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Question - IDE Workspace camera controls need work

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Wamtu

Guest
Well, I've been messing around in the beta for a bit, and while I definitely see potential for it to surpass GameMaker: Studio 1.4, it's not quite there yet. I'm not sure I'm a fan of the new "workspaces," but maybe my opinion would be different if I could actually use them. The controls still feel rather clumsy and awkward.

One big issue for me is the pan-and-zoom controls for workspaces only work when clicking outside a window (well, at least some windows, can't remember if it was all of them). Some of those things can easily take up the entire viewport, and it makes it extremely difficult or downright impossible to pan away from these windows without using the tab-shortcut-thing.

I'm thinking there should be a button you can hold down to guarantee that you pan/zoom the entire workspace's view, overriding anything inside a window.

Also, I'd appreciate an option to make the mouse wheel by itself only do zooming. I understand why some would prefer it to do up/down scrolling by default, but the option to switch that would be nice.
 
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Nocturne

Friendly Tyrant
Forum Staff
Admin
Also, I'd appreciate an option to make the mouse wheel by itself only do zooming. I understand why some would prefer it to do up/down scrolling by default, but the option to switch that would be nice.
This has been added (as an option in the prefs) and will be in the next update. :)
 

Mick

Member
Nice to hear about the zooming option!

At the moment the text in the workspaces looks good only at 100% zoom level. Since it's possible to zoom in more than 100% it's a bit tricky to get to exactly 100% again once zoomed out and back in. There is a button to reset to 100% but an option to cap zooming to 100% would be nice to have. The only places where zooming above 100% feels necessary are the image editor and the room editor. I might be missing something here of course.
 
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altan0

Guest
Frankly, I don't see the point of the zoom out (maybe to see the entire workflow?) and especially the zoom in function (texts just gets blurred above 100%) in the workspace.

Maybe its because I work on a laptop and the screen size may not be suitable for the zoom in/out function.
 
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Wamtu

Guest
I recently got an appreciation for what you're trying to do with the new interface. I was working on a game in GameMaker: Studio 1 where I had a lot of windows open. It was pretty hard to see where anything was! However, while the old interface was harder to organize, it is still far more easier and intuitive to control than the new one.

The zoom option fixed one of my problems, but the more critical problem still exists. If you can't click on the background, your ability to zoom and pan the main view is rendered nonexistent. I'd like to know if you are looking for a way to fix this.

I had one idea that you could possibly limit the zoom-in of the main workspace to lock at a scale which ensures no window can fill a certain percentage of the screen. Or my override button idea from earlier. Whatever you do, just do something!
 

Mike

nobody important
GMC Elder
We are looking to allow zoom in more places. However on the workspace.... there are zoom buttons in the toolbar that you can use to help you out.
 
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Wamtu

Guest
We are looking to allow zoom in more places. However on the workspace.... there are zoom buttons in the toolbar that you can use to help you out.
I know that, they're just not very easy to use.

I'm glad to hear you are looking to fix this. It does look like I'll come to like it a lot more than the old interface, once it has good controls.
 
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Why not just have a modifier key allow you to pan and zoom the workplace no matter where the mouse is? I agree that the workplace layout would be way more useful if I could quickly and easily zoom and pan around it.
 

JaimitoEs

Member
Talking about zooming and fonts... Why not made an IDE compatible with vector fonts like webs and get a perfect resizing??
 

Mike

nobody important
GMC Elder
The fonts are vector fonts, but we generate textures from them because we want to render the IDE in under a year :)
 
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VenomBHz

Guest
This has been added (as an option in the prefs) and will be in the next update. :)
I can't find this option anywhere in the preferences... can you please point me where exactly it is??? Thank you.
 
S

Storyteller

Guest
id like to see

  • fit to view (maximize window)
  • fit view to window (zoom view to fit window)
  • fit window group in view (zooms view to fit a selected group of windows)
  • pan to group
  • pan to window
  • organize window functions (tile, cascade, dock, minimize all, sort by type/name/index, etc)
  • create workspace tiling (like a tiled window manager), see dwm, twm, awesome, etc
  • send window to workspace X

Id like to not need to use weird/funky/arthritis inducing keyboard shortcuts to pan the view. left alt/ctrl are very hard to use on my laptop with touchpad or eraserhead, while right side can be done with a pinky.

Why cant I pan by clicking on an empty space in the workspace?
Id like to have the workspace navigation tools as buttons on the toolbar. I know some wont use this or think its slow, but a hand and arrow on the toolbar with zoom functions would be great. Then I can just select 'hand' and pan around the workspace in 'navigate mode'. when you want to go back to editing, select the arrow. make hotkeys for these and they will work, well, like everything else with a pannable workspace out there.

note: You might also consider adding support for 3d Mice from connexant. I use one in several 2d apps for panning and zooming, such as photoshop or illustrator. connexant requires developers to add support for their products for some reason, though 3d mice are rather nice, its one of the few peripherals I can use with my left hand with any functionality.
 
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