Smart Fpg Editor

[darío]

This post contains information on the development of Smart Fpg Editor.

POST UPDATED 2017.05.28

I got tired of having to update one post in English, one in Spanish and also the project page, so instead I am keep information here minimal. List of features, installation instructions etc. will be kept in the project page. However, I will keep announcing new versions, if any, in this post.

Follow the project in Bitbucket
Use the project page in bitbucket to repport any issues or to follow most-updated inforamation

Last Version Released: 0.5.5. Source, Win32 Installer




The future of Smart Fpg Editor
I am very aware that a VB6 developed application, no matter how much care and effort I have put on, cannot survice for ever. Windows is making it more and more difficult to support applications that based on COM and Active X technologies and programming frameworks and IDE have evolved in such a way that much of the code that I had to write for Smart Fpg Editor can be considerably simplified if using modern frameworks. Not to speak about the fact that I need to keep a Virtualized Windows XP environment to be able to develop in VB6...

Yet today, I do not see another editor that allows working with FPGs as flawlessly as Smart Fpg Editor does, that handles Color conversion between the different graphic depths in a coherent way with Bennu or that have the Control Point edition possibilities that Smart Fpg Editor has.

But the future is not written in VB6 and for that reason I am intending to drop support for this project in the short-term (end of 2016). I need to do that to focus my efforts in other projects that have a broader audience, represent other challenges and allow me to work from my Linux machine.

I wish however, to give Smart Fpg Editor a decent end and wish to realease a final 1.0 version with basic palette edition capacities and as less bugs as possible. Therefore, I will appreciate very much if you report any kind of feeback in form of issues in the project page in bitbucket. That will certainly constitute the best funeral for this now old application that I enjoyed so much developing.

[Sandman]

Great stuff! One of the reasons I stopped using FPGs is because there is no decent editor. Your work is greatly appreciated. I don't mind an installer at all and I agree it's easier, since you are using VB6.

+1 Karma

[square]

Ok, this is great. Good work.

I'm currently using FPGEdit, as I suspect a few people are using with Fenix/Bennu. It's "ok" but when you have 100+ graphics you really need an editor - this looks like a more robust editor, and one that is in English - it's great!

I'd like to see an complete version. And i'll try this one out for sure.

Thanks

[darío]

Thanks both of you for the comment (& the karma ;P).

FPGEdit is very stable, it hasn't given me problems when used, but I've always missed some more user-friendly interface and user interaction, so I agree with you.

I updated the main post because added a new version (the only change you will note is that now 8bpp FPG can be created). I recommend allways to uninstall before installing a new version.
I also included a binary-zip package for those who doesn't want to use the installer (actually because SplinterGu is trying to make it run in Linux with wine and asked me to do it). However, I recommend to use the installer for simplicity.

Darío (danko)

[SplinterGU]

Yes, installer is final idea...
I only want zip package for get an idea of dependencies for linux...

[izubiaurre]

You keep it in silence, eh? I'm gald that you still work on it.

I'm going to test.

[darío]

Well, I'm still working on this... I wanted to post some advances I've made since last posts.
The most relevant changes are a control point editor (non-graphical) and the map viewer/editor.

CP Editor
Is ready 100% (maybe some interface readjustments will be done). The main features are:
+ Seveal graphics from the FPG can edit the Control Points at the same time
+ Coordinates can be specified relative to MAP parameters. For example: "WIDTH / 2" or "HEIGHT / 2". This is specially usefull when editing the CPs of several MAPs at the same time.
+ 4 CP insertion modes: Append (new CP's ID is the highest defined ID + 1), Insert Before (Inserts in an already defined ID and "pushes" the control points fordward), Insert & Complete (Inserts without moving if there are non defined IDs in between two Control Points) and Manual (we choose the ID)

Map Viewer
I started it today so it's not very advanced. Still thinking some of the features it should and not should have so I won't list them for now. It will include a graphical CP editor, although I have not yet started with it.

Screenshots:



Darío

[darío]

Some advances made in the map viewer. Now it looks much more professional (shows transparency, centers the map in the window area, etc.). Drawing is pretty fast, even for big maps :). I also started writing a simple visual CP editor.

I was wondering also if someone has any feature request for the Map Viewer (apart from visualy modifying CP), something that you have always missed in other FPG editors and that you wish to have...

I leave a screen capture here:


:)

Darío

[Sandman]

Good going there. I could be blind, but I couldn't find the latest version, only v0.1.

[darío]

Thanks.

That's because it's not ready (I just wanted to show some advance). Maybe I didn't point it out well (I did modifications to the initial post), but the MAP viewer is an on-going feature (maybe I invented this word?), which with I meant that it will be present in next release (v 0.2.x), but is not available to download yet. But after I finish the map viewer (with a preliminary graphical control point editor) I will realease it.

Darío

[SplinterGU]

this is very nice!
¿Como se me paso esto? (I don't know how write this in english)

[Sandman]

Ah I see. Well I tried 0.1 and it is indeed easy to use. I have some comments though:
1. The top menu is graphical, which is easy and all, but personally I prefer a default topmenu (perhaps these graphical buttons can be below it, like most GUI's?)
2. In the Add Graphic window, there's this Magic Wand kind of button, to the right of the Description field: what does it do?
3. Because of point 2, I suggest adding tooltips for this (and others), like you already have for other buttons.
4. The Add Graphic banner is huge. :P
5. I like the "look for next free code"
6. For some reason I tried to use the scrollwheel to alter the Code field, but I don't know if that's just me.

Good job!

[Sandman]

In that version, there were two separate Open PNG and Open MAP dialogs, but can they not be merged into one?

[darío]

Hi, thanks for the suggestions, Sandman, answering to your questions:

The top menu is graphical, which is easy and all, but personally I prefer a default topmenu (perhaps these graphical buttons can be below it, like most GUI's?)

Well, here I have a different opinion, as for me one of the things important was to keep as maximum space as possible for the viewer, and since the application had very few options I considered that a menu could be omissible. But it could be possible that the final version have too many options to have only a toolbar, then the menu might be necessary. I know I could also reduce the size of the icons, but I actually liked them to be big. I will keep it in mind, in any case, to try how it results for future versions.

In the Add Graphic window, there's this Magic Wand kind of button, to the right of the Description field: what does it do?

The icon of the magic wand is not a very wise choice, so it must be changed, but the button just fills the description field with the description of the MAP which is to be replaced.

The Add Graphic banner is huge.

Right, hehe. It was intended to make the program look a litle bit different and friendly, but it's something subjected to future changes, as I'm still thinking of how should it look like.

For some reason I tried to use the scrollwheel to alter the Code field, but I don't know if that's just me.

That's actually a pretty interesting idea! It matches to the goal of making it as user-friendly as possible, so I will definitely take it into account. Not probably for the next version since VB6 sucks when dealing with "new" things such us mouses' wheels, but I'm sure I'll find some way to overcome it.

In that version, there were two separate Open PNG and Open MAP dialogs, but can they not be merged into one?

Yeah, is to be done. Actually my idea is to have, instead of a simple "drop-down button menu", a button + dropdown. When pressing the button, a "general" open graphic dialog will appear, which will base the loading mechanism on the extension of the file. The dropdown button will show the list that currently appears. This allows the user to force to open a file as a MAP or as a PNG no matter of the extension of the file.

Thanks again for the comments,
Darío

[darío]

Hi,

this topic has been off for a while due to lack of time, but I've been working on the project and now it's time to release a new version. I'm finishing some details, but I want to share one video of how the graphical control point editor looks like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNzgaEn5Bek

NOTE: Now Smart Fpg Editor is multilingual so don't get surprised that the interface in the video is in Spanish.

Hope you like it :)

Darío