New idea of level edit tool box

[acme_pjz]

Hi everyone,

I have a new idea of level edit tool box, see the concept art. A button is added in the bottom-right corner, when you click it a tool box appears in the bottom of screen. I think this design is better than existing one, especially on touch-screen devices

[Edward_Lii]

Hello acme_pjz,

I have a new idea of level edit tool box, see the concept art. A button is added in the bottom-right corner, when you click it a tool box appears in the bottom of screen. I think this design is better than existing one, especially on touch-screen devices

Great idea, I've been thinking about how to make the toolbox (and leveleditor in general) easier to use and this is the best one so far.
Beside being good for touch devices it will also work well on different resolutions.

How should the scrolling through the list be done on touch screens?
Should we support some sort of slide gesture or add arrows on either side to step through the blocks?

[acme_pjz]

Hi,

How should the scrolling through the list be done on touch screens?
Should we support some sort of slide gesture or add arrows on either side to step through the blocks?

I think a standard slide gesture is good, maybe we can also add two arrows, but it is another story for 0.6, perhaps 0.7 ?

[odamite]

Hello everyone,

I like the concept of an additional toolbar for selecting block type. It's more straightforward and visually nicer. However I'm don't quite like the stacking and moving toolbars. They make the editor more complicated and inconsistent. But I still like the idea and I would like to see how it works in action.

Oh, one more thing. The mockup was great and informative but I had to make one small change. I think it looks better this way. What do you think?

[Edward_Lii]

Hello all,

As you might have noticed I started working on improving/changing the leveleditor.
I have already removed the toolbox, since it will be replaced with something as discussed in this thread.
After some fiddling around I think the "stacked" toolbars don't really work.

I thought about putting it vertically on the right, but that didn't feel right either.
So perhaps it's best to place it across the top? That way there will be a bar at the bottom and top of the screen?
We already use the top of the screen for the movingspeed text during configure mode so maybe we can use that space during other modes as well?

Suggestions are welcome.

[acme_pjz]

Hello all,

As you might have noticed I started working on improving/changing the leveleditor.
I have already removed the toolbox, since it will be replaced with something as discussed in this thread.
After some fiddling around I think the "stacked" toolbars don't really work.

I thought about putting it vertically on the right, but that didn't feel right either.
So perhaps it's best to place it across the top? That way there will be a bar at the bottom and top of the screen?
We already use the top of the screen for the movingspeed text during configure mode so maybe we can use that space during other modes as well?

Suggestions are welcome.

Good idea

[odamite]

Hello Edward_Lii,

Awesome work on the level editor.

I thought about putting it vertically on the right, but that didn't feel right either.
So perhaps it's best to place it across the top? That way there will be a bar at the bottom and top of the screen?

Sound like a plan. It seems to be the most logical solution in terms of both visuals and usability.
Also it seems like configure tool in toolbar isn't used anymore so it should be removed. Maybe double click could activate the action used for configure tool to make things faster? In addition, sometime the toolbar should be made more dynamic, not just a single static image. This will make managing things much easier and adding new items like undo and redo will be fast and easy.

We already use the top of the screen for the movingspeed text during configure mode so maybe we can use that space during other modes as well?

All text could appear below the toolbar similar position like messages in-game ("Press R to restart current level" etc.). Alternatively movingspeed text could follow and be above the mouse cursor.

We also need more user-friendly widgets. I've done some work on textbox but I think I will be adding more features also on other widgets. Our widgets doesn't always follow the standard behaviour which in people are used to. These may seem small things but I believe they make a big impact on overall usability.

[Edward_Lii]

Hello odamite,

Awesome work on the level editor.

Thanks.

Also it seems like configure tool in toolbar isn't used anymore so it should be removed. Maybe double click could activate the action used for configure tool to make things faster?

Yeah, the more I look at the tools the more I dislike them.
It seemed like a good idea when I implemented them, but a lot of the time I was just switching between them.
This was partially fixed by automatically switching to configure mode when right-clicking, allowing selecting/dragging in add mode, etc...
Perhaps we should always draw the configure "lines", but make them very dim.
When the user hovers over the block the links/paths belonging to that block could be highlighted.

The Return key is now unused, so we can give it a new feature, if needed.

In addition, sometime the toolbar should be made more dynamic, not just a single static image. This will make managing things much easier and adding new items like undo and redo will be fast and easy.

Although, I don't expect the items to change that often, it is a good idea to make it more dynamic.
It's a bit odd that almost everything in the editor is rendered/constructed on the go except for the toolbar.

We also need more user-friendly widgets. I've done some work on textbox but I think I will be adding more features also on other widgets. Our widgets doesn't always follow the standard behaviour which in people are used to. These may seem small things but I believe they make a big impact on overall usability.

I fully agree, even the smallest enhancements can make a huge impact on usability.
Another important thing is giving feedback to the user, which can be improved here and there (e.g. hovering over check-boxes).
We should look how other GUI toolkits handle things like this and try to mimic that behaviour.

Sometimes something just feels a bit off, but it's impossible to tell what it is exactly.
It happened to me with the previous configure pop-ups, now I think I know what it was:
The dimming of the background and the whole pop-up interrupted the workflow. Every time you had to move the cursor to the center, change something and move the cursor back again.
Now the options are right next to the cursor.