preview of the next generation BZEdit

Discussion, updates, modifications, etc for the various map editors...
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purple_cow
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preview of the next generation BZEdit

Post by purple_cow »

So, those folks who know me know that I got an itching to create a new bzedit (yup, I'm a glutton for punishment, I know). It's starting to come together, and I thought you folks might like a quick preview.

There's a nice screenshot at
http://navi.cx/~jupiter/bzedit/d46-grou ... minary.png

This shows off some of the grouping capabilities of the new editor - this grouping all occurs via drag & drop within the tree, so it's very easy to keep track of things. With any luck this same code will be easily portable to win32 and mac osx, using the native gtk+ toolkits on those platforms.
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Post by Noodleroni »

/me applauds the mighty fist
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nice

Post by sid6.7 »

looks nice...
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Post by trepan »

purple_cow, I'm curious, will editing
one "chair" group modify all of the
other chairs? Alternatively, are you
setting it up so that there is a different
way to edit the definition of a chair that
will propagate to the instances?

P.S. i'm also casting a vote for "looks nice" :)
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Post by purple_cow »

I haven't even gotten close to implementing it, but I'm planning on creating a "shadow" type. This would basically be a shallow copy of an object (or group) that could then be moved & rotated as if it were a single object.
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Post by toaster »

Holy Cow! I mean, Holy Purple Cow!

Are you using any of the rendering code from bzflag as Grumbler discussed on bzedit, keep common code base?
-toaster
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Post by Grumbler »

nope, he is working on something new that will be more portable between OS'es. So if you would like something in the tool, now is good time to ask.

I am just working on trying to keep the existing tool up2date till his tool comes out.......
.........you kids, get out of my tank...........
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Post by purple_cow »

The rendering code from BZFlag really isn't suited for an editor. Actually, the rendering code from BZFlag isn't suited for anything at all, but that's another discussion. I've been idly looking at using one of the popular engines for this, but at the moment i've just rolled together a C port of the basic pybzflag engine.
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Post by toaster »

Cool. Just so it's not too hard for someone to maintain.

The only thing I'm anxious to see is an ability to manage / manipulate / duplicate etc. groups of objects. Select some, hit the "group" button, and away you go.

This could be managed with a seperate data store (file) to go with each map if needed. That way, more attribute information could be tagged onto the objects than allowed in the current map file standard if need be.

I've found it easier to make some objects to size/scale and then rotate them to the desired angle. Trying to do that with multiple objects gets complicated without a grouping interface capability. That beehive world would have been a lot easier to create if I could have easily duplicated lots of objects at once.

The rest of bzedit's features seem pretty decent, although I'm sure the interface could be improved a bit. Maybe others have ideas?
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Post by Legoguy »

By god, it's about time there was a decent one for Linux, I applaud you - hope I'm not jumping the gun, but may I beta test? I'm a beginning to average programmer so I might be able to help out, at least with debugging.
Some things I reccommend: world weapons, and a non-perspective front/side/top view - as I am a 3D modeler, I can't (easily) work without these. Also, how about some object or another that symbolizes a tank, and maybe on that somehow mark the default jump height.
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Post by RPG »

that's cool. i'd like the grouping feature (can't get it to work in the current version). a suggustion: maybe add capabilities for world weapons.

I'm not a C programmer, so i dont know how hard that would be.
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cool

Post by dark_nz »

do you have an eta on the first release date?
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Post by BIYA »

Whats curently done with the new BzEdit? I cant wait to get the newer version
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Post by JeffM »

they stoped work on this shortly after they started.. There is no release date, or expected completion date.
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Post by BIYA »

Thats horrible. Where is there a beta version of it done that I can get?
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Post by JeffM »

there is no beta version. Nothing that was anywhere near feature complete was finished. The code was never released as part of the bzflag sourcebase. All you have is the current editors right now, and may be for a while. I know of no projects to make any new editors or to update the existing ones.

If you'd like to start a project for that, then I'm sure many people would be happy.
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Post by BIYA »

Then how do we make the maps for the new versions of BzFlag with all those weird shapes and stuff. What do you mean by "If you'd like to start a project for that, then I'm sure many people would be happy." I dont have any skill in coding or anything so what are you telling me to do.
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Post by JeffM »

You read the man page, and code up a map by hand. There IS NO EDITOR FOR THE NEW FEATURES YET. None has been made. All the graphical editors are side projects people have done, they are not part of the mainline code. So we do not have an editor to update each time new features are added to the game.

Yes I'm telling you that if you want to see it done then learn how to code and finish the project, or start a project to get some people who do know how to code to finish it.. just asking "where's the beta" when it's obivious you don't even know what beta is, will not make working code magicaly appear.
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Post by BIYA »

Your calling me stupid again? Well im not sure what it means but I think it means a project that has bugs and is curently being worked on. Demo is the word I think I was trying to find.
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by hand....oy..

Post by sid6.7 »

Patlabor221 wrote:You read the man page, and code up a map by hand. There IS NO EDITOR FOR THE NEW FEATURES YET. None has been made. All the graphical editors are side projects people have done, they are not part of the mainline code. So we do not have an editor to update each time new features are added to the game.

Yes I'm telling you that if you want to see it done then learn how to code and finish the project, or start a project to get some people who do know how to code to finish it.. just asking "where's the beta" when it's obivious you don't even know what beta is, will not make working code magicaly appear.


oh wow by hand...thats gonna suck for us bzeditors...
well i supose if you K.I.S.S your maps and add in
just a few of the new thingymabobs it wouldnt be too hard...

:(

curses batman....
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Post by BIYA »

This sucks!!!!!!!!!!
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Post by JeffM »

(.)BIYA(.), no I'm not saying your stupid. I'm saying that saying "it sucks", and "but I don't want to type" isn't going to get anyone to make you an editor.

I'm sure you have many tallents, and they may not be coding, or even proper computer use.

You don't have to be a coder to be a project leader. You can design an app, come up with a plan, and motivate deveopers to get it done.

A "Demo" is something that shows how completed software will work, while not being the full software itself. In the open source world they don't exist since the full software is free. I don't think that you understand that all the authors of this item did was see if it would work, and they got some stuff into blender, and proved that yes it can be done. The plugin they have is no where near complete. IIRC it dosn't even do teleporters yet. It's a great Idea for an editor and I hope that somone does it as a proper complete project one day. But as it stands right now there is nothing that anyone can send you that can make a map.

BZFlag does not ship with an editor. If it did then it would be updated when the world format changes. This is why it's not part of the install package, because there is no good editor yet. Editors are VERY borring to make, trust me I know. It's the primary reason the windows one is abandoned.
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Post by Valoche »

Well good news for you all, I began to look closely at Java3D.
It looks like it's suitable for a new BZFlag editor, and what is way cool, is that you can find ports for various *nix flavours, including MacOSX.
I'm nowhere near a future release, but I've already implemented the camera movements system I'd like to see in an editor. For those of you who know Radiant, well it works the same way than method #2.

Edit: if I can get things go far enough, it *will* support new features...

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Post by RPG »

Hip-Hip... HORRRAYYYY
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