Dear Gendai...Please add a "FREEZE" switch

synthesis

It would be great if an actor had a freeze switch. Basically it would be used to make the actor selectable in the development layout area. If the switch is on...you can "select" the actor. If it is off...then it would become "frozen" and you will see it there...but you will not be able to select it and you can select actors underneath it.

This setting should be placed (IMO) in the layers list...in front of the layer name and a snowflake/sun icon is a common toggle icon. Another additional feature operating in the same way would be an "on/off" switch which would be simply a display override for the GS development UI. A third handy switch in the layer list would be an "outline" toggle...much like Flash where you would see only the perimeter outline of the object and not the visual contents of the object...making it known it is there...but being able to see through it to other elements below. This would make working with HUD components much easier.

First priority is the FREEZE switch...so that we can work more efficiently with layers
Second would be the on-off switch...for sorting actors visually when developing complex scene layouts...such as turning wall or character actors on and off...depending on what you are working on at the time. A lightbulb icon is a common representation of this.

These little handy UI tools are VERY STANDARD with development software...and they serve as an INCREDIBLY useful tool in organizing the dev environment...and GS sure could use them.

While I am at it...
Ability to Group Actors for easy multi-actor adjustments would be cool too...or at the least...multi-actor selection capabilities.

These might be great little features to throw into a pro license upgrade version of GS perhaps.

Thanks for listening.

beefy_clyro

Hi Synth. You can group actors, go to your home page, click actors tab and then you can create a group on the left, place how ever many actors you want in there and then use it in one rule.

i.e. if actorx collides with actor with tag - 'boundaries' then collide.

In the group you could have floor, walls, ceiling etc etc

The switches would be handy though

synthesis

I think you are talking about tagging. I am meaning that when you are in the scene...you can select a handful of actors (on the stage) and make an in-scene GROUP. Then you can grab all of them at once and move them around and preserve their X & Y interrelationships. SImilar to multi-selecting them.

This way...you could select all of your HUD actors...which may be several of them...and GROUP them into one package on screen. Then if you want to edit them in scene later...you Dbl-Click and it opens the group and you isolate those actors from the rest and work within the group on the state (eveything else would then be temporarily frozen). This is industry standard UI for this kind of software environment.

I didn't think tags worked this way...I thought those were for filtering the libraries. (BTW...I don't use tagging because its monotonous and seems bugging and very non-intuitive and the interface functionality seems very skittish and premature. I tried messing around with it and ended up wasting 2 hours of my life because I couldn't make changes easily. It was as if you had to setup tags perfectly or forget it...and then you have to spend tons of time keeping up with it...it seems.

At least in screen grouping (which is pretty much how EVERY OTHER SOFTWARE does it...ie 3DStudio, Flash, CAD, Sketchup, Photoshop, etc.) you can create groups on the fly without constantly going back to home...which is annoying...all this screen regeneration every time you do something in GS is wearing on my nerves!!! UGH! Im a windows guy 85% of the time...is this really how MAC software is supposed to work...if so...IT SUCKS! (I use a MAC for iphone Dev and that's it).

beefy_clyro

Ah sorry my mistake, i misinterpreted what you meant. Thats an excellent enhancement request, the annoying thing is without any grid lines you spend ages trying to get something lined up (say your hud) and should you move it you need to do everything individually and potentially meed to mess around re-alligning everything again. Good shout, like it

synthesis

I second grid lines (although once you insert a BG image...your grid would be obscured...UNLESS YOU HAD AN ACTOR ON/OFF SWITCH!!!)...OH...and guides...and units snapping and all the other STANDARD layout stuff (similar photoshop, AutoCad, 3Dstudio, Flash...and damn near any other software out there.) I'd even upgrade to a mid-level platform (Say for $500) to get all these extra authoring and time-saving features.

ALSO>>>
A lock and unlock in the in the layer list is EXTREMELY NECESSARY as well. I'm tired of accidentally nudging "invisible" actors and screwing things up. Its like DEVELOPING ON ICE CRYSTALS. You touch something accidentally and it melts and getting it out of alignment or rescaling. If you could just lock something in the layer list...then problem is elegantly SOLVED. Again...standard UI stuff dear Gendai.

But kudos to these guys for a very inventive product here...I love it with all its imperfections...I'm just frustrated that its not following standard protocols in many baseline UI respects.

beefy_clyro

Yeh it would be extremely nice and helpful if within the scene layers where it shows the individual actors there was two switches - 1 for visibility and 1 to be able to lock that layer. I know they've improved it so that you can now select an actor from that list which is great but the amount of times i go to quickly edit something onscene and forget about the invisible actor is unbelieveable, if it was locked then i couldnt make the error of moving it accidentally.
Like you said though, kudos to the guys because what they have created is truely unique and wonderful, we have to remember though that we are still in beta! This software will continue to add little bits like that which make it easier everytime

synthesis

I do understand that we are in Beta...but my point is that this kind of UI is VERY STANDARD in software genres that Gendai is participating in. Seems like some basic GUI stuff that needs to be in the platform from day one of Beta.

I am willing to wait until version 1.0...but if they don't do it by then...I will be very disappointed.