Request: Make invisible Walls Visible

ambisinisterr · September 2013

Please make the invisible walls visible.

Yes it does sound quite counter intuitive but I need to be able to see where I am putting these things, haha!

In the 3D Editor they are invisible and rather hard to deal with because the node is in the middle of the wall which causes for all sorts of perception problems. If they were able to be turned translucent red in the editor I'd be extremely grateful.

That would be my ideal solution but that may require a bit of coding.

However upon realizing the 3D Editior a lost cause I figured I would try the 2D Editor. I had success with invisible walls previously and figured it may be easier to handle. I was sadly mistaken.

All the walls were hidden under the other objects no matter what height I placed the walls.

So as a more immediate solution can you please make the walls appear above all other objects on the 2D editor so that I can at least see if they line up? Right now I can't tell without running along the wall in 3D Mode and it's a bit tedious.

I haven't seen such a thread before, please direct me to one if this request already exists. I would be amazed if this hasn't been requested before this thread.

antonkyle · September 2013

Agreed!

Apparently I need to wright more as just simply agreed is not long enough. So I agree very much so.

pris23 · September 2013

I like this idea. It may be a bit much for the entire wall to be colored simply because some of the invis walls are quite big and could be hard on the eyes when editing something else behind it. If they had a red outline or something to denote the dimensions of it in the 3D editor would be awesome for sure.

Good idea!

antonkyle · September 2013

pris23 wrote: »

I like this idea. It may be a bit much for the entire wall to be colored simply because some of the invis walls are quite big and could be hard on the eyes when editing something else behind it. If they had a red outline or something to denote the dimensions of it in the 3D editor would be awesome for sure. Good idea!

Some are huge so you wouldn't see the outline. What about a line graph through it? So you could see through it easy enough but still see that it's there.

pris23 · September 2013

antonkyle wrote: »

Some are huge so you wouldn't see the outline. What about a line graph through it? So you could see through it easy enough but still see that it's there.

Perfected!

ambisinisterr · September 2013

How about a toggle so it could be visible and invisible?

My bigger fear is that it would make it harder to do the aesthetics of an area since you had to look through a red glaze or, as Kyle suggested, graph.

My main gripe is being able to follow the red along the path so that I can see where it is actually placed by a means other than running along the wall outside of edit mode. After I know where it is placed it really doesn't matter to me anymore so ideally such a change should have a toggle.

mrthebozer · September 2013

Absolutely 100% agree about 3d edit mode. And the toggle option is a brilliant idea.

There are certainly ways to handle them now -
- using rulers in 3d edit mode and either lining the walls up in 2d mode

- swapping the 40ft block rulers with 40ft invisible blocks (note, if you replace the assets this way, you need to turn the object on its side and shift it over 20 feet, since the handles are placed differently between the ruler model and the invisible block. I couldn't tell you which axis you have to turn off the top of my head - my apologies for that, I'm drawing a blank. So you'll need to experiment a bit.)

But these are incredibly awkward ways to handle it, and certainly not up to par with the rest of the tools we have at our disposal.

About 2d edit model, however - you might want to write up a bug report about that, because invisible walls set to "highest" show up just fine from my experience:

kithlis · September 2013

Agreed! I spend a large chunk of yesterday running around trying to find gaps/boundaries for my invis walls - some visibility would have made that a bit easier.
2D edit is alright on a plane - but the Y is impossible to judge. Mouseover in 3D edit shows the outline of an invis... but then you can walk through it.

vrtesseract · September 2013

I think this is a great idea. It will also prevent foundries with rogue invis walls sneaking into the quest path for no reason cause the coder lost track of it.

eldarth · September 2013

Thoughts...

[LIST=1|INDENT=1]
[*]Invisible objects have different "center" points -- some at the bottom of the wall, some in the middle of the bottom, some in the center of the object, some at the center of it's radius, etc. A real pain in the posterior. A REAL pain. :mad:

I would like to see center point vectors/lines in the 3D "preview" window as well to help figure this out -- as it is I have to spin the object up/down, left/right and try and "see" where the rotation point really lies.
I would also like to see CONSISTENCY. Pick an edge or a center and make all walls/blocks identical.

[*]How about showing them as translucent red only while selected.
[LIST=|INDENT=1]
[*]or perhaps translucent green (while selected) if they are all toggle-able translucent red.
[/LIST]
[/LIST]

celantra · September 2013

I seem to recall a time in beta in which they were actually big red walls. This was much easier to work with and I am not sure I recall the reason why this changed. I think a translucent red so that it could be seen through might be nice, but a consistent color for the wall would be very helpful when trying to place them to prevent holes.

Agree also that consistent measure points would be a huge improvement. If I had my druthers I think that I would like the center point for all invisible objects to be bottom center. IMHO this would provide the easiest placement. Sadly I also realize that changing the center point for any object means that all objects of that type currently in maps would adjust to that new center point and so this change has the potential of having huge secondary considerations that may make it frankly impossible.

thalazar1 · September 2013

hhmm this looks a little familiar...
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?385671-Invisible-walls-and-3d-editing
my post got no love but hopefully this one will. tossing my vote in to make invis walls and objects visible in 3d edit so you can actually move them in place correctly the first time.

*I know i said i was done but i still like to haunt these forums, and if i can help other authors i still will

*

eldarth · September 2013

celantra wrote: »

Agree also that consistent measure points would be a huge improvement. If I had my druthers I think that I would like the center point for all invisible objects to be bottom center. IMHO this would provide the easiest placement. Sadly I also realize that changing the center point for any object means that all objects of that type currently in maps would adjust to that new center point and so this change has the potential of having huge secondary considerations that may make it frankly impossible.

I would expect it would actually be easy to fix the center points of certain objects. The usage of the objects within quests is probably in a database and they could very easily write an SQL update statement that adjusted the center points to their new location in each detail desired. Even if they are not in a SQL database it would be extremely easy to iterate thru all of the assets (in all of the published and non-published quests) and adjust the offsets. They wouldn't even need to "republish" all of the quests since it is a simple x/y/z replacement.

saerrael · September 2013

Yes, please. Adding my vote to making invisible walls easier to see in 3D here, too. I'm leaning towards a toggle on a shade (translucent). And, while we're on this, marker points in 3D would be swell to have a toggle on visibility, too. Kinda annoying me that all mark points are big orbs in 3D. They get in the way of adjusting/ editing/ lighting.

apocrs1980 · September 2013

+1 to this idea, translucent red would be great and a transparency toggle even better, or you could have the translucency appear while the asset is being manipulated in 3D space.

ambisinisterr · September 2013

mrthebozer wrote: »

About 2d edit model, however - you might want to write up a bug report about that, because invisible walls set to "highest" show up just fine from my experience:

Doh, I couldn't find it previously. I found it now. Thanks!

Still a bit rough to see where everything is but better than before. It's at least manageable.

Still nowhere near as nice as being able to make live and minute changes without running long the wall though! Haha.

crypticmapolis · September 2013

This is a great suggestion! Apart from the invisible walls, is there anything else you all would like to see in 3D Edit mode that's invisible in preview mode?

saerrael · September 2013

crypticmapolis wrote: »

This is a great suggestion! Apart from the invisible walls, is there anything else you all would like to see in 3D Edit mode that's invisible in preview mode?

(Visa-versa.)
Reach Point (markers). I do agree it is a great improvement to be able to see them now in 3D, though, but they can get quite in the way. Would it be possible to have a toggle option on (either of) these?

ambisinisterr · September 2013

That's awesome! Thanks Mapolis!

I can't think of any right now but I'll ask Zeb when he gets on. He might have some more ideas.

A visibility toggle would be great, though. Especially for invisible walls and markers but if we plan on maker object either appear or disappear it would give us a bit more freedom in previewing that effect.

I'll be sure to post if I can recall any more invisible items which are hard to manage though and thanks again!

ministerofchange · September 2013

I would love the actual graphic effect for teleports to show instead of just the box points, then I could actually get them facing the right way without having to go in and out of 3d mode 100 times

ambisinisterr · September 2013

Yeah, if we could see FX in Edit Mode that would be awesome.

Not sure how feasible that would be, though.

pris23 · September 2013

crypticmapolis wrote: »

This is a great suggestion! Apart from the invisible walls, is there anything else you all would like to see in 3D Edit mode that's invisible in preview mode?

Portals disappear when you edit them in 3D mode so you have to just kind of remember how big it was in order to place it properly. A round outline that shows the size of the portal so that it could be placed easily the first time would be cool.

If this has changed and I just didn't realize it then please ignore this.

saerrael · September 2013

ambisinisterr wrote: »

Yeah, if we could see FX in Edit Mode that would be awesome.

Not sure how feasible that would be, though.

I think I know why, codewise. Or at least have a gut feeling.

How about freezing last FX frame on Edit? Just a thought.

runebane · September 2013

ambisinisterr wrote: »

Yeah, if we could see FX in Edit Mode that would be awesome.

Not sure how feasible that would be, though.

A rightclick option to play/stop for a single fx at a time would be cool. Don't think they could do that though since every effect we have disappears on mouseover in edit mode.

Wouldn't want to see all the fx placed going at once though. I actually had that happen in a map once. Everything was playing over and over. Was lagged so bad it took forever just to close the editor.

eldarth · September 2013

runebane wrote: »

A rightclick option to play/stop for a single fx at a time would be cool. Don't think they could do that though since every effect we have disappears on mouseover in edit mode.

I think they could -- and I would definitely love that. I know I have accidentally moused over one of the screen shaking FX (falling dirt?) and it "activates" while in editor and can't be turned off - makes the whole 3D editing kind of challenging.

Maybe a right-click toggle on/off FX for an object? That'd definitely help align things either to the FX or around it.

Edit: Same for sound effects - right click toggle on/off if looping, or just activate if one-time.

viledeeds77 · September 2013

eldarth wrote: »

I think they could -- and I would definitely love that. I know I have accidentally moused over one of the screen shaking FX (falling dirt?) and it "activates" while in editor and can't be turned off - makes the whole 3D editing kind of challenging.

Maybe a right-click toggle on/off FX for an object? That'd definitely help align things either to the FX or around it.

Edit: Same for sound effects - right click toggle on/off if looping, or just activate if one-time.

This is something that for me was a big takeaway since I started using the foundry. I use a good amount of FX in my quests and to place them in just the right spot is very very difficult especially when you mouse over it and the FX disappears. It makes for a long and tedious process that if I'm not in the mood to deal with it it demotivates me somewhat.

So this +1000!

Request: Make invisible Walls Visible

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