Beta release 3.1b

Post by **VilleK** » Wed Jan 28, 2015 12:23 pm

I've changed the internal representation for the audio engine from 16-bit integers to 32-bit floats. The reason is both that the code will be easier to maintain and also that audio quality should be a bit better.

Please check that the sound effects in your projects still sound ok.

In order to get this working for Android I upgraded to latest SVN build of Freepascal for Android (3.1.1).

http://www.zgameeditor.org/files/ZGameEditor_beta.zip

rrTea · Post by **rrTea** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 4:06 am

At first I didn't find the detachable editors that handy, but combined with the new "full FPS" Preview window, they are really useful for fine tuning. For example now it's much easier to tweak multiple sound effects at the same time while the game is running (so I can hear how they interact with each other for real)!

I also like how components can be added by just clicking on various folder-type parts of the project tree and selecting a component to add from a list! (Right now the list of components tends to disappear but I assume that's just WiP...)

Edit: clarification

Post by **VilleK** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 11:53 am

Updates:

- "Quick component add", allows you to view the component list and add components just by clicking on a tree parent node. Based on Kjells idea. It should behave better than the last version (where it often was hidden by accident).
- Fixed cloning of string/vec/mat variables as reported by rrTea here: viewtopic.php?p=7418#7418
- Audio envelopes are interpolated to reduce noise in some sounds

http://www.zgameeditor.org/files/ZGameEditor_beta.zip

Imerion · Post by **Imerion** » Thu Feb 26, 2015 1:16 pm

Just had an idea for a small function which might be useful. I often find myself pulling the edge of the code editor to increase it's size temporarily while writing code and then pulling it back once done to get acess to properties and preview again. How about a small button, perhaps located next to the Ok and Help buttons on the Code Editor, which simply expands the code editor to cover the entire right area of the screen? (Including the message area.)

Would make it much easier, since finding the right area to drag, especially when using a laptop without external mouse, can be a bit complicated.

Post by **Kjell** » Thu Feb 26, 2015 1:53 pm

Hi Imerion,

Imerion wrote:I often find myself pulling the edge of the code editor to increase it's size temporarily while writing code and then pulling it back once done to get acess to properties and preview again.

You can click on the code editor "header" to do exactly that.

K

Imerion · Post by **Imerion** » Sat Feb 28, 2015 12:30 pm

Smart! But I can't seem to get it to behave the way I want. I tried clicking the header and then increasing size to cover the entire right area of the screen. But when I click it again it minimizes so much I can barely set it at all. I then have to adjust it manually instead.

Also, how did you hide the green message area? Pulling it to the right didn't hide it completely for me.

Post by **Kjell** » Sat Feb 28, 2015 12:42 pm

Hi Imerion,

Imerion wrote:Smart! But I can't seem to get it to behave the way I want.

Right now it simply swaps the height of the bottom panel ( code editor ) with the top panel ( preview ) and vice versa. So when you extend the code editor to take up 100% of the height, it will become 0% ( which results in the minimum height ) when you click on the header again.

But perhaps Ville can change it to switching between two different states? So you have a LowerRightPanel.Height and AltHeight that can both be set individually by the user ( and saved in the configuration file ). Even though i don't really see the point of hiding the preview entirely .. since that's one of the big strengths of ZGE ( being able to see what you're doing instantly ).

K

Imerion · Post by **Imerion** » Sat Feb 28, 2015 11:11 pm

I see! But then I should be able to set it a bit in between. And it's true, the live preview is really great! But now and then I simply need to write code, and for those occasions a quick way to hide it would be nice.

Post by **Kjell** » Wed Mar 04, 2015 3:24 pm

Hi Imerion,

Imerion wrote:But now and then I simply need to write code, and for those occasions a quick way to hide it would be nice.

Perhaps there could be a layout option for people that like their code editor to have a lot of space? Something like ...

No idea how useful this would actually be .. and how difficult it would be to add though.

K

Imerion · Post by **Imerion** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 5:56 pm

Looks nice! To be useful it would probably need a quick-switch button though. Since I think I want a large component tree visible for the most part. If this is hard to do it's not really necessary though. Coding works great as it is, just a suggestion in case it is easy to implement.

Post by **Kjell** » Thu Mar 05, 2015 6:06 pm

Hi Imerion,

Imerion wrote:To be useful it would probably need a quick-switch button though.

Hmm .. in that case the "two states" idea is probably the better alternative.

By the way, you're aware that you can decrease the code editor font size ( which effectively increases the amount of code you can fit on your screen ) too, right?

K

Imerion · Post by **Imerion** » Fri Mar 06, 2015 5:37 pm

Yep! Did that and it worked great!

Rado1 · Post by **Rado1** » Mon Mar 09, 2015 10:48 am

Ville, do not you think about explicit termination of threads when Stop button is pressed? Now, they keep running. This may cause ZGE crashes if some external libraries are called and app. stopping released some of the required resources (buffers, arrrays, strings, models, ...) in meantime.

I use the following workaround, but I'm not sure it is a "nice solution" and also it cannot be used always: introduce a global variable of which value is set initially at OnLoaded and then changed in OnClose. Each thread is checking the value of this variable and if it indicates finish of the application, the thread is finished by itself.

Imerion · Post by **Imerion** » Sat Apr 04, 2015 12:35 pm

This might have to do with me running ZGE in Wine on Linux. But a few versions ago some problem with scroll bars seems to have appeared. Everything works fine and snappy, apart from some times when scrolling suddenly stops and stutters for a while. This seems to happen both on standard Windows theme as well as when using other Styles. It might be slightly more prominent when using styles though.

Imerion · Post by **Imerion** » Sat Apr 04, 2015 4:20 pm

Hmm, this might have been a problem with my system. I'll investigate further.