[WIP] IPL Editor

[BenMillard]

If you'd like someone to review your interface and give ideas, I'd be willing to help out. Although I'm a pretty shoddy programmer, I get good feedback from people who use my various application interfaces. From the screenshots, your interface design is very clean and professional but there seems to be a lack of resizability in dialogue windows.

 

Using a standard menu bar across the top is a great way to organise all the features into a simple control which every PC user is familiar with. It also helps to organise your code, as you have events like mnuFileOpen and mnuFileClose which then call out to global processes. It means that when you want to find where your code is for doing something, you can just look at the menu event rather than looking through the code for all your other controls.

 

Menus also provide an easy way for fast keyboard shortcuts which are easily discoverable. The user can see the shortcut by looking at each menu item, instead of looking through a clumsy "readme.txt" and trying to match up the items it describes with their position on the interface. An organised menu bar using standardised terms and more flexibility in the dialogues are the two main improvements I'd suggest. Using a menu bar means you could clear some controls out of the main area so the viewport could be bigger, too.

 

A toolbar for common operations (New, Open, Close, Save, Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, opening property views, setting viewport mode, etc) could be worth looking into.

[tonywob]

@cerbera

 

Any tips you could give would be excellent, I'm still fiddling around with the interface, so it will change alot before I eventually release it. The contol area and 3d view are all resizable and dockable, i.e. You can seperate each area into separate windows, simlar to Flash MX and Photoshop

 

I have basic map editing working and have tested this in GTA III and Vice City. It will work in San Andreas once I have added an option for LOD Parents. I have disabled binary IPL editing in San Andreas, but it works just as well using normal text files.

 

Basically, you load up the required map files you want to see and the navigate to the area you wish to mod.

 

You then add the IDE files into the relevant IPL file using a browser interface, you can also right-click on an IDE object and select add to map. You can also add your own IDE objects as long as you have added them into the image archive and created .col files (I intend to make this alot easier!! )

 

You then adjust the object either by dragging it around the screen, or using the controls in the dialog:

 

You then continue to add objects in a similar fashion.

 

As you can see, there is still alot of work todo. I need to finish my image archiver which does work, it's just slow. I want copy and paste support which means you can easily create duplicates of objects. Dragging Objects is still a little weird, but it works!!. I have reduced memory usage down and it is now much faster.

 

Not sure of a release date yet, I just don't feel it is even ready for an alpha release. I am easily distracted by my PSP and LCS

[aad]

 

just awesome dude and we will just wait till you got everything worked out. The thing i only need is a SA mapper that can add objects like moomapper did i hope you get that working soon.

[Alizee]

Good work man !

[tonywob]

 

just awesome dude and we will just wait till you got everything worked out. The thing i only need is a SA mapper that can add objects like moomapper did i hope you get that working soon.

Good News for San Andreas map editing , I now have map editing working, here a couple of examples:

 

Firstly we load the relevant area, in this case Grove Street which is easy to find in the game, ( I will add a bookmark feature, since the SA map is huge.)

 

I have added copy and paste support, so you right-click on the object you want on the map, in this case the damaged car, and then paste it to it's new area. You can rotate it, etc using the mouse or dialog controls.

 

 

You can also easily add objects using the IDE Object browser, in this case I have added a generic tree object, although this can be any object you have created Item Definitions for

 

I then did a couple of copy and pastes to turn grove street into a forest

 

and then saved and loaded the game:

 

You cannot edit binary IPL files atm, however you can copy and paste them. I also need to add a delete option, which is harder in San Andreas since all LOD parents will need to be remapped.

Edited November 9, 2005 by tonywob

[Knife]

 

Great to see it really coming together. Keep up the good work

 

[Supdario]

OH MY GOD

This is, simply.... AWESOME!!!

 

I can't wait

[bigrazzer]

i agree OMFG!!! absolutly Amazing!!!!

[mickarrow]

You're doing one hell of a job here And fast progress too.

 

Have some

 

 

edit: over 1600 views since this topic was started. I think that says enough

Edited November 10, 2005 by mickarrow

[RainingAcid]

Yes! What fun! Boy this will be one my new comp for sure!!!

[Denis_Akinshin]

 

QUOTE (Yegorchic @ Nov 2 2005, 17:30)

QUOTE (AleXXX @ Nov 2 2005, 17:19)

BIG thanks from Russian GTA-mapping community. 

 

Very BIG... 

 

And ukrainien also!   

 

Yeah! We wait this Tool =D Hehe.... My Dream Sydney International Airport

[wauzie]

Fantastic man . Will your tool be able to copy / select more than one object(s) at the time? I really like to have that function.....

 

Keep up the good work .

[Towel]

I wan this IPL Viewer please give me Alpha version of this tool

 

[tonywob]

Fantastic man . Will your tool be able to copy / select more than one object(s) at the time? I really like to have that function.....

 

Keep up the good work .

It doesn't do that at the moment, but I will eventually implement it

 

 

@Any mods, can you rename this topic IPL Editor instead of IPLViewer, thanks

[DexX]

@Any mods, can you rename this topic IPL Editor instead of IPLViewer, thanks

Done

[gtasanandreasguy]

/me wants

[Fireman]

Damn, this is great I think I'll use it to waiting....-Slurp Slurp, Hmmm... Sprunk!

[ParoXum]

I'm already dreamin of using this tool ^^

 

Good work, you work very fast !

[RainingAcid]

Must have!!!

[steve-m]

I also need to add a delete option, which is harder in San Andreas since all LOD parents will need to be remapped.

Might be better to store the object references hierarchically (i.e. pointer to parent) so deleting objects doesn't change anything, and rebuild the entire ipl on saving. How do you store them now?

[tonywob]

I also need to add a delete option, which is harder in San Andreas since all LOD parents will need to be remapped.

Might be better to store the object references hierarchically (i.e. pointer to parent) so deleting objects doesn't change anything, and rebuild the entire ipl on saving. How do you store them now?

Each IPL File is loaded into it's own object class, which handles all deletion, moving, and exporting back to a file. A bad design choice on my part was to initially export changes immediately back to a file. I have changed this now, but it left alot of mess in my code .

 

Deletion works fine now, since the class regenerates its own files.

 

[RainingAcid]

Can you give us an release date?

[DexX]

Can you give us an release date?

presumably when it's in a releasble state. Commiting to a specific date can put undue stress on the author.

[tonywob]

Can you give us an release date?

presumably when it's in a releasble state. Commiting to a specific date can put undue stress on the author.

My thoughts exactly, . Rushing things causes problems later, as I have learnt. Unfortuatenly I won't be able to do much this week due to work commitments, but I will release it when it is a useable state. Which I am estimating at the end of the month.

 

[gtasanandreasguy]

 

i want it

Edited November 25, 2005 by gtasanandreasguy

[madness.productions]

Will you be releasing any earlier beta versions. Just to see what where up for in the final releases.

[tonywob]

Will you be releasing any earlier beta versions. Just to see what where up for in the final releases.

Yes, I will have an alpha release pretty soon, just expect it to be buggy.

 

I haven't done much last week, but I will try to get back to work this week. I added a TXD viewer, and DFF properties view to the IDE File editor, I have also reworked the way changes are made.

 

I've added support for Time Controlled Objects, and also made it alot faster

[GT.Killer]

Great! cant wait for getting my hands on my "mod blueprints"

[Supdario]

I really must have it for mapping

[Azekriel]

so, when you are gonna realease the beta version of mapper.