There are a few things which have always bugged me about AGS, or made it 50 times harder to achieve a simple thing. They are:
-There is only 1 step of 'undo' in the walkable/walk behind editor window. This means that two bad clicks (ie. filling in the screen with 1 colour, then drawing a dot, then growning "oh god no..." after 3 hours of painstaking work which you now have to repeat) means it's all over. Like with CTRL+Z and CTRL+Y, I'm hoping someone could expand this to 50 or 100 clicks?
-Editor window a bit primitive? No problem - you can open a 'walk behind' masking image! Except this is actually harder than just drawing it on the main window. This is a major problem. I've been able to find two tutorials (none of the pictures in them work anymore - 'bandwidth exceeded'), and basically what works is:
1. go to mspaint (not even in Windows as of 10, has to be added back the sneaky way, will be gone forever by 11)
2. edit a mask, using colours that you get somehow (what are their codes?..)
3. save it as an 8bit BMP (the only editor that does this easily, or doesn't change an 8bit to a 16bit bmp when you add a layer, etc.)
4. try this one, find it's 2 pixels too wide; go back into mspaint and edit it - single layer, using primitive tools - so that it's size is corrected. Then discover it's now 2 pixels too wide... then tear out your hair.
All this could be solved by:
-allowing import of BMP's that are 8bit, 16bit, or 32bit colour
-allowing multiple layers (like in Photoshop) without breaking the image
-allowing colours that are not *exactly* #009900 etc., but instead using the first 15 colours, and then converting them to the ones used in the editor
The ONE problem in this situation is: in the editor you HAVE the background, in mspaint or Photoshop, you DON't have the background. Unless, you use a 2nd layer on an image, copy the first to an 8bit BMP, and then hopefully, it stays that way. Seriously, I have 2 files that are 8bit BMPs, and I don't even know how I created them.
Just make the file specifications more accepting.
-Allowing walk-behinds to be independently turned on and off, rather than just 'ignore all' or 'enable all'
-Multiple layers can't be seen in the editor. Rather than seeing just walkable areas, or JUST walk behinds, or JUST objects, why not allow ALL (or some) to be seen AT THE SAME TIME? I can't tell you how many hours I've spent getting one thing or the other to line up with something else, but can't because I can see only one layer at a time. Why not just have the layers as tickboxes, turning on or off depending on what you want to see? Objects, Edges, Characters, Hotspots independant; Walkable areas or Walk behinds or Regions visible also.
Once again, one simple change that would allow this editor to be useufl rather than a hinderence.
-Larger graphics in the Sprites window. If I look at 20 frames of animation, I find it hard to tell each one apart. But if I could use a slider to see them as small, large, larger, big, xbig? This would be a simple change that meant I wouldn't have to open (one at a goddamn time) image in the default image editor (which I have to set manually) just to see it.
Now, I do apologise if I've hurt anyone feelings during this 20min bitch-fest about the Editor. Truly, I do, and I expect to use it for no cost and with no license in return for features for free and instaneously. HOWEVER, these are problems which must have something done about them.
AND
I HAVE $$$ MONEY $$$
I'm happy to pay like AU$3,000 for these changes (or perhaps $1,500 *each*). Please contact me PM if you'd like.
Otherwise, please reply.
-There is only 1 step of 'undo' in the walkable/walk behind editor window. This means that two bad clicks (ie. filling in the screen with 1 colour, then drawing a dot, then growning "oh god no..." after 3 hours of painstaking work which you now have to repeat) means it's all over. Like with CTRL+Z and CTRL+Y, I'm hoping someone could expand this to 50 or 100 clicks?
-Editor window a bit primitive? No problem - you can open a 'walk behind' masking image! Except this is actually harder than just drawing it on the main window. This is a major problem. I've been able to find two tutorials (none of the pictures in them work anymore - 'bandwidth exceeded'), and basically what works is:
1. go to mspaint (not even in Windows as of 10, has to be added back the sneaky way, will be gone forever by 11)
2. edit a mask, using colours that you get somehow (what are their codes?..)
3. save it as an 8bit BMP (the only editor that does this easily, or doesn't change an 8bit to a 16bit bmp when you add a layer, etc.)
4. try this one, find it's 2 pixels too wide; go back into mspaint and edit it - single layer, using primitive tools - so that it's size is corrected. Then discover it's now 2 pixels too wide... then tear out your hair.
All this could be solved by:
-allowing import of BMP's that are 8bit, 16bit, or 32bit colour
-allowing multiple layers (like in Photoshop) without breaking the image
-allowing colours that are not *exactly* #009900 etc., but instead using the first 15 colours, and then converting them to the ones used in the editor
The ONE problem in this situation is: in the editor you HAVE the background, in mspaint or Photoshop, you DON't have the background. Unless, you use a 2nd layer on an image, copy the first to an 8bit BMP, and then hopefully, it stays that way. Seriously, I have 2 files that are 8bit BMPs, and I don't even know how I created them.
Just make the file specifications more accepting.
-Allowing walk-behinds to be independently turned on and off, rather than just 'ignore all' or 'enable all'
-Multiple layers can't be seen in the editor. Rather than seeing just walkable areas, or JUST walk behinds, or JUST objects, why not allow ALL (or some) to be seen AT THE SAME TIME? I can't tell you how many hours I've spent getting one thing or the other to line up with something else, but can't because I can see only one layer at a time. Why not just have the layers as tickboxes, turning on or off depending on what you want to see? Objects, Edges, Characters, Hotspots independant; Walkable areas or Walk behinds or Regions visible also.
Once again, one simple change that would allow this editor to be useufl rather than a hinderence.
-Larger graphics in the Sprites window. If I look at 20 frames of animation, I find it hard to tell each one apart. But if I could use a slider to see them as small, large, larger, big, xbig? This would be a simple change that meant I wouldn't have to open (one at a goddamn time) image in the default image editor (which I have to set manually) just to see it.
Now, I do apologise if I've hurt anyone feelings during this 20min bitch-fest about the Editor. Truly, I do, and I expect to use it for no cost and with no license in return for features for free and instaneously. HOWEVER, these are problems which must have something done about them.
AND
I HAVE $$$ MONEY $$$
I'm happy to pay like AU$3,000 for these changes (or perhaps $1,500 *each*). Please contact me PM if you'd like.
Otherwise, please reply.
