Editor suggestions

[Genebris]

In the last two tournaments I realized how painful it is to use editor when you have more than 10 objects on the map. I think it could be changed with a few improvements:

 

Characters' bones and other child objects take up most of the space in the hierarchy window and 99% of the time you don't need to look at them.

And this is just one goblin character. Sure, artist probably shouldn't have included so many child objects, but it shouldn't be a problem anyway.

 

Suggestions:

• All child objects in the hierarchy should be collapsed when map is opened.
  
• When you add new objects, their children should be collapsed by default.
  
• It should never uncollapse automatically. It definitely shouldn't uncollapse when object is selected. Again 99% of the time when you select an object you only want to move it, you don't want to check if all those hundreds of bones are still there.
  
• There could be a small "Collapse all" button.
  

• "Frame Selection" button should scroll the hierarchy to the selected object. Also, there should be a hotkey for it, "F" for example.
  
• "Move to folder" button would help avoid a lot of scrolling
  
• Search field
  

 

 

 

Prefabs suggestions:

 

When saving altered prefab save dialog should open with a path to prefab's last version.

For example, I have a prefab with this path: "prefabs/enemies/goblin1.pfb". I have loaded it, changed and pressed save as prefab. Save window should open with "prefabs/enemies/" path opened and file goblin1.pfb should already be selected.

Not only it saves time, but also eliminates the risk of overwriting wrong prefab and loosing your data, which happened to me several times.

 

Prefabs should remember a hierarchy folder that they were saved from and appear in this folder when added to the scene. If I have saved goblin in "Entities" folder then it should appear in this folder next time I add it to the scene (if this folder still exists).

[AggrorJorn]

Prefabs should remember a hierarchy folder that they were saved from and appear in this folder when added to the scene. If I have saved goblin in "Entities" folder then it should appear in this folder next time I add it to the scene (if this folder still exists).

The saving mechanism in its current state is one of the reasons I currently do not use prefabs. It is way to cumbersome.

Also: changes made to prefab trigger a popup saying that the prefab connection is lost. What I notice is that I want to change a prefab more often then not and I have to go through the annoying process of saving again. A button for disconnecting from a prefab would also help improve this.

[reepblue]

I agree. The Scene Tree is just a mess and I actually don't like using it when I have to parent 2 entities together when the list is really long. I might also suggest a Parent drop down in the General tab that'll auto adjust it's position in the scene tree.

[T0X1N]

A search function, "move to folder", and "collapse all" would be very handy tools here. That scene tree right now is... gah... I don't fancy using it. Especially when maps get large... it is scrolling hell.

[xtom]

Yeah it's a pain moving things up into different filters when there's a lot of stuff. Even a collapse all would be a nice addition but all the other suggestions would be very nice too. A big +1 for scene tree improvements.

[Josh]

The custom filters were implemented at the community's request to solve this problem. I cannot display a linear list of filters because it isn't a linear list. The filters can appear anywhere in the hierarchy.

 

If you do not use this feature to organize your map, it will be very difficult to navigate. From what you are saying it looks to me like a lot of time was spent implementing a feature no one is using. That is the worst kind of feature to add!

[xtom]

I use the filters, they are a very useful addition but still even when there are lots of objects under custom filters the suggestions mentioned here would also be very useful to have. Anything that speeds up map making/organising is good.

[Genebris]

This is a great feature, but the fact that every click makes hierarchy window explode into thousands of child objects makes you stop looking at hierarchy window at all.

[Rick]

@Josh what you are saying has nothing to do with ppl not using filters. We use filters, but dragging and dropping entities between filters being the only way to move something isn't efficient. Having what filter an entity is in on the properties would be another way and more direct. Filters may not be linear but that doesn't mean you can't find all filters for this dropdown and make it linear for our viewing and moving. I think the problem you have with doing this is allowing sub filter names to be duplicated. If that wasn't there then it wouldn't be an issue. Not sure if it's too late to change that, or have a different control than drop down that shows the filter hierarchy.

[Josh]

That makes sense.

 

This might work. You couldn't do it with a dropdown box of all entities, but filters might work well because any map will never have more than 30-50 at most, and most will have no more than 20 or so.

[xtom]

I would prefer a collapse all option as it would make for less scrolling and easier to browse the scene tree in general. A right click move to filter option within the scene tree itself would be more intuitive and less disjointed to having it as a properties selection but I don't know what is possible and what isn't.