[Help] Aligning objects?

Zetro

I'm trying to figure out how to align objects. In my case for example; duplicating an 8x8 img/object to serve as the floor across a stage in a platformer. How do you guys get your objects in a row? I see no options like [Snap to Grid], [Graph], align or anything. Is there at least something like copy across X/Y axis? I hope theres some other alternative to dragging onto the screen :c

New to the forums, and this is my first topic. TYIA!

JohnPapiomitis

theres no snap to grid in gamesalad, so youll have to align them manually.

You can tile images in a actor though

Zetro

what a disappointment, recently got a Mac and I've wanted to use GameSalad for so long, and this feature's absence pretty much just killed this program for me.

Hmmn, so your saying something like duplicating the img horizontally in the actor from lets say 8x8 to 8x40 to result in a rectangular shape instead of a square?

Pixelgun

This would be a nice feature along with holding shift to constrain object dragging to X or Y (like in most Adobe software). I created a semi-transparent grid (.png image) and placed it over my background as an actor to arrange actors in a scene. It's not a perfect solution but it helps for lining things up.

Zetro

Exactly. I'm coming over from GameMaker Pro and there [Shift] would restrict your current item to the X or Y axis just as you mentioned, and holding [Ctrl] would move the object according to the grid sectors--keeping everything in perfect order.

I'm starting to see now that this is a well wanted feature throughout the board, how often does Gamesalad get updated?

calvin9403

we get updates about every month

I don' think snap to grid is on the top porioty on the roadmap


Calvin

MotherHoose

@mynameisace sous chef
had a great TP/video for this …

if I remember correctly, it was: drag the 8x8 actor to the scene ... drag or resize that one actor to scene width (or height) & under actorAttributes: Graphics > HorizontalWrap : Tile. (or do a VerticalWrap)
I, for one, would not rely on eyeballing a resize … I would edit the instanceActor's attributes: and set the Position X, Y and the Size W, H to the correct numbers.
you would only have to do so on the one 8x8 … X=240; Y=4; W=480; H=8 and change the HorizontalWrap to tile.

Or, you could also add a real-type attribute to the prototypeActor: named something like myCorrectX and fill-in with the correct X (for horizontal placement) and have 1st behavior a changeAttribute: [exp] self.Position.X To: self.myCorrectX and the instanceActors will align correctly at runTime (same for correctY)

in general, we do not build backgrounds piece by piece, so most of us are not too interested in snap-to-grid; indeed virtually every piece would have to be the same size to work in a pre-sized grid, or would require numerous variants in grid spacing. Easier to define the look and feel we want and implement it as needed.

on the opening GS screen … in New section … type in grid were it says Filter … and there is a nice demo of player snap-to-grid.

MH