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Question - IDE Moving instances to another layer in room editor?

Z

zendorf

Guest
Is there a way to move some selected instances from one layer to another?

I have accidentally added a ton on instances on my enemy layer, when I meant to add them to my item layer. Other than copying,/pasting then deleting the old ones, there doesn't seem to be an obvious way to do this.

Maybe I am missing something obvious?
 
Z

zendorf

Guest
csanyk said:
If there isn't, there should be...
Click to expand...
Yes, this is a strange omission. Part of the problem is that the instances don't have a property to indicate which layer they are on. If you double click an instance to get its' position/rotation etc properties, there is no data about its layer.

There really needs to be a docked window for instance properties so that you can see at a glance what is going on, as well as a way to multi-select a bunch of them and globally change their rotation, scale, layer etc. This docked panel would also help with the current instance code workflow issues. ie a quick way to see if an instance has code on it, without the current window popup helll.

The problem with copying/pasting to another layer is that the pasted instance have a positional offset....which means all of your pasted instances need to be nudged back into their original positions.
 
csanyk

csanyk

Member
zendorf said:
Yes, this is a strange omission. Part of the problem is that the instances don't have a property to indicate which layer they are on. If you double click an instance to get its' position/rotation etc properties, there is no data about its layer.

There really needs to be a docked window for instance properties so that you can see at a glance what is going on, as well as a way to multi-select a bunch of them and globally change their rotation, scale, layer etc. This docked panel would also help with the current instance code workflow issues. ie a quick way to see if an instance has code on it, without the current window popup helll.

The problem with copying/pasting to another layer is that the pasted instance have a positional offset....which means all of your pasted instances need to be nudged back into their original positions.
Click to expand...
Yes. Reassignment to another layer should have no other side effects, and it should be possible to do mass actions on groups of instances. This is must have.
 
Z

zendorf

Guest
I hope some more thought will be put into this, otherwise you have to be very sure of which layers you are putting instances into. It would also be common to want to move instances between layers as a project advances. and not be locked into the first one that they go into.

It would be common to initially put an instance into a generic layer such as "items" or "enemies", but then down the track realise that you really need a separate layer such as "powerups" or "goblins". It would be rare to know at the start of a project, exactly how many layers are required. Isn't the whole idea of a layer system to have a flexible and manageable workflow?

Hope to see at some stage an IDE command to "move selected instances to layer X" and get a dropdown list of all available layers.
 
S

sumofunk

Guest
I definitely share these ideas. I've recently worked a lot with the room editor and I love it! But I ran into wishing the instances had a layer property so I could move them smoothly.
 
P

pulsemeat

Guest
+1 to this. The GMS2 room editor is a huge improvement over the previous one, but the layer implementation feels very clunky and is an easy tripping point for new users. The first thing I tried to do was drag between layers and it felt very strange that that didn't work.
 
SilverSurfer1221

SilverSurfer1221

Member
I'd like to see a D&D solution to moving instances to new or different layers. Just select the instance or instances in the work space/room editor and then drag them unto the layer (in the side panel where layer are) where you want them to appear. If done properly by YYG, this would leave the instances in the same places in the room, but transfer them to a new layer. Doing it via D&D would also make it a visual way of easily transferring instances from one layer to another.
 
Mike

Mike

nobody important
GMC Elder
I think that's a bit hidden.... but if someone files it, we'll discuss it internally and come up with something
 
G

GargantulaKon

Guest
I also had to google it. I tried dragging the object from the layer properties to another layer and I got the x icon and I couldn't believe that it wasn't possible. At least cutting and pasting works.
 
J

jkh0208

Guest
Is there an update on this feature request? Construct 2 even had this feature for years, and is implemented well. Can't it just be done in a similar fashion?
 
R

Ryan Langewisch

Guest
Working on my GameMaker curriculum for a kid's class I teach, and I'm currently writing the section on layers. Definitely seems odd to not have a way to easily switch instances between layers... CTRL+X and CTRL+V works, but definitely feels like it should be an alternative shortcut to functionality that is already there (I was surprised as a user when I was unable to drag instances from the list to another layer). I will make do with trying to explain it in my project, but consider this another vote for having this part of the layer system improved. ;)
 
F

Flo

Member
Is there any news on this? I'm actually in the same boat, and I cannot find a way to move instances between layers. (but at least you guys gave some workaround)

Thanks!
 
Yal

Yal

šŸ§ *penguin noises*
GMC Elder
Flo said:
Is there any news on this? I'm actually in the same boat, and I cannot find a way to move instances between layers. (but at least you guys gave some workaround)
Click to expand...
Select all objects you want to move, Ctrl-X, move to the right layer, Ctrl-V. The list of instances on the layer + shift-clicking to select the range from the currently select thing to where you click will speed up this process a lot compared to selecting them in the room view.
 
F

Flo

Member
I was more talking about drag & drop but yes, this is a good workaround indeed.
 
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