Layout Editor 1.8.1.x .. Coming Soon™ (Build Status)

Discussion in 'Norrathian Homeshow' started by JesDyr, Sep 17, 2013.

  1. JesDyr Well-Known Member

    As some of you know I have started working on the next version of the Layout Editor. This is a complete rewrite of the editor and therefore it will be a while before it is released. With that said I wanted to give you a preview of what I am planning as well as ask for feature requests.... As you can see from the current state, I still have a ton of work to do (likely a few weeks worth at the current rate).

    Main goals -
    • Performance - The current editor gets very slow when working with large files and if you use lots of notes. Much of the problem is caused by poor design choices I made when adding various features. I am using what I have learned since then to do things in a more efficient way.
    • Integrate the House Organizer and expand it's functionality. One thing I want to do if have the editor scan your layout directory to keep a complete inventory. Much of this will be optional and can be turned on/off.
    • Better external storage of data (will prevent the loss of group information). The editor will now use a SQL Compact database to store information.
    What's New / Coming -
    • Alternate row highlighting with user selectable colors. (You can also show row numbers but it is ugly and will default to off) (done)
    • Angle Offset. Good for building houses on a given angle. (done)
    • Move items at any direction by a given amount (done)
    • Support moving a design (group of items) from one house to another.
    • Basic item information database. Sizes and like info.
    • Snapshots (Pseudo Undo). I am not sure how far I am going to take this one. (mostly done)
    Maybe -
    • Animator (still have lots of questions and I need to see how SOE feels about some of the things I want to do)
    • Zone Maps.
    • Storage house organization options for building blocks using in game visual counter.
    • Math calculators (for Jazabelle mainly) - various geometry formulas - not really sure yet.

    --Current State --
    [IMG]

    • File parsing / Loading - 90% done
    • Basic movement controls - Done
    • Creation Tools (circle, text creator, tile, .., ..) - 5% done
    • AutoReplace UID functions - 90% done.
    • Diff functions - 90% done
    • Notes Import/Export - 80% done
    • Groups Import/Export/Management - 50% done
    • Snapshots - 80% done
    • Manifest code - 0% done
    • Organizer UI - 5% done
    • Organizer Layout Manager - 5% done
    • Organizer File Scanning - 0% done
    • EQ2 Log file parsing - 0% done
    Katz, Charlice, Taysa and 12 others like this.
  2. Shadrac Well-Known Member

    Have you ever
    Have you ever considered going open source with this project?
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  3. JesDyr Well-Known Member

    I thought about it once but it isn't something I want to do. One reason I have wanted to rewrite the entire thing is in the event I want to hand it off to someone or just make it open source. Being that I basically have taught myself C# while making the editor, the current release code is a complete mess with many unused functions and poor design choices.
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  4. Shadrac Well-Known Member

    Well, I can understand that. I did the same thing many years ago, writing a handy utility for a consumer product. When people were asking me to open source it, I declined for the same reason. I had a blast developing it, and learned a lot, but the code wasn't pretty.

    I thought of creating my own utility to assist with house decorating. Though the functionality availble to developers (for housing) is very limited, isn't it? And they could modify the whole system on a whim.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  5. JesDyr Well-Known Member

    There has been a few people talk to me over the years about making their own layout editors.. I don't think any of them got finished. Even with just the layout files you can do a lot if you get creative about it. The biggest problem I have faced is attempting to make things simple enough that most people can understand it.

    Yes they could modify the whole thing at any point, however I think that is very unlikely. Since Version 2 (Beta) the only updates have been driven mainly by the community pushing for changes to fix bugs (which are all squished). The last change was one I requested (Unique house IDs).
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone and Shadrac like this.
  6. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    Wow! Congrats on that! I haven't had to get that fancy yet (yet being the operative word...), but it's good to have in case. :)

    Uwk
    Shadrac likes this.
  7. Shadrac Well-Known Member

    I can see why. I am grateful that they allow us to save/edit/load layout files, but wouldn't it be nice if we could call a function that returned the same information for the selected object? Then if we could call a function that sends back that (edited) information. That would open up a whole new world in home design!

    I wonder how many players use housing and how much revenue housing generates.


    That's the key! Of course, the easier you make things for users, the harder you make things on yourself.


    Cool. The only change I want to see right now would be the functions I mentioned above.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  8. JesDyr Well-Known Member

    absolutely... I am hoping they learned From this and will open things up in EQ Next... but being voxel based, things get even more complex there (I really cant wait). They did apply some of the lessons learned in EQ2 to EQ1 when they added layouts to it so I am hopeful.
  9. Shadrac Well-Known Member

    Yeah, I am waiting impatiently for EQ Next Landmark, as well.

    In fact, I built a TimeMachine(TM) and went into the future, and I can report back that it so great, it changed (changes) (will change) then MMORPG paradigm!

    Oops! I altered the timeline by revealing that! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh...
  10. Geden Well-Known Member

    Jesdyr - this is great news! I cannot possibly recall all the times that Layout Editor made my decorating dreams come true. No matter how messy the code is, your program rocks! Eagerly awaiting the newest version to play with the Angle offset and moving Designs between houses!! /hugz
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  11. JesDyr Well-Known Member

    Update -

    I haven't had as much time to work on things as I would like so progress has been a bit slow. I wrote a handful of misc functions (things like Copy/Paste location, Duplicate item, ..) which also involved a short "OMG I messed up" UID replacement, but it turns out I just forgot to finish up a function due to a distraction the day before... Oops

    Started working on some of the creation tools which involved finishing up the group code. At which point I realized what I was doing had a major design flaw which caused me to do a redesign of how groups are managed. (backwards progress!).
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  12. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    Kinda discouraging when you have to reverse engineer yourself... :-/

    Uwk
  13. Jazabelle Well-Known Member

    Maybe? MAYBE?! Do you know how useful it would be for so so so many people? No longer will I have to link them to random outside webpages so that they can input their information for building perfect octagons, decagons, and what-have-you-agons! I'll just have to explain to them how to use the in-editor calculator!

    (For people who like perfect alignment, I suggest http://www.calculatorsoup.com/calculators/geometry-plane/polygon.php in the meantime. Just change the top dropdown to the shape you want and the second dropdown to "Calculate a, R, A, P | Given inradius r." inradius r = the radius in the circle tool of the layout editor. Then depending on what building block item you're using for your shape, length a is usually either the scale, 1/2 the scale, or 2x the scale.)
    Katz, Geden and Uwkete-of-Crushbone like this.
  14. ZUES Well-Known Member

    I built a Timemachine too. I saw everyone in the forums complaining that Sony didn't live up to their expectations.
    Niboota and Uwkete-of-Crushbone like this.
  15. Shadrac Well-Known Member

    Well, I guess their presentation has set expectations very high. Sentient mobs! Fully destructible world! World that changes over time! World with several different levels! World that generates itself as you explore! Own and reshape your own mountains! Build your own class from the best abilities from any that you've earned! Go on a date with Michelle Pfeiffer! ...wait, how'd that get in there??
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  16. Shadrac Well-Known Member

    I was just thinking though, if the rumors are true that Blizzard rebooted their Titan project after seeing what SOE was doing with EQ Next, then it means they think it might meet or exceed expectations.

    Personally, I hope it redefines the genre like EQ1 did. And I think they did the right thing. Why make EQ2.5? I think EQ2 took the classic EQ design as far as it needs to go, and I will probably keep returning to both for as long as I am able.
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  17. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    Meh, we'll see. Frankly, I think the most successful aspect of EQ3 is gonna be Landmark... :D

    Uwk
    actually looking forward to that
    Shadrac likes this.
  18. Shadrac Well-Known Member

    I was thinking that, too. It may just be that the afterthought version of EQ Next, the Landmark sandbox game, might blow the RPG version of the game out of the water simply due to the overall freedom, which may have more customers.

    Anyway, it need not be so, they could join the two games at the hip. One thing EQN didn't do, or at least what they didnt announce is a game feature that I dreamed up years ago that I think will one day redefine the genre (and it could join EQN:L and EQN at the hip, and in so doing join the two different player bases at the hip.

    What is my groundbreaking, earth-shaking, genre-spawning idea, you ask? You'll have to wait until after breakfast to find out...MOO HOO AHH HA!
    Uwkete-of-Crushbone likes this.
  19. JesDyr Well-Known Member

    New UI I am working on for the Circles / Spirals tool. The Green Dots represent where the items will get placed relative to the center point (left side is top down view .. Right side is a side view (From the south)... I have some weirdness I need to track down with it still, but it is like 95% working.

    [IMG]
  20. Uwkete-of-Crushbone Well-Known Member

    "Bless you, sir!" --Tiny Tim-like decorating waif :)

    Uwk
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