What I'd like to see...
Sometimes I just get so angery
when I see all the opportunities for excellent programs for editing TS that no one has created yet. That, and the terrible bugs that could easily be fixed in the ones we do have...
I'm going to begin my rant with a few ideas I had that would make creative modding much easier, for TS and RA2.
SHP Editor:
First of all, pretty much everyone has a bone to pick with SHP editing. Why must it be so friggin' hard? You have to spend hours converting filetypes, adjusting colors to suit pallets and etc., especially if it's a large animation, like an infantry unit. Not only that, but you have to have an expensive program like PSP7 to do half of it.
Well, no longer, thanks to the Immaginary SHP Editor 3000! With the ISE3, you have all the comforts of MSPaint, with double the features! Copy&Paste, instant color swap, pallete matching, multiple frame manager, AND MORE! (WHA? DID YOU SAY MOOOORE?)
Ok, I'll cut the crap, but basicly, this would be sort of easy to make and it would save all of us a pain in the butt, it'd also make infantry creation a heck of a lot easier. Let me run by you what I have to do when I make an infantry unit: First, I painstakingly copy and paste every frame that I need from the base unit, then I edit them into my own infantry unit. I finish all of my frames, which are all layed out in one big paint file. Then, I piece together the shadows and the images, and copy each and every one of the 160+ frames, one by one, into PSP where I convert the pallete and save them as individual .pcx files. Then, I convert all of them to a single SHP (finally) with the XCC mixer. And then, wouldn't you know it, there's usually a shade of red that for some reason decided to stay red instead of become remap. So, I have to replace that shade with a different shade in every single frame, and start over again at the part where I copy them into PSP.
An all-in-one SHP editor would make this so much easier. At the moment, it takes about 2 weeks to make a single infantry unit. With the all-in-one editor, I immagine it would take half the time. Which is even better news for you RA2 infantry makers, since they have more frames.
It would have to be built in MSPaint style, with copy and paste features, and the option of editing all the frames at once, in one big spreadout, with a tool that automaticly replaces a specified color in every frame (or just some) with another. An automatic re-size would be nice too, for converting RA2 units. And of course, the ability to arrange the frames however you want would be imperative.
Honestly, it wouldn't be that hard for some of you talented programmers out there... Just... nobody wants to do it.
The Pre-viewer:
This one's a new idea. It would have the ability to test things from the perspective of the Tiberian Sun game. For instance, ever made a voxel and wondered what a certain thing would look like ingame, but you don't want to boot up the game over and over again to see what looks best, etc. Well, this program would allow you to view it in-game without actually going in-game. It could even be incorporated into the VXL editor. I know, that one sounds like it's just for lazy people, but no, far from it:
I'm sure SMIFFGIG will testify that getting turret coords and FiringFLH's and pretty much any art coords exactly right is a MAJOR pain. This program would have a mode to allow you to place your turret exactly where you want it to be on your base or tank or whatever, and it would give you the coordinates for that location. It would of course have a rotating view so as to make sure it looks just right. It would also allow you to set where the projectile leaves the weapon on any unit or structure... and of course feed you back the coords for that as well. And it would have numerous other uses as well.
And one major MAJOR use, would be incorporated into FinalSun. A view-in-TS mode. It would pretty much only be used for lighting. So you can adjust the lighting to get it JUST right, which is ESPECIALLY useful with dynamic lighting (as I'm sure SMIFF would testify to as well).
The All-In-One VXL Editor:
Last but certianly not least, I'm sure ALL of us at some point have wanted to kick our computers because of how annoying VXL editing can be. You're stretched out over 5 different programs if you want to get anything looking right. We have all the features (or at least most of them) Now why can't we have them all in ONE program??? Would it be that hard to have a program with the classic Will's VXL Editor viewing style, a 3D viewer, advanced editing tools (like line-drawing and shapes, etc.), Auto-Normals, and a decent header editor?
And there's other features, too, that I'd love to see, like copy and paste sections (would be extremely EXTREMELY useful for texturing) and..... ok I forgot the rest, it's late, but still! Wouldn't it be cool???
My friends, these things and more are possible, if only someone would just do them......
Ok, I'm done rambling, good night.
~FM
... Errr, really, I would try to do them if I could (have time)....
