Tilemap Usability Problems
by Pete Michaud · in Torque Game Builder · 09/17/2009 (9:34 am) · 0 replies
Before I jump right into whining, I'd just like to say that TGB is really great. I know you guys have worked hard on this, and it shows, so I appreciate it!
Tilesets, though. It's one of those features that "works," in the strict, programmery sense, but the usability it atrocious. I'd like to list a few ways that it can be improved tremendously without too much additional work for most of the changes:
1) By far, the biggest issues are the image selection and frame selection. Image selection first. Maybe figuring out that a tilemap should be a CELL imagemap is just a training issue, so I won't complain about that. The whole process of creating a tilemap is entirely visual though, so having a text drop down just doesn't cut it. When I'm choosing an image, I need to see what image I'm choosing instead of flipping the screen back and forth trying to see the name of the imagemap I want to use. I need a menu to drop down with thumbs the same size as the Create menu thumbs.
Probably the better option is to have a specific "tileset" area under static sprites et al (on the create tab): you can add a new tileset from an existing image map, full or cell or whatever, and the data doesn't change at all, just the organization. That way, when I'm in the Tilemap editing area, my drop down (which now shows thumbnails, of course) isn't chock full of all my character animations and what have you. It only has my maybe 10 tilesets that I've created for my different environments.
2) As a corollary to that change, the "frame" selection, which IS a thumbnail selection of the available tiles in a given CELL imagemap (yay), also is almost impossible to use (aww). See, when I create a tilemap, I don't arbitrarily place tiles: I put related tiles next to each other, and often group them together to form blocks that are larger than 1 tile (like maybe a rock outcropping that is 5 tiles wide). That's why it's important to not only preserve the order of the tiles, but also the layout, meaning that if I import an image that's 32x24 tiles, the interface needs to show the "frame" selection with 32 columns and 24 rows. As it is, I'm using a very small window to hunt down an individual tile that's probably nowhere near its related tiles.
3) I know there is the concept of brushes (which still doesn't solve #2, as I have to actually put the brushes together to begin with), but they just aren't friendly. What should happen is that I should be able to select a whole chunk of tiles from the spiffy new, well-laid-out frames interface, and plunk them all down at once.
4) I want to be able to see what I'm doing, so whenever I'm in draw mode, ready to place a tile (or group of tiles), I should be able to see a "ghost" image of the tiles as I hover, so I can tell what I'm actually doing.
5) Since the right click isn't doing anything while I'm placing tiles, it'd be nice to have it default to the eraser so I can quickly correct a mistaken click (although there shouldn't be too many of those with suggestion #4).
6) When I drag a new Tilemap into the game world, the "tile set" should probably match my grid size by default. Right now it's set at an arbitrary 5wu, which I have to change if I want to match my grid. Maybe different use cases would require different sizes than the grid size, but at very least, when I drag a tilemap onto the world it should default to the tile size I used in a previous tilemap.
7) When I change the tile count, it's my expectation that the size of the actual object should change also. So tile count X * tile size X = new width. I know that will work poorly for a scrolling tilemap, but you can tell if it scrolls or not by whether there is a 0 in the auto pan field -- the sensible default is that for any dimension with an autopan value of 0, the size would change according to the tile count * size.
Anyway, keep up the good work. I know tilemaps are a relatively new feature, and sometimes it takes eating your own dog food to realize how bad it tastes, so I hope the suggestions help!
Tilesets, though. It's one of those features that "works," in the strict, programmery sense, but the usability it atrocious. I'd like to list a few ways that it can be improved tremendously without too much additional work for most of the changes:
1) By far, the biggest issues are the image selection and frame selection. Image selection first. Maybe figuring out that a tilemap should be a CELL imagemap is just a training issue, so I won't complain about that. The whole process of creating a tilemap is entirely visual though, so having a text drop down just doesn't cut it. When I'm choosing an image, I need to see what image I'm choosing instead of flipping the screen back and forth trying to see the name of the imagemap I want to use. I need a menu to drop down with thumbs the same size as the Create menu thumbs.
Probably the better option is to have a specific "tileset" area under static sprites et al (on the create tab): you can add a new tileset from an existing image map, full or cell or whatever, and the data doesn't change at all, just the organization. That way, when I'm in the Tilemap editing area, my drop down (which now shows thumbnails, of course) isn't chock full of all my character animations and what have you. It only has my maybe 10 tilesets that I've created for my different environments.
2) As a corollary to that change, the "frame" selection, which IS a thumbnail selection of the available tiles in a given CELL imagemap (yay), also is almost impossible to use (aww). See, when I create a tilemap, I don't arbitrarily place tiles: I put related tiles next to each other, and often group them together to form blocks that are larger than 1 tile (like maybe a rock outcropping that is 5 tiles wide). That's why it's important to not only preserve the order of the tiles, but also the layout, meaning that if I import an image that's 32x24 tiles, the interface needs to show the "frame" selection with 32 columns and 24 rows. As it is, I'm using a very small window to hunt down an individual tile that's probably nowhere near its related tiles.
3) I know there is the concept of brushes (which still doesn't solve #2, as I have to actually put the brushes together to begin with), but they just aren't friendly. What should happen is that I should be able to select a whole chunk of tiles from the spiffy new, well-laid-out frames interface, and plunk them all down at once.
4) I want to be able to see what I'm doing, so whenever I'm in draw mode, ready to place a tile (or group of tiles), I should be able to see a "ghost" image of the tiles as I hover, so I can tell what I'm actually doing.
5) Since the right click isn't doing anything while I'm placing tiles, it'd be nice to have it default to the eraser so I can quickly correct a mistaken click (although there shouldn't be too many of those with suggestion #4).
6) When I drag a new Tilemap into the game world, the "tile set" should probably match my grid size by default. Right now it's set at an arbitrary 5wu, which I have to change if I want to match my grid. Maybe different use cases would require different sizes than the grid size, but at very least, when I drag a tilemap onto the world it should default to the tile size I used in a previous tilemap.
7) When I change the tile count, it's my expectation that the size of the actual object should change also. So tile count X * tile size X = new width. I know that will work poorly for a scrolling tilemap, but you can tell if it scrolls or not by whether there is a 0 in the auto pan field -- the sensible default is that for any dimension with an autopan value of 0, the size would change according to the tile count * size.
Anyway, keep up the good work. I know tilemaps are a relatively new feature, and sometimes it takes eating your own dog food to realize how bad it tastes, so I hope the suggestions help!
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