Undo/Redo, User Data

spiral · Post by **spiral** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 12:58 pm

Hi,

I'm currently evaluating Irrlicht as a potential basis for my group's next game.

Does irrEdit have an Undo/Redo feature? My artists are saying it's unusable without this, and I agree.

How do we create custom scene nodes and attach user data? For gameplay triggers, path nodes, enemy characters, pickups etc.?

I am really impressed with Irrlicht, but unfortunately, cannot commit my group to using this engine while the above two features are missing from irrEdit.

Any advice/workarounds?

p.s. I did not ask about getting the source code, because I know the author has some reason for not making it available.

Neirda · Post by **Neirda** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 1:37 pm

Hi !
As far as I know, IrrEdit doesn't have an Undo/Redo feature yet.
Concerning the other question (but it also applies to the first), far from me wanting to be sarcastic, but it took me 5 minutes to sort it out after I first launched the software...

Personnally, I consider Undo/redo as a huge convenience, but that does not make the software "unuseable". IrrEdit has tons of lacks far more annoying than this one (remember it is still in Beta release !).

Thanks to you, I just noticed that the IrrEdit source code was not released xD

spiral · Post by **spiral** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 2:04 pm

So how *do* you attach custom user data?

For example, I can add an empty scene node, and give it a name that will suggest what native C++ class it should represent...but then how do I add user data to it, such as "AmmoType", or "MagSize", or "Breakable" etc.?

I disagree about undo/redo. My artists are telling me they can't seriously work on levels for any amount of time with a tool that doesnt allow Undo. Content creation is too involved to try and get it right first time, designers need freedom to experiment with moving/resizing things to fit. That's not possible without undo.

If only we had the source, we could all enjoy this great tool so much more.

Neirda · Post by **Neirda** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 2:56 pm

Click on the node > Properties > User data.
Hum... was it so well hidden ?
But I must admit I still didn't try the tool deeper. I am not a very skilled C++ coder, rather a designer

I understand your opinion about Undo/Redo, It was wierd to me when I realised IrrEdit lacked this option, but still, most of the creation process is made out of Irredit.
I mean, you are right, it is a CRUCIAL feature of Photoshop or 3dsmax (contrary to what I said before I admit), but as long as Irredit is just a "gathering" tool, you can easily undo or redo what you did, and it never implies a unfixable mistake

spiral · Post by **spiral** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 3:05 pm

Yes, I found the User Data tab.

Did you click the + button, to add some user data? In my version of irrEdit (0.6), I get a "feature not available" dialog appear. Do you not get this?

buhatkj · Post by **buhatkj** » Wed Mar 28, 2007 8:31 pm

yeh the userdata feature along with many others is currently incomplete. the tab is there but nothing on it actually works. like he said, it's still very beta. i'm not quite sure why niko has chosen to make this closed source for now, perhaps just because he doesn't have the time currently to properly support it, or maybe he wants to maintain control until he has at least a feature-complete rev of it, but still, it's a good tool for at least arranging the objects in a scene. i'm hoping that once he has time to get it up to speed, perhaps he will open up the source, and let at least the other official irrlicht devs have a stab at it and with that much more manpower perhaps the progress pace will accelerate.