AB3D2_LevelED Help required

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

@Karlos

feel free to open a feature request on git to remind me

Done!

[Karlos]

I have to say, it's come a long way. I'm starting to forget what it was like, (in)stability wise.

The only common crashes now are, I think, something akin to null pointer bugs when doing things like moving a control point and accidentally trying to place before choosing.

[abu_the_monkey]

I like to think it is becoming more user friendly

Like you said, there are still areas that need attention before looking into proper 'new' features though

[Karlos]

This isn't a LevelEd issue per se, but I didn't want to create another huge stampede of posts from the horde of AMOS practitioners here...

I wasted my entire lunch break today trying to figure out why on Earth I couldn't generate non-corrupted lightsourced bitmaps using the included 256Lit / CompressHQN (formerly called compresslight in the original editors).

The workflow is that you provide 5 images. The first is a basic colourmap of the object frames. The next four are 31-greyscale images (index 0 the background is reserved and can be any colour) of the object frames illuminated from top, bottom, left and right respectively. The 256lit converts these to a cryptically named HQN file (I am assuming that N might stand for "normals" here, in the bumpmappy sense) and a palette file. You then have to use the other tool to compress the HQN file into the more regular "wad" and "ptr" files.

Each time I was getting an in-game result where the overall colourmap was sensible but the lighting components were totally trashed. This is odd, because I successfully incorporated other examples from the source code release back in the 90's.

It turns out the problem was something stupid. My left/right/top/bottom lightmap .iff files had been saved with a stencil from the edits I was making. Reloading and freeing those resulted in the "correct" lightmapped in game result.

The connection with LevelEd is that it's built-in IFF -> HQN converter doesn't seem to work at all.

[abu_the_monkey]

@Karlos

The connection with LevelEd is that it's built-in IFF -> HQN converter doesn't seem to work at all.

for me if I try to covert say the 'ashnarg' it works right up till I select what/where to save the output and then bombs with 'bank not reserved'

is this the same behaviour you get?

[abu_the_monkey]

IFF -> HQN converter raised as an issue on github

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

@Karlos



for me if I try to covert say the 'ashnarg' it works right up till I select what/where to save the output and then bombs with 'bank not reserved'

is this the same behaviour you get?

That is one behaviour. If I tell it the filename wirh a .hqn extension, it fails silently. You end up with a .wad and .ptr file that are basically empty.

[abu_the_monkey]

The only common crashes now are, I think, something akin to null pointer bugs when doing things like moving a control point and accidentally trying to place before choosing.

here is a build which addresses this issue with the moving of control points before selecting one, removed the 'stats button' as it is now redundant due to the title bar option, so have included the original EditorGUI.IFF, also includes an early experiment to cycle through the buttons with 'F1'

[abu_the_monkey]

started working on having different keyboard shortcuts for different edit modes.
F1 cycles the mode
top row number keys select the button

mode 1. geometry
keys
1 = +/- points
2 = define zones
3 = define heights
4 = define doors
5 = define lifts

mode 2. textures
keys
1 = lower roof graphics
2 = lower wall graphics
3 = lower floor graphics
4 = upper roof graphics
5 = upper wall graphics
6 = upper floor graphics

mode 3. lighting
keys
1 = upper point brightness
2 = lower point brightness
3 = upper wall bright offset
4 = lower wall bright offset

mode 4. objects
keys
1 = add object
2 = move object
3 = delete object
4 = place player

mode 5. control points
keys
1 = add control points
2 = move control points
3 = link control points
4 = link lower zone to control points
5 = link upper zone to control points

still need to add text to indicate what mode you are currently in but seems to work as expected. which is nice

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

here is a build which addresses this issue with the moving of control points before selecting one, removed the 'stats button' as it is now redundant due to the title bar option, so have included the original EditorGUI.IFF, also includes an early experiment to cycle through the buttons with 'F1'

Will give it a spin momentarily!

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

started working on having different keyboard shortcuts for different edit modes.
F1 cycles the mode
top row number keys select the button

mode 1. geometry
keys
1 = +/- points
2 = define zones
3 = define heights
4 = define doors
5 = define lifts

mode 2. textures
keys
1 = lower roof graphics
2 = lower wall graphics
3 = lower floor graphics
4 = upper roof graphics
5 = upper wall graphics
6 = upper floor graphics

mode 3. lighting
keys
1 = upper point brightness
2 = lower point brightness
3 = upper wall bright offset
4 = lower wall bright offset

mode 4. objects
keys
1 = add object
2 = move object
3 = delete object
4 = place player

mode 5. control points
keys
1 = add control points
2 = move control points
3 = link control points
4 = link lower zone to control points
5 = link upper zone to control points

still need to add text to indicate what mode you are currently in but seems to work as expected. which is nice

Most of these tools open a window anyway, right?

[abu_the_monkey]

they do but if you are in the mode for lighting you will not know and will not know how many times to cycle the mode select with F1 to get to say geometry mode.
maybe the F keys 1-5 should set the edit mode?

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

they do but if you are in the mode for lighting you will not know and will not know how many times to cycle the mode select with F1 to get to say geometry mode.
maybe the F keys 1-5 should set the edit mode?

Right, yes, I see what you mean. Maybe it can be displayed as an extra string in the stats overlay panel?

[abu_the_monkey]

I was going to see if there was a way to shoehorn it into the title bar so it will not add any more furniture to the main window.

[Karlos]

I've donwnloaded the version you posted but at least for me, F1 appears to cycle through the buttons on the main toolbar in order and the regular number keys don't appear to do anything?

[abu_the_monkey]

give me 10 minuets, I will upload the latest build

[abu_the_monkey]

here it is, the correct version this time

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

here it is, the correct version this time

Sorry man, I flaked out!

[abu_the_monkey]

Originally Posted by Karlos

Sorry man, I flaked out!

no worries, there is no rush

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by abu_the_monkey

no worries, there is no rush

This is awesome! Very simple to navigate. I do have a couple of things to note though:

1. It would be nice to have an option to switch to "no tool view", e.g. press zero or something to move to one of the unused tool modes.

2. If a popup window is selected, the main application still switches context when pressing any of the shortcut keys. This may be a problem because some have numeric input boxes and if you type accidentally without highlighting the box, you are suddenly in a different tool view. OTOH, maybe you really do want to switch tool views immediately. I think the best way to do that is to perhaps use the other function keys rather than the number line.