13 replies to this topic

[Artaex Media]

Definitely Off by Default

[NakedPaulToast]

Ideal situation:

Grid Off by default, I prefer Off but On is good because one only needs to set it once. This setting is the default for all newly created rooms. Each room has an attribute field that allows an On or Off which takes on the global grid attribute when it's created.

This pretty well accommodates all the options.

[paul23]

I don't care too much about this (voted "on by default, global option"), though may I suggest something:

- Maybe make the grid less intrusive and add a "ruler" + minor/major grids (as well as allowing people to create horizontal/vertical guides) - bit like photoshop/excel have grids.
This would allow a preson to create "aligned" interfaces much more easily.


Ow and another thing: can you make the isometric grid have actually isometric angles? - 120 degrees is quite standard.

[Slowbro]

I like it the way it is. If you want to turn it off then you can but I use it all the time and I would also say it makes it easier for first-time users and beginners to have it on by default. Why not just have an option in the Game Maker preferences to be able to turn it off by default for those who are bothered by it?

[@Alex@]

just doesn't work with the zoom for me,

This bit caught my attention. Had to make sure I wasn't missing something but Game Maker doesn't seem to have a zoom at the moment to see your side.

I don't really use the grids much. Tending to switch it off so I can see what the over all level will look like as I create it.

The way I see it is, each room needs to have it's own on/off switch but I also think this switch should be in a default setting to begin with. If you want it on for 1 room and 1 room only it should be possible to keep other rooms free of the grid.

[Dark Matter]

It should definitely be on by default, it's easier to see how things line up with each other. It's also really annoying to have to change the setting in every room when you want to look at things without it, so make it a global setting.

[chance]

Off by default, and per room. But it's not a big deal either way.

Speak now or forever hold your cheese.

Damn, Mike. Now I have to change my signature.

[kburkhart84]

I voted for as it is now, each room and default on. The only current issue I have is when you turn it off, close the room, and open back up the room, it is on again. I think (and I'm sure it has been suggested before) is that it stays the way you leave it. I know it is one more bit of memory per room, but I think it is worth it for convenience.

I also like the idea of "sub" measurements, so you can have one thick and several thin lines. I also think you should make an options group, that is specific to these things. Why should you force one way or the other, based on a public poll, when you can put an options GUI and have us decide. It should be a per project setting, where we decide what color/thickness the lines are, and whether to default on or off. The only things that really need to be per room is the on/off and the measurements. Although, the other items couldn't hurt to have per room.

About the isometric tiles, I've never used them, but I think they should have the same options, but with the extra option for the angle. Different "iso" games have different angles, though some are much more common, so we should have the option to choose what angle we are using. The other catch with iso is you may want to have an option for "offset" which determines how many pixels x/y to start the grid at.

[Primoz128]

off by default would be the best i think.

[silentworks]

How about having some room related options in the program preferences?

[paul23]

btw I'd like to know what you mean by:

just doesn't work with the zoom for me

Does this imply that the grid size won't change when zooming in (so a "cell" won't be similar X-pixels independent of the zoom factor?) - like how the transparent background in the sprite editor doesn't scale with zooming?
That would make grids pretty useless I think.

[JugemDWK]

Considering we don't have the zoom feature to play around with, then you're probably in the best position to answer this Mike, if you believe using the zoom will have an impact on the usefulness of the grid being on. I will say that everytime I open a room, the first things I do are turn off the grid, and uncheck the "show objects" option. Making the grid a global option, rather than a local one, would almost render the decision (to have it on or off by default) useless, as it's not that hard to change the grid setting once.

I think having a global grid setting, and having the program remember this global setting each time you start up Game Maker would be best. Then, as (I believe) NakedPaulToast suggests, when you create a room (or a room is opened), the room would have a local grid setting that is set to the global setting. In the room, you could change the local setting without affecting the global setting.

So, basically there would be both the global setting (in which this setting would be saved and carried over to the next time you use Game Maker), and the local setting. The local setting would be set to the global setting upon creating or opening a room.