



So where I am right now is, the editing canvas and the preview area in the pixmap window are now done with hardware acceleration. I'm using a more standard, smaller checkerboard pattern to represent transparency, which means the opacity of individual pixels will be easier to see. The new canvas includes a slight grid to make pixel distinctions clearer.



Also on the canvas side of things, I am right now working on a tiled editing mode (there will also be tiled previews available) that should make it a lot easier to create seamless tiles. The tricky part is handling things like lines, shapes, etc., but especially selection rectangles. For reasons I hope are obvious, a selection rectangle can't be bigger than one tile, but because all of the code is built in terms of a single tile, anything that deals with a "wrapped" selection has to do things a little differently. That's my current challenge. I've wanted tiled editing since forever, since it's a feature you don't even tend to see in dedicated pixel art programs. (Also as part of that, I completely redid our Bresenham line implementation, because the old one wasn't quite right.)



Tools have been rearranged slightly in preparation for splitters that can be used to resize parts of the interface. This is just the first part of rearranging the interface, because in a later stage I want to move all of the movie editor controls into the pixmap editor, thus going from two separate windows down to one and greatly improving workflow. I've always hated the code we used for arranging tools in the icon editor, and although I redesigned it slightly at one point, it wasn't good enough. So I had to go through and basically come up with a new system for organizing these things.



I'd like to spruce up the palette areas as well. Being able to make the color blocks bigger would be a really nice thing, and also I really, really hate Microsoft's color picker control and want to replace it with something that sucks a lot less.



There are still quite a few items on my wish list of features, which I posted on my



Trick or treat! Don't forget to drop some goodies in a bag for BYOND, because I'm working hard to keep moving things forward. Thanks a ton to our Members, donors, and Patrons who've contributed. If you haven't yet, I hope you find the time to raid the couch cushions and chip in. (SS13 peeps, I'm looking at you! The gratitude for the compiler speedup this month was very welcome, but it looks like that hasn't translated into much in the way of full-size Baby Ruths. Maybe give your player base a nudge.)



If you've been working on a spooky game this year, let's see it! And if you haven't, well, you can always break out your winter themes and get to work on something Christmasy. According to my mom it's never too early to start the Christmas season. It's been an interesting, sometimes frustrating, but mostly fun week on the development front. With 512.1454 looking very stable, I've been able to focus on my plan of improving the icon editor in Dream Maker, because this tool has really needed some TLC for a while.So where I am right now is, the editing canvas and the preview area in the pixmap window are now done with hardware acceleration. I'm using a more standard, smaller checkerboard pattern to represent transparency, which means the opacity of individual pixels will be easier to see. The new canvas includes a slight grid to make pixel distinctions clearer.Also on the canvas side of things, I am right now working on a(there will also be tiled previews available) that should make it a lot easier to create seamless tiles. The tricky part is handling things like lines, shapes, etc., but especially selection rectangles. For reasons I hope are obvious, a selection rectangle can't be bigger than one tile, but because all of the code is built in terms of a single tile, anything that deals with a "wrapped" selection has to do things a little differently. That's my current challenge. I've wanted tiled editing since forever, since it's a feature you don't even tend to see in dedicated pixel art programs. (Also as part of that, I completely redid our Bresenham line implementation, because the old one wasn't quite right.)Tools have been rearranged slightly in preparation for splitters that can be used to resize parts of the interface. This is just the first part of rearranging the interface, because in a later stage I want to move all of the movie editor controls into the pixmap editor, thus going from two separate windows down to one and greatly improving workflow. I've always hated the code we used for arranging tools in the icon editor, and although I redesigned it slightly at one point, it wasn't good enough. So I had to go through and basically come up with a new system for organizing these things.I'd like to spruce up the palette areas as well. Being able to make the color blocks bigger would be a really nice thing, and also I really, really hate Microsoft's color picker control and want to replace it with something that sucks a lot less.There are still quite a few items on my wish list of features, which I posted on my Patreon post last week. What I'm expecting is that I'll work through this update in stages across several releases, but we'll see how it progresses.Trick or treat! Don't forget to drop some goodies in a bag for BYOND, because I'm working hard to keep moving things forward. Thanks a ton to our Members, donors, and Patrons who've contributed. If you haven't yet, I hope you find the time to raid the couch cushions and chip in. (SS13 peeps, I'm looking at you! The gratitude for the compiler speedup this month was very welcome, but it looks like that hasn't translated into much in the way of full-size Baby Ruths. Maybe give your player base a nudge.)If you've been working on a spooky game this year, let's see it! And if you haven't, well, you can always break out your winter themes and get to work on something Christmasy. According to my mom it's never too early to start the Christmas season.