JMP Suggestion thread. (49 posts)

  • Profile picture of rickard rickard70p said 1 year, 3 months ago:

    I sometimes come up with improvements or suggestions that don’t really justify their own thread and then forget about them, so i thought i’d start one where we can continuosly post ideas that won’t generate a long discussion.

    Here’s the first:

    I often find myself looking through the assets folder for various models and textures Then i type in the path to them in the code. Usually, i type in the wrong name, or miss a folder tier, etc etc. A useful function would be “Copy path” on an asset, which could then be pasted straight into the code.

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  • Profile picture of normen normen1290p said 1 year, 3 months ago:

    Some things I want to add still:

    ⁃ Split asset jars
    A UI to define what assets folders go to separate jar files (for adding “update-jars” or just updating a part of the assets)

    ⁃ MaterialEditor extras
    Support the extended options in j3m files

    ⁃ Material to j3m -> “live” edit
    Allow editing a Geometrys Material by creating a j3m file from it and opening/applying that.

    - Support specifying OgreXML MaterialExtensions globally in Preferences

    - Undo/Redo for VehicleCreator and the yet missing items

    - Widgets in SceneComposer OpenGL view to move, resize objects

    - Swing UI dialogs to edit properties like Quaternions and Vectors ([...] next to values)

    Cheers,
    Normen

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  • Profile picture of Vortex Vortex9p said 1 year, 3 months ago:

    I would like to see a skybox/skysphere creator. A skybox is still the only thing that I need to create at runtime.

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  • Profile picture of normen normen1290p said 1 year, 3 months ago:

    Thing I want to add too is adding stuff to the scene via right-clicking a node in the SceneExplorer and selecting from a popup menu. This way you can add e.g. a node also in other plugins that don’t have this feature.

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  • Profile picture of mifth mifth132p said 1 year, 3 months ago:

    Normen, if you add widget move/scale/rotate it will be VERY VERY VERY nice. So it will be able to use SceneComposer with all its might of level design.
    future feature request for transform widgets:
    1. copying a node. For example, I selected a node, then i drag a transform widget with ctrl or alt and the node is copied with all its hierarchical content.
    2. world/local/view coordinates switching. For example i rotated a node and it means its local coordinates changed. Then i can transform the node according to its local coordinates.
    3. transform multiple selected nodes. For instance, i selected 3 nodes and i can transform them in one time according to their own origin or their average point.

    These features for manipulators will be very useful for level design. Thank you!

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  • Profile picture of normen normen1290p said 1 year, 3 months ago:

    **cleaned thread**

    A thing I was talking with @nehon about is a separate window (similar to SceneExplorer) to edit scene processors, save them as a batch incl. configuration and load/apply them to the scene. Nehon has made the necessary changes to the Processors so they implement Savable, so a general tool for these that works across all plugins would probably be nice. This way one could load readymade processor configurations into games.

    @mifth: I guess you can combine your requests as “make scenecomposer work like blender” ;) Seriously, I guess SceneComposer input and editing handling would require a separate thread, ideas on how to link stuff into SceneComposer, what actual functions to integrate etc. would be better placed here.

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  • Profile picture of nehon nehon591p said 1 year, 3 months ago:

    Yep a Filter Editor is planned (though i don’t really know when :p )

    We also had the idea of a cinematic Editor, that would expose a time line, on which you could add CinematicEvents fetched from a tool box.
    The result would be savable in some binary format (let’s say .j3c) and then loadable via the assetManager.
    Also i would like to add the possibility to save it as a video format, at a constant framerate, to allow the recording of cinematics with full configuration (high res, full AA, filters to the max, hi quality shadows,etc…) and then just play it as a video in the actual game.

    Though it’s more of an idea than a real project for now.

    BTW…maybe this could fit the GSoC, isn’t it?

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  • Profile picture of mifth mifth132p said 1 year, 3 months ago:

    Normen, have a look at this. I think this is the most important toolset for level editor in SceneComposer.

    http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/382/pic6q.png

    Edited: I think background should be gray, as most 3d editors and level editors use gray color(blender, 3dmax, maya, unity, speedtree…).

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  • Profile picture of mifth mifth132p said 1 year, 3 months ago:

    GSoC’11: SceneCompositor Imprvements for level design.

    According to my picture:
    - Make gray background as it’s more comfortable and gray color is used in most 3d editors and game level editors.
    - Make visual horizontal grid.
    - Widgets for SceneComposer OpenGL view to move/rotate/scale objects/nodes (like in blender or any 3d editor).
    - Possibility to manipulate (move/rotate/scale) selected objects/nodes.
    - World/Local/CameraView coordinates for objects/nodes.
    - Make grid according to units in JME.
    - Perspective/Orthographic camera switching.
    - Grid snapping. To manipulate objects according to grid units.
    - Align camera to selected objects/nodes.
    - Clone selected objects/nodes. Possibility to clone selected nodes with its hierarchical content.
    - Front/back/left/right/top/bottom/perspective camera view switching.

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  • Profile picture of atomix atomix72p said 1 year, 3 months ago:

    1- Make gray background as it’s more comfortable and gray color is used in most 3d editors and game level editors.
    2- Make visual horizontal grid.
    3- Widgets for SceneComposer OpenGL view to move/rotate/scale objects/nodes (like in blender or any 3d editor).
    4- Possibility to manipulate (move/rotate/scale) selected objects/nodes.
    5- World/Local/CameraView coordinates for objects/nodes.
    6- Make grid according to units in JME.
    7- Perspective/Orthographic camera switching.
    8- Grid snapping. To manipulate objects according to grid units.
    9- Align camera to selected objects/nodes.
    10- Clone selected objects/nodes. Possibility to clone selected nodes with its hierarchical content.
    11- Front/back/left/right/top/bottom/perspective camera view switching.

    @mifth: I think I have very similar ideas about Scene Composer and I also think It’s not a difficult task to implement.
    So , 1,2,3,4,5,7,9,11 I’m working on them now…
    (plus) a “drag and drop library” of game entities (game entity is a group of models and specific size)

    And I really want a “working-plane” or “Create on sufface” like in Max… so a tree can be put in ground..and a picture put on wall !

    So I really want to know if you guys are making something more complex somewhere…?
    :D

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  • Profile picture of normen normen1290p said 1 year, 3 months ago:

    The AssetPack function already supplies a “drag and drop library”. Adding things to nodes is also possible through the “add to scenecomposer” and “link to scenecomposer” buttons. Happy you want to do the SceneComposer improvements, @atomix . Note that I have started creating Actions with Popup presenters for adding things, they are used in the SceneExplorer now and shall later be extensible similar to the SceneExplorer itself, so you should use these for any “Add..” popups in SceneComposer.
    Cheers,
    Normen

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  • Profile picture of atomix atomix72p said 1 year, 3 months ago:

    Yeah , It’s a good news that we will have pop-up for adding thing.

    What I’m implementing is a library (of common objects such as “Wall”,”Tree”,”Barrel” … etc , they can be out of project’s asset!!!!!! ) .

    And they have thumbnails and I can drag them to a “working-plane” (which determine position/rot/scale) like a kid play with toys … :D .

    More complex works : I build a “photo-palette” for “drag-and-drop” . Everything, materials, sound can be add more easily…. The asset (library) explorer become more like a “photo-gallery” . Sounds , models , materials , shaders can be preview separately…

    Now, 2 things I really concern :
    1) I try to get familiar with Netbean Platform ‘s action for implement Undo/Redo of my Adding Action. Is it implement somewhere in “Add to scenecomposer” so I can take a look!

    2) Can we save more extra info into our scene format load (for custom game purpose) ? So everything can be load just by loading a scene like load a level… Or I have to start writing my own “Level” format?

    Wish you have a good day, sir!

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  • Profile picture of normen normen1290p said 1 year, 3 months ago:

    Again, the library thing you are talking about is already implemented in form of Asset Packs, you should use these for you endeavors. They can also wrap any kind of asset really. The materials are already selectable through a dropdown that automatically fills with the j3m materials available in the project. I think with all this copying from other programs UI’s its very easy to miss the point of implementing it in a way that fits to the jME3 engine.

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  • Profile picture of atomix atomix72p said 1 year, 3 months ago:

    Ahhh , I see … One project can have many Asset Packs, they can be used internally (as default resource) or externally (like a reference resource which can be shared) .

    But I still think it’s good to improve the UI of JMP, so it can be more easy to use by artists, not only by developers…

    Can I ask further about the “Level Format” thing, it’s certainly out of topic!…

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  • Profile picture of normen normen1290p said 1 year, 3 months ago:

    The “level format” is j3o, which is a complete scenegraph in binary form but you should not think in the context of “levels”, this is not an editor for one type of game but rather a toolset for jME3. I think you should rather look more into how jME3 and jMP work than trying to apply preconceived ideas.

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