SDK Suggestions General

Raneman

<div class="IPBDescription">For Mappers and Modders</div>What are some things you'd like to see in the SDK?

Here are some of mine:

<b>Customizable Clips</b>
For example, a clip that allows infestation to pass through but not players.

<b>Inputs, Outputs and Triggers</b>
We can start small with these, but these are necessary for maps with complex features.

<b>Visgroups</b>
As maps get more complex, Visgroups are nice.

WorthyRival

Being able to clip props to surfaces.

Kouji_San

Clibrushing would indeed need some other types (no wallwalk, allow bullets go trough and such). Most of them are planned AFAIK, same goes for more trigger types :)

<b>Visgroups</b> are already in, they're called Layers


The infestation system is still in development. Current implementation is not final (visual and how it works probably). But a brush that blocks players, while allowing infestation to go through is indeed interesting!

Chris0132

Regular groups, as in click an object and it selects all otherobjects in the group. Didn't have those last I used it.

If you're going to have a scripting system, you need some things to script, so that means moving geometry. I suppose you could script sequences in cinematics, but having to jump into the cinematic editor might be a little bit annoying for things that need to line up accurately with map geometry.

Kouji_San

Yeah, the groups are selected currently by actually selecting it from the interface. Click on the group name and you'll select all other objects of that group.

I think your could load an area of your level (separate *.level file) into the cinematic editor to use as a reference point. Would work for aligning effects, but it would still need to be lined up in the editor...

Remedy

Over the course of using Spark I've found it lacks on crucial tool.

In the Steam SDK Hammer editor there is a feature where you can select a group of any components and snap it to an axis.

This worked by snapping the group of items to the furthest point on the given X,Y,Z axis,
the furthest could be a entity, prop or vertices anything within the group you select.
If you wanted to snap on the X axis you could chose front or back on the X axis.
Same with the Z axis you could snap they selected to the top or bottom of the axis.

(Basic example)

So say I am making a walkway and I've added some prop railings to touch it off,
but they aren't all set at the same height and I want the to all align properly.
Snapping to axis would work by me selecting all the railings, right clicking and selecting
'snap on Z, up' presuming that the highest railing is at the actual height I want them all to be at
all the other railings will snap to same height of the highest railing.

So many uses for this tool especially around brush faces and all the pain they can cause.

This really must be considered it is great for so many tasks throughout creating a map!

Yuuki

Some aligning tools would be great indeed, something like inkscape alignment panel :

<img src="http://maps.eq2interface.com/images/maptutorial/figure_4.5_inkscape_align_distribute_pallet.gif" border="0" class="linked-image" />

Something that makes me rage also is when something you want to move along an axis do not stick to this axis, in Blender you can simply press x, y or z while moving to constrain the movement on the desired axis.

fang01271027

Your post is useful. Thanks!