CVR Editor v1 (4/2/2014) is now available.

[Ford_Prefect]

@ Linamints

Oh.... dang.  I'll try to figure out what went wrong.  I optimized the painting function and I'll bet I broke something when I was working on that.

I'll see about fixing the extension not being added as well.

[Ford_Prefect]

Alpha 3 is now out.

Changes:
* You can save your changes again!
* The program will now add .cvr to the filename for you!

Download at start of topic as attachment.

@Linamints
As far as planned features, currently I'm planning to include multiple brush sizes, multi-part support, undo, and a line tool.  I am welcome to feature suggestions (I didn't think of changing the brush size until you suggested it).

Features that I or others have thought and their difficulty level:

• Clipboard support - There is no built in method in Python for working with the clipboard. 
• Importing an image - Possible.  It wouldn't be too hard to just spray the image on, the problem is that it would only look right on flat surfaces. Doing only that would be fairly easy, but limited in its usefulness.   To get it to apply an image onto a sloped surface and look good would be hard. I would like to hear opinions on whether or not the limited pasting of an image would be worth it or not.
• Line - Rather simple or moderate.  It depends on what formula tkinter uses for drawing lines.  If it is the same one that I'm using... easy.  If not.  Then I'll have to create a new drawing function that uses my formula.
• Square - Should be easy.
• Fill Tool/Paint bucket - This one would be easy to hack in... but would take a while to optimize. (aka, it would run slow)
• Moving submeshes around - In theory one could do that.  I haven't tried it out.
• Copy and paste submeshes or parts of meshes - In theory one could do this.  It would be hard.
• Rotation of meshes/New meshes - Impossible without someone reverse engineering how normals work.
• Mirroring - would be easy.
• Penetration - (aka, paint would go though all the layers)  This would be easy to hack in, but would require time and effort to make it fast

Please suggest or tell me which features you desire and I may change what I'll work on next 

[Linamints]

@Ford_Prefect

Thanks for fixing it so quickly! And glad to help XD. Everything seems to be working smoothly now.

I'd also like to suggest maybe increasing the level of zoom. Unless I'm doing something wrong I think it only has one zoom size currently. usually when working on stuff like this I zoom in super close to do detail work.

Another nice feature would be saving onto the current file instead of saving a new one or overwriting a previous version.

I'm not sure how possible this is, but maybe a preview box? there might be a python script somewhere to re-wrap the textures in a separate window to let you preview how your unit/pieces will look without needing to load the game.

Though doesn't the program already mirror in a way (which has been REALLY nice), or is there something more you want to do with this?

The rest of the things I was going to suggest are already on the list, especially the undo and bucket fill . The line tool is an awesome idea too!

[Ford_Prefect]

I'm not sure how possible this is, but maybe a preview box? there might be a python script somewhere to re-wrap the textures in a separate window to let you preview how your unit/pieces will look without needing to load the game.

I can't really do a 3d previewer in python.  I recommend using Caviar Playerhttp://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=87 to quickly preview how the part looks in 3d.

Another nice feature would be saving onto the current file instead of saving a new one or overwriting a previous version.

I'll add it to my todo list.

I'd also like to suggest maybe increasing the level of zoom. Unless I'm doing something wrong I think it only has one zoom size currently. usually when working on stuff like this I zoom in super close to do detail work.

Yes.  There is currently only 1 zoom level (2x zoom).  I'll add this to my maybe list as the code this affects is rather touchy.

Though doesn't the program already mirror in a way (which has been REALLY nice), or is there something more you want to do with this?

No.  Currently when you paint on an object... it will only paint on the first layer it finds. Mirroring would have it paint on the opposite side at the same time.  For example, if you drew a logo on one side, it would be duplicated on the other side.   

[Buster's Uncle]

Importing an image - Possible.  It wouldn't be too hard to just spray the image on, the problem is that it would only look right on flat surfaces. Doing only that would be fairly easy, but limited in its usefulness.   To get it to apply an image onto a sloped surface and look good would be hard. I would like to hear opinions on whether or not the limited pasting of an image would be worth it or not.

Assume I have no experience of 3D modeling and therefore have trouble following the tech talk.

-I would expect to have to do the same thing from eight different angles - I'm just used to doing everything in GIMP, and am very used to pasting back-and forth.  I'm in the middle of doing a lot of that on a Santiago smilie I'm working up right now, actually.

[Ford_Prefect]

Assume I have no experience of 3D modeling and therefore I have trouble following the tech talk.

I'll try to explain the issue without the tech talk.

CVR Colorizer views the object from 6 directions. 
If the object was a perfect cube, there would be no issues.  You would take an image, and it would be applied to a flat surface, and it would look correct in the 3d viewer as well.

Now instead of a cube, lets say the object is a ramp.  Lets say we apply the picture looking towards the slope. 
If you look from perfectly straight on, the picture on the ramp looks like the picture... but if you look from above the ramp, the picture will be broken up into lines spread out over a large area.

Alternatively, if you applied the picture while looking down at the ramp (top view), and then looked from the front view, the picture would look squished.

To avoid those issues, I would need to have the program calculate the slope it's being applied on in order to know which voxels should be colored which color. 

[Buster's Uncle]

What does the angle of a ramp have to do with a new colony pod design?

[Ford_Prefect]

Ah.  The problem is kind of like anamorphosis, the picture would only be visible from one direction. .  Random example I found on the internet while googling.  http://www.moillusions.com/abbey-road-meets-charlie-brown/ http://www.nickcampos.com/2010/09/anamorphosis-a-cool-way-to-promote-child-safety-in-bc/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anamorphosis


Edit:
Short version:  Dealing with a 3d voxel object and applying an image will be hard because I'm unfamiliar with the math involved.

[Linamints]

@Ford_Prefect Ah, that makes more sense then. I misunderstood the mirroring to mean it paints across multiple sections.

@BUncle Maybe a visual example will help (I'm also working on colony pods ).



On the image sheet it looks fine, but in game it looks a bit stretched because the colony pod has sloped edges. I think this is what he is talking about.

[Buster's Uncle]

Huh.  I had always assumed the .cvr file stored eight flat pictures - that's all the game needs, provided the angles are right.

[Ford_Prefect]

No.  the .cvr files is 3d voxel based format.  Think minecraft.  The editor is a 2d approximation.  I could make a 3d editor... but I don't know enough about 3d programing to do so.

@Linamints   You are exactly right.  Thanks for posting an example.  Also... Yay!  Glad to see a CVR mod made using my tool.    I'm excited to see future updates for your mod!

[Ford_Prefect]

YESSSS!  Multi-part objects now load in correctly!!!!!  Now I can draw a smiley faces on my infantry.    I'll work on adding in some more features before doing the next release. 

[Kilkakon]

I will have to download and play around with this a little eventually. While I had already rearranged some of the armours manually and stuff it's still cool. Never worked out how the remappable parts of the vehicles worked though, it seemed to be pretty random.

* You can save your changes again!

Such a good feature!

[Ford_Prefect]

I've released version 1.   
http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=162

Changes:

• Undo  - You can undo up to the last 100 changes.  Ctrl+z
• Save - Overwrite the file you opened.  Ctrl+s
• All parts are now editable.
• Built in help menu in program.  Which links to this forum.

[Buster's Uncle]

Any idea what a .cvr modder badge might look like?  I reckon you're due.