Official level editor

Eshan · March 2015

Goji editor removed its support for gideros. There is tiled but it doesn't have true support for gideros. Corona , Cocos2dx, torque2d etc. has their own level editor. So, I'm thinking how about an official level editor for Gideros. It'll make it easier for developing RPG games. How was my idea? :>

ar2rsawseen · March 2015

If anyone would take on such job, sure, but personally I can guarantee I would not have time for creating and managing such, sorry

keszegh · March 2015

you should convince the maker of goji editor to support gideros, now that kickstarter was successful, it may be more clear that there is a long future to gideros.
it's probably not that much work to add this to goji, much less than making a whole editor.

pie · March 2015

@Eshan
Tiled works well with gideros.
What features are you missing from Goji editor? (never used that one)

Eshan · March 2015

@pie Can you show me how to use tiled object and collision in gideros?

pie · March 2015

@Eshan as "collision" you mean box2d like in platform games or unpassable terrain as in RPG/strategic games?
It all depends on what you are doing:

If you need "physics":
this video shows how to use TiledAsWorldEditor

you can find TiledAsWorldEditor project here
https://github.com/1dot44mb/gideros/tree/master/tools/TiledAsWorldEditor

If you don't need physics you will have to find your way to calculate collisions on a different basis, you can use TNT Collision by GregBug or Sprite:collidesWith by ar2rsawseen (I believe that both can be found on this forum, I can't look for those right now).
Since you are on a tilemap, assuming that you are not developing a platform game, you could also avoid "real" collision calculation, and decide previously where to go with a pathfinder (Jumper by Roland Yonaba is amazing here).

As a reference project to take values from your tilemap file you can use the project I attached here (last post)
http://giderosmobile.com/forum/discussion/5361/level-editor-of-choice/p1

antix · March 2015

Great question. When I was using Marmalade Quick I tried goji editor but didn't like it.

Tiled has some really awesome features, especially its tilemap editing stuff. What I don't like is the generated output which seems a bit bloated. I want some lean binary files for my games. They might not be as flexible but would think they will perform better.

I am currently working (slowly) on a level editor for Gideros using Visual Basic.NET. I may release it for public use but it won't be the most polished of programs.

One thing I really would love in Gideros is the ability to access the host filesystem from within the simulator (in my case Windows). Just a few basic functions to list directories, and read/write files would be so awesome. It would be a giant gift from above to be able to make the editor in Gideros. Having to switch back and forth between languages is a pain and saps time badly.

Eshan · March 2015

Thanks @pie. Your project is very helpful.

Looking forward to use your level editor @antix

Eshan · March 2015

...

pie · March 2015

@antix if you know how to put your hands on code different from lua, tiled is open source, I don't believe it would be so hard to "polish" its lua export. I suppose it's faster than writing a whole new editor and many others could benefit

Another way could be to write a tiled-lua to gideros stripper/parser.

You CAN access the host file system from gideros simulator using lfs
http://giderosmobile.com/forum/discussion/2072/how-to-load-images-from-a-folder-on-sdcard/p1

I tried doing a level editor using gideros, it was technically working. But I gave up because I figured out I was going faster with tiled, keyboard mouse and json editors

SinisterSoft · March 2015

I usually try build a secret 'level' editor into the game - then save the files locally using the emulator and then put them in the game.

antix · March 2015

@Eshan No idea but I would be keen to know of any LUA based system that can access the files on the host machine. Also don't hold your breath waiting for a level editor from me, it might be some time

@Pie I have considered this but decided to reinvent the wheel since it is fantastic learning and I really dislike using code (other peoples) that I don't fully understand. Having said that, maybe I'll download the code and see if it's worth trying to rip out parts that will benefit my own project.

I looked at the lfs thing but it seemed like a whole lot of silly hoops had to be jumped through to even get the thing working (and the luarocks install.bat failed miserably anyway). I can't understand why so many people these days seem unable to release something that is straightforward and easy to use, like Gideros.

For now I'll stick with VB.NET. while it can be frustrating, at least I'm moving forward with it at a steady (albeit snail like) pace.

pie · March 2015

@antix actually I just require "lfs" and I can execute the code snippets by keszegh and atlim, at least in gideros player on windows.
I believe that lfs is enabled by default (tested in gideros 2014.10)

I never did anything "strange" to get it working

antix · March 2015

@Pie Wow! My brain has gone into a spin. It can get folder contents of any windows folder! Thanks heaps!

SinisterSoft · March 2015

Also don't forget that the Windows (desktop) version of Gideros is getting loads of nice Desktop functions - I'd imagine that one of these could be to access local files if the "[letter]|" isn't used at the beginning of the filename?

pie · March 2015

@SinisterSoft can't you do this already concatenating strings?
as in (guessing, not tested)

local basedir
if localFiles then
 basedir = "|D|"
else
 basedir = "C:/projectDrectory/"
end
 
local file = basedir..filename

SinisterSoft · March 2015

Don't know - not tried.

pie · March 2015

@SinisterSoft just did it

it works

SinisterSoft · March 2015

That makes things easier for my Dungeons game then - no having to find the files/copy them.

antix · March 2015

Yep, that works well, you just need to remember the trailing "/"

Thinking more about a level editor made in LUA, I think it would be quite a task to create all the GUI stuff like sliders, checkboxes, etc. I looked at Widget Candy and while it looks really cool, if a level editor was made using it, the code could not be freely distributed I think.

SinisterSoft · March 2015

Level editor code that you could include in your game though would be ok - no need to include sliders, etc then...

antix · March 2015

@SinisterSoft, true that. However, I want to create a standalone level editor that just runs in the simulator in windows and can read and write from the local hard drives (C:,

, etc).

I don;t know of any other way to send an app to the simulator except from within Gideros Studio,

Eshan · March 2015

@antix I found 2 LUA gui libraries:
Wxwidget binding - wxlua.sourceforge.net
QT binding - nongnu.org/libqtlua/

antix · March 2015

@EShan Neat, but both of those don't seem to be very easy to implement. I have opted to purchase Widget Candy as you only need to include the file in your project and then you are away. It is flexible and simple to use as well.

Currently however I am making progress with VB.NET so I will persist with that for a while longer

Eshan · March 2015

@antix wxlua doesn't look so difficult. Whatever, do what you like. I don't have any experience with VB.

pie · March 2015

@Eshan I forgot to mention zerobrane live coding: it still depends on what is your goal, but it stays between writing code and a visual editor

http://notebook.kulchenko.com/zerobrane/gideros-live-coding-with-zerobrane-studio-ide

antix · March 2015

@Eshan My VB skills are improving, haven't touched Gideros for quite a few days. Once I get the basic editor done in VB I will resume with Gideros. Downloaded Tiled source code but its too huge to be of any real use. It was interesting to see they seem to be using OpenGL to render the maps.

I just had a closer look at wclua and it doesn't look as easy as Widget Candy, check out their website to see how easy it is to use.

Eshan · March 2015

@pie Live coding looks useful. But I Decided to use tiled, Thanks.

antix · March 2015

@Eshan, I was too stupid to get live coding working hehehe.

I have been playing with my map editor a lot on the past few days and it's going really well. The biggest problem I have is that I don't think I can make it available for other Gideros coders because the editor is really for my own game engine where pretty much everything uses 64x64 tiles.

Overall Tiled is pretty good and flexible, it just doesn't work with my game engine sadly.

Eshan · March 2015

TiledAsWorldEditor by @1dot44mb is outdated. Any alternative? @pie @antix

pie · March 2015

@Eshan I didn't try tiledasworldeditor in a while; what is the issue?
If it is no longer working It could be just some syntax to fix.

I don't know of other alternatives, I use tiled without box2d..

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