which would reduce too frequent and cumbersome searching and switching the desired components (without having back and forward buttons). Since I mostly work with expressions, I miss the possibility to detach also code editor for selected ZExpression/ZLibrary/ZExternalLibrary components. Generally speaking, it would be nice to detach any component editor/specification.

You could go even further: since I'm not a fun of detached UI panels, I would rather prefer to allow configurable embedded panels and tabbed editors, similar to Eclipse views. I know it would require some more work, but there is maybe some Pascal framework providing these features of configurable workspace (?).
User avatar
Kjell
Posts: 1876
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:15 pm

Post by Kjell »

Hmm,

Not a fan of detached panels myself .. i don't really get the choice for this solution either ( but you already know this ).

Image

K
User avatar
VilleK
Site Admin
Posts: 2274
Joined: Mon Jan 15, 2007 4:50 pm
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Contact:

Post by VilleK »

The positions of the panels are not set in stone :). The point is that now it is more flexible because it allows multiple editors.

Rado1: Multiple script editors should also be possible (i.e. detached property editors).

Note that there is a difference between "Component editors" (Mesh, Bitmap, Sound etc) and "Property editors" (scripts, shaders, slider for float values etc). Component editor is displayed when you select a component in the project tree. A property editor is displayed when you select a property in a component. Currently the top right panel is used for component editor and the lower right for property panel. We need to display both at the same time.
User avatar
Kjell
Posts: 1876
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2008 11:15 pm

Post by Kjell »

Hej Ville,
VilleK wrote:Note that there is a difference between "Component editors" (Mesh, Bitmap, Sound etc) and "Property editors" (scripts, shaders, slider for float values etc). Component editor is displayed when you select a component in the project tree. A property editor is displayed when you select a property in a component. Currently the top right panel is used for component editor and the lower right for property panel. We need to display both at the same time.
I disagree with this ( "We need to display both at the same time" ). The Mesh and Bitmap components don't have any properties that can be edited using the property editor to begin with, and the Sound editor has controls for pretty much all properties ( as it should ). I don't see why you'd want to select for instance the Osc1PW property in the property panel and use the property editor when there's a specifically tailored slider ( with proper ranges ) for that right in the Sound component editor.

Image

K
User avatar
VilleK
Site Admin
Posts: 2274
Joined: Mon Jan 15, 2007 4:50 pm
Location: Stockholm, Sweden
Contact:

Post by VilleK »

Kjell wrote:I disagree with this ( "We need to display both at the same time" ). The Mesh and Bitmap components don't have any properties that can be edited using the property editor to begin with
But they do. Not for the Mesh/Bitmap itself but from the list of producers. If you have a Bitmap selected you must be able to click on a producer (such as a BitmapExpression) and edit the properties using property editors (like the code editor). All while the preview window (Bitmap component editor) is displayed.
Post Reply