Editor v4.2 to Editor v5.0

This is an overview of the changes made between Editor 4.2 and Editor 5.0 compiled by RJ Silk.  Please see attached document to view imbedded images. 

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User Perspective Changes

Main Screen

 

Toolbars

Editor v5 contains a number of new toolbar buttons, including basic buttons for new, open, and save, as well as cut, copy and paste. The toolbar also contains zoom in/out buttons and an editable dropdown for zoom percentage.

 The role/time dropdowns visible in the bottom of the screen in the old Editor have been moved to the main toolbar in v5.

Editor v5 also contains toolbar buttons for showing/hiding point objects, gradient fills, color-code map overlays, and triggers.

The gradient/spill buttons have been consolidated into a single dropdown button. This button can be used to create a new gradient type, select a gradient type, or create a gradient object with the actively selected gradient type.

*Developer note: Point objects (Items, NPCs, Checkpoints, & Gates) are now template based and loaded at runtime. Therefore these objects and their names should not be explicitly designed into the UI. 

*Developer note: The Options menu item is currently unused but was created as a placeholder for editor specific options.

Menus

Menus have remained mostly consistent with v4. The View menu has been removed in favor of toolbar items and an Edit menu has been added with options for undo/redo, cut, copy, paste, and delete. The Tools menu has been modified to provide direct access to deploy and consolidate via submenus instead of a separate dialog.

Overview/Properties Panels

A number of changes have been made to this area of the main UI. The Overview Panel has now been expanded to a full height tab page allowing more items to be visible at once. The Properties Panel has also been expanded to full height and now includes only information pertinent to the object’s display on the map. The Game Properties Panel has been added to allow direct access to the most common game and map options (including roles and chapters).

When selecting an object on the map, the Properties Panel will be displayed showing information about the selected object. When clicking on the map but not selecting an object, the Game Properties Panel will be displayed automatically providing the designer quick access to commonly used options.

Naming and Main UI User Experience Changes

Gradients have undergone significant renaming. These changes were made to ease understandability of gradients and their function for new users. The following table illustrates the new naming scheme:

Editor v4 Naming	Editor v5 Naming
Gradient	Gradient Type
Spill	Gradient
Sample (Editor)	Test Method
Sample (Engine)	Sample

 

Time Switches are now called Chapters in Editor v5. Chapters must be named and given a specific duration. (Chapter length is no longer determined by dividing the real-time length of the game over the number of chapters, but instead by each chapter’s designer-specified duration).

When adding objects from the tool bar, the UI no longer shows an object attached to the mouse. Instead, the cursor changes indicating an object is to be added.

Point Object Properties Screen (Items, NPCs, Checkpoints, & Gates)

 

The property screens for point objects have experienced a number of changes. Navigation has been moved to the top of the screen and the window has been widened to accommodate more properties per page and less crowding. Nested tab pages have been removed and control alignment has been improved.

General

The Main page has been renamed General and contains most of the original properties. The “Object is Triggerable” and “Object is Anti-Triggerable” checkboxes have been removed as they appeared redundant given current trigger functionality.

*Developer note: There’s currently no UI mechanism to display the image if the designer chooses to display an image instead of a shape on the map. The color buttons should be hidden in this case and replaced with a picture box.

Visibility

  

The Visibility page has changed significantly as the game format now supports more robust options for visibility and accessibility. Designers now choose the roles/times in which an object should be visible/accessible from a checkable tree. If the object supports access codes (ie checkpoints), checking a chapter in the accessibility tree will prompt the designer for a code.

The “Object is Accessible From a Gate” checkbox has been removed as it was redundant given current contained object functionality.

*Developer note: Helper buttons should probably be added to this page for things like “Make Always Visible” and “Apply Code to all Checked Times”.

Triggers

 

Besides layout, the Triggers page has not been changed in functionality.

*Developer note: The “All Roles, All Times, and Everywhere” buttons still need to be wired up.

Info

 

The mechanism for editing info pages has changed in Editor v5. Instead of navigating pages using prev/next buttons. All pages are now displayed in a numbered, editable list. This allows the designer to have a better “overview” of the info pages and provides better control for editing/removing pages.

*Developer note: Need to add/implement “All Roles, All Times, and Everywhere” buttons.

The media list has also been brought into the main UI instead of a separate dialog.

Objects

 

The Info page for gates has been renamed to Objects in Editor v5. The contained objects are now role/time based. To add a code, simply check the box next to an object and the designer will be prompted to add a code.

*Developer note: Need to add/implement “All Roles, All Times, and Everywhere” buttons.

Game Properties Screen

General & Info

   

The old Time/Date and Roles pages have been consolidated into the General page in Editor v5. The “real-time length” is no longer an editable field but based on chapter durations. The “Number of Virtual Time Switches” and “How many timesplices per day?” items have been removed.

The role/time based text options have been move to the Info page in Editor v5:

Map

 

The Map page has been cleaned and extra options have been added. The page now includes an option to enable the Painted Path map as well as a field for the color-coded map’s location. The “Allow Manual Movement” option has been moved to the Misc page. The Com/GPS settings have also been moved to the Misc page.

Intro

 

The Intro page has also been changed to follow the same page model used with object infos/interviews. Introduction pages are now shown in a number list.

Misc

 

The Misc page contains all of the original options from Editor v4 as well as the COM/GPS settings and manual movement option from the old Map page. A field has also been added for the admin code.

Gradient Types Screen

 

The Gradient Types screen (originally “Gradients”) contains all of the original options from v4. The only significant change is that it is no longer necessary to click “Update Gradient” to commit changes. Changes are now committed automatically.

*Developer note: Need to add validation to the Time field and the integer fields of the Add/Edit test method form.

*Developer note: Need to add undo/redo support to this form. Changes are currently committed to the game with providing support to undo.

Gradient Properties Screen

General

 

The Main page and Info page have been consolidated in the General page in Editor v5. No properties have changed.

Visibility

 

The Visibility page has grown to accommodate the more robust game format. It uses the same tree based mechanism used for items to determine when the gradients should be active.

Format Changes

Editor and Engine v5 use a new automated file format and is saved with the extension “.oar”. This file format differs significantly from the original “.xml” format and users should avoid editing it manually.

Attachment	Size
Editor V4 to V5.doc	744 KB