LIME Status Report (03/29/2014)

It was a rough week for finding time to work on this project.  I only managed to squeeze out a few short hours to devote to LIME 4, so the list of accomplishments is brief.  Important, but brief.

The only major additions remaining, aside from the other map modes, all involve adding actors to a map.  That will be next week's priority.  After that, it's just bug fixes, optimizations, and the isometric modes.

Those buttons to the right of the tile palette scroll the palette up and down.
Is it obvious enough?

Accomplishments

• The tile palette now scrolls in response to the up and down arrow keys as well as its own pair of buttons.
• Tried a minor optimization to the tile palette render which seems to have saved me a few frames per second.
• Corrected a mouse mapping problem on the tile palette.  I think so, anyway.  It requires more testing to be sure.

Known Issues

• Functionality Issues
• The New Map dialog creates the map files in the app root rather than the data directory.
• Full-screen mode quit working as soon as I started porting functionality from MHF 2 to MHF 3.  Gotta find out why.
• Usability Issues
• If the layer currently being edited is hidden, the view panel gets out of sync with the edit panel.
• The buttons on the New Map screen's cycle controls are occasionally unresponsive.
• The tile map view's anchor space doesn't always scale correctly when resizing the editor pane.  I've had trouble reproducing this on command, but it happens occasionally.
• Performance Issues
• When the tile ID view option is turned on for large tile sets, the frame rate drops sharply to the point of being unusable.
• Supportability Issues
• The Android platform layer doesn't yet have the ability to rotate the captions for the slide-out tabs or dynamically resize a graphics canvas.  Currently a low priority since this tool is intended to be used on a developer's PC, but something that needs to be addressed eventually.

Next Steps

• High Priority:
• Add the actor list to the tile map view classes.
• Add "Actor Mode" to the palette window.
• Add an actor toggle to the view panel.
• Medium Priority:
• Fix the dependency between the view panel and the edit panel.
• Automatically populate the tile set selector on the New Map dialog.
• Make the New Map dialog save map files to the right location.
• Implement isometric modes.
• Improve performance of tile ID renders.
• Low Priority:
• Fix full-screen exclusive mode for the PC platform.
• Update and test WallTileTransformer.
• Do more testing on FloorTileTransformer to make sure the vertices are right.

LIME Status Report (03/22/2014)

Happy birthday to me!  Let it be known that this status report shall be the extent of my work efforts today because I'm taking a day off for playtime and indulgent food.

The main thing I can say about this week's accomplishments is that my testing efforts paid off in a good, long list of defects.  This is a good thing -- it means that my testing accomplished exactly what it should have.

However, I am going to resist jumping in to fix these defects at this point.  I have learned that focus is very important, so I am going to continue to focus on development tasks rather than maintenance tasks for the time being.  That is why my priorities under the Next Steps section are laid out the way they are -- the priority for now is to finish the current growth sprint and put the finishing touches on the user interface.  Once that is accomplished, I will turn my attention to fixing bugs.  Then, finally, I will implement the isometric modes and LIME 4 will be complete at last.

May as well post a screen shot though.  This shows that the tile palette is sort of working correctly, but not entirely.

Look!  Different tile set!

Accomplishments

• Implemented an intrinsic Open File dialog in the engine and then utilized it in LIME.
• Tested the tile palette with a different tile set.  It mostly works, but mouse mapping appears to be slightly off and the view doesn't scroll.
• Updated the TileRipper program to remove dependency on the old MHF and add customization through command line arguments.
• Used TileRipper to create a large tile set for testing.
• Did a lot of testing and uncovered a list of issues which are categorized below.

Known Issues

• Functionality Issues
• The New Map dialog creates the map files in the app root rather than the data directory.
• Full-screen mode quit working as soon as I started porting functionality from MHF 2 to MHF 3.  Gotta find out why.
• Usability Issues
• If the layer currently being edited is hidden, the view panel gets out of sync with the edit panel.
• The buttons on the New Map screen's cycle controls are occasionally unresponsive.
• The tile map view's anchor space doesn't always scale correctly when resizing the editor pane.  I've had trouble reproducing this on command, but it happens occasionally.
• Performance Issues
• When the tile ID view option is turned on for large tile sets, the frame rate drops sharply to the point of being unusable.
• Supportability Issues
• The Android platform layer doesn't yet have the ability to rotate the captions for the slide-out tabs or dynamically resize a graphics canvas.  Currently a low priority since this tool is intended to be used on a developer's PC, but something that needs to be addressed eventually.

Next Steps

• High Priority:
• Automatically populate the tile set selector on the New Map dialog.
• Add "Actor Mode" to the palette window.
• Add the actor list to the tile map view classes.
• Make the tile palette scroll.
• Medium Priority:
• Test and fix mouse mapping in the tile palette.
• Fix the dependency between the view panel and the edit panel.
• Make the New Map dialog save map files to the right location.
• Implement isometric modes.
• Improve performance of tile ID renders.
• Finish updating the old command-line tile utilities.
• Low Priority:
• Fix full-screen exclusive mode for the PC platform.
• Update and test WallTileTransformer.
• Do more testing on FloorTileTransformer to make sure the vertices are right.

LIME Status Report (03/15/2014)

I almost have the entire UI finished!  The to-do list for LIME 4 is shrinking rapidly.  Here is the list of essential must-haves before I can call it finished.

• Fix a bug in the dependency between the view and edit layer settings.  (Details below.)
• Finish the tile palette by adding Actor Mode and making it scroll when larger tile sets are loaded.
• Implement the Open File dialog for opening map files.
• Implement the diamond isometric mode, and hopefully staggered and hexagonal, too.
• Update the command line utilities with the new engine, and maybe even add a couple more.

The Map Info dialog isn't pretty, but it gets the job done.

Accomplishments

• Finished programming the view panel buttons.
• Finished programming the edit panel buttons.
• Implemented the eraser tool.
• Implemented the tile ID display toggle.
• Corrected a bug in the grid line display.
• Implemented the tile picker tool.
• Implemented the Map Info dialog.

Known Issues

• Functionality Issues
• Full-screen mode quit working as soon as I started porting functionality from MHF 2 to MHF 3.  Gotta find out why.
• If the layer currently being edited is hidden, the view panel gets out of sync with the edit panel.
• Usability Issues
• The buttons on the New Map screen's cycle controls are occasionally unresponsive.
• The tile map view's anchor space doesn't always scale correctly when resizing the editor pane.  I've had trouble reproducing this on command, but it happens occasionally.
• Portability Issues
• The Android platform layer doesn't yet have the ability to rotate the captions for the slide-out tabs or dynamically resize a graphics canvas.  Currently a low priority since this tool is intended to be used on a developer's PC, but something that needs to be addressed eventually.

Next Steps

• High Priority:
• Fix the dependency between the view panel and the edit panel.
• Implement the Open File dialog.
• Add "Actor Mode" to the palette window.
• Test the tile palette with larger tile sets and different tile sizes.
• Medium Priority:
• Implement isometric modes.
• Update the old command-line tile utilities.
• Low Priority:
• Fix full-screen exclusive mode for the PC platform.

LIME Status Report (03/08/2014)

This week I finally forced myself to take a break from my regular job and focus solely on LIME for a couple of days.  The result is perhaps the most productive single week I've ever had on a project.  I need to blow off the rest of my life more often!

The LIME 4 user interface now features scroll buttons that appear when necessary, a data overlay on the editor pane, and slide-out panels for layer selection.

When all of the slide-outs are closed, the editor pane expands to offer the maximum working space.

Accomplishments

• Finished implementing file I/O for saving maps.
• Corrected the size of text boxes on the input dialogs.
• Implemented the functionality behind the New Map dialog.
• Corrected the issue with the grid lines and mouse cursor appearing in the full screen renders.
• Changed the scrolling controls to use buttons rather than mouse-over zones.
• Implemented the slide-outs for the viewing and editing controls.
• Discovered and fixed a miscalculation in the game timer.
• Discovered and fixed a scaling bug in the full map render.
• Implemented a data display overlay for map data.
• Added rotation and a redimensioning function to the MHPCImage class.

Known Issues

• Functionality Issues
• Full-screen mode quit working as soon as I started porting functionality from MHF 2 to MHF 3.  Gotta find out why.
• Usability Issues
• The buttons on the New Map screen's cycle controls are occasionally unresponsive.
• The tile map view's anchor space doesn't always scale correctly when resizing the editor pane.  I've had trouble reproducing this on command, but it happens occasionally.
• Portability Issues
• The Android platform layer doesn't yet have the ability to rotate the captions for the slide-out tabs or dynamically resize a graphics canvas.  Currently a low priority since this tool is intended to be used on a developer's PC, but something that needs to be addressed eventually.

Next Steps

• High Priority:
• Implement the Open File dialog.
• Implement the Map Info dialog.
• Finish programming the toolbox buttons.
• Eraser Tool
• Tile Picker Tool
• Tile ID Toggle
• Finish programming the view panel buttons.
• Finish programming the edit panel buttons.
• Medium Priority:
• Add "Actor Mode" to the palette window.
• Test the tile palette with larger tile sets and different tile sizes.
• Low Priority:
• Implement the MHBitmapImage.rotate() method for the Android platform.
• Following the rotate example, implement other capabilities like scaling, image filtering, color blending, and alpha composites.
• Implement isometric modes.

LIME Status Report (03/01/2014)

Despite being bogged down with final exams, tutoring, meetings, administrative tasks, and all of the other things that accompany the end of a session, I was still able to accomplish quite a bit in the last couple of weeks.  I created icons for the user interface, added them to components on the screen, and made some important decisions regarding the user interface.

Truth be told, I can't take all the credit.  The main reason I was able to find any time whatsoever for myself this week was because my mother was visiting and looking after my son while I did what I needed to do.  And the design decisions I made were the result of a productive meeting with Professor Steve Santello.  Naturally, I must give credit where it's due, so thanks Mom and Steve!

Here are the icons I made:

Tile Palette Mode Selector
	Tiles: Show tiles in the palette pane.
	Actors: Show actors in the palette pane.
Toolbox Buttons
	Eraser: Erase tiles from the map.
	Pick Tool: Select a tile already on the map.
	Toggle Grid: Show or hide grid lines.
	Toggle IDs: Show or hide tile identifiers.

Here's a picture of them in their original homes based on my brainstorm sketches.

And finally, here is a picture of them in what are likely their final resting places guided by the input of veteran game developer Steve Santello.

Accomplishments

• Created icons for tile palette controls and toolbox buttons.
• Added buttons for palette mode selection.
• Added the toolbox and moved it to a more ergonomic position.
• Worked on file I/O for saving game world metadata and tile maps.
• Made some major design decisions regarding the scrolling problem, toolbox location, and palette mode functionality.
• Scrolling will be accomplished by buttons.  The mouse scrolling functionality will be removed.
• The toolbox has been relocated to the bottom left rather than the bottom right to improve workflow productivity.
• The palette modes will be selectable independently of the layer being edited, so that any layer can conceivably contain tiles and actors both.  (Not fully committed to this idea yet.)

Known Issues

• Functionality Issues
• If the grid line display is turned on, the lines show up in the full render of the map.  The mouse cursor does too.  The full render should show just the contents of the map, and not user interface elements.
• Usability Issues
• There is no visible indication of where the view space is positioned in the world.  This may get disorienting when working on large maps.  It has been advised to add a mini-map showing the location of the view space in the context of the entire map.
• The text boxes on the input dialogs have gotten fat.  I'd bet money that it's a side-effect of a performance optimization I made to the MHLabel class a couple of weeks ago.
• Portability Issues
• The Android platform layer doesn't yet have the ability to rotate the captions for the slide-out tabs.  Currently a low priority since this tool is intended to be used on a developer's PC, but something that needs to be addressed eventually.

Next Steps

• High Priority:
• Add new scroll controls to the editor pane.
• Test the Save and Save As commands to make sure the exported data format is unchanged from that which is read in.
• Add "Actor Mode" to the palette window.
• Finish programming the toolbox buttons.
• Eraser Tool
• Tile Picker Tool
• Tile ID Toggle
• Create a slide-out panel for the layer view controls.
• Create a slide-out panel for the layer edit controls.
• Parameterize the slide-out panels so the position of their tabs can be specified -- top, bottom, left, or right edge of the panel.
• Medium Priority:
• Port the file dialog classes from the old engine into the new one.  Make appropriate updates to match the style of the new engine's user and software interfaces.
• Test the tile palette with larger tile sets and different tile sizes.
• Add a rotate method to the MHBitmapImage interface that takes an angle of rotation and returns a copy of the image rotated by the input angle.
• Low Priority:
• Correct the bugs in the full map render view mentioned above.
• Implement the MHBitmapImage.rotate() method for the Android platform.
• Following the rotate example, implement other capabilities like scaling, image filtering, color blending, and alpha composites.
• Implement isometric modes.