[Adonthell-devel] Map editor thoughts

[Kai Sterker]

I probably should start a map editor task on the Wiki instead of
posting to the ML, but since everything is still pretty vague, I'd
rather throw it out for discussion first. Actually, most of what
follows were originally Alex' ideas, with some deviations. (See
http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/adonthell-devel/2003-01/msg00067.html
for the original posting). He later switched from wxPython to pyQT but
had trouble to use any of those with our own Python modules
(http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/adonthell-devel/2004-04/msg00014.html).

However, we should at least be able to use C/C++ based toolkits for
our editors. I'd suggest using GTK, to stay consistent with our other
editors (that is, dlgedit and the beginnings of questedit). In order
to use our images, animations and the whole map renderer within GTK,
all that needs to be done is writing a GTK-based backend for the gfx
and (possibly) main module. If we'd implement the surface class on top
of, say, GdkImage, it should be fairly easy to get to this underlying
implementation and display it with the GtkImage widget.

That way, Adonthell engine code like loading/saving or rendering
becomes directly reusable in the map editor. In fact, the engine code
should provide all the hooks required for an editor, such as adding
frames to an animation or animations to a sprite or adding and moving
objects on the map, etc. ...

The editor itself would consist of a mapview (probably not restricted
to the 640x480 size of the actual game) and an object browser from
which existing map objects can be added to the map with drag & drop.
The object browser could use the gfx directory structure as tags to
categorize map objects. So a path like "map/ground/outside/grass/"
would yield the tags "map", "ground", "outside" and "grass" for all
objects inside that directory. By filtering for certain tags, it
should become convenient to access e.g. all ground tiles or all
outside objects, given our directory structure is thought out well
(see http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/adonthell-artwork/2006-04/msg00000.html
for a suggestion).

We'd further need integrated animation, sprite and model editors to
import new graphics. Those three, the browser and basic map editing
abilities would make a usable first version of the editor. Then, as
items and scripting (think teleportation, traps, etc ...) get
integrated into the game, the editor would have to be enhanced
accordingly.


After all, it seems that there is nearly enough material to create a
set of map editor tasks and a little road-map on the Wiki. But first
of all, please let me know what you think.

Kai