> You can easily translate the lua code to some (not yet existant) xml > statements, and there's nothing wrong with making a checkerboard-fill > option for the xml format. > > BUT: don't expect a level editor to recreate the same when you save the file. In fact I would expect a level editor to recreate it BECAUSE it CAN become a part of the format. It certainly doesn't have to, though.
Erich, I understand what you're saying, however. What concerns me most is the other way around - if a person creates (or wishes to create) a non-atomic object in the editor, how will that object be represented in the XML data file? Obviously an editor can be constructed to interpret higher order constructs, and Enigma certainly can - it does so already with internal, helper functions, and scriptable functions within the LUA tagged area. As I emailed privately to Petr before seeing your response here: The best that I can hope for if the XML tags aren't somewhat enriched is an intermediate file format that allows for object building and object and area transformations and persisting them between editing sessions. Objects shouldn't be limited to just rectangular areas, but can be built by them. Objects shouldn't be limited to floor/stone/items, but could be filters of attributes of them. I hope for the internal Enigma editor that an intermediate file format is considered that will persist objects (meta-constructs, not just "atomic" ones), for example allow the editor to construct objects from unions and intersections of rectangular areas. I realise some may never use or need such features, and perhaps only use the type of layering mechanics that ant.lua supports. But those who do expect more from a graphical editor and are much more creative than me will very much appreciate the power to manipulate multi-rectangular constructed objects via select/control-select/drag-drop/cut/paste. I went on to say that the rendering engine in Enigma beats any external editor for "preview" - you can at any time try the level and see it immediately, instead of waiting for updates to the editor to follow the addition of new objects in Enigma. Erich, It wan't my intention to try to represent fractals in XML, or any dynamic constructs (the LUA section of the XML format allows for creations of functions and more complex things), or even expect an external level editor to render them. Any scripted functions in the LUA section would be left alone by the simplest of editors and at best the editor could only provide hooks and indicate a trigger is calling a function, or an area is being generated by a function call or scripted section. But simple sets of atomic constructs are managable by editors and they could persist groupings to be later translated by slide, flip, and rotate on the 90's in later editing sessions and tweaks. I'm glad there's a lot of discussion on this, and knowing that the ant.lua helper functions are so popular that BBE uses them is very reassuring to have the ant_39 working on the internal editor. Karen "Pretzel" _______________________________________________ Enigma-devel mailing list Enigma-devel@nongnu.org http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/enigma-devel
