Polyworks Update

[Anna]

I've started working on an update which will make it make it possible to use animated gifs as scenery so that PW will compatible with the upcoming Soldat 1.5.0.

DirectX can't directly load gif files, and there seems to be no easy way to load a gif as a texture, so the solution I have come up with is to cache the gifs as bitmaps and use the bitmaps to display the gif sceneries in PW.

I'm also going to use this opportunity to make other changes, like fixing the sketch tool crashing, so I'm taking suggestions for what fixes need to be made.

[spkka]

\m/ maybe a option to select a few png's and export these to 1 scenery file?

[FliesLikeABrick]

SHE'S ALIVE!

but is she back for good? 

[Eagles_Arrows]

Are you going to set a limit for GIFs or is that even possible?

[Shadow G-Unit]

SHE'S ALIVE!

but is she back for good? 

We missed you Anna! Truth FLAB.

[EnEsCe]

Well, let me be the first to say Thank You, it is greatly appreciated by everyone, especially me.

Nevermind, you let us down.

[Pie]

This is Great news!!!
Thank you very much, I appreciate it a lot.

Thanks you!

[DorkeyDear]

Well, let me be the first to say Thank You, it is greatly appreciated by everyone, especially me.

This is Great news!!!
Thank you very much, I appreciate it a lot.

Thanks you!

I third that.
Thank you for returning to us and stuff.

[Snow]

Wow. Nice. I had already started on adding .gif support. I'm only 3 weeks new to VB, however I too figured out quick that VB doesn't support gifs. I at least got the scenery window picture box to display gifs - with trasnparent backgrounds seemingly too) lol

Being so new, I'd have no idea how to cache a gif as bitmap. I also barely have any time to code. So, I'll leave it to you and not embarrass myself

Update: Please forgive me if these are noob questions. I'm still slowly learning programming and VB. There are some activex controls floating around like dxanimatedgif.ocx that allow you to display a gif in the form, scale it and rotate it. Is it possible to implement a control like that?

Also, does the image has to be a texture? In the editor, any image is just an image on the form. It's only a scenery texture on the compiled map. Am I right?

I dunno. It's the middle of the nite. I can't think anymore.

Oh and where are my manners? Thank you for coming back to update PW.

[jrgp]

I'm glad to see you back, Anna

I've wondered for a while, could you possibly integrate a map-packer into PolyWorks, so it can automatically generate a zip / rar / tgz archive of the map's files?

[Avarax]

Awesome Anna! Thanks a bunch.
While you're at it:
Any way to make Polyworks more stable or even runnable on vista? Because it doesn't work on my new laptop.

[El_Spec]

I guess I can say R.I.P. to default style maps.  But it's good to have you back Anna.

I never experienced the Sketch Tool crashing on my computer, no matter how long I use it.  But I did notice there's a small bug, the Lights box in the Display Window will always be checked on whenever you open PolyWorks, no matter if you left it on or off. 

Found a small bug:
When having placed the 1st or 2nd vertice of a polygon (so another vertice is still "floating" at your cursor) while having selected another polygon, if you press the Delete button on your keyboard, Polyworks violently crashs with a bunch of error messages. This made me loose about an hour of work on a map

Quoted from Avarax and as another bug report.

[a fool]

it would be interesting that you can directly set the alpha of a polygon after it's creation. I've wanted to make some polygons completely transparent, and find myself plunged into the obscure world of "multiply" or what so ever....

unless I am a completly retard (which I believe should be the case) and that you can do this already...

I would like a feature to place some tenner on the polygons and repaint them, or in other words, just directly recoloring the polygon's alpha channel without any 'multiply' bother :3

[Kairos]

a fool:

Make your polygon, select it, and edit opacity in Properties.

[a fool]

a fool:

Make your polygon, select it, and edit opacity in Properties.

Thanks a bunch! never realized this

[chutem]

Awesome Anna! Thanks a bunch.
While you're at it:
Any way to make Polyworks more stable or even runnable on vista? Because it doesn't work on my new laptop.

If you are having trouble, make a post in mapping help/resources, polyworks works on my vista comp, and E_A's vista comp.
So far it has been as stable as I remember it on XP.

BUG: (maybe only on vista) if you are in the process of making a polygon (i.e. put only one vertex down) and press delete, it keeps putting out windows with some problem and u have to use task manager to close it.

Also, while using the transform tool thingie, (maybe only when snap to grid is on) it distorts the shape.
Idea: could you make a way to set which vertex is used to snap to grid when moving a bunch of polies that don't all line up on the grid?
And finally, could you make snap to vertices work while moving poly's?

[Mr. America]

THANKS for coming back (even if it's only for an update  or will you stay longer?)

Can't wait for .gif support =D
*party*

[As de Espada]

one interesting thing would be the consept of Groups. It's like the prefabs, but you don't create them in you map, they only become selected. If you need more info, and if you are interested in doing it, I can detail it better.
The nearest thing is the select by color, but in this groups you define what you wanna put in the selection (then you can set them by perssing alt+1, alt+2 or whatever)

[blackdevil0742]

Great to see you back and work on PW to add .gif support!
<3

[As de Espada]

suggestions: hotkey for flip horizontal, possibility to flip spawns
ohh and thanks for making Polyworks (o/