shadowblitz16's suggestion topic for lgm and enigma

[Shadowblitz16]

DISCLAMER the suggestions in this topic may have already been confirmed or denied 

Hello my name is shadowblitz16 I am fairly new here I mostly hang around on the irc talking the developers of lgm and engima.
I have come up with some suggestion that I think would make lgm and enigma more useful

1. Tiles Editor

have you ever wanted to create a tile based game and found out the tiles are basically backgrounds and cannot support collision data or animation data?
I have an idea that that would fix this problem.

basically there would be a tiles editor that would replace the current sprite editor.
don't worry there could be a texture editor too

in the tiles editor you would be able to define multiple animations by selecting tiles.
animation tiles would also not have to be right next to each other to make up an animation

you would also be able to select collisions for each tile by placing polygons on the tile

sizes would also not have to be the same for each tile

this would allow much better control over your game images


2. a model and texture editor
yes i said it a model and texture editor while tiles are good for 2d games they simply do not work in 3d games

this leaves a big gap for 3d game designers that would like easy modeling or texturing

I suggest that there be a simple model and texture editor that would allow the user to make low poly 3d games easily
there could even be an option in preferences that allows the user do use different programs

3. theme(look and feels editor)
while lgm looks great without custom themes it would be nice to be able to create your own lookandfeels jar with a editor in the preferences tab
the current way of doing this is may be hard to understand for people that have no programming skills

4. extension ui support

extensions are a great thing in gm but what yoyo games lack is the ability to allow extension makers to add additional ui's to the current ui of gm
i suggest lgm to allow users to make there own ui's or even add to the ui of lgm


5. arrays editor for maps lists and grids

this is another thing gm lack while gml may be an easy to learn language
lists grids and maps are hard to under stand for beginners

I suggest that there be a array editor for lgm that allows users to create arrays and add variables to them
I think this would be easy because It might not even need enigma to be edited just lgm

6. better path editor

while path editors are good for static paths
it would be nice to have a way to add pathfinding inside of it
it would also be nice define whether it uses speed or x, y and grid movement

this would again allow people with no programming skills to make there dream games very easily

7. multiplayer editor

yes I finally said it, a editor for making multiplayer games
this probably is the hardest thing people want to do in every game

it requires you to send variables and their values across the internet and then ave them send it back to you
this might sound easy but its not not even for gamemaker

you must write very large scripts to host, connect, send, and receive info back and forth between computers
an editor for this could do a number of things like..
define a host,
define a client,
tell what packets to send and when to,
tell what packet to receive and when to,
when to kick, ban, or disconnect a player,
weather it is udp or tcp,
signaling servers,
and probably more.

thankyou for reading this
plz feel free to give me feed back on spelling, grammer, and what you guys think of these ideas

[Shadowblitz16]

7. room wrap option
think of this as a way to make games where you can simulate a endless room by wrapping the edges of it like a sphere
this would allow people to make space games where you dog fight in space

it could also me multiplayer a split screen compatible where the player can shoot bullets and beams
that don't disrupt the feel of the room wrap     

[Shadowblitz16]

-reserved

[Goombert]

Here's my honest opinion on these suggestions so far. Some I like, some ideas I've already had, and others need thought out more.

1. For the first one, I've stated already it could be useful, but my concern would be that the tile system would become overcomplicated. It would need done in a way that makes it optional to not add overhead to games that do not use it.

2. Both of those we've wanted for a very long time, except the texture editor. I already added the ability to load a texture into ENIGMA without also treating it as a background or sprite.

3. That's a good idea, but I wouldn't put it in LGM. That was similar to the goal of the Synth look and feel, to make a skinnable look and feel that can be styled with XML. A designer to make look and feels for Swing would be nice, but it would be a better idea to make it its own separate program so other Java developers could use it for other programs. Also, Google the "Web look and feel for java" because it has CSS styling support. It has a number of issues in the current LGM that will be patched in the next release, but it would be best to wait for v1.29 of Web L&F also because it fixes things like resizing MDI frames.

4. Thought of it already, there's also an open feature request for it on LGM's tracker by me.
https://github.com/IsmAvatar/LateralGM/issues/110

5. This idea needs fleshed out, I think that's a little overkill. However, I do think the GM manual is terrible at describing data structures. It could definitely use some more thorough documentation on the subject, and so could our wiki. I think it would be helpful to add better examples of when to use the structures and how to think about data structures because usually they each have their own purpose. Another possibility is that it could be use for editing constants if you wanted to make a constant array.

6. I've already had the idea of path branching and it's something wanted, but it would probably differ too much from GM. The idea would be to make it an undirected graph where a point can be connected to more than two other points.

7. Yes, but maybe not as full blown as you mean. GMS did add asynchronous events to handle parts of the multiplayer, but the implementation is pretty atrocious. It would be nice if you could simply drag an action and have the location of an object synchronized with the other players for you.

8. There's already a drag and drop action for that, and it's possible to make a scrolling background in the room editor. I really don't know what else could be added.

[TheExDeus]

8. He means the room wrapped seamlessly together with content within it. I have seen some tricks on how it was done in GM that probably work in ENIGMA as well. I think one involved views and tiling that, but I don't remember how easy or hard was it.

[Goombert]

I don't think I understand... We mean connecting rooms together like a Super Mario overworld? Josh has had ideas about that.

[TheExDeus]

No, he means seamless (i.e. no "jumping") wrapping of the world. Like so:

So the room is in the middle, but the window size is the whole image. So it is possible to see over the edges and see the world wrap. Then moving into one of those zones you would seamlessly teleport in the room in a way that you wouldn't notice. I have seen this done with views (the sides are separate views) and it can be done with surfaces.

For a space game a different approach is usually used. The Futurama "don't move the ship, but move the universe around the ship" approach. So the room can stay small (size of window) and when moving you offset the objects position instead of players ship. Downside is you cannot really place objects via room editor as the room is small. But you can do it either by random generation or by inputting coordinates. I have done this in an RPG and it worked great.

[Goombert]

I understand now, but I think that is overengineering the problem in like 95% of the cases. It would be nice if that could be simplified, but wouldn't you have to tag which objects should wrap and which ones shouldn't? Like you may want the asteroids to repeat but not the ship, it would look weird having the player/ship repeat. Then you'd have to add a flag for every instance, and that would clutter the UI more than it needs to be I think.

[TheExDeus]

No, it looks weird in my example because the room is small. Normally you would see up to only three views (when you are in a corner) and in that case you wouldn't see the player. But I don't think we need anything special in LGM or ENIGMA for that. Just make an example where that is done.

[Goombert]

I don't know, I don't think so Harri, I am pretty sure you would have to check view_current in the player's draw to stop it from drawing in any other view besides the first one. Think about it, if the player walks in the left view they will be shown on the right half of the room. Or am I crazy? I can't think of anything else...

[TheExDeus]

Lets just say your crazy, as we stray off topic here.