As part of implementing inside/outside walls, I finished support for patterned walls. E.g, a wall might have a repeat pattern of brick wall, brick wall with window, brick wall, etc. It’s not just useful feature, but it also necessary for things like double-doors. The trouble is that the UI breaks down with this.
In the current UI, of the three walls displayed, the wall on the right is designated as the “hero wall.” This is the wall that is interactive and determines which walls are added to the map. The wall on the left is where the decor is displayed.
To display inside and outside wall variations, I changed the UI to use inside walls on the left and use outside walls on the right. This is a reasonable, if not ideal, solution.
With patterns, it doesn’t work as well. In the figure above, the walls are shown using a defined pattern (in this case, blind wall|window). Again, it works fairly well. Except now the decor is covering what would be the first inside wall of the pattern. This also doesn’t support patterns wider than two tiles. When adding doors, it really breaks down with four doorways being drawn adjacent to one another.
Overall, the map edit UI has become rather cluttered and I’m looking for better solutions. Things to consider:
- Display of arbitrarily long wall patterns.
- Display of inside and outside of walls.
- Display of floor patterns (as this may become a thing).
- Mixing sets and styles in the UI, e.g. dungeon walls, tavern floors, keep decor, and marketplace props.
I’m sketching out some ideas, but comments are welcomed and encouraged. Either here, or at the Google+ community.
Developer of Tabletop Connect.
Carl
I am (as are most others I assume) mixing and matching from set types.
I look at a wall as a wall, no mater what type and I use the one best suited to the task at hand. Same with floors and props.
I have been using the wooden door aches (casements) to cap the walls of all but stone)
A table is a table, etc.
As for inside/outside.
use the wall panel like current, bur have half show inside and half show outside.
Don’t be afraid to use multiple panels. look at current 3d applications for examples. Tool bar ( can be floating ) that you use to select class/type of object ( wall, floor, object ) then you can either break that out into a panel with options that are more specific to that type object. By trying to use a one panel fits all solution, your actually limiting the workflow. example: Select Object > wall object > panel with lamps ( options for light/no light, range of light of object, etc ) Select Object > floor object > Desk, barrel, crate, bed with relevant options for those objects.
There are a few instances already where I’ve introduced more “standard” UI like the rotate and move gizmos. It is likely that I will eventually break-out, or optionally break-out, some of the editing tools. Since multiple selections have been added, it’s become clear that some selection filter types need to be available as well. Thanks for the suggestions.