Simplifying The Entity Inspector

[OrbWeaver]

A couple of mappers have pointed out that the current "categorised" entity inspector is cumbersome to use, because it hides information underneath category entries and increases the number of mouse clicks required to add or edit keys. From my own use I tend to agree with this view; it is also the case that the code is quite complicated owing to the need to work from categories to keys rather than the more natural "show a list of every key on the object" approach.

 

I am therefore going to start simplifying the entity inspector. I was thinking that the interface would be similar to the following:

 

1. A flat list, showing all of the keys currently set on the object. This list would display the key, the value (in text format) and the type icon (vector, text, model etc.). Right-clicking on this list would provide a context menu with an Add option, that would in turn display a separate dialog with the current categorised keys, along with their descriptions, which could be browsed and added to the current entity.

2. Below the list of keys, 2 textboxes allowing entry of keys and values manually (like DoomEdit).

3. The current key-specific editing widget, allowing a more user-friendly modification of the current keyvalue.

 

I believe this dialog would provide the best of both worlds, by allowing advanced mappers to type in their keyvalues in the DoomEdit style, while simultaneously providing a user-friendly GUI-based approach for those who wanted it.

[greebo]

Sounds ok to me. As long as there is some possibility to recognize/distinguish keys in that list, I can see that the flat list is faster to use. What I would add: I could imagine that colouring the property key/values according to their category (blue for model, green for light, red for readable keys or something like that) would help distinguishing if there are a lot of spawnArgs displayed.

 

Is there anything we should keep in mind for future expansions like displaying keys that are inherited? Or should we perhaps display the inherited values in a grey colour to reflect their origin?

[OrbWeaver]

I think the grey colour for inherited keys sounds very reasonable. By selecting one of these keys, you could override it and then it would become an explicit (black) key. The display of inherited keys at all should be a toggle as well, IMO.

 

Not sure about category colour coding though, it wouldn't necessarily be intuitive and risks making DarkRadiant look like GarretLoader.

[greebo]

Not sure about category colour coding though, it wouldn't necessarily be intuitive and risks making DarkRadiant look like GarretLoader.

I get your point.

 

I'm positive that we would be able to choose a color set that doesn't hurt our sense of taste. However, if it is easy to do, I'd vote for keeping the door open for this.