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AGS Development => Editor Development => Topic started by: bx83 on Sat 07/04/2018 10:57:02

Title: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: bx83 on Sat 07/04/2018 10:57:02
We all know there is an easy way to *import* these masks, but no easy way to export them (which makes no sense to me, surely you'd just reverse the import porocess...?)
There is no clear way to *export* the masks.

After much pain, I manageed to:
-take a screenshot, on a white background (which you've had to cut to size and re-imported into the editor), of 0% transparency
-copy to clipboard, paste into Paint
-save as a .png file
-open in Photoshop CS6
-change mode to RGB/8bits
-save as a .jpg file
-enlarge the mask to a new screen size
-reimport the mask back into the editor

Here's what might have been easier:
-export the walkable areas/walk behinds etc. into one file
-...

That's it. This would be so, so, so much simpler. But yet there's only one post about this from 2009 with no editor change? I mean WTF? Wouldn't you just reverse the function of import and make it export? Please please tell me something cogent about this.
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Snarky on Sat 07/04/2018 11:03:48
Quote from: bx83 on Sat 07/04/2018 10:57:02
-save as a .jpg file

8-0 :~( (wrong)
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Privateer Puddin' on Sat 07/04/2018 11:30:47
Is this purely a feature request or, in the absence of the feature, do you want some recommendations on your process?
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: bx83 on Sat 07/04/2018 12:05:53
A feature request. If it's so obvious to go through minimum 3 things to save as a jpeg, why isn't as easy to export as a jpeg?
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Snarky on Sat 07/04/2018 12:13:44
I guess I wasn't clear before: Do not use a JPEG to store a mask! I don't see how it would even work, as there is no 256-color mode for JPEG.

JPEG is a lossy image format that introduces color distortion: some pixels that are all supposed to be the same color (especially around edges) will have slightly different shades. This means they won't be part of the mask. Using JPEG is therefore a certain way to screw up the mask.

You should use PNG or BMP format, which are the only file formats AGS officially supports for masks.
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: bx83 on Sat 07/04/2018 12:55:28
And neither of which actually works in paint and photoshop. :/
Could you just add an export function? Pretty please :p
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Snarky on Sat 07/04/2018 14:55:12
Quote from: bx83 on Sat 07/04/2018 12:55:28
And neither of which actually works in paint and photoshop. :/

What are you talking about? Of course PNG and BMP work in Paint and Photoshop!

QuoteCould you just add an export function? Pretty please :p

I don't think anyone is currently working on updating AGS, so probably not.
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Crimson Wizard on Sat 07/04/2018 15:48:43
Quote from: Snarky on Sat 07/04/2018 14:55:12
I don't think anyone is currently working on updating AGS, so probably not.

morganw was working on AGS Editor recently, so maybe he would like to, but I cannot say for him.
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: bx83 on Sat 07/04/2018 19:56:41
Cool.
Snarky I meant neither of these image formats have support in photoshop for saving as 8bit colour in a format that ags will accept. Only jpeg (ironically) seems to work. I'll give it another go and see if I can record exactly the steps I take.
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Crimson Wizard on Sat 07/04/2018 20:47:21
Quote from: bx83 on Sat 07/04/2018 19:56:41
Snarky I meant neither of these image formats have support in photoshop for saving as 8bit colour in a format that ags will accept. Only jpeg (ironically) seems to work. I'll give it another go and see if I can record exactly the steps I take.

8-bit BMPs saved with Paint or Paint.NET work 100%, PNGs are supposed to also, but I have not tried them in a while (then again, I don't make much games).

If they don't, then this may be a separate issue to fix also.
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Gurok on Sat 07/04/2018 22:06:21
In fact, if JPEG works for mask importing, that could be considered a bug.
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Crimson Wizard on Sat 07/04/2018 22:19:06
Quote from: Gurok on Sat 07/04/2018 22:06:21
In fact, if JPEG works for mask importing, that could be considered a bug.

You mean - that it is included in a file filter?
I think AGS uses same file filter for all image-related open/save operations.
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Privateer Puddin' on Sun 08/04/2018 00:26:59
8-bit BMPs and PNGs work in both Photoshop and to import into AGS (3.4.1) for me.

I'm not sure how to import a jpg, photoshop doesn't offer the format up when saving while in Indexed mode and a regular jpg won't be imported by AGS. Saving for web will let me do it, but not the regular save functionality. AGS won't import either version of jpg for me.
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: bx83 on Sun 08/04/2018 00:57:14
Okay, ignoring JPEG because I probably accidentallly imported image as background instead of mask, here's steps to do it on a BMP:
1. Take a screenshot, open it in Photoshop CS6:
(http://redrom.ltd/img/1.bmp)

2. Spend 5 minutes trying to cut it pixel perfect to the desired resolution:
(http://redrom.ltd/img/2.bmp)

3. Save as a BMP... but not be given any option to do 8bit. Hmm. Well, see how it goes:
(http://redrom.ltd/img/3.bmp)

4. Not great - AGS rejects it for having too many colours.
Okay, import it into Paint.exe:
(http://redrom.ltd/img/4.bmp)

5. Be warned that this will change colour quality (why?). Import into AGS, be given this error:
(http://redrom.ltd/img/5.bmp)

6. Be left with this. Bravo.
(http://redrom.ltd/img/6.bmp)

Okay - let's take photoshop out of it. Let's import the screenshot as a BMP, and save it in Paint.exe as an 8bit BMP:
1. Take a new screenshot, saved as BMP, open in Paint.exe
(http://redrom.ltd/img/7.bmp)

2. Grab the area of the actual background; I did it free hand, and did it pretty nice. This a 1024 background on a 1920 screen.
But there are some bad grey bits about 2 pixels out of the edge of the image. Since I didn't believe I could get the proper image, I zoomed in a bit to make it easier; and then when the select area didn't scroll for me, I was stuck:
(http://redrom.ltd/img/8.bmp)

3. I saved it as a BMP 8bit, preparing to open it in Photoshop, zoom and cut to exact size, then select the whole area and paste it back into Paint.exe.
Except then it said that "the colour quality will be reduced", and I was back where I started.
So then I drew on the image, expressing my anger, and threw the entire thing out.
(http://redrom.ltd/img/9.bmp)

This took 45 minutes.

So please explain to me: WHY not write the 25 lines of code to export the walkable areas/regions/hotspots/etc. as an 8bit BMP file? WHYYYYYY?
Also, this is ignoring what would happen if I had 1920x1080 backgrounds; which was what I was trying to do in the first place! There wouldn't be enough screen realestate to do a proper screenshot.

We could just get rid of all this mumbo-jumbo bs, and instead of trying an exact sequence of events, we could just ADD AN EXPORT BUTTON.
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Gurok on Sun 08/04/2018 01:02:56
Quote from: Crimson Wizard on Sat 07/04/2018 22:19:06
Quote from: Gurok on Sat 07/04/2018 22:06:21
In fact, if JPEG works for mask importing, that could be considered a bug.

You mean - that it is included in a file filter?
I think AGS uses same file filter for all image-related open/save operations.

I mean bx83's workflow seemed to suggest that. I'm not near AGS right now, so can't confirm.
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Privateer Puddin' on Sun 08/04/2018 01:08:49
As you said, there's been one post about it since 2009 so there's not a lot of demand. Now, you've requested it again and if there's someone working on the editor, maybe they will add it.

I don't think anyone here is arguing the feature wouldn't be useful, but as realistically looking at it there may not be any active development of the editor, trying to offer you help in improving your workflow (with photoshop alone you can speed that up and save to the correct format) but you already declined that support.
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: bx83 on Sun 08/04/2018 01:28:32
Quote from: Privateer Puddin' on Sun 08/04/2018 01:08:49
As you said, there's been one post about it since 2009 so there's not a lot of demand. Now, you've requested it again and if there's someone working on the editor, maybe they will add it.

Maybe. Great.

Quote from: Privateer Puddin' on Sun 08/04/2018 01:08:49
I don't think anyone here is arguing the feature wouldn't be useful, but as realistically looking at it there may not be any active development of the editor, trying to offer you help in improving your workflow (with photoshop alone you can speed that up and save to the correct format) but you already declined that support.

I did no such thing.
If anyone can show me:
1. How do I export a copy of the walkable areas via screenshot at 1024x768
2. then resize image to 1920x1080
3. and then reimport

Be my guest, please. As *8bit* PNG, or *8bit* BMP without changing colours. I cannot find a single way it can be done (perhaps in 320x200, but not anything larger with ease).
I've tried more ways than I've shown here in tutorials. None work.

What I don't understand is, if there's already an *import* function (for background image), why not an export (for walkable areas)? Why not take the background image import, reverse commands for a BMP/PNG/whatever, and so export it?
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Crimson Wizard on Sun 08/04/2018 01:37:01
Quote from: bx83 on Sun 08/04/2018 01:28:32
Quote from: Privateer Puddin' on Sun 08/04/2018 01:08:49
As you said, there's been one post about it since 2009 so there's not a lot of demand. Now, you've requested it again and if there's someone working on the editor, maybe they will add it.

Maybe. Great.

Seriously, you are becoming one of the most obnoxious people I've met on this forum. What's with all that making those large unnecessary hysterical posts?
We already got your request. No need to repeat same things over and over again.

No one was arguing that this feature is not necessary. The people above were simply discussing the workaround you were using.
BTW, The fact that AGS does not accept your 8-bit BMPs means only that you are not saving BMPs correctly.



Quote from: bx83 on Sun 08/04/2018 01:28:32
If anyone can show me:
1. How do I export a copy of the walkable areas via screenshot at 1024x768
2. then resize image to 1920x1080
3. and then reimport

I guess when people want to have a mask in a file, they don't create it inside AGS in the first place. Instead they make masks in the image editor, e.g. as a separate layer, and keep editing them there. This way you do not need to export/import, only reimport from file.
TBH the thing that you keep doing this tedious procedure made me very surprised. Personally, I'd never do such thing, as soon as I see how difficult and time consuming it is.


Quote from: bx83 on Sun 08/04/2018 01:28:32
What I don't understand is, if there's already an *import* function (for background image), why not an export (for walkable areas)? Why not take the background image import, reverse commands for a BMP/PNG/whatever, and so export it?

Why do you keep repeating this? It is obvious that there is no reason other than:
a) no one got to work on that;
b) people did not mention that much before, so contributors did not pay attention to this issue.


You must understand, that AGS is practically a dead project. Less and less people working on it. And when they do, they do it when they have spare time and interest. No one here is obliged to do things for you.
If you want something done now and fast, then hire a programmer and bug them instead.

Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Privateer Puddin' on Sun 08/04/2018 01:49:27
Quote from: Privateer Puddin' on Sat 07/04/2018 11:30:47
Is this purely a feature request or, in the absence of the feature, do you want some recommendations on your process?

Quote from: bx83 on Sat 07/04/2018 12:05:53
A feature request. If it's so obvious to go through minimum 3 things to save as a jpeg, why isn't as easy to export as a jpeg?

Anyway.

This is based off my work flow. I do all my hotspots / regions / walkbehinds etc. in photoshop, including any later changes, and then import the masks. This allows me to do some of the functionality you were looking for before, in terms of seeing all the different options at the same time. In my photoshop file. I'll have each hotspot etc as a separate layer, and each type in a group. That way I can turn things off easily, quickly line up different walkareas/behinds. I will then save to 8 bit bmp and import.

These screenshots don't show hotspots etc. but it should make sense.

1. Take a screenshot on a white background as you currently are at 100% zoom. (Or, if you have a screenshot tool which has snipping built in when taking the screenshot, you can avoid some of the next steps).
2. In Photoshop, you can do a quick crop so you're just faced with something like this: (black box is the area i'm going to crop down to)

(http://tom-simpson.com/bx83/AGScrop.gif)

which gives me:

(http://tom-simpson.com/bx83/agscrop.png)

3. Use Trim to get rid of the two grey colours. (I have an action saved which does two trims, one based on the top left and one on the bottom right, trims it down instantly to just what I need)

(http://tom-simpson.com/bx83/AGStrim.gif)

4. Use Indexed Color to reduce to 8-bit

(http://tom-simpson.com/bx83/indexedmode.png)

5. Use Image Size to do a Nearest Neighbour resize to 1920x1080

6. Save as BMP

Quote from: Crimson Wizard on Sun 08/04/2018 01:37:01
I guess when people want to have a mask in a file, they don't create it inside AGS in the first place. Instead they make masks in the image editor, e.g. as a separate layer, and keep editing them there. This way you do not need to export/import, only reimport from file.


Basically that.
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: bx83 on Sun 08/04/2018 02:05:48
Quote from: Crimson Wizard on Sun 08/04/2018 01:37:01
Seriously, you are becoming one of the most obnoxious people I've met on this forum. What's with all that making those large unnecessary hysterical posts?
We already got your request. No need to repeat same things over and over again.

Okay, I'm sorry. Please don't get mad or read my posts imagining a hysterical voice; I am only trying to learn the AGS system. I understand Rome wasn't built in a day.
I thought someone would respond with 'good idea, we'll get straight on that and have a release in MM, YYYY' or 'No, *@& off, too hard.'
I did not realise that simply making the post would put it in the feature request cue. Once again, I'm sorry.

Quote from: Crimson Wizard on Sun 08/04/2018 01:37:01
BTW, The fact that AGS does not accept your 8-bit BMPs means only that you are not saving BMPs correctly.

Alright, fair enough - but how *do* I save them properly?
I must change the image, in order at least to resize.
If I save in paint.exe as a 256-colour BMP, it reduces the quality of the colours, making them useless to re-import.
If I use Photoshop CS6, it does not offer the option to save it as 8-bit.
If I save it as a PNG, it doesn't offer colour changing, and remains 16/24/32 bit. Probably because it's a compressed image and I'm not using 8bit colour on my screen (which in fact, I'll try next)

Quote from: Crimson Wizard on Sun 08/04/2018 01:37:01
You must understand, that AGS is practically a dead project. Less and less people working on it. And when they do, they do it when they have spare time and interest. No one here is obliged to do things for you.
If you want something done now and fast, then hire a programmer and bug them instead.

True. I will try. But the last time I did offer $2,000, nobody took it up. I'll try another programmger hire site.

Quote from: Crimson Wizard on Sun 08/04/2018 01:37:01
Quote from: bx83 on Sun 08/04/2018 01:28:32
If anyone can show me:
1. How do I export a copy of the walkable areas via screenshot at 1024x768
2. then resize image to 1920x1080
3. and then reimport

I guess when people want to have a mask in a file, they don't create it inside AGS in the first place. Instead they make masks in the image editor, e.g. as a separate layer, and keep editing them there. This way you do not need to export/import, only reimport from file.
TBH the thing that you keep doing this tedious procedure made me very surprised. Personally, I'd never do such thing, as soon as I see how difficult and time consuming it is.

I will try to import a background image and work on the image in a separate layer. However, this doesn't take care of saving, what editor or format, etc.

I don't know, I'll leave the export till much later and hopefullly someone has figured something out in code.
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: bx83 on Sun 08/04/2018 02:08:08
AHA! Indexed Colour - thank you Privateer :D
I got confused because I kept thinking RGB more or less meant 256 colour, and... I don't know :tongue:
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Crimson Wizard on Sun 08/04/2018 02:19:42
Quote from: bx83 on Sun 08/04/2018 02:05:48
I thought someone would respond with 'good idea, we'll get straight on that and have a release in MM, YYYY' or 'No, *@& off, too hard.'
I did not realise that simply making the post would put it in the feature request cue.

That's not too hard, I believe, and I would not see a problem to add this export feature.
But someone need to find time to look into the code. As we are not the original creators of AGS, it will take more time to investigate the program first.
Right now nobody cannot tell when the release will be, because in the lack of active developers this process is not organized so well.
So all we can say: maybe.
Maybe, I could look too, if no one else does, but I cannot give promises because right now I am both trying to find a job and working on mine own hobby project.



Quote from: bx83 on Sun 08/04/2018 02:05:48
Quote from: Crimson Wizard on Sun 08/04/2018 01:37:01
BTW, The fact that AGS does not accept your 8-bit BMPs means only that you are not saving BMPs correctly.

Alright, fair enough - but how *do* I save them properly?
I must change the image, in order at least to resize.
If I save in paint.exe as a 256-colour BMP, it reduces the quality of the colours, making them useless to re-import.

Regarding BMP - Now I remember using Paint.NET. MS Paint is a bit weird. Now when I tried it, it definitely changes color hues a bit, but that might mean that you need to use colors that distinct more from each other.

Well, Privateer Puddin' already explained how to do that in Photoshop, so I guess that's a better solution.
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Snarky on Sun 08/04/2018 07:39:36
Privateer Puddin' already showed you how you could improve your workflow. I'll only add that you can do much the same using the magic wand, invert selection and crop. This is a really quick task once you get the workflow down!

The other thing I want to point out is that warnings from paint programs that reducing color depth will reduce color quality can almost certainly be ignored. It will, if there are more colors in the picture than there are in the palette, but that shouldn't be the case when your picture only contains the mask. And even if Paint distorts the colors somewhat when doing so, it shouldn't matter (as long as it doesn't introduce dithering, or merge two colors into one), since we don't care about the actual color, only the color/palette slot. The main challenge is if the application doesn't give you any control over which color goes in which palette slot, and hence which mask it will be imported as (in particular which color is 0: no mask).
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Gilbert on Sun 08/04/2018 15:52:26
Haven't read all the posts, but AFAIK JPEG doesn't even support 8-bit (or indiced for that matter) images (unless it's GREYSCALE), so attempting to save something as a 8-bit JPEG is horribly wrong.
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: morganw on Sun 08/04/2018 16:03:07
Quote from: Crimson Wizard on Sat 07/04/2018 22:19:06
Quote from: Gurok on Sat 07/04/2018 22:06:21
In fact, if JPEG works for mask importing, that could be considered a bug.

You mean - that it is included in a file filter?
I think AGS uses same file filter for all image-related open/save operations.

Yes, the file selector isn't filtering anything out, but there is a check after loading that should stop incompatible formats being used.

Code (csharp) Select
if (bmp.PixelFormat != PixelFormat.Format8bppIndexed)
{{
    // don't use bmp
}}
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Clarvalon on Sun 08/04/2018 20:00:52
Earlier versions of the AGSExportPlugin (http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=39050.0) would dump all hotspots, regions, walkable areas et al out to individual PNG files.  It now uses a different format but this could be forked to output to whatever format was needed.
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: bx83 on Sun 08/04/2018 20:42:40
Which version? Not version 0.6, and there's no other on the code page (or the site, which is down).
This would be perfect for me (and for the code to make the export button) - is it a whole section of code or just a switch (SaveAsPNG)? Is it still in the 'master' branch? (doesn't seme to be any others)

Also in 0.6 there's some code that appears to export to PNG's:


        private void WriteBackgrounds(XmlTextWriter output, ILoadedRoom room, string roomName)
        {
            output.WriteStartElement("Backgrounds");
            for (int j = 0; j < room.BackgroundCount; j++)
            {
                using (Bitmap bmp = new Bitmap(room.Width, room.Height))
                using (Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(bmp))
                {
                    // NEW - store as seperate .png file
                    editor.RoomController.DrawRoomBackground(g, 0, 0, j, 1);
                    string roomFileName = PathRoomBackgrounds + GetValidPath(roomName) + "_" + j + ".png";
                    //MessageBox.Show(roomFileName);
                    bmp.Save(roomFileName, ImageFormat.Png);   //THIS LINE
                }
            }
            output.WriteEndElement(); // Backgrounds
        }


...but not in the plugin GUI. So... I dunno :/
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: bx83 on Mon 09/04/2018 12:08:37
Anyone...?
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Clarvalon on Mon 09/04/2018 15:22:30
I've added links to some older versions of the plugin on the other thread.  Hopefully you can get some use out of it.
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: bx83 on Mon 09/04/2018 20:12:10
Thank you, I'll try them out :D

(Ps the link to the the forum is: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=39050.0  )
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: bx83 on Tue 10/04/2018 12:04:59
Ps do you have the code from v<0.6?
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Crimson Wizard on Tue 10/04/2018 15:46:08
Quote from: bx83 on Tue 10/04/2018 12:04:59
Ps do you have the code from v<0.6?

bx83, just a little suggestion, since this thread is filled with all kinds of stuff already, that may be more convenient to discuss Clarvalon's plugin in its own thread? (You linked it above yourself)
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Crimson Wizard on Tue 15/05/2018 00:49:20
bx83, I realize this is probably be too late for your project (hopefully you managed to make use of the Clarvalon's plugin); but I finally found time to do this, and there is an upcoming change that just adds "Export mask" button to the room editor toolbar (near "Import mask" button). It saves only 1 mask at a time (the one selected in the room mode). Of course this is not close to automated solution that Clarvalon's exporting plugin provides, but will at least give an opportunity to user to export particular masks when needed.

You were right that it did not take much code to make one (although it took a while to find necessary functions to use). This could have been done much earlier.
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: bx83 on Thu 25/10/2018 13:47:50
Hi Crimson - thankyou, very helpful :)  It 'might not be much', but to me it's fantastic.
Which release is it in? Not 3.1.4.15, obviously..?
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Crimson Wizard on Thu 25/10/2018 14:48:52
I thought you were successful in using Clarvalon's exporter, so added it to next WIP version, found here: http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=55829.0
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: bx83 on Thu 25/10/2018 22:35:14
When will it **aproximately** be released? I'm only asking â€" in the next 3 months or the next year? Helps to define when I can start using new (larger/longer) backgrounds. In future I will try to get rooms hotspot and walkable areas NOT made in the editor... :p
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: morganw on Thu 25/10/2018 22:44:57
Quote from: bx83 on Thu 25/10/2018 22:35:14
When will it **aproximately** be released?
https://github.com/adventuregamestudio/ags/milestone/3
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Crimson Wizard on Thu 25/10/2018 22:58:30
Quote from: bx83 on Thu 25/10/2018 22:35:14
When will it **aproximately** be released? I'm only asking â€" in the next 3 months or the next year? Helps to define when I can start using new (larger/longer) backgrounds. In future I will try to get rooms hotspot and walkable areas NOT made in the editor... :p

There are roughly two bigger feature we are planning to have in, one is the custom room viewport and another related to easier sprite (re)import.
The preliminary estimate for this is couple of months, but it still may take more for the final polish, updating the manual and so on.
The biggest question there is when this version will become stable enough (which may be earlier than the final release), but that's hard to predict.
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: bx83 on Fri 26/10/2018 01:37:43
Cool, it's all happening :)

One thing - I didn't really use Clarvalon's thing because it was.... a bit useless. What it does:
-save hotspots etc. as sections of the background, not solid colours
-save them as separate images, not as part of the wider screen map, thus elliminating the main feature of this: to actually have hotspots/walkable areas etc. pixel perfect.

So basically, I've come up with this super-fun workaround:
1. If you're running Greenshot screenshot programme - don't
2. Open the room in the editor, select ie. Hotspots, change trans to nothing (so it's all solid colours)
3. Pres PrintSc; flip to paint.exe (the 'original' programme - in Windows 10); paste
4. Save as 16-colour bitmap
5. Close file, re-open in paint.net
6. Select the screen (pixel perfect section of the shot that;s the background only), crop it
7. Get rid of all the 'extra colours' and background; widen or shorten or whatever the canvas size
8. Save as 'defaults' - dithering 8, 8bit bmp
9. Import into AGS, and voila! You now have to start the tedious task of further get rid of all the extra crap, and changing colours which were invalid to their proper colour :P

So anyway, IF your export plugin doesn't do this (copys all walkable areas/walk behinds/hotspots, in the original colours, in a window the size of the background); then you might want to change it.
However, if it's too much work for the moment, I understand - I have my own process now for getting the walkables etc. anyway :)
Title: Re: Button to export walkable areas, hot spots, etc. rather than 100-step plan
Post by: Crimson Wizard on Fri 26/10/2018 01:44:11
Quote from: bx83 on Fri 26/10/2018 01:37:43
So anyway, IF your export plugin doesn't do this (copys all walkable areas/walk behinds/hotspots, in the original colours, in a window the size of the background); then you might want to change it.

It's not a plugin, it's a feature inside the editor. You could download the 3.5.0 editor, make the copy of your game and try this new version on that copy; that would be much easier to find out if it does what you want. After all, that's the purpose of posting a WIP version: to let users try out how it works early.

The tool button to export a mask is located close to the button that imports new mask. The only caveat is that it exports one type of mask at a time (you need to switch between modes) but that was the most trivial way to integrate this command in the existing UI.