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Beta 2 - 6 Level Builder Issues

by Mike Lilligreen · in Torque Game Builder · 04/17/2006 (3:01 pm) · 11 replies

Been working on the GravDemo all day, and have been jotting down issues I have run into.

1. Image Builder - changing the image name and clicking on save does not save the changed name. Took me a few minutes (and 20ish unsaved name changes) to realize this is the general issue with fields not saving unless you hit enter or tab/click to another field. Not a huge deal but might confuse new users to TGB.

2. No chunked imagemap support in the level editor. Will this be in beta 3?

3. Not a bug, but perhaps a checkbox could be added for "full" image mode images to be added to the scroller list? While I can't assume for everyone, I think a majority percentage of "full" images would never be used as a scroller.

4. Lack of names for the thumbnails in the create tab. When importing all those particle effects for example, I had to dig deep into the emitter data to figure out what was what. Could we get a tooltip when hoving over the thumbnails that lists the imageName and/or fileName of the object?

5. Lack of mouse input after clicking Run Game. Pretty sure this was already noted in another thread and a fix would be coming. Can't meet the requirements for the demo until beta 3 I guess. :)

6. Wanted to test the gameplay of the GravDemo anyway and just start the game up without the level builder. Perhaps I am just tired, but I cannot figure out how to load a .t2d file via script instead of Run Game inside the editor. Always get an invalid format message.

From initializeProject:
// Remove the following four lines if you would like to start the game without running the
   // level builder.
   if ($runWithEditors)
   {
      //toggleLevelEditor();
      //return;
   }
   
   // This is where the game starts. Right now, we are just starting the first level. You will
   // want to expand this to load up a splash screen followed by a main menu depending on the
   // specific needs of your game. Most likely, a menu button will start the actual game, which
   // is where startGame should be called from.
   startGame("~/data/levels/gravTest.t2d");
startGame looks basically like it would in a default build but this is where the trouble starts:
sceneWindow2D.loadLevel(%level);
I've looked through levelmanagement.cs and played around with the syntax a bit, but I can't see why it won't load.

Thanks for making it through the long read.
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Torque Owner Charlie Malbaurn
#1
04/17/2006 (3:04 pm)
Grav demo? did i miss something?

Torque 3D Owner Tom Perry
#2
04/17/2006 (3:14 pm)
TGB bounties I think.

Plan about it here.

Torque Owner Alex Rice
Default Studio Name
#3
04/17/2006 (3:40 pm)
Re: #6 Check out levelManagement.cs . There is a loadLevel() function I think. It looks pretty nifty

Torque Owner Alex Rice
Default Studio Name
#4
04/17/2006 (3:41 pm)
Re: #5 this one is a bummer. Yes there was another thread. I would love a workaround if anyone has one!

Torque Owner Tom Bushby
#5
04/17/2006 (3:47 pm)
#5:
Double press F10 to open and close the GUI Editor, you won't get the Stop / Pause buttons, but you will get mouse input.

#6:
sceneWindow2D.loadLevel("T2D/data/levels/breakout1.t2d");

Also, when you want to give your game to others, without the TS Source, remember to remove all the *.t2d files, as they have *.dso partners too. :)
del /s *.t2d

I'm also working towards a TGB Bounty - it has most of the functionality that is required (I think) - but it doesn't look very pretty.

Hope that helps,
- Tom.

Torque Owner Alex Rice
Default Studio Name
#6
04/17/2006 (8:35 pm)
@Tom- thanks for that workaround to #5 - it works! Question though: how can you stop the level and pop back into the Level Builder? easy enough to just quit() from the console but it would be nice to continue editing the level.

Associate Justin DuJardin
Default Studio Name
#7
04/18/2006 (12:12 am)
Alex,

Try hitting F9 (Which toggles the level builder)

Thanks for all the input guys, going to process this all tomorrow and get it in our bug database! You guys ROCK!

Cheers,
-Justin


Edit -
Re: #1 - This has been fixed and will be included in Beta3 (Soon!)
Re: #2 - Chunked Sprites and Images have been deprecated and will not be supported in the LevelBuilder.

Associate Mike Lilligreen
Retired T2Der
#8
04/18/2006 (10:11 am)
Justin,

Thanks for the response. For #2, I guess previous chunked functionality will be handled automatically by the engine with normal imagemap/objects? Main reason for asking the original question was because the street.jpg in the Grav demo is 2560x960 and the image builder is limited to 1024x768 in beta 2.

Tom,

For #5 - Thanks, neat little trick until beta 3 is out.

For #6 - And again thanks. I guess the having a ~ in there is ok for other things, but LoadLevel doesn't like it.

So it needs to look like the first line here:
startGame("GravDemo/data/levels/gravTest.t2d");    <--- right!
startGame("~/data/levels/gravTest.t2d");    <-- wrong!

With those gamebreakers taken care of, GravDemo bounty submission coming shortly. ;)

Torque Owner Tom Bushby
#9
04/18/2006 (10:16 am)
Mike,

No problem. :)
I tried to upload my submission for something earlier, but Mantis didn't like it. :P

Something you might be interested in, which is really simple anyway, is loading a new level.
For example, if I had 2 levels, I would increment the level id once I won it, and then load a new level. Something along these lines:
$lvl_id++;
%lvl = "GravDemo/data/levels/gravTest"@$lvl_id@".t2d";
sceneWindow2D.loadLevel(%lvl);

- Tom

Torque Owner Kodafox
#10
04/18/2006 (11:37 pm)
I've been an owner of TGE for about a year but I was a bit overwhelmed and didn't really get into it. Just recently I bought TGB and I'm really enjoying the simplicity of it. Last night I did a lot of playing around with the level editor and ran into some of these problems. I came online to check in the forum about the mouse problem and found this post. I thought it was really cool that the first time I had a problem I came online to the forums to find that it was already being discussed and worked on. I'm really excited to be a part of such and active community. I really believe that thanks to GG and the GG community TGB will be the best 2D engine there is.

Torque Owner Tom Bushby
#11
04/19/2006 (9:12 am)
:)

I've been experiencing some copy + paste problems. This could be me, but whenever I copy and paste in the level builder, I get some extra old Static Sprites that I really don't want. Even if I relaunch it doesn't help.

Here's a video (I'm uploading) that shows it.
Video (Recorded using FRAPS)
Not sure what's wrong there, probably me, but still I don't think it should be happening. :)

Thanks,
- Tom.