PlayCanvas Editor Feedback

I hadn’t seen your replies when I posted my last comment, so forgive the tone please.

I’m glad we found some middle ground guys. I want to use Play Canvas, and I know you guys only have good intentions. I’m sorry for coming in all guns blazing. It was stupid, entirely my fault, and made the whole conversation unnecessarily tense.

Sorry everyone. Lesson learned.

That is default jshint message. To avoid this, use jshint es6 option to ignore such warnings, add this to beginning of a file:

/*jshint esversion: 6 */

Actually, those warnings on left - is just for information. They don’t restrict you to do anything and write your js any way you want. It is just visual clues.

We will consider adding global option to disable jshint in IDE.

Nothing dictates anything here. We “recommend” certain style for benefit of all potential users of content made in playcanvas. You can write code the way you want. Nothing enforces you to write in any particular way.

Nothing expected of you. “easy to fix”, interpret as: “we’ve noted the issue, and expect the fix soon”. We do not provide any timelines on things, unless it is a critical issue that stops users from being able to work.

I’m actually easy-and fine with feedback you provide. Really - it is useful. Nothing taken emotionally :wink:

No worries :slight_smile:

We want to ensure users actually having fun, and not frustration while trying to learn new tool. Which means we have work to do on that ground.

Thank you again for a feedback!

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Btw, to disable jshint completely, add this to beginning of a js file:

// jshint ignore: start
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Ahhh, thank you. I don’t use JSHint, so didn’t get it. I added the string to the top, like with the “use strict” directive. That fixed it. Nice one.

This is now fixed :slight_smile:

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Hello, it would be nice to have a tooltip that show who is following and who starred your project.

@valos - Thanks for the fix, and again, sorry for my attitude before. I was upset, but should have spoken so unfairly about other people’s work.

Hello, what about anaglyph camera function? ( or tutorial) http://stackoverflow.com/questions/21875476/anaglyph-effect-webgl-pop-out-from-screen

We are finding that additional organization tools would be nice for managing heavy workloads/workflows. For example, being able to hide projects from the list instead of deleting them would be better. Right now our project page is littered with stuff and unless you remember the names of things you cant quickly find them. Likewise, since the organizational is based on names and using the browser’s search tool, when people deviate from proper naming conventions it gets more cluttered and confused. I always explicitly label all my lab work so I know exactly which iteration of which project etc. but others in the team just name everything with the same name and use the ‘created on’ field to determine which version was which. Since we are a creative team and not a development team, drilling people for ‘standards’ just fails on principle.

Although the organizational side of things is workable, it requires over-site by someone on the team to make sure things are well groomed. Plus, once we have several projects serving live units, it will become difficult to quickly sort which ads are live and which are in dev. I know old fashioned good habits would solve all these problems, but time proves that humans deviate from good habits even if they can manage to adopt them as behaviors. Technology curbs that kind of regression/entropy.

I think improving the organization and filtering of projects in your dashboard is a good idea. Just need to find time to put it in our schedule!

I can dig it, such is the struggle of development. In the meantime, it looks like there might be some quick and dirty ways to solve some of this with your API by setting up some scripts and crons.

From another thread:

I noticed the docs says the code editor uses CodeMirror. Is there any chance we can get a user facing toggle for indentWithTabs? I’d like the my Tab button on my keyboard to create smart tabs instead of spaces.

We were evaluating this a lot. Not to start holywar on tabs-vs-spaces it is important to be consistent.
Different user preferences will lead to clash of what indentation to use in different places. Plus this would be a scope of a project, or a user? If user - this will lead to inconsistent indentation within project source. If project preference, this will lead to preferences clash, and then copying code from different sources with different indentation will lead just to the mess.

This will lead to many issues in workflow and code consistency around the platform. So we’ve decided to be consistent and picked one of the most common indentation option along web developers.

Renaming a folder is REALLY obfuscated… I expected to be able to double click or right click to find an option to do this, had to ask a colleague how :slight_smile: They pointed me to selecting the folder, then going to the inspector properties, top-right and editing there. Eep! :slight_smile:

F2 works as well (focuses renaming field). It’s usually the easiest, select file, hit F2, start typing new name.
Context menu, for consistency would do exactly same as F2.

Bringing pop-ups to rename, would be too much as it would add another alternative way to do same thing which is already done for everything else in consistent way - name field in inspector.

Double-click - is “open folder” or “open file”.

Well, fair enough, but it’s really not obvious!

In terms of consistency, double-clicking an entity in the hierarchy renames, rather than toggles sub-hierarchy expansion. It was this behaviour that led me to expect a double click on the name might allow a rename. (I had assumed that double clicking or second-clicking the name, as in windows, would rename, and the icon would open).

In this instance, I am both able to and expect to edit the name in the inspector, and also hugely less likely to want to do that, than I am to want to expand an entity’s subtree.

Appreciate the reply, thank you!

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This was added as apparently for many people this was “killer feature”, and adding it, created inconsistency.
Multiple paths in UX leads to confusion and reduces fluidity. :frowning:

huh! well, I guess you can’t please all the people, right? ¯\_(ツ)__/¯

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Buckle up, I wrote a shit load.

So I propose that you guys build in a kick ass 2d sprite tools for us 2d dudes. The reason I ask is that I think this feature would make your platform that much more approachable. But it could be helpful in many other ways too.

  1. People can create flashy titles or UI using it.
  2. Can create animated “Particles.”
  3. Can create animated “Texture decals.”
  4. And the most apparent, fluid 2d game creation.

That would put you over other competitors I found like Phaser, and Construct 2, because you guys are natively 3d, and have a WAY nicer UI.

I’m a 2d artist if these features ever come to the limelight, you bet your ass I’ll promote this tool even more so as a great way to show off great 2d portfolios or create interactive elements to websites.

Obviously, people can make 2d games with your tool as is, I did, and continue to. But the process is halted by lack of in-engine tools.

So here is the concept art to help inspire ideas.

  1. Naturally, create an option to create a sprite sheet of some sort.

  2. Then allow us to add each individual png of the animated sprite in, and then allowing us to control and preview playback all on the same tab. It would also be nice to move the order of sprites so you can tweak timing. Also having a name and tag box as all other components, allowing us to call forth the specifics attributes. BE SURE TO CLICK THE IMAGE SINCE IT’S VERTICALLY LONG.

  3. Now when we add components to our entities, perhaps there are two animation options, one for 3d and one for 2d. Or perhaps it’s just a checkbox on the bottom. My paint over demonstrates the second idea. And here it would work very much like the animation tool you already have, just now allows you to put in your custom made 2d sprites.

Then BAM! That entity should work off of a simple 2d plane that scales based on the size of 2d sprite sheet created earlier and can be live previewed in the editor, just like your 3d animations when selected.

Here are samples Unity who I think do a good job, but you guys could do better :wink:

This example is more wishful thinking(like everything I’ve written so far), where you can KEY in hitboxes per frame.

Now I know you guys are busy people and creating these tools would take tons of time and effort, so I would love to help in any way. I can’t finance any of your extra time of course, but I can help provide artwork to help you promote these tools. If these features get introduced, I’ll be sure to promote your engine to all my followers and supporter even harder than I already do.

Here is a link to all my platforms to demonstrate that I do have people who take me seriously:


And like I said, I can provide UNIQUE artwork to help promote this on your platform, for free! IF you guys decide to do nothing, because you just don’t have the resources or the passion for tackling this, I understand. I’m still a huge fan and will continue to promote your platform regardless. Thanks for listening and I’m sure you’ll see me again with more questions on how to make cool things on here.

ADDED:

Here is a sample of a javascript based pixel art making tool Perhaps you guys can reverse engineer this
http://www.piskelapp.com/

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I am thinking this might have been already suggested, but here we go:

  • script attribute that create labels for comments/input guidelines on the inspector panel. Super useful! Did a concept myself: