Wishlist For Darkradiant

[New Horizon]

Would it be possible to have an option to toggle off rendering of the 'collision texture' in the model viewer? It's handy to be able to see it, but when you're trying to view different skins, it's a pain in the ass.

[OrbWeaver]

Would it be possible to have an option to toggle off rendering of the 'collision texture' in the model viewer? It's handy to be able to see it, but when you're trying to view different skins, it's a pain in the ass.

 

Yes, that's something that needs doing. I will add a task to upgrade the filter system to allow arbitrary objects to query whether they should display arbitrary textures, and then it is a simple matter of getting the model rendering code to use this function.

[New Horizon]

Ability to attach objects to joints within the editor.

 

The editor could present a dialog where you can choose the AI and it's joints and on the other side, the models and then just assign it.

 

Much like object attachment in T3ED. Currently, we have to load a D3 map to preview any attached objects, it would be desirable to eventually have this appear in a live update in the render view...in both rendered and unrendered views. Same for the updating of skins...currently in D3Ed, you must go into render view to see all the alternate skins that have been assigned in a level. If possible, having them appear right away in the unrendered view would be perfect.

[sparhawk]

Properites on entities are only listed in the editor when they are on the same "level" of inheritance then the actuall entity is. This is not really helpfull, because it means that properties will not show up because most entities ar derived from some base class.

 

It would be helpfull if there were a toggle, to show all or only the current. The optimium solution would be to create an inheritenace tree, where you can look at each level individually. Similar to like Eclipse has the properties when you use swing (in case you know that one).

 

If it's unclear I can provide some screenshots how I mean it.

[OrbWeaver]

I think I understand what you mean. The Entity Inspector needs a redesign anyway, but this will require changes to the entity data handling code since inherited default keys aren't considered to be applied to child entity objects.

[sparhawk]

Would be cool, because otherwise you would always have to look in the inheritance chain in the def file, which is VERY annoying.

[MRYS]

I saw new Object Browser window, but for me personally it is not good layout. For internal Doom3 editor I made my own browser (by Resource Hacker) like on this image:

 

 

I think, that it is more comfortable to work with, but understand, that other peoples can find it not good for them. Is it possible to customize in the same way (mean: by Res Hacker) Object Browser window in Dark Radiant? If not is it possible to make it "customizable" in next DarkRadiant versions??

[OrbWeaver]

Resource Hacker won't work. You can make the preview window larger by editing the user.xml file, but you cannot currently change its position relative to the other elements.

 

That's an interesting layout though, maybe I will consider it for next release. I would put the preview on the right rather than the left, but using a horizontal layout like that does allow the preview to be larger without crushing the other widgets.

[MRYS]

Few years ago I was working a little in Q3Radiant. Q3 was one of the first games which used not only simple bitmap textures but also shaders. I remember, that syntax of shaders definitions was a little complicated and hard to understand, but there was a program, some kind of "Shader maker" (dont remember exact name), where you can point your textures, chose what effect you want (with preview!) and program generated piece of code for use.

 

Would be possible to make this kind of program (or function in DarkRadiant) for making textures and materials (or even shaders) for Dark Mod? Making them by hand is not very hard (In my others part of life few years I was using PovRay - renderer with only script scene representation, so know this kind of work well), but takes much time and it is easy to make some "bugs" in code.

[OrbWeaver]

Someone did mention that, as a suggestion for a "new material wizard" feature. This is certainly possible but a low-priority addition.

[New Horizon]

I would love to see something like that added eventually. Hmmm, would it be possible to integrate this with the existing texture browser?

[MRYS]

And what about maximize single window? I'am working in max style layout (front, letf, top, 3D) but for precise I need to maximize one of windows. Hmm... Maybe such posibility exist and I just did not noticed that?

[OrbWeaver]

I don't think you can maximise the window, although you can drag it bigger.

 

I don't recommend using the 4-window setup, it is extremely wasteful of screen space since most of your work is done in one view (with occasional use of a second view to adjust the other dimension). This is why modern 3D apps like Blender default to a single viewport which can be quickly changed using keyboard shortcuts.

[Mr Mike]

Would it be possible in future DarkRadiants to be able to import a background image into the workspace?

 

Ideally this would be possible to assign to a single or all perspective views and could be scalled either uniformerly or by freehand.

 

Aside from having the obvious use of importing sketched out plans of a building etc the main benefit, for me, is that when creating architecture I like to work from photos, it creates a much more believable structure. It's not difficult to flick between DR and my photo, but I'd find it much more beneficial to have it loaded there, in DR. I know nothing about coding, so have no idea how difficult this would be, but just wanted to throw this out for you guys to think about.

 

Cheers

[greebo]

This is an interesting idea and I myself use this feature in Blender, so I would appreciate such a feature. Unfortunately I don't know too much of OpenGL (yet), so I can't say if it is difficult to do or not.

[Crispy]

Pretty easy. All you need to do is load the image, allocate an OpenGL "texture object" (actually more like an ID number) for it, and put the texture on a quad (which you create using GL_QUADS, or GL_TRIANGLEFAN) that covers the entire viewport. DR already has texture loading code, so that shouldn't be an issue.

 

As for how to accomplish that within DarkRadiant's existing renderer, well, you're on your own with that one.

[OrbWeaver]

It shouldn't be difficult. In OpenGL it is trivial, although integrating it with the DR renderer might be more involved.

 

I have a feeling there is already some kind of "screen overlay" which is drawn after the XY window is rendered, so it might be possible to coopt this into drawing a semitransparent image overlay.

[Mr Mike]

Huh, I was expecting that to get shot down in flames But seriously, I think this is something that could really elevate the appeal of the editor with it creating more of a feeling of a modelling program than a "slap some cubes together" program.

[New Horizon]

Huh, I was expecting that to get shot down in flames But seriously, I think this is something that could really elevate the appeal of the editor with it creating more of a feeling of a modelling program than a "slap some cubes together" program.

 

Wow, that's a really neat idea Mike. Great suggestion.

[Mr Mike]

So this doesn't get forgotten, to have a analogue type control of texture placement and control. See here for further details.

[SneaksieDave]

Currently you can ctrl-mmb in the iso view to make the 3D view jump to that position (and orientation with alt or shift-mmb, can't remember which). But I'm unaware of a way to make the iso view jump to a click in the 3D view (the opposite). This would be a very welcome thing, because of the convenience it affords a designer when a map starts to get really large.

[greebo]

This is really hard to accomplish, as the click in the 3D view reflects a line and not a point as in the Orthoview. So, it's really ambiguous where you want to put the camera.

 

I can't think of a good solution right now, but it would be possible to place the camera in the surrounding or the center of the brush/patch/object that has been clicked on.

[SneaksieDave]

Sounds like a great solution to me.

[greebo]

SneaksieDave, do you want to submit this to the bug tracker? (I admittedly could do this myself, but I want to get you introduced to the tracker ).

 

http://bugs.angua.at/

[SneaksieDave]

Success! Tracked as entry #15.