Instant tilling texture/tiles previev in image editor

Instant tilling texture/tiles previev in image editor

Postby qubodup » 08 Jan 2010, 09:00

Hey,

I just saw a new screenshot of Hero of Allacrost and noticed the stone texture not tilling very well. So I asked myself: what editor to use, that would provide an instant tiled preview of a texture/tile I'm working on?
workit.png
kind of what I'm after
workit.png (8.86 KiB) Viewed 9645 times

GIMP has the tile filter but it takes too much time selecting it and waiting for the output to appear.

A rather uncomfortable but effective solution is creating a html file:
{l Code}: {l Select All Code}
<html><body background-image="image.png"></body></html>

and opening it in a browser window and configuring it to reload every second. This way I would just have to hit Ctrl+S in my image editor to see the tiled result 0 to 1 seconds later.

Does anybody know a tile editor, that has a tiled preview?
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Re: Instant tilling texture/tiles previev in image editor

Postby amuzen » 08 Jan 2010, 11:28

Perhaps not exactly what you're looking for, but I tried to script some helpers for GIMP. The attached plug-in creates a Filters/Tiling/ menu with two tools in it that can be bound to keys or torn normally:

  • Quick Tile creates a 2x2 tiled image of the current layer without showing an annoying dialog.
  • Displace Seams does the same and then crops a part the same size as the original layer from the center of the new image so that you don't need a preview to see the seam.

Disclaimer: It's my second GIMP plug-in so it might explode when you least expect it. :p

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}
mkdir -p ~/.gimp-2.6/plug-ins/
cp tiling.py ~/.gimp-2.6/plug-ins/
chmod ug+x ~/.gimp-2.6/plug-ins/tiling.py
Attachments
tiling.py
(946 Bytes) Downloaded 494 times
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Re: Instant tilling texture/tiles previev in image editor

Postby Julius » 08 Jan 2010, 13:37

http://www.aseprite.org/

this has a feature called "Tiled drawing mode to draw patterns and textures" but I have not tested it.
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Re: Instant tilling texture/tiles previev in image editor

Postby qubodup » 08 Jan 2010, 14:19

amuzen: It is cool that you solved the issue for yourself. I find my HTML approach more comfortable for me, as my image editor will keep window focus when I use it.

Julius {l Wrote}:http://www.aseprite.org/

this has a feature called "Tiled drawing mode to draw patterns and textures" but I have not tested it.

This sounds awesome but I wasn't able to find that function. I only found a "tiled preview" (F8) that fills the window with the tile (and hides it after the next mouseclick/keypress). This is not bad, but I would prefer having a separate preview, so I could make changes while looking at the tiled preview. Also, the preview has the same zoom level, which I use during editing, so I have to make another keypress.
Thanks for the link though, I don't remember seeing/trying this editor. It has a nice style and provides a lovely GUI-less drawing mode.

I searched a little and (re-)found Tile Studio (Win only). It does have a tiled preview:
tile_studio.png

I very much dislike using Wine, but so far this software seems to provide the best solution.

Pixen (Mac only) seems to have a tiled preview (don't know if it interfers with editing or not):
Pixen's tile view allows you to check out your seams in realtime—without limiting your editing abilities in any way.

But as I said, Mac only :(

JDraw has a preview area next to the editing area but no tiled preview functionality.

Conclusion: request linux ports of Tile Studio and Pixen (probably tons of work), request a draw-in-tiled-preview-mode-mode in ASE, request tiled preview for JDraw (this might be actually easy to do! :D )
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Re: Instant tilling texture/tiles previev in image editor

Postby charlie » 08 Jan 2010, 16:11

Yeah, ask the JDraw guys if they would do it. It's a pretty simple feature to add.
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Re: Instant tilling texture/tiles previev in image editor

Postby qubodup » 09 Jan 2010, 16:28

I added a JDraw feature request. There was no development action for nearly two years now.

I discovered* GrafX2 and tested it too. Seems nice, especially the zoom function (you get the window split to zoomed/original and can draw in both areas) but there is no tiling view/edit function/mode. Someone already requested such a feature and I commented.

I wanted to fill in a ASE feature request, but now SF.net seems broken. Edit: added.

*thanks to Google -> Ubuntu Brainstorm

On related note: I found a so far proprietary, win-only being-developed pixel editor. It seems to have a very attractive visual concept: http://www.retroidea.com/Pixe/ [thread]
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Re: Instant tilling texture/tiles previev in image editor

Postby qubodup » 22 Jan 2010, 15:59

I noticed that Pixen development seems dead (last update 2005 http://opensword.org/entries.php?type=devlogs )

It seems I'm not the first to ask for parallel tiled preview and drawing in ASE:
I will try to add something for this feature in the next release. It is
highly requested (three different people already told me something about
tiled-preview).

Currently you can split editors (use Ctrl+2 or Ctrl+3), then you can zoom
one editor (Alt+mouse wheel, or 1,2,3,4,5,6 keys). What is missing is the
possibility to see the tiled sprite in the same editor.

Ticket

Also, drawing while tiled is possible in ASE:
PS: The "Tiled" drawing mode is activated through the "Tools
Configuration" window: press "C" key, you will see a "Tiled" check-box.

It allows you to draw over the borders. pretty neat.
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