Discussion Can I run it with the old interface instead?

[Wolf Dreamer]

I prefer the older interface. Is there a way to change it to do that?

Also whenever I do anything with this one, it seems to pause a moment needlessly before doing it. Why put that in there?

Any way to unlink objects? I want to grab one and move it around where I can see it better, without the others getting in the way.

Was there a forum poll asking customers if they wanted the new interface to be this way, or did someone just decide it was a good idea on their own without customer feedback?

I've been using Game Maker off and on since version 3 way back in the day. I bought a copy of Game Maker Studio and HTML module years ago, so testing out the newer version before buying it.

 

[Nocturne]

Also whenever I do anything with this one, it seems to pause a moment needlessly before doing it. Why put that in there?

Are you refering to the open/close animations? These can be switched off from the Preferences. See the General Settings, "Disable IDE animations": http://docs2.yoyogames.com/index.ht...etting_started/preferences/prefs_general.html

Any way to unlink objects? I want to grab one and move it around where I can see it better, without the others getting in the way.

You can switch this off in the Preferences too. See Prefs > General Settings > Workspace and select "overlapping chains": http://docs2.yoyogames.com/index.ht...etting_started/preferences/prefs_general.html

Was there a forum poll asking customers if they wanted the new interface to be this way, or did someone just decide it was a good idea on their own without customer feedback?

Nothing was decided "as a good idea". A lot of careful planning went into the new IDE and it was decided that a paradigm change was required after many hours of testing and discussion. The old interface was clunky and broken and needed rebuilt from the ground up, so that's what was done. Can some things be improved? Certainly! But that doesn't mean the new IDE is "bad", just "different".

Oh, and note that there is a HUGE level of customisation permitted in GMS2, so take some time to go through the prefs and change things, as you'll probably find that there are a number of things that you can change to make you feel more comfortable.

 

[csanyk]

Nothing was decided "as a good idea". A lot of careful planning went into the new IDE and it was decided that a paradigm change was required after many hours of testing and discussion. The old interface was clunky and broken and needed rebuilt from the ground up, so that's what was done. Can some things be improved? Certainly! But that doesn't mean the new IDE is "bad", just "different".

This. The goal was never to write a better GMS2, just make something arbitrarily different, with different problems. Why would you expect a new version of a software to be improved???

The 1.x IDE had issues, some minor, and some severe. The worst thing about it was the My Library interface having severe performance degradation as the number of assets in the user's manifest increased. The room editor was very basic and lacking in features that facilitated fast workflow. There were windows that were modal (meaning you had to close it before you could switch to a different window) for no good reason.

Likewise, the new IDE has issues, some minor, and some severe. The worst being that it crashes if Windows suspends, so I can't just sleep my laptop if I want to pick up and move, I have to completely close GMS2 and then re-launch it when I resume running Windows. But I'm told this only affects users on certain hardware, so it's not really YYG's problem to worry about. Just buy the right computer, problem solved.

Then there's the "no save buttons" feature, which automatically saves your work for you when you close the window. So hopefully you never accidentally select all, hit delete, and then close the window without noticing, or simply accidentally mash a few keys in the wrong window without noticing, since there's no warning when you close the window that you're going to save changes. OF COURSE you want to save the changes, you wouldn't have made them otherwise, right!? You can just ctrl Z your way back to a good state, after all, well at least until you close the window, at which point your undo heap is cleared and those changes are permanent. But you're using source control, right? And committing every time you keystroke, right? So this really isn't a problem. It's just different. Different from how every other software you use likely works. But that's what makes using software fun.

Why would anyone ever want to go back to the old IDE when you can trade up to issues like this in the latest greatest version? I have no idea.

 

[Wolf Dreamer]

This. The goal was never to write a better GMS2, just make something arbitrarily different, with different problems. Why would you expect a new version of a software to be improved???

I was thinking maybe they just changed it since the other one was a one time lifetime fee, and they made more money by forcing everyone to buy it and the modules over again. But searching for a comparison, I find some say games made with the new one are significantly faster, so maybe they did a lot of real work on it.

Its irritating that the test version can't import old projects, so I can't see if that works or not.

I turn off the "Show welcome page at startup", but I still have the Start screen showing that scrolling banner up top. Sometimes my eyes get sore from things like that. Any way to stop it from automatically scrolling?

Note that General Settings > Workspace and select "overlapping chains" doesn't work. I still can't move one thing over another, got a lot of useless boxes cluttering up my screen. I guess I need a much larger monitor to use this thing. Or does this feature not work in the trial version?

 

[wipeout2185]

Though I've gotten used to it, I personally don't like the new GUI. It was clearly designed with touch screens and touch pads in mind. No other code editor works the way GM:S 2 does and sometimes it can hurt a product to go against the grain too much even if the design is better. I know Mike seems to hate tabs but they work if used appropriately. Microsoft are even building tabs into the Windows design language with Sets. I don't think the UI needs an over hall though, just some tweaking.

 

[rIKmAN]

The worst being that it crashes if Windows suspends, so I can't just sleep my laptop if I want to pick up and move, I have to completely close GMS2 and then re-launch it when I resume running Windows.

Oh no, the horror of having to click the close button on the IDE window and then double click the GMS2 shortcut to re-launch it when you get to wherever you are going.
If that's your biggest issue I'd say your in a pretty good position.

Then there's the "no save buttons" feature, which automatically saves your work for you when you close the window. So hopefully you never accidentally select all, hit delete, and then close the window without noticing, or simply accidentally mash a few keys in the wrong window without noticing, since there's no warning when you close the window that you're going to save changes. OF COURSE you want to save the changes, you wouldn't have made them otherwise, right!? You can just ctrl Z your way back to a good state, after all, well at least until you close the window, at which point your undo heap is cleared and those changes are permanent. But you're using source control, right? And committing every time you keystroke, right? So this really isn't a problem. It's just different. Different from how every other software you use likely works. But that's what makes using software fun.

Why would anyone ever want to go back to the old IDE when you can trade up to issues like this in the latest greatest version? I have no idea.

I didn't think it was possible to cram so much passive aggressiveness into such a small amount of text, impressive work! Just give your points and grievances normally, no need to be so catty.

I don't think I've ever deleted code accidentally without realising it - if I hit the keyboard in any way I generally know I've done it, and you also don't need to close the window every single time you write some code - that's what workspaces are for - you can leave things open and move around the workspace.

Use CTRL+T, Recent Windows (dock it somewhere) and the resource tree to navigate and the workspace will auto-scroll you directly to whatever you want with no effort whatsoever.

Every now and then you can "Close All" to refresh the workspace if the auto-scrolling gets too excessive.

I was thinking maybe they just changed it since the other one was a one time lifetime fee, and they made more money by forcing everyone to buy it and the modules over again. But searching for a comparison, I find some say games made with the new one are significantly faster, so maybe they did a lot of real work on it.

GMS2 is also pay once for a lifetime licence, with the exception of the Creators Edition, the console exports and the Ultimate bundle which are all 12mth licences which need to be renewed each year.

I turn off the "Show welcome page at startup", but I still have the Start screen showing that scrolling banner up top. Sometimes my eyes get sore from things like that. Any way to stop it from automatically scrolling?

That setting refers to the page showing the new features if you are a new user - you can view it by going to Help > Welcome Page in the IDE.

You can't turn off the banners at the top - but how long are you sitting looking at the "Load New Project" page for it to hurt your eyes? Most people spend a few seconds whilst selecting their project to load.

Note that General Settings > Workspace and select "overlapping chains" doesn't work. I still can't move one thing over another, got a lot of useless boxes cluttering up my screen. I guess I need a much larger monitor to use this thing. Or does this feature not work in the trial version?

What resolution is your screen?
It's true that the UI works better with higher res screens, but most people are using 1920x1080 nowadays and I found that to work fine - albeit on a large sized screen.

You could try adjusting the DPI scaling which would give you some more space, and just getting used to how to navigate optimally will improve your experience a lot (ie. not dragging the workspace around but instead using CTRL+T and the resource tree to be taken straight to whatever thing you want to edit).

The "overlapping chains" option refers to being able to drag windows over the top of each other (like GMS 1.4) - not being able to move linked (chained) windows over the top of each other which could be implied from the naming of the option, it's a little ambiguous I agree.

Imagine "chained" windows )Object Editor > Events > Script Editor) to be a single window (rather than 3) and with that option on you can drag a script window or another object window all on top of each other like you could in 1.4. With it off when you drag windows over each other they auto-separate.

Though I've gotten used to it, I personally don't like the new GUI. It was clearly designed with touch screens and touch pads in mind.

I don't think it was designed with touch pads / touch screens in mind - that doesn't make sense.
I agree there are improvements that could be made, and hopefully they will come in time.

Opening up the IDE to plugins will be a big step towards that with the community being able to create their own plugins to share and make things easier to setup for every persons individual needs and how they want things to be.

 

[wipeout2185]

I'm really looking forward to plugin support too. The lengths some people have gone is crazy. I found a company the other day that has created an entier third-party editor to get around 1.4's shortcomings

https://parakeet-ide.org/

 

[11clock]

GMS2’s biggest problem is the workspace. There isn’t even enough room on the screen for one object. I had to get a 4K monitor in order for it to be tolerable.

 

[GMWolf]

The workspace is nice when working one one or two objects, and one or two sprites. It's quick and easy to navigae.
But as soon as you have many more resources, you have to start closing your windows or you will just loose them, which defeats the point of the workspace.

CTRL+T has NOTHING to do with the workspace design. Such a feature could have just as easily been used with a tabbed system.

 

[GDS_DUDE]

The workspace is nice when working one one or two objects, and one or two sprites. It's quick and easy to navigae.
But as soon as you have many more resources, you have to start closing your windows or you will just loose them, which defeats the point of the workspace.

CTRL+T has NOTHING to do with the workspace design. Such a feature could have just as easily been used with a tabbed system.

This
What is the point of those green lines linking the object and loking it into place
Why a object needs to take the full screen on my 4k monitor or on my 1440p ultrawide?
Why every object opens on the bottom and now Im forced to keep scrolling every time I want to work on anew object

 

[rIKmAN]

But as soon as you have many more resources, you have to start closing your windows or you will just loose them, which defeats the point of the workspace.

Why every object opens on the bottom and now Im forced to keep scrolling every time I want to work on anew object

Using the resource tree and the "Recent Windows" panel will make the workspace auto-scroll to whatever window / object you want, manually trying to scroll around is bad way to do things with lots of objects and is a really nasty experience.

I've never closed a window manually except to use "Close All" every now and then when the auto-scrolling gets a bit much with a lot of open windows, you can just leave them open wherever and use the things I mentioned previously to be taken directly to whatever window / object it is automatically.

Give it a try and I think you'll find using the workspaces a bit better.

 

[GMWolf]

Using the resource tree and the "Recent Windows" panel will make the workspace auto-scroll to whatever window / object you want, manually trying to scroll around is bad way to do things with lots of objects and is a really nasty experience.

So what is the point of the workspace if you are not going to use it to navigate?

 

[rIKmAN]

So what is the point of the workspace if you are not going to use it to navigate?

For me personally, I'd much rather have the workspace auto-navigate around an endless space for me from window to window than have windows popping up on top of windows like 1.4.

It's not for everyone - I was just giving you a workaround to alleviate the issues you listed that annoyed you about trying to manually scroll around the workspace.

 

[Wolf Dreamer]

Yesterday I got in a 55 inch 4K television, Walmart selling a $398 one from Vizio that got good ratings with Consumer Reports. Extended setting in Display, I drag stuff over to the television, and I have enough space to see everything now. So I went ahead and upgraded to GameMaker Studio 2 today. Still be a lot better if they let us use the older interface, but as long as you have a large enough screen its usable. My old 17 inch across monitor wasn't capable though.

 

[IndianaBones]

Yeah initially the workspace was a pain in the ....

But now using the following methods and most of the time avoiding navigating the workspace manually things are pretty good (not perfect but a lot better):
- CTRL + TAB works like the windows ALT + TAB - it toggles between the most recent two locations.
- There is a recent windows tab that can be set to list the most recently viewed windows on top.
- As @rIKmAN said, using the resource tree to double-click on resources that you want to get to that aren't quickly accessible via the first two items I listed.
- CTRL + T for even quicker access to objects by just typing the name or part of the name, so you don't have to search through the resource tree manually.

CTRL + T is like a super powered version of the Search function in the resource tree. Plus it remembers recently searched for items, so on subsequent uses they are listed at the top.

 

[Hyomoto]

I've been a huge fan of the workspaces since day one. I've come to understand that on lower resolutions they might be cumbersome, but at 1080p they are functional. I can't imagine going back to 1.4, I wasted so much time opening and closing objects it's a wonder I ever accomplished anything. Now it's easy to lay out tasks across monitors or even just workspaces and have everything you need visible. Add in F1 to bring up the highlighted object and I just can't go back. It's understandable there's some friction when swapping, but it really does seem to be a case of "I don't want to learn this new way." rather than "This new way is significantly flawed." But, if a picture is worth a thousand words, this is the workspace as I'm staring at it right now:

Everything I'm working on is quickly within reach. I tend to group my objects together anyways, but I'll set aside workspaces for particular parts of the engine. For example, I don't really work in the system tab a whole lot once the system layer is up and running, but if I need to adjust some debug options or force a particular resolution it's right there. Then I rapidly switch back to whatever I was working on just before. In GMS1.4 I would have closed whatever I was working on, opened the system object, opened the event, changed the variables, closed that event, closed the object, and brought up the next object I wanted to work on.

Maybe I just used the old interface poorly and the new one really well, but I can't help but cheer it.

 

[GMWolf]

For me personally, I'd much rather have the workspace auto-navigate around an endless space for me from window to window than have windows popping up on top of windows like 1.4.

It's not for everyone - I was just giving you a workaround to alleviate the issues you listed that annoyed you about trying to manually scroll around the workspace.

I'm not saying 1.x was better. I'm saying the workspace is a dumb idea.
It would be much nicer to have full screen editors for everything. And have the ability to split this full screen panels and have tabs.

You could still have all the convenient ctrl+t stuff. You just wouldn't have all the wasted space the workspace creates.

 

[Mick]

It would be much nicer to have full screen editors for everything. And have the ability to split this full screen panels and have tabs.

I'm not a fan of the workspace myself but you can have full screen editors for most stuff, this feature really made my day when it was introduced. You can split the fullscreen view to either 2 or 3 columns and rearrange the code windows between the columns.

I have my GMS2 setup so I rarely need to use the workspace(s) at all. Double-clicking objects in the resource tree will open code windows for all events full screen (each code window in a sub-tab), same with scripts and shaders. If I need to change some properties of an object, I just drag it to a workspace (I don't need to do this very often, because I can add events from right-clicking in the code window).

I'm much more comfortable with tabbed full screen editors. 99% of the time used in GMS for me is coding, so I really appreciate being able to have all screen real estate dedicated to the code windows. These are my preferences:





(Tagging you since you might want to try this out)
@wipeout2185 @11clock @GDS_DUDE @Wolf Dreamer

 

[wipeout2185]

Thanks @Mick I've recently found @YellowAfterlife GML editor, it's not perfect but I'm loving it. Have you seen it? https://yellowafterlife.itch.io/gmedit I wish GM:S had a mode that worked similar.

 

[GMWolf]

I'm not a fan of the workspace myself but you can have full screen editors for most stuff, this feature really made my day when it was introduced. You can split the fullscreen view to either 2 or 3 columns and rearrange the code windows between the columns.

I have my GMS2 setup so I rarely need to use the workspace(s) at all. Double-clicking objects in the resource tree will open code windows for all events full screen (each code window in a sub-tab), same with scripts and shaders. If I need to change some properties of an object, I just drag it to a workspace (I don't need to do this very often, because I can add events from right-clicking in the code window).

I'm much more comfortable with tabbed full screen editors. 99% of the time used in GMS for me is coding, so I really appreciate being able to have all screen real estate dedicated to the code windows. These are my preferences:

View attachment 17253

View attachment 17252

(Tagging you since you might want to try this out)
@wipeout2185 @11clock @GDS_DUDE @Wolf Dreamer

Yay, working AROUND the workspace system. Its what @Mike and so many others suggest too.
So why even HAVE the workspace system in the first place?

 

[Mick]

Thanks @Mick I've recently found @YellowAfterlife GML editor, it's not perfect but I'm loving it. Have you seen it? https://yellowafterlife.itch.io/gmedit I wish GM:S had a mode that worked similar.

I have seen it and I like it.

Yay, working AROUND the workspace system. Its what @Mike and so many others suggest too.
So why even HAVE the workspace system in the first place?

I don't have an answer to that, but with the preferences I suggested you can have a tabbed GUI. Some people seem to like the workspaces, but I find it good that you can also set up GMS2 in a way that you can mostly avoid them.

I agree about what you mentioned with the CTRL-T shortcut etc. it's not really a feature of the workspace design. By the way, the CTRL+TAB navigation works better with full screen tabs setup also. You can jump to the event code windows directly this way, instead of just jumping to an object when using the workspace. The only issue with this at the moment is that the cursor is not activated in the code window when doing this, you have to click inside the window afterwards to activate the cursor.

 

[The-any-Key]

These settings will save my life and sanity when I go over to GMS2.

 

[csanyk]

Yeah initially the workspace was a pain in the ....

But now using the following methods and most of the time avoiding navigating the workspace manually

Can you imagine if workspaces WEREN'T a pain to use, and DIDN'T require getting used to, though? Imagine if you didn't have to learn a lot of methods to avoid having to use them?

 

[rIKmAN]

Yay, working AROUND the workspace system. Its what @Mike and so many others suggest too.
So why even HAVE the workspace system in the first place?

Can you imagine if workspaces WEREN'T a pain to use, and DIDN'T require getting used to, though? Imagine if you didn't have to learn a lot of methods to avoid having to use them?

It's been stated multiple times by YYG that the workspace system isn't going to change, and your opinion of them probably isn't going to change either. I don't think people are trying to change your opinion of them - some will like them (me included), and others will hate them (you included).....such is life.

People are just trying to help by suggesting things you can do to try and set things up to be a bit closer to what it is you actually want it to be like - or you can just keep moaning about workspaces and how much you hate them - upto you!

Whether you love them, hate them or are indifferent about them the fact remains that they are here to stay, and if you haven't already you should check out GMEdit by YellowAfterlife which may suit your preferred setup much better.

 

[Dog Slobber]

Yay, working AROUND the workspace system. Its what @Mike and so many others suggest too.
So why even HAVE the workspace system in the first place?

Because some of us prefer the workspace system. Those workarounds are not for all of us.

 

[IndianaBones]

Can you imagine if workspaces WEREN'T a pain to use, and DIDN'T require getting used to, though? Imagine if you didn't have to learn a lot of methods to avoid having to use them?

It's a fair point that there is a learning curve involved, and had it used the classic windows paradigms there might have been less consternation over the workspace itself.

It got me thinking though - how would I have designed GMS 2? It would be common in GMS 1.4 for me to have 3 or 4 object windows open and carefully arranged on my monitor so I could see what I was doing. But there was so much opening and closing of windows required - some were modal, some were not, could only open 3 or 4 objects at the same time etc...

That's where having a workspace makes sense - I no longer have to be constantly opening and closing windows all the time. I can have multiple workspaces each with their own object in focus, I can dock and undock them if I want them in free floating windows which approximates closely the way I used 1.4, but without having to fight having to open and close windows all the time from 1.4.

I see workspaces as a viable solution to the GUI limitations that GMS 1 had.

A possible suggestion would be to have an option where if you double click on an object/resource in the resource tree, a new undocked workspace automatically opens with the object in focus.

 

[GMWolf]

It's a fair point that there is a learning curve involved, and had it used the classic windows paradigms there might have been less consternation over the workspace itself.

It got me thinking though - how would I have designed GMS 2? It would be common in GMS 1.4 for me to have 3 or 4 object windows open and carefully arranged on my monitor so I could see what I was doing. But there was so much opening and closing of windows required - some were modal, some were not, could only open 3 or 4 objects at the same time etc...

That's where having a workspace makes sense - I no longer have to be constantly opening and closing windows all the time. I can have multiple workspaces each with their own object in focus, I can dock and undock them if I want them in free floating windows which approximates closely the way I used 1.4, but without having to fight having to open and close windows all the time from 1.4.

I see workspaces as a viable solution to the GUI limitations that GMS 1 had.

A possible suggestion would be to have an option where if you double click on an object/resource in the resource tree, a new undocked workspace automatically opens with the object in focus.

You forget tabs, and panel splitting.
Its the way most IDEs work, and for good reason too: it's incredibly customizable, wastes very little space, allows multiple view at a time, and is easy and quick to navigate.

 

[csanyk]

It's a fair point that there is a learning curve involved, and had it used the classic windows paradigms there might have been less consternation over the workspace itself.

It got me thinking though - how would I have designed GMS 2? It would be common in GMS 1.4 for me to have 3 or 4 object windows open and carefully arranged on my monitor so I could see what I was doing. But there was so much opening and closing of windows required - some were modal, some were not, could only open 3 or 4 objects at the same time etc...

That's where having a workspace makes sense - I no longer have to be constantly opening and closing windows all the time. I can have multiple workspaces each with their own object in focus, I can dock and undock them if I want them in free floating windows which approximates closely the way I used 1.4, but without having to fight having to open and close windows all the time from 1.4.

I see workspaces as a viable solution to the GUI limitations that GMS 1 had.

A possible suggestion would be to have an option where if you double click on an object/resource in the resource tree, a new undocked workspace automatically opens with the object in focus.

GMS1 UI certainly had its faults, there's no denying that.

GMS2 was supposed to improve the situation, and in many respects it has. But it too has its faults.

I'm not opposed to the idea of Workspaces, but I do have a lot of issues with the current implementation.

Getting rid of the modal lock in GMS2 was a win, and the new editors are good (especially the room editor, which is much better than the old room editor). And making things dockable is good. Maybe there's a few more things I could think of, but that's about it.

What I don't like about GMS2 UX is:

1. The entire IDE crashes when I suspend my system. This is a defect, no matter how you look at it, and is not acceptable. It is not a minor problem. I should not have to learn to live with it, or train myself to not Sleep or Hibernate my system without first exiting GMS2. YYG have left me bitterly disappointed that they have not resolved this bug in over a year since I reported it. It's sad that they accepted this defect and allowed the product to move out of Beta without a fix.
2. Code editors without a save button. Saving a file should be a deliberate action. Autosave should preserve changes made to a codefile since the last deliberate save, in case of a system or application crash, so that the user can review and keep whichever version is the correct one, not as a default acceptance of whatever happens to be in the code editor at the time the window closes. Users should not have to repeatedly Undo to back out changes made to a codefile that they don't wish to keep, especially when the Ctrl+Z history disappears when the file editor closes. Combined with the above bug, any accidental keystroke made in a file prior to sleeping my laptop is a disaster waiting to happen.

The first problem is a software defect. The second is a design defect.

Beyond that, I have a lot of other issues with the way Workspaces work, but compared to the above they are relatively minor. They are still significant issues, however:

1. I Workspaces are not space efficient. Open forms spread out all over an infinitely scrolling space, without overlapping is not an optimal use of screen. A tabbed interface would work much better.
2. Opening forms in new windows, maximized helps a great deal. In the default workspace view, you end up with a form floating in a large area of negative space, and usually you have to scroll within the form you just opened to see everything, or you have to scroll the workspace to see the corners of the form you just opened. There's no good side to the UI working like this, so why is it the default?
3. Workspaces are not easy to navigate by mouse. Having keyboard shortcuts as an alternative does not address the issues with the mouse. Workspaces should be easy to navigate whether by keyboard or by mouse. Providing the keyboard methods is appreciated, but they do not replace the mouse.
4. Another consequence of the way Workspaces work is that the various forms for your (Room, Object, Sprite, etc.) Editors that should have their own menu bar at the top of their own form can't have them; so they get a menu that appears at the top of the main IDE window. But this means that the menu items specific to that form are not found with that form; they're found in the main window, which is not where you would expect to look for them. And worse, they appear in the main window's menu bar conditionally, so they're not always there, so you don't get used to looking for them there.
5. I don't care for YYG's Dark theme. It's visually so flat that I have a hard time differentiating between different parts of the UI. YYG should officially support the default Windows theme. Allowing us to skin our own theme goes a long way toward fixing this problem, but again, it seems YYG have put a lot of effort into making their unique brand by creating their own window theme, without apparent consideration given to whether their theme is better than the default theme that Windows uses.

I had been looking forward to GMS2 for years, and was very optimistic about GameMaker's future once YYG completed the rewrite. I was expecting a GMS2 that would look similar to GMS1, but had minor problems with the IDE resolved (getting rid of the modal lock on certain editors, fixing the horrid performance of My Library when your asset manifest is too large) and improved editors (especially the Room Editor). The complete redesign was overly ambitious, and bold, but plainly wasn't well tested with real-world users, and YYG have stubbornly stuck to their guns that This Is The New UI Get Used To It Or Sod Off.

I'm so disappointed by that. Supposedly the fresh new codebase was going to allow YYG to respond rapidly to user feedback, but it turns out they're just going to do what they want to do, not listen to the sizeable portion of their users who find the UX of the new UI to be ideal.

 

[GMWolf]

Lets face it, The workspace system seems like it was designed by Yoyogames marketing, just to jump on the node editor hype.
But unfortunately, the chain workflow does not actually represent much of how the project it layout.
Having the even window linked to my main object window makes no sense. What else would it be linked to? just make it the same panel!

Having scripts be linked to another code window just because I opended it from there also makes no sense. Scripts to own other scripts. They dont depend on other scripts either.
The Loose nature of GM makes it that way.

What would have made sense is to link objects together to show inheritance. But that would get messy real fast.

Its a poorly though out idea, that is maily there to look more Like UE's blueprints, or Unity's animation layout system. But they actually show project structure and flow.
GM shows 'workflow', which is really not something we need. Why do i need to know I opened a code window from a particular other code window? its makes no sense.

 

[Edmanbosch]

Having scripts be linked to another code window just because I opended it from there also makes no sense. Scripts to own other scripts. They dont depend on other scripts either.
The Loose nature of GM makes it that way.

...

GM shows 'workflow', which is really not something we need. Why do i need to know I opened a code window from a particular other code window? its makes no sense.

You do realise that there is an option in the preferences that makes it so that code opens in a new window as a tab instead of being a part of the chain system?

 

[GMWolf]

You do realise that there is an option in the preferences that makes it so that code opens in a new window as a tab instead of being a part of the chain system?

That's not the discussion here.
The point is I still need to use the workspace for other stuff, so I get all the wasted space and time, with none of the advantages since I go full screen.
When I deal with sprites, object properties, etc.

 

[rIKmAN]

That's not the discussion here.

I'm not sure why you seem so against trying to make the best of the IDE that you can, but you've ignored every post that's been made with suggestions to try and improve the setup of the IDE in ways that might suit your preferences better and instead just re-iterated what you don't like.

As I said previously, it's been stated by YYG that the workspaces aren't going to change and were a design decision - some people like them and some people don't, as with anything.
Complaining about them isn't going to do much to improve your experience and use of them if you aren't even going to attempt to set it up in a way that might not be perfect for you, but will be closer to what you want out of it.

Have you tried GMEdit?

 

[GMWolf]

Have you tried GMEdit

Yes. Its great! Finally we can use #event notation!
I haven't used it much though as I'm not working with GM at the moment.

I'm not sure why you seem so against trying to make the best of the IDE that you can,

I am. I have made very tweak I could.

 

[Dr. Wolf]

What bothers me is that they're so close: with the features that already exist in GMS2, between the extensive options menu and the variety of UI paradigms in play, it's really just a couple of menu options away from being able to turn into the IDE that those of us who wanted an improved GMS1 are looking for. Pop-up windows already exist in GMS2, for instance; they're just clunky because you have to start with a tab and then drag it free, and, in the process, other pop-out windows that are already open will be moved behind the IDE. All that you'd actually need would be an option to open things directly into a pop-out window, and another to keep existing pop-out windows on top when the IDE is clicked, and you'd have an interface that could be used a lot like GMS1.

That YYG seems so reluctant to even consider just a couple more little check boxes in the options menu, when it seems like there are a whole bunch of us who would benefit, sends a very off-putting message. I feel like YYG is saying to me, "Your productivity and comfort are less important to us than making sure you don't use our product in a way that might look bad in any screenshots you take." Obviously, I have no way of knowing whether this is really the posture they intend to take, or if my impression is simply the result of a bunch of unrelated design decisions that happened, by accident, to add up to something that seemed that way, but it's discouraging regardless, not only in terms of my own long-term plans for when GMS1 is no longer usable, but also when it comes to recommending the engine to others (or not).

 

[csanyk]

What bothers me is that they're so close: ...

That YYG seems so reluctant to even consider

Agreed wholeheartedly. I'm not at all saying that YYG should drop everything and immediately work on every suggestion I have for improving the product, or that every suggestion I have is necessarily the best thing or the right thing to do in every case. But they've really shown that they have such a low opinion for suggested improvements coming from their users, it's very disheartening to me. I wouldn't spend as much time campaigning for improvements that I didn't need desperately. I just wish they'd show that they valued our feedback more, and act on it more often.

I can't speculate too much on this, either, but to me it feels like someone in their organization has too much pride to admit that their UI design has problems that require re-thinking and re-doing some things.

 

[DeScruff]

It's true that the UI works better with higher res screens, but most people are using 1920x1080 nowadays and I found that to work fine - albeit on a large sized screen.
.

Man I feel bad for you 1080p folks... Whenever I *attempt* to use my laptop (which has a 1080p screen) I feel like iI constantly scrolling, and scrolling more then I do in a web browser. - I should consider myself lucky that Thankpads have that middle button. Also I need to constantly press the F12 key or else I don't have enough room to work. I actually think the default game resolution is higher then the workspace if your working at 1080p. I'd seriously hate to think how bad it be on a 768 screen!(Which many laptops specially business models still are btw)

Even on my 1200p screens if I don't frequently press F12, literally 3/4ths of my screen will be UI within a few seconds of adjusting position in a room, and rerunning the game. This is specially bad in the image editor since the canvas area will be 1033x622. (And even pressing F12 the screen is still not that great. at 1627x869) Compared to... Paint.net at 1920x1028, MS Paint at 1920x1160. - Or even Gamemaker Studio 1.4's image editor at 1697x1054. (Doesn't help when the top bar is over twice the size, and filled with buttons not related to image editing, even before your account for the animation images)
- Im not saying YYG's needs to make a competitive image editor, the fact it lets me very quickly look at my animations, and lets me choose a size + change the color of the grid makes it beyond useful. But the UI needs to go on a diet.

I really do think the Image editor in particular needs to be its own window without any of the baggage from the workspace UI.
Or have the Tabs for different workspaces, image editors, room editors exc on top of the window (like in most modern web browsers), so that Unneeded UI elements aren't present in every window. - I don't need two Debug, Run, Stop, exc buttons, just because Im using two screens, and I have the room editor open on my left screen, while I'm editing sprites on my right screen. (Seriously Very useful if you want a live preview of how your sprite/tile looks "in game". I love that feature) - It also probably help with making the menu bar more organized and optimized for whatever editor/space you have open.
Months into using the image editor and I still instinctually go to the 'File' drop down to import/export the sprites. Other then Preferences, and export project, I don't think Ive ever used any of the options in the File menu or the Edit menu.
As more features are added to the image editor, the options "Image, View, Effects" will feel ether cramped... or rather inadequately described... Image already has 21 options, and things like Shift,