Visionaire 5 RC0 released!

  • #10, by sebastianThursday, 13. April 2017, 21:49 7 years ago
    First impression from my first usage of a 5er version (for macOS): im impressed! great workflow. great style. many improvements.

    Although i have found some bugs and have some considerations, wishes and further improvement ideas:

    1. "pop up" windows such as for the conditions/values on the right panel or on the left when opening the scene / interface /etc properties: add an "x" button to that. Its not that clear how to close these. The pop ups on the left ONLY close when clicking on the "properties" text again, the pop ups on the right ONLY when clicking in empty/free space in the conditions/calues list.
    The reference finder pop up is also only closing when clicking beside it.

    2. Because the new camera movement is much more smooth low res games don't profit as much as i hoped. When the scroll speed gets lower at the end of the scroll it kinds of shutter the last pixels... Any hope to have this smooth scrolling choosable/switchable?

    3. No syntax highlighting in the Scripts section? need grin (macOS free Version)

    4. Could you increase the zoom size in the Editor at least for characters/objects/cursors to 500%-600% ? For low res games 400% zoom is not enough for smaller characters/objects/cursors or scenes where pixel perfection is everything...

    5. The "interfaces" icon looks more like a shopping bag. I would suggest to make different ones: (a window like these from operating systems for example). Also the objects "football" looks a bit weird. Here something like a potion or anything which looks more like an takeable objekt fould fit more than that circle with smaller circles in it wink.

    6. When displaying object text it should be possible to define its font. Instead object text font has to be changed via Lua. Narration text for example has free chosable font inside its action part. Would love to see that for object texts, too wink

    7. in macOS the "preferences" option in the normal menubar is greyed out. Instead the "3 lines menu" has it. Please readd it that preferences is also openable via the "normal way" smile

    8. its weird that the scenes tab have the scene values/conditions on the right and the interfaces tab has them on the left besides the button list. 

    9. Its weird that scene conditions/values are on the list on the right, but scene object conditions/values are still in the object properties. First thing i came in my mind to improve this is to append (but clearly separate) a second conditions/values list under the scene conditions/values as soon as clicking on a scene object.

    EDIT: 10. Inside the Fonts tab when having a png font which based upon another png font, it doesnt show the image in the prevew

    EDIT: 11. Double clicking the Dark/Light Theme switch opens the reference search pop up. (cant recreate anymore)

    EDIT: 12. Shortcuts mentioned in the menu (ctrl+H) doesnt work in macOS. For example when changing it to cmd+H to fit in macOS it conflicts with default window shortcuts (cmd+H in macOS is hide window)

    EDIT: 13. In the command list window (ctrl+h) the detailed action text is really crumped together and by that unreadable:

    EDIT: 14. "STRG to Move" image at cursor to move object areas has to be "cmd to move" for mac or "ctrl to move" for english windows... but this mixed german and english is a bit weird ^__^

    EDIT: 15. Active selection colors for object / button / waysystem borders dont get applied. instead they are all grey now...

    EDIT: 16. When choosing a color in the options menu for the editor selection lines, the dialog can be closed with the color picker still open, making it impossible to close the colorpicker until you open options again.

    EDIT: 17. changing the increase/decrease zoom number and then clicking to change another value resets the field to 0, making it not possible to zoom anymore until restarting the program and resetting the value then.

    EDIT: 18. sometimes when zooming szenes or interfaces it looks blury instead of sharp... Dont know whats causing this. After some program restarts it seems to work again.

    EDIT: 19: The save & run and save & run current scene auto open when hovering the mouse over these icons. While this is ok, the menus also open when moving the cursor in the mac menu bar on the same x-coordinate than the icons to open it. So i can move my mouse only on the menu bar of macOS and still open these menus even if im out of the editor window...

    That were mainly the thins which went through my mind^^

    one bug i found which also impacts the game:

    images which have a bit of alpha transparency don't show up correctly in VS editor or VS player. their transparence gets some kind of multiplied instead of added (are these terms correct?).
    For example: I have an interface which has a slider. The interface itself has one color background. Because for reasons the slider should get disabled and by that gets slightly transparent. So i have an overlay object + image of the same color which has 60% opacity (in the png image itself, no object visibility). The object polygon of the overlay object also blocks interacting with the below laying slider object.

    In 4.25 it looks like the whole slider got transparent because of the overlay. Now in 5.0 it looks like a big darker box is surrounding the slider:


    keep up the good work. #hype


    ~Sebastian

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  • #11, by AkcayKaraazmakThursday, 13. April 2017, 22:23 7 years ago
    Thank you so much Simon! I'll report you the 3d stuff grin

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  • #12, by PaupasiaThursday, 13. April 2017, 23:23 7 years ago
    Thank youuuu!! grin

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  • #13, by AlexFriday, 14. April 2017, 00:11 7 years ago
    First impression from my first usage of a 5er version (for macOS): im impressed! great workflow. great style. many improvements.

    Although i have found some bugs and have some considerations, wishes and further improvement ideas:

    1. "pop up" windows such as for the conditions/values on the right panel or on the left when opening the scene / interface /etc properties: add an "x" button to that. Its not that clear how to close these. The pop ups on the left ONLY close when clicking on the "properties" text again, the pop ups on the right ONLY when clicking in empty/free space in the conditions/calues list.
    The reference finder pop up is also only closing when clicking beside it.

    2. Because the new camera movement is much more smooth low res games don't profit as much as i hoped. When the scroll speed gets lower at the end of the scroll it kinds of shutter the last pixels... Any hope to have this smooth scrolling choosable/switchable?

    3. No syntax highlighting in the Scripts section? need grin (macOS free Version)

    4. Could you increase the zoom size in the Editor at least for characters/objects/cursors to 500%-600% ? For low res games 400% zoom is not enough for smaller characters/objects/cursors or scenes where pixel perfection is everything...

    5. The "interfaces" icon looks more like a shopping bag. I would suggest to make different ones: (a window like these from operating systems for example). Also the objects "football" looks a bit weird. Here something like a potion or anything which looks more like an takeable objekt fould fit more than that circle with smaller circles in it wink.

    6. When displaying object text it should be possible to define its font. Instead object text font has to be changed via Lua. Narration text for example has free chosable font inside its action part. Would love to see that for object texts, too wink

    7. in macOS the "preferences" option in the normal menubar is greyed out. Instead the "3 lines menu" has it. Please readd it that preferences is also openable via the "normal way" smile

    8. its weird that the scenes tab have the scene values/conditions on the right and the interfaces tab has them on the left besides the button list. 

    9. Its weird that scene conditions/values are on the list on the right, but scene object conditions/values are still in the object properties. First thing i came in my mind to improve this is to append (but clearly separate) a second conditions/values list under the scene conditions/values as soon as clicking on a scene object.

    EDIT: 10. Inside the Fonts tab when having a png font which based upon another png font, it doesnt show the image in the prevew

    EDIT: 11. Double clicking the Dark/Light Theme switch opens the reference search pop up. (cant recreate anymore)

    EDIT: 12. Shortcuts mentioned in the menu (ctrl+H) doesnt work in macOS. For example when changing it to cmd+H to fit in macOS it conflicts with default window shortcuts (cmd+H in macOS is hide window)

    EDIT: 13. In the command list window (ctrl+h) the detailed action text is really crumped together and by that unreadable:

    EDIT: 14. "STRG to Move" image at cursor to move object areas has to be "cmd to move" for mac or "ctrl to move" for english windows... but this mixed german and english is a bit weird ^__^

    EDIT: 15. Active selection colors for object / button / waysystem borders dont get applied. instead they are all grey now...

    EDIT: 16. When choosing a color in the options menu for the editor selection lines, the dialog can be closed with the color picker still open, making it impossible to close the colorpicker until you open options again.

    EDIT: 17. changing the increase/decrease zoom number and then clicking to change another value resets the field to 0, making it not possible to zoom anymore until restarting the program and resetting the value then.

    EDIT: 18. sometimes when zooming szenes or interfaces it looks blury instead of sharp... Dont know whats causing this. After some program restarts it seems to work again.

    EDIT: 19: The save & run and save & run current scene auto open when hovering the mouse over these icons. While this is ok, the menus also open when moving the cursor in the mac menu bar on the same x-coordinate than the icons to open it. So i can move my mouse only on the menu bar of macOS and still open these menus even if im out of the editor window...

    That were mainly the thins which went through my mind^^

    one bug i found which also impacts the game:

    images which have a bit of alpha transparency don't show up correctly in VS editor or VS player. their transparence gets some kind of multiplied instead of added (are these terms correct?).
    For example: I have an interface which has a slider. The interface itself has one color background. Because for reasons the slider should get disabled and by that gets slightly transparent. So i have an overlay object + image of the same color which has 60% opacity (in the png image itself, no object visibility). The object polygon of the overlay object also blocks interacting with the below laying slider object.

    In 4.25 it looks like the whole slider got transparent because of the overlay. Now in 5.0 it looks like a big darker box is surrounding the slider:


    keep up the good work. #hype


    ~Sebastian

    4. I increased max. zoom to 800%

    5. agree, these two icons are not my favorites as well, maybe Marvel can upgrade them wink

    6. The data structure only has 2 links available for an action part. in case of object texts these two links are already used for object and text. I don't think adding another link is worth the additional memory since the 2 links are sufficient for most action parts

    8. In the scene workspace it's often necessary to access scene objects and conditions as well. If conditions and values would be on the left, it would be necessary to change tabs more often. In interface workspace there are only 3 tabs per interface so everything is on the left. I guess this should only be a few minutes until you get used to it wink

    9. Everything at the bottom in the scene workspace belongs to the selected scene object. So I think the object conditions/values are fine where they are.

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  • #14, by afrlmeFriday, 14. April 2017, 00:21 7 years ago
    @ Sebastian: Damn you've been busy from the look of your post. Too damn much to read. grin

    @ Alex: in regards to number 6. I thought that limitation was something to do with shitty wxWidgets? I thought the point in the new GUI - besides the pretty visual update - was to remove the restrictions enforced by buggy wxWidgets?

    I think it would be nice to specify which font to use for display object texts. Thinking about it, why does it need to be assigned to an object/button anyway? Why not just have it like narration text except remain visible on the scene in the position specified until removed with the hide object text action part. The only benefit to having it applied to a scene object that I can see is that you can control the opacity/visible state of it as it seems to take on some of the parent objects properties.

    As for memory, what do you mean? From what I can tell, the editor hardly uses much memory & VS games - even 1080p ones will easily run on mid-level laptop without any issues at all. Even a €300 laptop probably comes with more than enough specs to run a VS game these days.

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  • #15, by AlexFriday, 14. April 2017, 00:40 7 years ago
    @ Sebastian: Damn you've been busy from the look of your post. Too damn much to read. grin

    @ Alex: in regards to number 6. I thought that limitation was something to do with shitty wxWidgets? I thought the point in the new GUI - besides the pretty visual update - was to remove the restrictions enforced by buggy wxWidgets?

    I think it would be nice to specify which font to use for display object texts. Thinking about it, why does it need to be assigned to an object/button anyway? Why not just have it like narration text except remain visible on the scene in the position specified until removed with the hide object text action part. The only benefit to having it applied to a scene object that I can see is that you can control the opacity/visible state of it as it seems to take on some of the parent objects properties.

    As for memory, what do you mean? From what I can tell, the editor hardly uses much memory & VS games - even 1080p ones will easily run on mid-level laptop without any issues at all. Even a €300 laptop probably comes with more than enough specs to run a VS game these days.

    I wouldn't say wxWidgets is shitty, that's not fair. It is a nice framework and served us well for many years, but of course it has its limitations... the 2 links limitation has nothing to do with wx, as mentioned it is a limitation of the data structure. Of course we could add another link but I don't think it is worth it (more memory usage for all games, when the additional link is usually not needed).

    the object text uses properties of the linked object, opacity, etc. that's the main difference of the object text, otherwise you can directly use the narration text

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  • #16, by afrlmeFriday, 14. April 2017, 00:55 7 years ago
    Fine, not shitty. But it has been the cause of most editor related bugs & crashes. I appreciate that it made creating the engine/editor a lot easier than writing/creating a custom framework/gui.

    Aye, yes, they could use narration texts, but there's no way to keep those permanently displayed without forcing <p> & background text. The only way to get rid of that would be to use Lua script to look for narration texts set to background & then kill it.

    I suppose we could use the new Lua draw functions for displaying text on screens now anyway - well... when Simon finds a minute to write up some example functions. smile

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  • #17, by sebastianFriday, 14. April 2017, 13:12 7 years ago
    4. I increased max. zoom to 800%

    5. agree, these two icons are not my favorites as well, maybe Marvel can upgrade them wink

    6. The data structure only has 2 links available for an action part. in case of object texts these two links are already used for object and text. I don't think adding another link is worth the additional memory since the 2 links are sufficient for most action parts

    8. In the scene workspace it's often necessary to access scene objects and conditions as well. If conditions and values would be on the left, it would be necessary to change tabs more often. In interface workspace there are only 3 tabs per interface so everything is on the left. I guess this should only be a few minutes until you get used to it wink

    9. Everything at the bottom in the scene workspace belongs to the selected scene object. So I think the object conditions/values are fine where they are.
    4. yay. Muure zuuum smile

    5. Maybe i try out myself some minimalistic icons. They are placed inside the .app so it would be easy for me to swap them out for testing i guess^^. Don't know if Marvel  needs help by this or something like "these icons are my babies, dont change them unless i do" thing is going on here, though razz 

    6. yeah... its not the biggest deal because as mentioned im able to swap the object text via lua and by that changing it...  Was hoping to dont do it anymore razz

    8. yes, i know that. But its not about getting used to it but about the consistency in the editors layout. Putting more or less the same things all over the editor is not user friendly wink

    9. yep grin i made a mockup to describe what i meant. By that the scene/object related workspaces dont get broken:




    PS: What does the "Action" tab in the characters editor on the right mean ? I cant click any of the dropdowns and also "Actions" is listed in the main character properties beside "outfits"

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  • #18, by afrlmeFriday, 14. April 2017, 13:49 7 years ago
    9. yep grin i made a mockup to describe what i meant. By that the scene/object related workspaces dont get broken:

    Makes sense. I think it's down to the form layout or something as I asked Simon about other weird things like having Action & Action Areas tabs shown on scene tab & then of course you have rest of scene related tabs shown on way systems. Not very user friendly. Simon said something about not updating/drawing form instance again or something - I forget. Bloody memory like a goldfish.

    Anyway, any chance of re-adding color syntax for scripts again or maybe making it selectable which color theme for scripting inside of properties/options section of the editor? Personally I'm a big fan of the monokai theme I use in Sublime text.

    Also any chance of re-adding keyboard support for number input boxes please? I'm not a fan of using the mouse & dragging or only typing in the numbers. Using the keyboard arrow keys is much easier when sorting out the movement values for walk animations.

    Final few things...

    1. Could you please make vertical scrollbar active bit yellow or something? It's a litle hard to see depending on where the scrollbar pops up. I can't find where it happened right now, but there was a section I was in & I clicked on something & it opened up a long list - maybe I was looking at Paradigm ved - & because the action part action list in the background was dark I couldn't see the scrollbar.

    2. The options menu that pops up when you hover over the 2 save & run icons next to search on the top right is all in German - when editor language is set to English.

    3. The mobile button on top left that shows/hides the vs menu stuff remains open until you manually close it. Doesn't automatically close when you click on another section button or move cursor away from menu. Maybe it should work the same way as the save & run popup options block?

    4. It would be really appreciated if you could add a button to the options menu to open up either the messages log file or the localAppDir folder where it & the save files are contained. Bit of a pain in the arse having to manually navigate to them & most people have no clue where their log file or save game files are unless we tell them. "Can you send me your log file please?" - "eh! where do I find it!?"

    5. I would really appreciate some number input boxes for specifying the positions of currently selected animations/images. Much more precise than dragging - if not possible, then maybe a coordinate display showing the current position of x.y of the top left most pixel (on the bottom toolbar maybe or as a floating tooltip in the scene or something).

    6. Tooltips that show up with brief summary of various options on mouse over after x time passed. Particles system could really benefit from this, but the editor as a whole in general. You already have tooltips show up on hover over certain things.

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  • #19, by sebastianFriday, 14. April 2017, 14:51 7 years ago
    @dev team
    here some ideas to to scenes, items and interfaces icons:


    I also changed the house icons for scenes because it could be misinterpreted to lead to the "home" screen ore something like that...

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  • #20, by afrlmeFriday, 14. April 2017, 15:01 7 years ago
    @dev team
    here some ideas to to scenes, items and interfaces icons:


    I also changed the house icons for scenes because it could be misinterpreted to lead to the "home" screen ore something like that...
    Nice! smile

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