Non-readable Ganis
 

It would be great if you could use ganis that arn't in cleartext. You could perhaps make a one-way save option in graalshop (*.xani :D) which the client can read (keep another original for editing but not upload) or someway to allow clients to use ganis without saving a cleartext gani file...

However it is done, I think it would be handy :D

While you're at it, fix it so that when saving, you don't have to type .gani at the end of the filename manually for it to be saved correctly.

While you're at it, make rotation possible for the sprites :(

While you're at it, do it.

Gani shop definitely needs a lot of nice updates.. if Stefan's not going to do it he needs to release the source code so at least the community can fix it.

Would be cool if graal shop could be updated with some of the features that Flash has; rotating, even movement (Motion Tweens), copying and pasting, stretching, skewing.

Would also be nice is if basic gani scripts could be shown (even if in GS1)- say you have a player with a ball moving around them; I don't know. You want to do it in a script so you can do it smoothly, but without taking a ton of time. It could show the ball moving when you play it.

Just a few ideas. Not sure the non-readable GANI's would really have that much of a purpose, but that is just me. I suppose they could be downloaded like levels are (I believe in some weird format in the weblevels directory?)

I made a proggie that parses the .gani files into object-instances in an app... I haven't actually went forward and made it so you can do customizations with them, however. If you're interested in it, I could send you a copy of the code.

This thread is made of epic win. I totally support everything posted in here.

I'd like to see the code for reference :o

Still want! I think the .code idea is a good one.

Yeah, some kind of secondary extension that is a compiled version of the .gani would be nice.

Not to big of a deal though since gani scripts usually just display things and don't actually usually display information you don't want to get out.

There is already a way to encode files, it's not supported by the npcserver yet though so the gani cannot have a script.

The source for the gani editor will not be released, we can provide help though if someone wants to make a scripted editor for it.

Why always scripted? Why would you prefer scripted stuff over hardcoded stuff?

so no one messes them up on accident? like i do occasionally ands have to ask around for the real one xD

So it's available on all platforms at all times and is easily updated and distributed to everyone probably.

That's a good argument, and I'd be fine with it if the online tools were just as good as the offline ones.

Scripted RC doesn't come close, and the rest of the tools have no online version.

There are only a couple of things that the Scripted RC cannot do (edit accounts, download multiple files). If there is a problem with the Scripted RC, or a missing feature that is important, then you should post about it in the Scripted RC thread (since y'know, I can't read minds).

Skyld, you did a great job on the scripted RC -- an amazing job. I find it very nice for many things, but for scripting it really just does not work.

It'll be better once we get external windows (by last Christmas - wow!) so that you can better manage them. One thing I would like better is a seperate window for each script. I'm all for tabs, but when you need to edit two scripts at once it's kinda hard switching back and forth.

Also, I want that delete button fixed! It's so annoying :(

Scripted RC also lacks drag-n-drop.

But like I said, you did an amazing job, I doubt anyone could make one better.

All this and the fact that the client still sometimes "skips" key input when having even the slightest client lag (graphical lag) as well as the fact that being able to script at a 20 fps frame rate is much harder then the more precise updating that a normal Graal window has.

It's not the scripted rc but rather the nature of the Graal client as well as text controls with-in it.

Exactly! Graal GUI's will never be able to match a Windows interface, and that's a big problem. There are tons of problems related to just typing, that on their own seem pretty small, but they make a huge difference.
There are benefits to scripted tools, but I don't think they're worth it. I'd rather just see it back to the way it used to be with updates on the current external tools.

You know, I'd really be fine with scripted tools as a substitute for hard-coded ones to be used on other platforms, but I won't use them unless they can get a few kinks ironed out. Right now I've got VMware Fusion running XP with RC on one screen, and on this screen, the Graal client (neither Fusion nor Parallels support the DirectX that Graal needs, and OpenGL lags it horribly.

External windows could make it seem more like the Windows interface. Stefan has shown that he has a version that allows external windows... hasn't released it yet :(.

It can make it easier to manage and develop(I sure as hell can't imagine working on gani's/levels/scripts/RC all in ONE graal window like I normally do), but it's not going to fix the rest of the downfalls.

Typing is cumbersome and slow, and also reflects your current PC specs in relation to running Graal, instead of just a seperate application. I could always run my development tools like Graalshop and the other tools at full speed, but because of my computer, Graal itself isn't the fastest thing ever. There are various other things that I just don't think they'll ever really fix and it will just never be the same.

As well scripted as RC is(and a huge accomplishment in itself), they should just take a lesson from it and realize it's not the direction that should be taken.

Perhaps maybe make an extension system for Graal that lets you run scripts somehow outside of Graal. Could make like a Graal plugin system that runs the scripts outside of the client as a seperate process, but that works on all OSes. (sortof like Firefox extensions).

Or perhaps the ability to run Graal in developer mode. E.g. "path/to/graal.exe -dev" which would only load up profiles and the tools and no actual game elements.

If GraalControl could be altered better, such as allowing you to addcontrol() it to other controls and also allowing you to modify the x and y of it without things going all funky, then I would defiantly be using in-game tools more. Also, I don't like how much my graphics card is still being used even when GraalControl is hidden/resized small.

Doesn't make very much sense that Graal still lags practically just as much when GraalControl is resized to 640x480 as when it is the full size of my window (roughly 1152x864). It should be running a lot closer to the lag that I get when my window is at 640x480 instead.

The clunkiness of the Gui Controls compared to a native windows interface is very apparent, especially in their response speed. The externally scripted windows will go a long way in creating enthusiasm for developing scripted tools for development which are sorely needed; things like a level editor with layering support and image-reading enhancements to GraalShop.

I'm sure creating support for external windows (to cover all the ends were things could go wrong) is not a simple task and I'm very grateful to Stefan for implementing it.