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Question - IDE How To Connect Multiple Objects in the Editor?

I'm wondering if there is a way to show connections between multiple objects in the editor. For example, say I have a Switch and a Door that are "connected" through an instance variable. In a level I may have a Switch 1 that opens multiple Doors that share the same instance variable. Then I have Switch 2 that opens other Doors, and so on. It gets confusing to remember which Switches open which Doors since they all have the same graphics. The only way to check is tedious - double click each instance, then open up their instance variables and check if they match. Are there any tools or tricks to show these connections more visually? Even an Instance Property window that immediately shows an instance's values instead of having to double click each instance would be a huge time saver.
 

cdeveloper

Member
One possible thing you could do is create the doors as separate objects and have a door group parent object.

Switch 1 Door (Parent)
Door 1 (Child)
Door 2 (Child)
Door 3 (Child)

Switch 2 Door (Parent)
Door 4 (Child)
Door 5 (Child)
Door 6 (Child)

You could then just switch on/off the parent object and the children would follow.
I don't know if that would work for your particular situation.
 
Thanks for the help although I'm not sure I'm following. Would switching off the parent group have any effect in the level editor?
 

Tyg

Member
if your dropping them on your screen instead of generating them
you could make a global var connections or whatever
make a func that draws a line from the door to the switch
in the draw method if connections are true call the draw line function
or have the door draw it using its x,y to target.x target.y
or just make a hotkey and a object and turn the visibility on or off
i have a game that have zones that trigger when the player enters
i have semi transparent circles that can be turned on or off...really nice for debugging
when i want to see my zones my hotkey just sets a global var
hope that helps :)
help1.jpg
Thats a really good idea, thanks
so i made this,
i have a global var connect
i have a var Target in the switches create event
a draw line that goes from x,y to Target.x,Target,y in the switches draw event
a spacebar event that just toggles !connect
all the create targets are set to self
now in the room editor
in the switches creation code...not create i put the var Target and copy and paste the instance name for its value
once this is set up its so easy to see the connections and just duplicate target in the create event Tartget2
and add another drawline in the switch draw event
if an instance isnt attatched it defaults to self
the spacebar turns them on and off and the nice thing
they can be dragged around on the screen to different spots and the connections stay
cool little debugging tool, Thanks i should have thought of this a long time ago :)
if you want help coding it just ask
 
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chirpy

Member
One workaround I had tried before was to add a "linkage" object whose sprite is basically only an indicator (you can use a tiny square and scale it to a line).
I then group the sprite into an "editor-only" Texture Group so it won't be packed into the exported game.

The objects can be used as real linkage managers in the game, or just destroy themselves at room start.
There are some overhead but I'd sometimes value easy room editing over runtime performance.
 
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@cdeveloper I'm using gml but my issue is seeing connections in the editor. I already have the code working for the game. Sorry if I wasn't clear on that.

@Tyg That is a good debugging idea and I might try that out. I'm looking for more of a way to view the connections in the editor while building the level though.

@chirpy That's an interesting idea. Really simple solution too. I'm going to try that out, thanks!
 

Tyg

Member
Well if thats not it, to have magic custom data appear while hovering over objects in the editor
you either would have to modify the editors dll itself...or have some kind of custom runtime dll
i don't recommend messing with dlls, or dont even want to think what could happen
the a whole other ballgame and mess of trouble here is a link


good luck but im not going there :)
 
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