Who uses the GMS2 image editor?

Toque

Member
I tried the image editor and I found it a bit awkward so I stuck with Pixel Edit. But the last jam I found it quick for simple sprites and sprite adjustments. So Im forcing myself to use it more and get more efficient with it.

There are some things I like about it. Then I try and do something and its a convoluted process of awkwardness. Like bringing in a custom colour palette. But more I use it the better it getting.

I was curious if a lot of people using the GMS2 as their main sprite work?
 
Last edited:

Kyon

Member
I tried the image editor and I found it a bit awkward so I stuck with Pixel Edit. But the last jam I found it quick for simple sprites and sprite adjustments. So Im forcing myself to use it more and get more efficient with it.

There are some things I like about it. Then I try and do something and its a convoluted process of awkwardness. Like bringing in a custom colour palette.

I was curious if a lot of people using the GMS2 as their main sprite work?
I used the sprite editor a lot when using Gamemaker 5 til 8. Stepped over to vector art ever since.
But it's a quick workflow if you get used to it, making your art in the same program as your game.
It all depends on what kind of art you want to make, if you're into simple pixel art it would be fine I guess. If it's more detailed you might want a different sprite editor.
 

Toque

Member
I used the sprite editor a lot when using Gamemaker 5 til 8. Stepped over to vector art ever since.
But it's a quick workflow if you get used to it, making your art in the same program as your game.
It all depends on what kind of art you want to make, if you're into simple pixel art it would be fine I guess. If it's more detailed you might want a different sprite editor.
Im only doing pixel art at the moment. Its functional. I hate the palette system they use. The tool symbols are so big and intrusive its annoying. Dont like the rotate selection system. No way to delete colours in the palette. (that I can figure out) No simple way to make a custom palette. Cant save a custom made palette. Cant import a palette easily. Can't create a palette from an image. The brush system is ok but if you change the colour it changes the colour of the brushes. You have to reselect white to get the original colour. I wish I could just pick up a colour with pressing option and click and when release go back to pen tool automatically. I wish when using the pen tool I could press shift and turn it automatically to a line tool. I could go on........

I never used the old GM editor but Ive read on the forums it was better in some ways. Im not sure there is any interest with YYG to improve on it at all. I forced myself to use it this week so I can get used to it. Not sure I could use it full time. I was just curious if anyone does.

Im happy to have it for quick changes to sprites.
 
Last edited:
Honestly, I don't know why they put so much effort into improving the sprite editor. There's already far better tools that existed before GMS2's "improvements". Programs like Pyxel Edit, Aseprite, or GIMP are vastly better tools for pixel art. Not to mention they are significantly more powerful and don't require a comparatively expensive license to use. Anyone using GM's sprite editor for any more than simple edits isn't making the wisest choice.
 

Toque

Member
Honestly, I don't know why they put so much effort into improving the sprite editor. There's already far better tools that existed before GMS2's "improvements". Programs like Pyxel Edit, Aseprite, or GIMP are vastly better tools for pixel art. Not to mention they are significantly more powerful and don't require a comparatively expensive license to use. Anyone using GM's sprite editor for any more than simple edits isn't making the wisest choice.
I agree. I’m not sure I would transfer resources to work on the editor.
 

Rayek

Member
Agreed as well. I never used any of the built-in GM sprite editors, not even for simple edits. In the 90s I was used to Deluxe paint, and later I switched to Photoshop. Nowadays, for pixel art, I use Pro Motion NG. The editor in GM is terribly primitive compared.

That said, I understand that beginners will appreciate a built-in sprite editor. But the devs shouldn't spend too much energy or effort on improving it, and rather focus their attention on improving the overall feature set, which is lagging behind in a number of areas at this point.

And beginners are better off with Asesprite, or pretty much any reasonable image editor.
 

Toque

Member
No image editor improvements are on the road map. No worries on them wasting time on The editor. In conversation are only two.

Image editor effects.
Brush animator support. (??)

Not exactly sure what those will do. Not sure why those would be a priority?
 

JeffJ

Member
Honestly, I don't know why they put so much effort into improving the sprite editor. There's already far better tools that existed before GMS2's "improvements". Programs like Pyxel Edit, Aseprite, or GIMP are vastly better tools for pixel art. Not to mention they are significantly more powerful and don't require a comparatively expensive license to use. Anyone using GM's sprite editor for any more than simple edits isn't making the wisest choice.
Because telemetry tells them that a "significant amount of users spent a majority of their time within the sprite editor".

That is their reasoning. Not surveys, not dialogue with their community and customers, not actual reasoning or weighted priority based on a specifically targeted audience's needs (such as enterprise users). No. Telemetry data. That's it.
 
M

Misty

Guest
Because telemetry tells them that a "significant amount of users spent a majority of their time within the sprite editor".

That is their reasoning. Not surveys, not dialogue with their community and customers, not actual reasoning or weighted priority based on a specifically targeted audience's needs (such as enterprise users). No. Telemetry data. That's it.
I agree with their decision to improve the sprite editor. It's just...I don't think it's improved.
 

JeffJ

Member
It's really just wasted resources in my opinion. There are so many other tools out there, commercial and free alike, that are dedicated to that job, and that are much better than GMS2 could ever hope to be. Let them do their thing. It's the same reason why I'm really against the notion of adding an internal sound editor, or any other similar tools. YoYoGames should focus on making GameMaker better at making games.

Even now, several years into GMS2's life cycle, there are still dozens of very basic features that GMS1 had that are still no where to be found in GMS2. Maybe cover the basics before trying to make your own Photoshop?

Even then, GML needs love much, much more than we've ever needed an internal sprite editor, or any other editor that already exists out there. There are so many other areas that are so much more important to focus on, because they are areas that we have no external alternatives for outside of GM. I will never understand why they prioritize things that there are already much better alternatives for, all while completely ignoring very critical things that only GM does - or in this case - doesn't.
 

Rayek

Member
@JeffJ Wholeheartedly agree. I've been waiting a long time for real improvements such as a full built-in cinematic animation timeline which can control every parameter and object, and various improvements to the viewport editor, as well as built-in IK characters with mesh deformation. Which is why I switched to something else at the beginning of 2019. A bit sad to be leaving GM, but at least for my work GMS is lagging behind, and I could no longer justify NOT switching seeing what is out there.

Still, I am hoping for the best. If things improve I'll be back. If not: well, I am pretty happy right now.
GMS2 development seems glacial to me, however.
 
M

Misty

Guest
It's really just wasted resources in my opinion. There are so many other tools out there, commercial and free alike, that are dedicated to that job, and that are much better than GMS2 could ever hope to be. Let them do their thing. It's the same reason why I'm really against the notion of adding an internal sound editor, or any other similar tools. YoYoGames should focus on making GameMaker better at making games.

Even now, several years into GMS2's life cycle, there are still dozens of very basic features that GMS1 had that are still no where to be found in GMS2. Maybe cover the basics before trying to make your own Photoshop?

Even then, GML needs love much, much more than we've ever needed an internal sprite editor, or any other editor that already exists out there. There are so many other areas that are so much more important to focus on, because they are areas that we have no external alternatives for outside of GM. I will never understand why they prioritize things that there are already much better alternatives for, all while completely ignoring very critical things that only GM does - or in this case - doesn't.
I agree mostly but not fully.

I made a thread recently, stating that GM needs an audio upgrade. Yes GM does not need an in-game sound editor. But in GM 1.4 the volume tab never works, they could fix that at least. Maybe they fixed it in GM 2, don't remember. But the GM audio system needs to reach the 2000s. The internal sound system should be upgraded to FMOD or something decent. Unless your only interest is making games with retro sound effects.

I don't get what GML limitations there are. It can do pretty much anything I tell it to. What I would like to see in GM3 is easier 3d import besides having to type it by code. And 3d animations supported natively. I don't get why GM2 did an overhaul on DnD. The DnD was already fine and didn't need to be improved.

The other thing GM3 needs is a better IDE. GM2 Ide is still in the stone ages. For instance, if you want to change the audiogroups, you have to click each sound over and over with hundreds of clicks. You can't just click and drag as far as I can tell.
 

Toque

Member
Agreed as well. I never used any of the built-in GM sprite editors, not even for simple edits. In the 90s I was used to Deluxe paint, and later I switched to Photoshop. Nowadays, for pixel art, I use Pro Motion NG. The editor in GM is terribly primitive compared.

That said, I understand that beginners will appreciate a built-in sprite editor. But the devs shouldn't spend too much energy or effort on improving it, and rather focus their attention on improving the overall feature set, which is lagging behind in a number of areas at this point.

And beginners are better off with Asesprite, or pretty much any reasonable image editor.

I loved my Amiga and deluxe paint.
 
D

Danei

Guest
I do most of my art in the image editor because of how quickly I can go between creating it and testing it. My design style is fairly stream-of-consciousness, so this is actually very helpful and saves me a lot of time to be able to make changes with a couple of clicks within seconds of determining what changes I want to make, and see them in action immediately. Most of my edits are occurring pixel by pixel so I don't usually need sophisticated functionality, so I guess I don't need them to spend a lot of time improving it, but I would appreciate any improvements they did make. I think the advantages of the sprite editor are in workflow and not function, so they should focus on that.

One feature I really miss from 1.4's editor is the relative hue slider. I used it all the time, and now I have to do it manually for each color. :<
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I use 1.4's editor to add transparency to specific pixels, sometimes as a floodfill. GMS2's editor seems to be lacking the ease of doing so, which baffles me. Otherwise, I just use MSPaint and Photoshop.
 
I

immortalx

Guest
I agree with others. An effort on further improving the image editor seems pointless. A more useful IDE improvement would be a visual shader editor, and even that is too much to ask.
I can't stress enough though the importance of firstly improving GML, and secondly (even if it doesn't concern me personally) open the doors for more powerful extension authoring.
 

Rob

Member
I try to spend as little time on art as possible and I'm happy to use GM2's Sprite editor, honestly.

I wouldn't mind if they bring some of 1.4s features over but if I really wanted to work hard on sprites then there are better alternatives as many people have said.

If I can make what I need in GM2 I'll always opt for that first though. In hindsight I can't see why I wouldn't just have a favourite spriting program open if I really wanted it and I could just alt-tab to it f I wanted to so if the editor never changes I won't complain!
 
C

Crepe

Guest
The only thing I use in GM2's image editor is the erase tool or paint bucket. Otherwise, I use Pyxel Edit, Illustrator, After Effects, Blender, Photoshop, or whatever else.

Anyway, the image editor is much better than it used to be.
 
E

Ephemeral

Guest
One thing the image editor is fantastic for is placeholder art. Being able to just dash off a new sprite to visually indicate some function during development without having to switch to a whole different application, because you have a blue circle but not a red circle, or without having to just reuse the same icon or black square over and over until visual testing of your draw code is all but impossible, is really really convenient, actually.
 
G

Gunhawk

Guest
I too have used it mainly for placeholders (and it's good to have it, when you work in other engines that don't have a quick way of doing a temporary sprite you miss it) and more often for doing little icons for controller objects. Stuff like a little quad or circle with a letter or a cross on it, that's a lot more verbose and comprehensive than the default question mark symbol for everything.
 
Top