Moar DB2 Suggestions: FreeSelect/Draw

[Mechadon]

I'm a pretty heavy user of Doom Builder, so ever since the announcement that DB2 is being developed I've been trying to remember all of those suggestions I've thought of over the years. Needless to say I've forgotten some of them that I thought might be really neat additions, but earlier today I remembered one...thus the creation of yet another DB2 suggestion thread in the Doom Builder forum.

I'm not sure if this is a slated feature for Doom Builder 2 or not...so please forgive me if it is CodeImp. The idea is actual extremely simple; having a tool to freely select things, verticies, lines, sectors, etc in a fashion other than being limited by an expanding rectangle select shape or by selecting one by one would be very nice indeed. What I mean is...well, something like this:



Actually I got the idea from GIMP (though just about all basic image editors have something similar). I think something like this could really speed up the selecting process, especially when your working with lots of things or verticies, etc. Being limited to just a square selecting box in some situations can be annoying.

Stemming from the same concept is FreeDraw, which I think is also a pretty simple idea as well (though I don't know if it would be harder to implement or not). Again, the idea came through me by a combination of image editing and doing lots and lots of tedious rock-type structures in maps. In particular, I was working on a very large cave-type map which required lots and lots of jutting and curvy wall structures. Of course this requires lots of repetitive line drawing; before you know it you've spent two hours on what is basically just a bunch of squiggly lines and curves. The idea with FreeDraw is to help cut down the time that's needed on doing structures likes this by merely drawing out a path for Doom Builder 2 to follow and draw the lines by. Think of MSPaint's pencil tool integrated into Doom Builder in a sense; you would select FreeDraw and then draw a square shape with it. Afterward you hit enter (or something similar to this to let DB2 know that your done drawing in FreeDraw mode) and it will create the linedefs. Of course the concept as it was described above could be a little problematic since tight curves and such might end up drawing waaay more lines than you really want in the end. So to add to that, I think a custom parameter box (much like what is used when you curve a linedef) would be in order to set some boundaries on how DB2 interprets and then draws the linedefs. Something along the lines of how strictly you want it to interpret the FreeDrawn line, much like how many verticies are used when curving a linedef. Of course I think something like FreeDraw would be very useful for even normal sector drawing, especially if the parameters by which DB2 reads the lines are fairly specific. It could greatly increase the speed at which structures are drawn, espeically large and complex ones.

Anyways, I hope I made some sense here. Feel free to discuss these suggestions or add to them! If I wasn't clear enough, I will try to add to and clarify what I've already tried to describe. If I can recall any other ideas for suggestions I've had in the past, I'll be sure to post them up :D

[CodeImp]

It is a good idea and I will consider it.

Though I fear a FreeDraw like that will quickly result in mappers turning up the detail setting and going "YAY, 200 LINEDEFS IN ONE STROKE! LET'S DRAW MOAR!" not realizing they are making ridiculous heavy and inefficient maps.

[esselfortium]

Add a security measure that makes a spring-loaded boxing glove fly out of their monitor and hit them in the face if anybody tries that.

[Jimmy]

Freedraw could present that problem, so perhaps it would be more efficient if there was a vertices/px cap or something to make the lines less heavy, if you know what I mean.

[Dreadopp]

I like the idea of FreeSelect. It will be very handy to have, especially when the mapper is trying to work on a river, or other such complicated sector. I also like the FreeDraw. It will be a lot easier to map out caves and mountains, or what have you. If it is possible, I think Jimmy's idea would help control what people do with FreeDraw.

[Mechadon]

Jimmy91 said:

Freedraw could present that problem, so perhaps it would be more efficient if there was a vertices/px cap or something to make the lines less heavy, if you know what I mean.

That's pretty much the same thing I had in mind as well Jimmy...well I was trying to say the same thing anyways. The part in my post about some parameters which limit how strictly the FreeDrawn line would be interpreted into actual linedefs. Much like how you can choose how smooth you want a curved line to be when you use the curve linedef tool by entering a max vertex limit :)

CodeImp said:

It is a good idea and I will consider it.

Though I fear a FreeDraw like that will quickly result in mappers turning up the detail setting and going "YAY, 200 LINEDEFS IN ONE STROKE! LET'S DRAW MOAR!" not realizing they are making ridiculous heavy and inefficient maps.

Thanks, I'm glad you like it! As stated above, some sort of boxing-type deterrent should work pretty well....errr, no I'm mean a parameter box. Ok whatever, either one will work fine with me :p

[DoomKn1ght]

For the selection one, why not make a circle of selection like
the one in blender when you press B two time. I mean you toggle
this mode then press for ex(left mouse button) to select
every vertices, lines,sector in circle.
would be more handy and errorless than free rope select imo.

I suggested already to adapt some cool features of blender(and 3D softwares)
to db because it deal with almost the same thing if you think.
(spin,spin dup,array selection etc).

[doom2day]

Yeah, just give it a number of vertices (spelling?) to use to make it like in the curve tool from DB.

[SulfurOccult]

I don't much care for a freedraw feature, but a lasso-type selection tool would be quite useful.