C2 gui enhancement ideas (@Ashley)

AlexFrancois

+1

Been asked for a few times.

I could be wrong, but it seems like C2 is now at a turning point, features are working pretty nicely, the exporters aren't as big of an issue as before (mainly because alternatives to cocoonJS exists), it seems more like now is the time to improve what has been done and also improve the IDE itself.

My personnal suggestions:

-The image editor would like a little more work on it

-Even though I know it will not be done, the ability to change the framerate is still an important feature

-array and dictionnary behavior, as well as events sheets for the objects themselves rather than the layouts (not nessecary, but nothing is really needed when you think about it, it is just really helpful to have, and that could be a great help for new users)

-depreciating cocoonJS, and working on the functionnalities for ejecta, crosswalk, phonegap, also make the box2D physics engine uses it's full potential, since I think it is partially nerfed because of the cocoonJS physics engine, which is really not acceptable

-the arcade, right now it is just hurting this website!

-If possible, doing a node webkit fix for the problematics OS, I know it is not your job, but it is directly included inside C2 itself and on the front page of the site so it should work.

-theorycally an official wiki, could be nice to have, since forum topics can be lost in the crowd, and tutorial are not in the community edit spirit

-other things that this thread highlighted

-having the known issues listed inside the manual, I am not sure I have saw the family+container issue listed somewhere in the manual for example.

-I think the facebook plugin is not up to date.

Just suggestions of course.

Aphrodite, I suggested "events sheets for the objects themselves rather than the layouts" yesterday as well! the way Unity2D handles it is pretty awesome!

But I was told I could just have a separate event sheet for each sprite with its own logic. Still I think it could be cool.

Aphrodite, I suggested "events sheets for the objects themselves rather than the layouts" yesterday as well! the way Unity2D handles it is pretty awesome!

But I was told I could just have a separate event sheet for each sprite with its own logic. Still I think it could be cool.

The problem with attaching eventsheets to sprites is that sprites begin to perform mysterious alterations to other parts of the program, in an anti-pattern known as action at a distance. If something weird happens, you might spend hours staring at layout-attached eventsheets only to find out later that an unused/obsolete object was causing the issues.

A much better approach would be modularity, where you create self-contained widgets (including inheritance) that do what you want them to do, using construct logic. This is practically the same as making construct be object-oriented instead of procedural (the way it currently is now).

[quote:1q87ziqp]I guess it comes down to: do you want a dream UI with everything, but after a long time, or for slow and perhaps painstaking updates to the existing editor, but arriving sooner?

I'd rather have the dream UI after a long-ish time (not talking years I hope!), because I imagine a total re-write would both be easier for you to do and would get us a much better UI in the long term. There are so many little problems with the current UI and band-aiding them all into submission might take even longer than just re-doing it all and get something that's more flexible to expand? I dunno, it's all complete guesswork on my part of course, I have no clue what it would take

[quote:1q87ziqp]- search functions - highlight your search query in the text and being able to search across multiple even sheets

This is a big deal for larger projects especially. I'm missing it more and more.