[Development] CO Architect

[Spirited]

Hey everyone,

It seems that most of the programmers here go through a "stage" where they want to create a fully functional map editor. I have definitely gone through that stage, and I did start my own editor once upon a time, but I was quickly overwhelmed by college classes and multiple projects, and was unable to continue. Since then, I have lost the project. Looking back at similar projects posted here, it seems that they have all fallen under the same fate.

With Project Phoenix completed, I'm shifting my focus to a new project called Architect. The tool will not, I repeat, not be a fully visual map editor like you've seen under development by other programmers. It's a much simpler editor - same functionality, just not completely visual. This will allow me to get the tool done quickly and in more manageable parts. The tool will allow the user to modify and create data maps. Aimed features are: modifying tile information (elevation, accessibility, and surface type), scenery management (bridges and such), portal management, cover management (fences, animations, and such), sound management, puzzle management (background editing), etc.

The final design for the project uses a graphical user interface (GUI) written in C# using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). It saves your GUI configuration to the Windows registry (hooray) so that you don't have to keep finding your map projects and such. Here's a picture of the tool from day 1 of development:



Currently, you can see an access map of the data map in the main screen. When you hover your mouse over the map area, it translates your mouse's location to the x, y coordinate tile your mouse is pointing to. The coordinates you are pointing to appears in the top left corner, which scales with the scale of the map image. When you click on the tile, it goes red and shows information about the tile in the right properties panel.

I plan on releasing this tool to the public at version 1.0, where most if not all features will be implemented. Feedback is welcome at any time (reason for this thread). Exclusive (invite-only) beta testing will be welcomed starting version 0.3, and open beta testing will be welcomed starting version 0.9. Development notes will be posted to this thread. More detailed (and more frequent) development notes will be posted to my blog (as I always do). So with that being said, more development is coming soon.

Cheers,
Spirited

[Ultimation]

and you did...... now i feel like the last month of development on my version was a waste of time...
Anyway nice i guess.

[Spirited]

Originally Posted by Ultimation

and you did...... now i feel like the last month of development on my version was a waste of time...
Anyway nice i guess.

Nothing like that is a waste of time. If you learned something about XNA and game programming, that's fantastic. I might not have that sort of time right now to learn something as great as you did, but I can manage a simple tool like this. The community doesn't need anything fancy, just something working. I also needed a client tool on my portfolio for this summer, and so this is my opportunity, I suppose.

[Y u k i]

Originally Posted by Spirited Fang

Nothing like that is a waste of time. If you learned something about XNA and game programming, that's fantastic. I might not have that sort of time right now to learn something as great as you did, but I can manage a simple tool like this. The community doesn't need anything fancy, just something working. I also needed a client tool on my portfolio for this summer, and so this is my opportunity, I suppose.

No XNA. It's dead. No more. The industry doesn't use it, Microsoft doesn't use it, and neither should you. It is done as of 2 versions of Visual Studio ago.

Anyway, nice to read you too started a mapeditor. Im further on with it so you can always msg me on skype.

[Ultimation]

Well, Nice work! Im still set for releasing mine at some point soon.

[angel12345]

The sad thing about all these tools if they ever were to get release the people who actually put the effort to make them are never truely thank or appreciated for such tool's(for the most part).

[Spirited]

Originally Posted by angel12345

The sad thing about all these tools if they ever were to get release the people who actually put the effort to make them are never truely thank or appreciated for such tool's(for the most part).

If people use the tool, that's good enough for me.

Originally Posted by Y u k i

Anyway, nice to read you too started a mapeditor. Im further on with it so you can always msg me on skype.

It's ok for his project. He was using XNA when it was still alive and showed possibility. I wouldn't criticize someone for using it in the past.

[majick]

[AhmedGfx]

Nice Work , Fang

[abdoumatrix]

Nice Work , Good Luck with it.

Projects and references of stuff like this in too interesting.

[U2_Caparzo]

Its a specific algo thar you are using to rotate the image or a custom one? I was trying to show dmap like they are in-game, i have few ideas but i have to try to code them ( quadrant change inverting X and Y points; or getting new points using a bit of trigo)... have been trying to know a bit more about the client lately and do some custom tools for them ( that most likely exists already in te CptSky's dll xd)

[Spirited]

Hey everyone,

This is just a small update about the development of the tool. My computer's a bit ill and I'm catching up with my studies, so you'll have to excuse me for the weekend. Here's the progress I've made so far:



I've added a few new features to the tool. The main differences being elevation and portals. Elevation shows up as a gradient, the lowest point being the lightest grey, and the highest point being the charcoal black. Portals are represented as aqua points. I've also introduced keyboard shortcuts for moving the selected point on the screen (allowing the user to select a coordinate cell with better precision). I've also fixed some bugs with displaying maps (primarily a bad memory leak, but everything is stable now). More development is coming soon.

Cheers,
Spirited

[Y u k i]

Originally Posted by Spirited Fang

Hey everyone,

This is just a small update about the development of the tool. My computer's a bit ill and I'm catching up with my studies, so you'll have to excuse me for the weekend. Here's the progress I've made so far:



I've added a few new features to the tool. The main differences being elevation and portals. Elevation shows up as a gradient, the lowest point being the lightest grey, and the highest point being the charcoal black. Portals are represented as aqua points. I've also introduced keyboard shortcuts for moving the selected point on the screen (allowing the user to select a coordinate cell with better precision). I've also fixed some bugs with displaying maps (primarily a bad memory leak, but everything is stable now). More development is coming soon.

Cheers,
Spirited

I wouldnt do a gradient on the height. You cant tell where it switches from 0 to 1 at all, let alone beyond that. Would be nice if there was a way to disable the fading.

Edit: Okay, korvacs pointed out thats not an option.

[Korvacs]

The height gradient isn't an optional effect to be honest, the height value has a range of +/- 5000 and it increments in very small values, so you can have hundreds of different levels of height. So you change the colour based on the height value and you end up with a natural gradient. Theres no other way of handling it really.

Edit: just to add that its much clearer when zoomed in which you would be if editing, so its only really a big deal when viewing a whole map, and that particular map has a fairly extreme change in elevation, most maps are flat.

[Spirited]

Since Ultimation is moving along with his map editor and getting closer to releasing it to the community, I will not be continuing this project. There really is no purpose of me wasting my time developing a lesser editor. I will instead be focusing my efforts on Project Kibou, as I scheduled on my blog. Thanks for your support; I encourage you to go support Ultimation's progress on his thread . Cheers.