IziEditor

[Tijny]

During the past couple of weeks I wrote a new track editor, which I intend to be more convenient and performant than the editor that ships with the game.

Features

• Fast track loading and creation without restarting the editor
• Saving tracks with correct track hashes
• Tiles/terrains/includes that are directly inside the .trk file will be saved
• Tile layers, to give more control over tile order
• Easy undo/redo for practically every action.
• Convenient scrolling with the right mouse button
• Zooming in/out
• Selecting and operating on placed tiles
• Cut & paste
• Flood fill with the currently selected tile, according to various properties
• Custom tiles/terrains/includes are saved
• Start points, control points, pit and pattern modes, as in the default editor
• Resizing tracks on the fly

Lightmaps are currently not supported.

Hotkeys

• In Tile Placement mode, pressing Space will place a tile before the last tile, or, if there are tiles selected, it will place it before the selected tiles.
• Pressing 0..9 will jump to a certain tile in the inventory, like in the default editor. You can browse the tiles quickly using the mouse wheel.
• Like in the default editor, holding Alt allows you to align tiles perfectly.
• In Tile Selection mode, holding Ctrl will allow you to add tiles to the current selection. Similarly, holding
  Alt will remove tiles from the selection.

Download

IziEditor 0.99c

Extract the contents of the archive anywhere, optionally inside the TS folder if you want. Note that this is a beta version, and even though I tested it quite extensively, it's quite likely that there are bugs. Feel free to report any findings - bugs, suggestions or otherwise - in this thread.

[Whiplash]

Brilliant!

[power79]

Feel free to report any findings - bugs, suggestions or otherwise - in this thread.

Great stuff! Much better than the project I once started and gave up soon after.

Selecting tiles is a bit confusing. I don't know how the area selection tool is supposed to work. It doesn't seem to select any tiles that are in the selected area. I can't do anything with that. Single selection tool works ok, but sometimes when I rotate tile(s) they disappear once I have finished rotating(the big grass tile for example). Also after moving tile, when selecting single selection tool again, a tile appears in the place where I selected it before moving. Hard to explain, but you should get what I mean if you play with those neat tools for a while.

Also how you choose the position where you paste the tile you copied?

In Track Properties, there are "Height Levels". Is this same thing as td in track files ("Size td 6 1280 800")? I have always wondered what it means. You seem to know?

Suggestions:

You have History and Layers windows. If you could add Tiles window, it would be great. I don't like the mouse wheel browsing. It is very difficult way to find the tile you need.

One idea that I played with was Tile Scaling. This would require the editor to create new tile file for scaled tile, but it should be quite simple process.

[Mike Nike]

Tested on Windows Vista Home Premium SP 2, 32bit:


Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library

Runtime Error!
Program: ...

This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way.
Please contact ...


- gonna try to fix it with:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/884538
sigh..failing 20min with various ideas. no time for this anymore..

[Whiplash]

I don't know how the area selection tool is supposed to work.

I was wondering the same.

[Tijny]

Selecting tiles is a bit confusing. I don't know how the area selection tool is supposed to work. It doesn't seem to select any tiles that are in the selected area. I can't do anything with that. Single selection tool works ok, but sometimes (quite often) when I rotate tile(s) they disappear once I have finished rotating(the big grass tile for example). Also after moving tile, when selecting single selection tool again, a tile appears in the place where I selected it before moving. Hard to explain, but you should get what I mean if you play with those neat tools for a while.

The Area Selection tool is currently only used for the Area Fill feature, so you're not doing anything wrong.
I wanted to make it so that when switching from the Area Selection tool to other tools, it selects all tiles in that area, but I forgot about that.
I confirmed the bug that made tiles disappear after rotating, and probably the other one too. Will fix.

Also how you choose the position where you paste the tile you copied?

It computes the center of the selected tiles, uses that as the origin and finally places them in the middle of the screen. (i.e., the camera position)

In Track Properties, there are "Height Levels". Is this same thing as td in track files ("Size td 6 1280 800")? I have always wondered what it means. You seem to know?

Yes, that's exactly what it is. 99.999999% of all tracks won't need this feature, but I included it for completeness.

You have History and Layers windows. If you could add Tiles window, it would be great. I don't like the mouse wheel browsing. It is very difficult way to find the tile you need.

You are right about this, and actually Badeend suggested it to me too. His idea was to categorize the tiles by type, but I don't want to assume anything that's not in tiles2.til. I'm really not sure about how to best implement a tiles view...

One idea that I played with was Tile Scaling. This would require the editor to create new tile file for scaled tile, but it should be quite simple process.

That should indeed be quite a simple process, but I'm not sure if it's worthwhile. The scaled dimensions must be a multiple of the real dimensions, so arbitrary scaling would not be possible. (my editor would support that just fine, but TS won't)

[Rendy Andrian]

AWESOME!!! Gotta try this one soon

[power79]

His idea was to categorize the tiles by type, but I don't want to assume anything that's not in tiles2.til. I'm really not sure about how to best implement a tiles view...

It would be enough to just arrange them in order of Tile ID number with small thumbnail(+ maybe size information) and then allow user to arrange and save them in some kind of "custom palette" how they want it. Actually anything would be better than the mouse wheel.

[Tijny]

@Mike
You need the Visual C++ 2013 redistributable package, I forgot to mention that. But I will statically link to the C++ runtime in the next build, which is the easiest solution for me and for everyone.

[Alex Novo]

I can't open it with iMac

[Tijny]

It's Windows only at the moment. In theory it should be compilable for other platforms too, but currently it would be too much effort for me to make Linux and Mac builds.

I made a new version where the rotation tool is fixed, the area selection tool can select tiles, and the C++ runtime is built within the executable. The link is updated in the first post. A tiles window will be something for a next version.

[Mike Nike]

Argh. Still not working

Neither with the new izi version.
Nor after installing the package here http://getintopc.com/softwares/utilitie ... -download/

But alone based on how you wrote the first post, i'm confident it's a very nice editor

[iBlaze²]

Downloaded this tonight and spent the evening working on a track for my new project. Have to say, this is amazing T. Track editing is so much easier and quicker than with the default editor. I found myself getting a lot less frustrated and could do what I wanted with so much ease. Ability to zoom is a massive positive and a total game-changer for track makers.

And perfect timing too as I'll need to use this a lot over the coming weeks

[Tijny]

Thank you, that means a lot to me. Makes me feel like I didn't just write this for shits and giggles.

Beta 3 released, link updated in the first post. Changed how the area selection tool works (tiles in the area are selected instantly), and I fixed a few bugs related to cutting, pasting and deleting tile, which caused the tile order to be wrong.

@Mike, can you try to run the latest build and see if it still crashes on startup? If not, it will probably silently fail to start, and if so, what is being written to editor.log?

[Whiplash]

You did something wrong with this one. When I run it, nothing happens. Log file says: heu

[power79]

Same thing happens to me. Beta 3 doesn't work. Size of exe file is only 898KB when Beta 2 is 1114KB?

Couple small requests for this already great editor:

- Maybe option to have similar scrolling with original editor where screen scrolls when you take mouse close to edge.

- Rotating tiles also with arrow keys, not just with mouse. Moving already seems to work.

- Possibility to select/delete control points. Now it works same as original where you can only delete last. Also show somewhere a text to indicate which mode you are using currently.

- Adding Object Tile (id > 5000) creates new layer automatically(it also always names it Layer 2, even if there's already layer 2). I guess this is intentional? It's ok but shouldn't that object layer only have objects? I can also add normal tiles on top of those object tiles (in that same layer). Is this ok?

- Zooming doesn't allow inserting your own percentage so there could be option to zoom track to 100%/200%.

- When moving tile over to tile(s) that belong to higher layer, maybe use some transparency so you can place the tile behind it correctly?

- Tab orders of dialog forms are not correct.

- Creating second track with "New" almost always seems to crash the program after inserting first tile.

[Mike Nike]

Same as Whip with beta3.

[Tijny]

aaaaaaaaaa

Oh man, how stupid. Sorry about that, I uploaded a fixed version now.

- Maybe option to have similar scrolling with original editor where screen scrolls when you take mouse close to edge.

I don't know about this. I had that implemented, but Badeend and I found that dragging while holding the right mouse button is superior and more convenient. Implementing both ways at the same time will lead to problems when you hit the edge of the screen while dragging, because then it will scroll the other way. Maybe as a setting, but that's a bit too much effort for what I believe is an inferior feature.

- Rotating tiles also with arrow keys, not just with mouse. Moving already seems to work.

- Possibility to select/delete control points. Now it works same as original where you can only delete last. Also show somewhere a text to indicate which mode you are using currently.

Will implement these things.

Adding Object Tile (id > 5000) creates new layer automatically(it also always names it Layer 2, even if there's already layer 2). I guess this is intentional? It's ok but shouldn't that object layer only have objects? I can also add normal tiles on top of those object tiles (in that same layer). Is this ok?

This is intentional, but I will change it so that it names the layer "Level 2" instead of "Layer 2". Layers all have a level associated with them, so in order to create an "object" (tile level > 0), a new layer must be created. However, I don't believe there is any reason that non-object tiles can't be placed on higher levels, even though I haven't actually tested this. Maybe I should.

Zooming doesn't allow inserting your own percentage so there could be option to zoom track to 100%/200%.

Will implement.

When moving tile over to tile(s) that belong to higher layer, maybe use some transparency so you can place the tile behind it correctly?

That's a good suggestion, but probably too complex to implement. As an alternative you could maybe hide the top-most layer and fiddle with the move tool until the tile is placed correctly.

Tab orders of dialog forms are not correct.

Will look into this.

Creating second track with "New" almost always seems to crash the program after inserting first tile.

Confirmed, will fix. Thank you for your feedback, it is much appreciated.

[power79]

I don't know about this. I had that implemented, but Badeend and I found that dragging while holding the right mouse button is superior and more convenient. Implementing both ways at the same time will lead to problems when you hit the edge of the screen while dragging, because then it will scroll the other way. Maybe as a setting, but that's a bit too much effort for what I believe is an inferior feature.

Could be. I just noticed that if I want to move selected tile from top to bottom(with mouse) I have to first scroll the screen then move the tile, then scroll the screen again etc. Small issue, i know, but bit counter intuitive to move tile down and then scroll the screen by moving up. But I guess you get used to it.

Will implement these things.

Oh, forgot to mention. Make sure you can fine tune the movement with shift down. Now moving tile with arrows doesn't seem to have that function.

That's a good suggestion, but probably too complex to implement. As an alternative you could maybe hide the top-most layer and fiddle with the move tool until the tile is placed correctly.

Perhaps add function between hiding and showing layer, where all tiles of the layer show as transparent? If you are using that layer, also current tile would show as transparent while you are placing it. I think that would solve the issue. But probably not that important when I think about it.


One more:

When I am exiting from program it asks me if I want to save the track (Yes,No,Cancel). If I choose Cancel it just exits the program. I think Cancel function should be not to exit the program? Also If I create "New" then it doesn't ask me to save the track I have open at the moment.

[Whiplash]

My suggestions (I've already told you about some of them):
- Force non-rotatable objects to be used with 0 degrees
- When creating new track, give us also those track size presets that default editor does. Of course, keep the option for custom numbers too.
- New track makers are obviously confused by the new editor. I've heard one saying: "I tried it, but I have no idea what to do". I believe that's cause they see no visible instructions about controls. That's what default editor has on the bottom of the screen. You should show them on a similar way too.
- When rotatable tile is selected, I miss rotating by right mouse click.

[Tijny]

- New track makers are obviously confused by the new editor. I've heard one saying: "I tried it, but I have no idea what to do". I believe that's cause they see no visible instructions about controls. That's what default editor has on the bottom of the screen. You should show them on a similar way too.

Probably, but I have very limited space available in the status bar. I'll have to think about how to solve this in the best way. Maybe I could make a help window for all available editor modes that explains some things and lists the available hotkeys.

- Force non-rotatable objects to be used with 0 degrees
- When creating new track, give us also those track size presets that default editor does. Of course, keep the option for custom numbers too.

I implemented these things in the latest version. About the first thing, there's a Strict Rotations setting in the Edit menu, which must be disabled if you want to rotate non-rotatable tiles. Do note that these tiles can still be rotated with the rotation tool after they have been placed.

Speaking of the latest version, I also implemented select/move/rotate/resize tools for the Start Points and Control Points modes. I also implemented using the arrow keys to rotate selected tiles, and fine-tuning with Shift and Ctrl for both the rotation and movement tools. In addition, I added "save track?" queries in a few more places. Probably also a few smaller things I can't quite remember.

Link updated in first post.

[Mike Nike]

beta 4: editor.log: "failed to load font bitmap"

[Whiplash]

- It would be nice to have also area selection tool working in start points mode too.
- Also, we should be able to rotate selected start positions with arrows, just like you made it for tiles.
- I've noticed one buggy thing on photoshopped tracks. It's quite hard to select a track path on such tracks with the single selection tool. When I select some tile under it and press delete, whole track path will be deleted even it's not selected. The same will happed when I cut that tile.
Also, once you delete track path, you can't bring it back by undo option.

[Tijny]

- It would be nice to have also area selection tool working in start points mode too.
- Also, we should be able to rotate selected start positions with arrows, just like you made it for tiles.
- I've noticed one buggy thing on photoshopped tracks. It's quite hard to select a track path on such tracks with the single selection tool. When I select some tile under it and press delete, whole track path will be deleted even it's not selected. The same will happed when I cut that tile.
Also, once you delete track path, you can't bring it back by undo option.

Fixed, fixed and fixed in the new version. Also fixed a few bugs related to moving tiles around with the arrow keys.


The thing about selecting a large track tile is because of how the algorithm works. It looks at the tiles whose bounding boxes contain the mouse position, and when there's more than one tile found, it selects the tile whose position is closest to the mouse position. So if this tile is placed at (1000, 1000), the mouse must be near that position to select it, or there must be some area with no tiles and it can be selected from there. This algorithm works well for normal tiles, but maybe not so much for the huge F1 track tiles, as you found. An easy solution is to put the track tile on its own layer.

@Mike: The problem you had should be solved now, it was easy to pinpoint the bug given the error you reported. Even though it was mostly caused by my incompetence, it was also due to a seemingly outdated graphics card and I wonder if other problems might arise from that.

Link updated in the first post.

[Whiplash]

Nice. Selecting the big tiles can also be performed by using "zoom to fit" option and then just by aiming close to center of it. So, yeah, you can keep that selection logic.
But I wonder why you didn't simply make it so that mouse selects any tile that it touches. Tile on top should get advantage. Same could work for area selecting tool. If any area spot touches some tiles, all those tiles should be selected. I guess we would lose some precision with that, cause now with the area tool I can select group of bushes without selecting the grass under them.