Selecting groups of lines/sectors

This is just a little idea that I had for DB2 that I think would make mapping easier... (at least for me!!)

Say for example I have just selected 12 sectors to try out a particular ceiling flat on those sectors. Then I go into 3D mode to see how that texture looks. Say if I don't like that texture, I either have to go around in 3D mode and change the flat one sector at a time, or go back into normal mode and reselect all 12 sectors and change the flat like that.

My idea was this. Once you have selected the group of sectors you wish to change, you could hit ctrl-1 and DB could "remember" that group of sectors, so that if you hit the "1" key, it would instantly reselect all 12 sectors.

It is exactly like creating a group of soldiers/tanks/guns/archers in most RTS games. Ctrl-1 creates the specified group, 1 reselects the desired units.

you could make, say ctrl-2 could be a bunch of linedefs that all needed offsetting, go into 3D mode, see that they needed to be offset by a different amount, go back into lines mode, reselect the entire group and try again.



I think the ability to quickly reselect groups of lines/sectors over and over if needed would be a huge benefit when choosing or offsetting textures, changing ceiling/floor heights etc etc.

You could have ctrl groups in sectors, lines, vertices and even things mode.

Hope I've explained this well enough.

Thanks heaps.

From the little I have seen of DB2, it looks incredible and I am really looking forward to it.

Not a bad idea at all, I'll see what I can do.

I second the motion for RTS style grouping, but a small twist.

How about adding a new pane titled "Groups" (simply enough), and along with being limited to ten quick groups, use ctrl+G to define a group, similar to an image editing program. The ability to rename groups in the "Groups" pane would be a big plus for organization, but not entirely bad if it doesnt ship with that.

I don't think it would be usefull to make it THAT big a feature, because it is impossible to retain the groups after closing the map or DB itsself (the groups cannot be saved to file, so the next time you open your map, the groups are gone anyway).

Cant save the groups to the .DBS file? I know adding data like that to the WAD would be a bad thing (possible corruption), but since the DBS is a native filetype to DB, cant you add the groups there?

Yea I could, but if you would run a nodebuilder on your map or open/save it in another editor, the order of elements is changed, so DB has no guarantee it will work.

I agree that would be helpful. One thing I do that is similar is temporarily tag those sectors with a sector tag, then click edit/find that sector tag to quickly select them all (but then you probably have to untag them later).

Maybe the group selection could apply to lines/vertices/things as well as sectors.

How about raising/lowering floors/celings just 1 pixel instead of 8 (maybe with shift + pageup/down). I see the option in 3d mode but not normal map mode unless I'm wrong.

I still think it would be helpful if you could select a bunch of sectors and multiply their floors (or ceilings) all at once. Like say you have a complex structure composed of sectors of varying heights but want the whole thing to be twice as tall. Just select the entire structure and select 'scale floor height', enter 200%. Voila, instead of floors being 8, 48 and 200 they would be 16, 96 and 400 etc. Or maybe shrink height 30% or whatever, to the nearest pixel at least (same for ceilings).

For example, say you have a huge spiral of stairs that each step up 8 pixels, but decide you want each step 24 pixels instead. Instead of editing each stair individually you could select the entire thing and multiply by 3... 8,16,24,32 becomes 24,48,72,96

I like the Ctrl plus number idea. The pane would be too complicated and I presume this is temporary group storage. Altough, I have an idea for the group thing while using the Ctrl thing. Much like an RTS, again, highlight all the sectors you wish to group and right click and select "Group" and then a number, as well as the Ctrl thing being possible. Im just used to building with the mouse as im sure many people are :P and im not talking about saving the groups, just cancel them out when you quit Doom Builder. Give me your opinion, CodeImp.

The right-click thing may be in the WadAuthor editing mode which I will probably release as a separate plugin. In the other classic editing modes, the right mouse button already has it's own functionality.

i like gggmork's scaling idea, would that be too hard to implement though?