So this post is going to be a bit more technical. I’ll go into some new features and ideas I’ve been having.
The editor is coming along nicely. This week I fixed up the multi-select system and cleaned up a bunch of code so that its nice and neat. I still have to work on reverse selections (from the editor to the game) but that shouldn’t be too hard. I also changed the Document Tree so that its easier to save and load levels w/o having to keep the game world and the editor quite as in sync. The Document tree is generated up from the actually Content scene graph node. Oh and you can delete things from the world too :)
I added a layer selection system to the editor so that you can assign objects to layers, and hide certain layers. Sadly the selection system doesn’t care if a layer is hidden yet. I might also consider a “Grey’ed out” mode for a layer. I’ll have to think more on it still.
Level data is now also saving and loading correctly. The project editor is now a lot more straight forward, and allows for multiple projects. I also have a few UI elements working, and full reflection between the property grid and the game node. Game Nodes now link together Via Reflection. I am slowing working on adding support to the engine so that UI elements can be created from the DataEntities. Since Elements are reflectively created in the game based on what you drag and drop, this will make some elements considerably more “editor friendly” while others do the best they can with the available constructors.
I tried to instance up some of the Contour Entities, but because they have a stats engine behind them, it didn’t work. In theory this would replace the stats engine. However, I’ll worry about this after Kismet is finished.
I added a basic Terrain editor, but I’m starting to think its going to be a rough edit so I might go to a more tiled based art solution, where the terrain tiles are made in blender and imported in much the same way that models are. Then I had another idea about a 10 edge model type, similar to a 9 texture regional quad, so that you could create a terrain that knows how to repeat itself and understands that it should so something special on the edge tiles. This trick is used to make windows look resizable w/o stretching at the edges in a regional quad.
Recently I found out that Visual Studio 2012 has a built in Visual Shader Editor and generator! This would be really useful, but because of the way the XNA engine messes with shaders and makes extending next to impossible, I’m probably still going to make my own generator but that doesn’t mean the VS stuff wouldn’t be really helpful =)
On the art side, we have some new textures, models, and logos in the works. As well as a more defined idea on the kinds of levels we will have in the game. I’ll be sure to post some pictures of that once its finished. For now, here’s another boring editor picture.
