Planning for Tool Upgrades

Considering that the entire engine is being rebuilt from the ground up, it should come as no surprise that the engine tools could also use a redesign.  MHF doesn't have a lot of tools, but the few that it has are useful and worthwhile. Here's the list as it stands right now.

SpriteTester 2.0:	Interactive animation viewer
LIME 3.6:	Layered Isometric Map Editor
Floor Tile Transformer 1.1:	Parameterized command line utility that splits rectangular textures and tile sheets into sets of isometric floor tiles.
Wall Tile Transformer 1.2:	Batch utility that creates and applies shadows to a matching set of isometric walls from a single source image.

The most sophisticated of these tools is LIME, so it's the lucky recipient of the first redesign. It's also the most frequently used, as evidenced by the advanced version number relative to the other utilities.

So, What'll it Be?

I'll brainstorm a wishlist of features I'd like to see in the new LIME.  For starters, I'd like to keep certain features of the current LIME.

• Support for diamond-rendered isometric maps.
• Controls for independently toggling the visibility of each layer.
• File formats that can be edited in other programs, like OpenOffice or Notepad++.
• Full-screen view mode.
• File browser for listing, selecting, and opening map files.

I would also like to incorporate features from the very first map editor I ever made -- the one for CTG 2.

• Support for rectangular (non-isometric) tile maps.
• A space-efficient tile palette that shows a large portion of the tile set with minimal scrolling.
• A single file format for saving map data.
• Highlight around the selected tile in the palette instead of a "Selected Tile" display.
• An option for toggling grid lines.
• An option for viewing tile IDs or perhaps the entire data set.
• Menu bar with pop-up/drop-down menus to minimize the complexity of the UI and maximize the working area.

I may even want to bring in some features from the SpriteTester tools.

• Ability to play, pause, and control the frame rate of animated tiles.
• Ability to cycle through a set of background colors.

Finally, I'd like some new features that I have never implemented in any of the previous tools.

• Support for staggered isometric tile maps.
• An option for rendering an entire map to an image and saving it to a file.
• Tile images stored in either a single tile set image or a directory whose name is the tile set name.
• Context-sensitive mouse cursors (selected tile, tool, etc.)
• Ability to load a background image instead of just a solid color.
• A "play" command that drops a playable character into a map and lets you move around inside.
• Perhaps add a zoom control to the view mode.
• A mini-map generator showing a rectangular mini-map of the collidable areas.
• Option for showing elevations of isometric map cells.
• Object browser for viewing and selecting assets that may be separate from the tile set.

I'll prioritize those later, and will certainly be elaborating because, of course, I want it all.  For now, let's think about how the application flow might happen and what bits and pieces might be on the screens.