Information on new features: Water - you'll be able to dynamically adjust the height of the water with the mouse, instead of what was originally planned, just typing the y into a text box. Main -I'm going to include at least a basic undo function. The complexity of this tool will be down to how hard I find the simple version to add (so obviously I haven't started that feature yet). Tiles - this doesn't really belong here, but to make post longer, I'll tell you that scrolling through tiles is even easier, as you can acquire the tile image from another tile, just by using space. Sonic - because you might under-estimate the size of the view around the player's starting point, now whenever the mouse is hovering the starting arrow, it shows the view that it will start off with, this helps you decide whether you'll need another tile under the current one. There, that should do it. EDIT: Simple 'Undo last action' feature added, and that'll probably be it. EDIT: 10 step undo/redo added 2 bugs to fix.
That'd require a way to store each and every action you do into a file or something. Kinda complex, especially in game maker. Not saying I don't agree with you Selbi, just sayin.
Why "each and every"? I was just talking about 5. And is it really that hard to store data in Game Maker? Are there any programming limits? You could do this by simply setting two bytes or flags: One for the kind of action you just did (placing chuck, placing objects, rising water...) and the other one for the value it had before you did it, while 0 could be for "you newly spawned it, it didn't exist at this time".
Well think about it. If you're gonna program a way to store 5 previous changes, then it makes sense that first, you'd have to figure out a way to store any number of previous changes. Aside from that, what you're suggesting would be simple if the programming had allowed for that from the get go. As it is, there would have to be a significant rewrite of a lot of Sonic Maker's code. Maybe. I don't know anything more than you do about Sonic Maker's code, and I'm basing this off of a whole bunch of assumption. Sonica could probably clear it up some more.
Currently, it saves a temp file to the temp directory, and loads it when you click undo. I am rubbish with undo/redos. But it works pretty fast, and an undo redo that stored more than 1 action would require a LOT of work. EDIT: Actually, I'll think about that. It'd just mean I have to save more files... the way I do things.
Couldn't you do it like it saves the entire project at that point as a number in a temp file? Like say you have done 4 changes since you last saved. It would save each change as a number value in order of when they were done (1,2,3,4), and to "undo" an action means to go back to the previous number (1,2,3), and thus all the data that was saved at that number.
@Sonica: Wait, you are basically backing up the entire project file in a temp file? Well, I'd like to know how big this file would be, like if it's only a few bytes or really big and just would waste your space.
It'd be better to queue up all changes made and revert to the previous change with each undo. But like I said, writing in ways to allow for every single change to be queue'd up requires a fairly difficult rewrite. Or atleast time-consuming.
Depends on how much content is in the level at the time I guess, I dunno. I was lazy, but I don't know if I could bring myself to making a more complex thing. At least it works fast...
I'm using Windows XP and the program won't start, it says I need to download something from a .NET or something like that. What's wrong?
About the Undo thing, I'm grappling with the same problem in my own editor. Say, for example, the user deletes all the tiles in the room with 1 "clear all tiles" command. In order to "revert to the previous value", you'd need to recreate hundreds of tiles in their original positions! It does seem that temp files are the only way to go with something this complex. I wrote a multi-step undo for my Sonic 1 Special Stage editor (the whole stage data was small enough to store many copies of easily and quickly). If you'd like the code to look at, Sonica, PM me.
I now have 5 undo/redo steps almost working, in a minute I should have it fully functional. If anyone wants me to push the history count up (max 10) just say and I'll see how it is.
I'd say 5 should be alright... Thinking about it this way, before Vista, Paint only had 3 Undo steps =P
2 bugs to sort. Not being able to redo the last step, and when clicking undo straight after a change, it un-does 2 steps. They might be related. ...but they are friggin' pains, I can't find the cause. Edit: I made it 10 steps anyway my little sugar plums.
Sorry, but I have to put a cap on it, or I will have to do another re-write. And I don't want to, not in v3. I have to fix the current bugs first, anyway.
Most every professional software I've ever used that allows you to change how many undo levels you have creates a pagefile or something. I'm pretty sure it's standard practice.
