Ideas for DWARF, Plans for next release, options, tools, Options

[joshpurple]

I hope to add some ideas, tools, etc. to the AWESOME DWARF world editor.
Any and all are welcome to throw thoughts in.


First, AWESOME and THANK YOU PW Team for getting this done. I'm DIGGING it. It is a blast to create levels in DWARF -especially knowing you guys made this! That so ROCKS!

1. Can gifs work as materials/textures? I will test this,
but most times where a jpg will fit, a gif will go as well.
Which would mean animated gifs for textures, YES!

2. Can/do the materials and textures support alpha channels?
Having animated gifs, with alpha channels, can allow for some
very cool affects.

3. Can object be 'locked' in place. Just like
'Freezing' an object so transforms don't affect it,
avoid selecting it.

4. Is there a way to select through the 'bounding
box' of the object. Example: I add a tree, behind
that tree is a rock, or near that tree. If I try to
select that rock, sometimes ( I believe most times)
when I try to select the rock, the tree will be selected
instead. So I will move the tree to get at the rock.
Not that big a deal, -maybe freezing objects will
solve that issue, otherwise my work flow is
add small to big ( so I don't have to move the
big objects out of the way).

O.k., I'll add more soon

(Thank you!!)

[Jerky]

#'s 1 and 2 aren't really controlled by DWARF, they are features of Ogre. I don't think animated GIF's are how you animate a texture in a realtime engine. There is a rendering function in Ogre called RendertoTexture that allows for animated textures. Anyways, my point is that we can work on these by editing the material scripts. They arent really controlled by our programmers, the Ogre engine controls it. That was the long answer, the short answer is yes.

I'll let Yellow answer for 3 and 4.

[Yellow]

1) dont know wether ogre supports gif animations, but usually you'd create a texture movie by just going through different textures.
Render to texture is ie a minimap (place a camera above the scene and render the output to the overlay).

2) The material alpha is indeed controlled by ogre, I think its best to go through their tutorial on materials. There is a special section in the orge wiki that deals with that.

3) Yes, it should be posible to lock an object.

4) we could remove the selectable tag we put in every selectable object, but that way you wouldnt be able to select it at all. We should look into ray-mesh picking so it wont pick the target by bounding box, but rather by mesh.


btw, in the programming forum there is a feature request sticky where I try to keep all todo items and you can make new requests.

And I'm happy that you like our tool

[joshpurple]

btw, in the programming forum there is a feature request sticky where I try to keep all todo items and you can make new requests.

And I'm happy that you like our tool

Ah! Thank You, I'll use that ! And, Thanks for the answers.

[njpaul]

For #4 we could probably implement something like Ctrl+LMB brings up a list of all objects that intersected with the ray. Then we let the user decide what to pick. Normal LMB just selects the object like we do now.

[Yellow]

For #4 we could probably implement something like Ctrl+LMB brings up a list of all objects that intersected with the ray. Then we let the user decide what to pick. Normal LMB just selects the object like we do now.

mesh / ray intersections would make for a more natural use interface though. But I think all the objects in the area should be listed, so a user can easily find them again.

[njpaul]

mesh / ray intersections would make for a more natural use interface though. But I think all the objects in the area should be listed, so a user can easily find them again.

I agree that the mesh/ray intersections would make for a more natural interface, and I think we should keep it that way, for normal left-mouse clicking. But I think we could also have a Ctrl+left click that would get a list of everything intersected to avoid these issues of not being able to select an object that is inside another's bounding box. I think no matter what, we do need a list of all objects.

[joshpurple]

Very cool. I like the scene list idea too. In Max a nice feature is a 'Select by Name,' list. Click the little button, and just like the Resource Browser, you get a list of all the objects used in the scene.

Even better is the 'Layer manager.' Here you have a spot to organize objects, hide or unhide objects, and a way to put things together thinking in layers.

[Yellow]

I agree that the mesh/ray intersections would make for a more natural interface, and I think we should keep it that way, for normal left-mouse clicking. But I think we could also have a Ctrl+left click that would get a list of everything intersected to avoid these issues of not being able to select an object that is inside another's bounding box. I think no matter what, we do need a list of all objects.

I think I stated that a bit fuzzy :S, I meant, instead of doing boundingbox / ray picking, we should pick on the true mesh intersections, not the bounding box. So you'd select an object like you'd do in 3dsmax in example. I think thats the most natural way. The bounding box thing was just because its was easy to put in, but its not as it should be.

I think an aditional option to either get a listbox with the intersecting objects would be good for the detail works though. perhaps we should add both aproaches.

[ghedipunk]

A layer manager... now *that* would be useful. Create an active layer with trees, and when you're done, hide them (or turn them wireframe and unselectable)... turn around and create a layer for foliage, add stuff, hide it, add another layer for buildings... realize that you've got a tree in the middle of a guildhall, select the tree layer again and more it... MUCH easier to manage!

My initial comment on Dwarf is to remap the insta-close away from the esc key, to something like alt-f4.

[joshpurple]

A layer manager...  now *that* would be useful.  Create an active layer with trees, and when you're done, hide them (or turn them wireframe and unselectable)...  turn around and create a layer for foliage, add stuff, hide it, add another layer for buildings...  realize that you've got a tree in the middle of a guildhall, select the tree layer again and more it...  MUCH easier to manage!

My initial comment on Dwarf is to remap the insta-close away from the esc key, to something like alt-f4.

Thanks Ghedipunk . Yup, even with Max the Layer manager was not added until version.. 7 ( I think? ), but it is one of the MOST popular tools in Max. Many are very familiar with layers in PhotoShop too, so it's use is quickly understood. Another advantage is if you hide a layer, then select objects and add them to that layer, as soon as you add them, they are hidden.

I think the Layer Manager grew out of a need for greater and greater control with 'selection sets.' Select a bunch of objects, and name the selection "Trees." That selection would then be saved as a 'set' you could select any time.

[Jerky]

Hmm, I hadnt even thought of having layers before in DWARF. You make a very compelling case. That would be awesome.

[njpaul]

I see what you mean Yellow. Yeah, that would be a good thing to do. I also like the layer idea.

[ppClarity]

Apologies for the stream of conciousness

Resize and Rotate thumbs on the object selection box.
Copy and paste.
Mousewheel zooms.
WASD always active.
SHIFT-MMB to pan.

WASD travel is much too slow by default. Instead it should run at a reasonable speed by default and use the SHIFT(?) key to slow things down. IMO, the 'fast' speed was still a bit too slow and the slow speed was way too slow.

[njpaul]

WASD always active.

Afraid that one is impossible because some of the gui needs input from the keys where it is clearly not intended to move the camera.

WASD travel is much too slow by default.  Instead it should run at a reasonable speed by default and use the SHIFT(?) key to slow things down.  IMO, the 'fast' speed was still a bit too slow and the slow speed was way too slow.

Hit shift multiple times. You will get more speedup for each time you press it. The slow setting is that slow for when you are really close to the ground.

[Cobra]

Copy and paste.

Select your object, hold C and press anywhere on the terrain. The item you¨selected should have copied itself.

There are a fw options for Copy/Paste (excluding that) so check the manual!

[Matlush]

Hm... what would i like to see... Move curves ? Appending an object would make this object move thro that curve. Also, I'd like more cameras, ability to switch them and append them to object/move paths.

What else.. hm... some way to terraform, making holes in terrain for caves, and doing a verticle recalculation on meshes while changing their properties (why ? In Blendie I've had to toy with it kinda much, and then export it, put it in alpha's dir, and check if it's like what i want)

[Yellow]

Hm... what would i like to see... Move curves ? Appending an object would make this object move thro that curve. Also, I'd like more cameras, ability to switch them and append them to object/move paths.

What else.. hm... some way to terraform, making holes in terrain for caves, and doing a verticle recalculation on meshes while changing their properties (why ? In Blendie I've had to toy with it kinda much, and then export it, put it in alpha's dir, and check if it's like what i want)

You mean motion paths, where the camera follows a nurbs curve. Well, something like splines and so should be added for character movement and camera sequences later. Definately something we should do in the future.

same with painting holes on the terrain, so a mesh can be placed below the surface to create a cave.

Recalculating vertices should be done before the mesh is imported, we cant add all the functionality of a modeling app.

[ppClarity]

Afraid that one is impossible because some of the gui needs input from the keys where it is clearly not intended to move the camera.

Yah, that was kinda silly, nvm

Hit shift multiple times. You will get more speedup for each time you press it. The slow setting is that slow for when you are really close to the ground.

Hrm, maybe I should read the manual

[Maxwell]

Here are some Idea's I got while using dwarf.

Something prompting you to save before you leave.

Something telling you that you can not use spaces in save file names and it lets you go back to change it.

That is all I could come up with serpate from others.