There are two things I'm looking for input on; see below.

Notes:
With the way I've programmed the undo/redo, the undo depth is determined by a global constant, so as long as you guys promise not to look at the code (or at least the section where I abuse global variables) I'll add an option for the user to change the undo depth (the reason I was wondering about how many are needed is that I forgot computers have hundreds of megabytes of RAM and not two dozen kilobytes ).

Some more things I'm planning on:
- Tilemap editor (I already said this, but it was sort of hidden in the first post)
- A picture editor (probably separate program, but the engine should be nearly the same)
- Manually organize the tiles for exporting as a picture
- Different "brush" sizes/types (see below)

Things I might add:
- Non byte-wide tiles (depends on whether I can figure out the bitmap format for them)
- Grayscale (if I can figure out the relevant bitmap format).  I could probably have it export them as multiple sprites representing the masks

"Below":
1) About the brush sizes/types: what should I have besides something that fills/clears pixels?  Right now, the brush only does one tile, and left-clicking darkens it, and right-clicking clears it.  All I can think of right now is having larger sizes, and I'm not sure about shapes (keep in mind most tiles will probably be no larger than 16x16).

2) What kind of whole-tile operations should there be?  As of right now, there is:
- Reset back to what it originally was
- Clear the whole thing
- Invert the colors
- Rotate
- Flip
- (others?)

I suppose a picture of what this actually looks like might be useful .  I haven't updated the menu/sidebar for a while, so there actually is more than just clear and reset

Try to output in every format you can. Even output in .bin files. (sometimes useful)

Add an optional greyish light grid, 4x4 would be excellent.
Also for tilesets keep user friendy when there is need to move tiles around. I hate the work to move tiles around in Graphics Studio...

Mhmm, will it be possible to edit multiple sprites at once? Like, an entire tilemap from a picture, for example?

I might be able to do something like that, such as editing a few tiles at once.  Being able to do an arbitrary number would be tricky, and I don't think I would be able to organize the screen reliably.  If you want to be able to do an entire tileset in a picture, it would be probably easiest (for me ) to use the picture editor and I can add an option for it to split the pic into separate tiles.

For full tilesets, I was planning on letting the user arrange them in a picture (drag-and-drop) themselves.  Would that work?

Earlier in this thread cooliojazz suggested a preview of a 4x4 (or some other number) map of itself.  I could modify it so it shows a map of the tile surrounded by other tiles, so you can see how it connects to the others.

Add an optional greyish light grid, 4x4 would be excellent.

I think I know what you mean.  I've attached a picture of what I have (ignore the bright red background, but the more closely-spaced blocks are carrying over to the actual editor).  Since the grid has to be visible when surrounded by both gray and black, I had to add a blueish-redish tint.

Also for tilesets keep user friendy when there is need to move tiles around. I hate the work to move tiles around in Graphics Studio...

How does Graphics Studio do it (I've never used it before), and how do you think I should do it?  I was just thinking of drag-and-drop with the option to either swap two tiles, or insert a tile between two others.

Quote from: Galandros on November 28, 2009, 05:16:01 pm

Add an optional greyish light grid, 4x4 would be excellent.

I think I know what you mean.  I've attached a picture of what I have (ignore the bright red background, but the more closely-spaced blocks are carrying over to the actual editor).  Since the grid has to be visible when surrounded by both gray and black, I had to add a blueish-redish tint.

[/quote]
The screenshot is exactly what I asked. Nice work.

Quote

Also for tilesets keep user friendy when there is need to move tiles around. I hate the work to move tiles around in Graphics Studio...

How does Graphics Studio do it (I've never used it before), and how do you think I should do it?  I was just thinking of drag-and-drop with the option to either swap two tiles, or insert a tile between two others.

Graphics Studio is simply a hassle, so no bother on explaining. I don't remember thoroughly how I did last time, too. I needed to make Lost Legends I font compatible with ASCII. (ease my life after some work on Graphics Studio). I think I had to insert tiles, copy/paste to there then delete the other one.

Drag-and-drop multiple tiles is as friendly as I wish. Selecting and doing one action on multiple tiles should be made by now, I guess.

Another request: the tiles appear in more than 1 row. This is another problem I found in Graphics Studio.

Keep up the progress.

LL1 is still alive? That would be cool, I was kind of worried it was dead (or never started at all) :<

I picked it. I basically just cleaned the house by now. Changed source code around and correct one or two bugs.  (resaved maps and a text display error)

The design appears to be done and completed by Zera. It eventually will need some balance on the monsters and bosses.
Liazon almost completed the graphics code.
The rest is up to me.

I should update the svn when I have a chance...

Yeah I remember Liazon did some coding on the tilemapper IIRC. However, I think after you mentionned you worked on it again half a year ago, I heard nothing anymore about it , I am kinda glad you still work on it, though.

half a year passed quickly. -.-

Let's get back on topic.

About exporting, it could be cool your own file format that even include comments about tiles and a name that you give to each tile/map.
Allow to export both in binary and hex text with .db directive.

Binary can be useful for tiles because you can see how the sprite looks like directly on source code if you have good eyes and imagination. But hex is more compact on source code.

Exporting .bin files is useful, too. SPASM and maybe other assemblers can include that on the program.
And even exporting maps and tilesets to .bmp or .png would be excellent.