EGO Game Editor, beta released.. CODE RELEASED!

[shanefarris]

Wow, love the code, and love the editor, let me know if I can contribute at all. I've done C# for about 5 years, and C++ for about 8 years, but not much experience in managed C++.

Love the lua option. I haven't messed with lua before, but now looks like a good time to start.

If I add an option to load plugins, would you like that in a patch?

[dudeabot]

glad you liked it!
any patches are welcome

[dudeabot]

I created a small tutorial to get users started with code and editor

Manual

Basic movement
Movement of the camera: W: Forward S: Back, A: Left D: Right, Q: Up, E: Left
Rotate the camera: Right-click.
Common Controls
Select object: Left mouse button

Interface
The editor interface is composed of the following:


File Menu
It has options to load a map or script, start a new map or save the current map.


Settings
Gives access options settings of the map, as the name, author, etc.. and camera settings.


Help
The help menu has shortcuts for the help and information publisher.


Toolbar
On the toolbar are the most common operations: commands the stage, transformation tools, etc..


Panel scene
Hierarchical view of the scene. Select the nodes of the tree to see its properties in the Properties panel. You can also focus on an object or remove it through this panel.


Panel properties
The Properties pane lets you view and change the properties of selected objects.


Status Bar
Contains the position of the camera and frames per second (FPS).


Panel models
Shows all available models. Double-click the model name to add it to the scene.


Editor tracks
Shows all NodeTracks belonging to the scene. Click "Add" to add a NodeTrack the scene, select a NodeTrack and press "Enter" to add a keyframe, or press "Delete" to remove the KeyFrame selected.


Panel fog
Displays the current configuration of the fog.


Panel environment settings
Display settings skybox, ambient color and shadows.


Screen rendering
The main work area. Here is where it happens most of the interaction with the editor.



Log Panel
Shows the latest actions taken in the editor as well as the startup scene.



Screen creation of the Terrain
On this screen User sets the size of the land, and the brushes will be used in his painting and deformation.


Menu vegetation
This screen allows the User to define the vegetation to be inserted into the scene.



Menu tools Land
In this menu the User can choose which textures it will use to paint the ground, as well as the size of the brush. This menu is disabled if there is no ground in the scene.

Development

5.2 Architecture

• Classes of presentation, these classes have W prefixed files in them, for example, the class WlevelEditor, manages the main screen of the editor.
• Classes of instruments are classes that take care of User input and translate to the current instrument. For example, the move tool to move a body panel rendering in accordance with the User Input.
• Manager classes manage an entity or an aspect of the editor. For example, XML handlers, managers of entry.
• base classes have EGO_ as the prefix, for example, ego_entity, ego_light, etc.. Are the most basic editor entities, such as light, sound, water, etc..

5.2 Classes
The code editor is divided into several classes and some interfaces. The idea is that each class implements a specific function, making the system as modular as possible.
• QueryManager, and manages the selection of objects is made in the editor and how the gizmos are applied to them. Currently the selection of objects is made at the level of the polygon, making the selection more accurate than the default selection that is based on the bounding box of the object.
• InputManager, provides an interface that can extend the classes if they need to process the User input. This class makes a broadcast entry entered by the User for all objects registered in it.
• EGO_RENDER - initializes OGRE and its subsystems. Create panels and rendering controls the User input in them.
• EGO_CAMERA controls the movement of the camera.
• EditorFrameListener, is invoked every frame rendered. It delegates functions to the active instrument.
• InstrumentManager, records and manages all the tools available in the editor. Only one instrument can be active at a time.
• SimpleInstrument, interface all instruments must implement.
• EGO_FACTORY records all XML parsers available in the editor, and also takes care of creation and destruction of all objects in the editor.
• EGO_RESOURCE_MANAGER manages all resources as models, materials, scripts, etc..
• EGO_SCENE_XML provides an interface for creating new XML parsers also takes care of loading all the interpreters registered with the Factory class when a map is loaded or saved.

[dudeabot]

version 1.0 released! http://sourceforge.net/projects/egogameeditor/

[tod]

Great editor. Must have been a lot of work.
Two points though:
1) do you pan to support some paging for the terrain/ world?
2) i had some error when creating the terrain without filling all the fields. If you plan on supporting this I could log a bug or something.

[dudeabot]

1) do you pan to support some paging for the terrain/ world?
2) i had some error when creating the terrain without filling all the fields. If you plan on supporting this I could log a bug or something.

im not sure about this. I havent used terrain in any games I made since I have done this editor I just used it as proof of concept so my demand is not that high, but I know the new terrain is here to replace the ETM, so its planned on the roadmap, and anyone can contribute patches for it.

by the way this is the roadmap and TODO:

• Integration with the new Terrain Manager (1.7)
  It Should be possible to create geometries like spheres, boxes, etc. These geometries are created from functions like union, intersection, etc
  It Should be possible to position entities according to other entities and the grid
  It Should be possible to group entities by a common node.
  It Should be possible to select more than one entity.
  It Should be possible to undo one or more times.
  It Should be possible to hide, show or group entities by layers.
  Add physics to the editor.
  Programming through logic blocks.
  Panels for Shaders and Material edition.
  4 panel view.
  Migration to QT or wxwidgets (multiplatform)

[FrozenLogic]

Mto legal dudeabot! O que voce usou para a interface? C#?

Nice work dudeabot! Looks cool! What have you used to the interface? C#?

[dudeabot]

thanks! C++ (managed and unmanaged)

[dudeabot]

Uploaded loader code and made an installer. Also updated first post!

ight now im working on getting it compiled with Ogre 1.7

[Beauty]

A nice looking editor - thanks for the hitch hike in the Glue Editor thread

It's looking like the Editable Terrain Manager I thought when watching the video.
If I understood right by some posts you do use ETM.
Is it available to use created scenes also by other scene managers?
For my application I use the Terrain Scene Manager. I know it's a little bit old and others have interesting advantages, but for my case it's still working well. Can I load scenes from it?

What is the scene format you use?
dotScene or COLLADA or something else?

Is there a main difference to Ogitor?
I mean in there a different main focus or is it "just" an other editor?

[dudeabot]

hey Beauty! thanks for the compliments!

development is going somewhat slow since im doing it alone now, my other partner left the boat for other adventures =)

also im working on a game for submiting to IGF ^^

It's looking like the Editable Terrain Manager I thought when watching the video.
If I understood right by some posts you do use ETM.
Is it available to use created scenes also by other scene managers?

not in the public version, on SVN has some draft code to load the _new_ terrain scene manager

For my application I use the Terrain Scene Manager. I know it's a little bit old and others have interesting advantages, but for my case it's still working well. Can I load scenes from it?

It has no support for the old one

What is the scene format you use?
dotScene or COLLADA or something else?

its a custom one, but i have worked ona dotscene loader. There is a loader sample code for the custom cormat on SVN

Is there a main difference to Ogitor?
I mean in there a different main focus or is it "just" an other editor?

When this project was started Ogitor didnt exist, so there should be opints where both overlap, etc. Ego game editor, has built in support for some addons like Hydrax, Caelum, PagedGeometry and ETM.

[Beauty]

SVN has some draft code to load the _new_ terrain scene manager
[...]
It has no support for the old one

As far as I know currently the Mogre has no support of the new scene manager.
I was inactive for some months - maybe now it's available?
Also I remember an older discussion where sinbad told me that he implement not a scene manager. He "just" would add new functions, which support to create an own scene manager. Ok, I should search in the forum for the current state of the Ogre core development (mostly I'm just active in the Mogre section).
Would it be possible to use my terrain data (height map + texture) also with the new scene manager?

its a custom one, but i have worked ona dotscene loader. There is a loader sample code for the custom cormat on SVN

Your editor only can load dotScene files. Saving to dotScene file isn't possible. It this right?
(Nice would be when different editors would use the same format. Now the user has to chose one and can't combine the power of different editors. But I know - for editor developers it's more easy to use an own format. It fits best to the own needs.)
You wrote you offer a scene loader. I suppose you mean a loader for Ogre application which can load the proprietary editor format.

When this project was started Ogitor didnt exist, so there should be opints where both overlap, etc. Ego game editor, has built in support for some addons like Hydrax, Caelum, PagedGeometry and ETM.

Somehow I'm sad to see that the power of developers are splitted to similar, but different projects. For example the 3 scene editors. Nice would be when all its developers would work on one common project. On the other side I know that the world is not so ideal

version 1.0 released! http://sourceforge.net/projects/egogameeditor/

Please add this URL also to your first post (you can edit it).
Then all important information is on one place.

[dudeabot]

As far as I know currently the Mogre has no support of the new scene manager.
I was inactive for some months - maybe now it's available?
Also I remember an older discussion where sinbad told me that he implement not a scene manager. He "just" would add new functions, which support to create an own scene manager. Ok, I should search in the forum for the current state of the Ogre core development (mostly I'm just active in the Mogre section).
Would it be possible to use my terrain data (height map + texture) also with the new scene manager?

I dont follow Mogre, but it looks a very interesting project, should be very easy to make editors using it the new scene manager isnt fully implemented yet, but if anyone wnats to write a importer they are welcome. For the moment im working with interior scenes, and though the level from our current game has been made entirely in 3DSMAX sometimes the level designers ask for a tool for fine tuning in Ogre (and to look how it render with shaders, etc), so it brought some ideas to me that i might implement when project is finished, for now its crunch time =)

Your editor only can load dotScene files. Saving to dotScene file isn't possible. It this right?
(Nice would be when different editors would use the same format. Now the user has to chose one and can't combine the power of different editors. But I know - for editor developers it's more easy to use an own format. It fits best to the own needs.)
You wrote you offer a scene loader. I suppose you mean a loader for Ogre application which can load the proprietary editor format.

exactly in fact it started based _only_ in dotscene editing loading and saving, but then we realized we couldnt store our scene logic so easily in that format (for example what peratined to editor or to the scene), or at least i couldnt figure out at the time, so we ended scrapping it and writing our own format. But exporting and importing for .scene should be straight forward to code.

Somehow I'm sad to see that the power of developers are splitted to similar, but different projects. For example the 3 scene editors. Nice would be when all its developers would work on one common project. On the other side I know that the world is not so ideal

thats true.. if ogitor did exist at time we probably wouldnt have started this one, i believe the "scene editing" reality for ogre now has changed, for better, many solutions popping out on forum and its always nice to see new ideas coming in. But for sure im proud what the project turned into, and it helped me a lot already, and then i released the source code hoping it will be useful for other people as well

version 1.0 released! http://sourceforge.net/projects/egogameeditor/

its already there =)

[AWM Mars]

Personally, I think this is a great 'User' editor, albeit it will require some coding to make it complete enough to actually produce a working 'game'.
A scene editor is all about work-flow, some allow a good work-flow, some do not, despite maybe having a lot more bells and whistles. I like the way this editor has all the tools to hand along the top and one side of the working screen, leaving a lot of room for the important visual viewport. Some editors surround the viewport so the user is constantly switching mouse positions, when clearly, with a bit of thought, it can be done smarter, like this editor.

I hope you get time to complete this work, and produce an editor that can create fully working environments. This is perhaps one of the weak points to Ogre, where a lot of excellent hard work has been done with much of the scene creation, but resembles 'Middleware'. Unless someone can supply links to Ogre scene editors that can produce fully working environments out of the box?

[Beauty]

SVN has some draft code to load the _new_ terrain scene manager
[...]
It has no support for the old one

As far as I know currently the Mogre has no support of the new scene manager.

User boyamer announced to wrap the new terrain manager for use with Mogre.
So maybe in a few weeks it's possible to use it

[Beauty]

I created a wiki page for this editor.
http://www.ogre3d.org/tikiwiki/tiki-ind ... ame+Editor

It would be great when somebody adds details.
Also the videos can be embedded to the page by the youtube button in the edit menue. (maybe you need to enable the advanced edit mode)

Also one or more screenshots would be nice.
How to add images you can read here:
http://www.ogre3d.org/tikiwiki/Help+-+Images

More help you find in the wiki menu at "Ogre Wiki Help".


Also I added to the wiki page DCC Tools.
Additionally it would be good to add it to the OGRE DCC Tools page.

[Beauty]

Today I found an interesting video of the editor of the game King's Bounty.
The workflow seems to be very simple (and I like the classical music of the video).
I wanted to show you this video, because maybe you can rip of some ideas for your editor.

Here is the video (also available in HD):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6Ezw-9xwUg

And here the editors web page:
http://www.kings-bounty.com/eng/editor.php


One major thing I recognized:
When adding new objects, then they will be clamped to the terrain surface related to the clicked point.
(Some months ago I tried Ogitor and added objects weren't clamped, just flying somewhere in the air. And in the 3D tool Blender you have to adjust the 3D cursor correctly before adding an object. The clamp feature is really useful in many cases, e.g. trees, characters, items, buildings, ...)


Also I like the easy texture painting.
Good for an editor would be to include a collection of textures to the setup file. It's note nice when many people needs to search in the web for textures. So just add some (e.g. grass, mountain, dirt, water, etc. in different variations) and let the editor users enjoy.

Maybe the installer can have an option:
* add all available textures
* add only textures, which are free for commercial use
* add no texture

Or you can do it like this:
Add subdirectories to the texture directory related to its licence. (e.g. free to use, only for uncommercial use, ... or related to the licence name like GPL)
And inside of the editor show an overlay symbol or subtitle to each texture, which shows the restriction.

Just as a spontaneously written idea.


P.S.
I also added this post to 2 threads of other editors.
And I hope nobody is angry because of a cross post.

[lilezek]

Windows only. Too bad.

[Beauty]

Did you also try to run it with Wine?
I know, it's no fine solution, but I'm interested to know if it works.

Which are the Windows specific depencies?

[Beauty]

Hi,

this month I recogniced an interesting add-on library for Ogre. (Name:Ogre Procedural Geometry Library)
This library is for creation of meshes with different figures. (RoundedBox, Sphere, Cylinder, Capsule, ... )

If the development of this editor is still active (or planned), then I think it would be useful to add this library to your editor.
Ogitor still included it, so you could have a look to the code how it's done.

http://www.ogre3d.org/tikiwiki/Ogre+Pro ... ry+Library

Just to let you know and to give you a suggestion.

[RigoCL]

Is this a dead add-on?

It looks like...

[nevarim]

great work!!!