[Adonthell-devel] Modeller thoughts

[James Nash]

I had my first, brief play with the modeller this morning. Just want to share my initial impressions:

I had created XML sprite files by hand for all my PNGs. The modeller wouldn't load the associated PNGs though (as far as I can see, the path in the XML is correct). Is it because I'm using the non-standard gfx48 dir? Also, having to provide a full path in the XML seems redundant - surely the tools know what dir the files are in and process paths relative to that. As it stands, if I move sprites to another dir I need to the edit all the XML files.

Anyway, as I then discovered, I can just load PNGs directly in the modeller (serves me right for not reading all the eocs first! :-P). Btw, does that mean we should only create XML files for sprites that are animated or have multiple states?

With a PNG loaded up in the modeller I then tried the zooming in (btw, it would be nice if there was a shortcut for this e.g. ctrl + mousewheel up/down). When not all of the image was visible in the modeller there were no scrollbars so I couldn't pan around. For my relatively small and simple graphic (a wall piece) this wasn't so much of an issue. However, with bigger sprites it would be.

I then added a shape and was able to edit it OK. That's as far as I got before having leave for work. Will play more tonight I hope.

  - James