I am midway through a character editor and am thinking about how i will procede with the design of it. Here is a screenshot of what I have so far. There are two currently available frames for use. One (450x150) is at the top of the currently displayed document (the document opens with the creation of a new character, several may be open at one time) and the other (200x450) is outside the document to the right. Also note that the frame to the left in the document suspends any action present in the editing so that the view may be adjusted. What needs to be added is a step-by-step process for editing the character. If the user wants to roll back to a previous step, all their work in the steps after it will be undone, since each step builds on one another. I need an interface for moving from one step to another and there will also need to room left for a standardized sized panel to hold that step's editing tools. STEPS: The first step will be the preview step. No editing tools available. The second step will be the particle effect step. This step will allow the user to create particle effects to add to the model. The third step will allow the user to create bones (rigid groups of vertices). The fourth step will allow the user to create joints (groups of vertices that are not part of a bone, but will connect two or more bones). The fifth step will allow the user to define the damage required to a joint to separate it and will define the gibbed body parts spawned upon doing so. The sixth step will allow the user to design the animation of the character's various actions and add sound to these animations. There will be one final step to export the character in a format compatible with my game. I would like some design suggestions for an interface for moving from step to step that still leave enough room for a standardized frame which will hold the current step's tools. --===LITHIC===-- --===WWW.Decimation.TK===-- [edited by - Lithic on March 16, 2004 11:15:03 PM]

When you mean edit the character, are you talking about things like Attributes, Skills, Equipment, Perks, etc etc? Or is this a polygon modeler/skinner? From what you have so far, it seems to me to be more of a modeler/skinner.

If you are creating a character designer however, the easiest step would probably be to have a tabbed Document Interface. When you are done with one page, you can click on next to go to the next page. Every page will be greyed out until elements from the first page are completed. Optionally, you can create dialog wizards and save the steps as you go.

BTW, it looks like you''re using wxWindows...oops, I mean wxWidgets. Any chance you could give a small tutorial? I''m having trouble compiling anything under Suse9.0, and I can''t figure out how to set up compilation under MSVC++ 7.0

quote: When you mean edit the character, are you talking about things like Attributes, Skills, Equipment, Perks, etc etc? Or is this a polygon modeler/skinner? From what you have so far, it seems to me to be more of a modeler/skinner.

It is actually both, however the attributes, etc. part has already been finished, so now I''m working more on the modeling/animation aspect of the editor.

quote: If you are creating a character designer however, the easiest step would probably be to have a tabbed Document Interface. When you are done with one page, you can click on next to go to the next page. Every page will be greyed out until elements from the first page are completed. Optionally, you can create dialog wizards and save the steps as you go.

I like the tabbed interface idea. I think i''ll give that a try.

quote: BTW, it looks like you''re using wxWindows...oops, I mean wxWidgets. Any chance you could give a small tutorial? I''m having trouble compiling anything under Suse9.0, and I can''t figure out how to set up compilation under MSVC++ 7.0

Nope, I''m actually using C++ with the .NET package that comes with MS Visual Studio .NET and am extending the picturebox class to create an OpenGL window. I could explain how to do that if you want.