PhysicsEditor is here!!!!! « cocos2d for iPhone

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PhysicsEditor is here!!!!!

(112 posts) (44 voices)

Started 1 year ago by Andreas Loew
Latest reply from silentk

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Andreas Loew
Member
Hi,

many of you might already know me from TexturePacker - now I have a new high quality tool for you:

PhysicsEditor

Stop copy and paste!
Stop worrying about ccw or cw!
Stop worrying about convex or not.

Features:
- Automated shape tracing(!!!)
- Automated handling of convex polygons(!!!)
- Automated handling of polygon oriantation(!!!)
- Anchorpoint editor(!!!)
- Support for Box2D and Chipmunk
- plilst files for cocos2d
- box2d loader code included
- Demo
The main advantage is that you can use the exporters already shipped with PhysicsEditor or simply create your own! A flexible template engine lets you export what ever text format you need.

The download includes a fully working demo.

How to use it in your code? Forget about copy and pasting vertex lists!

This is for box2d users:

Load the plist file
```
[[GB2ShapeCache sharedShapeCache]   addShapesWithFile:@"shapedefs.plist"];
```
Add the polygons to a shape
```
[[GB2ShapeCache sharedShapeCache]  addFixturesToBody:body
                                   forShapeName:@"shapename"];
```
Set the anchor point:
```
[sprite setAnchorPoint:[[GB2ShapeCache sharedShapeCache]
    anchorPointForShape:@"shapename"]];
```
Done!

Since I am not so familiar with chipmunk I could use some help in setting up a loader in the best way for it.

Cheers
Andreas
Posted 1 year ago #
cocos
Member

Wow! The biggest surprise of 2011 so far! Andreas big congratulations to you!

Posted 1 year ago #
MikeSz
Member

Not really a surprise as he hinted it a few days ago in another thread ;)

But WOW ! I just checked auto-shaping from the images and it rocks !

What will be the price for this awesome thing ?

Also - how about TPP + PE bundle ?

Posted 1 year ago #
mrTortex
Member

Oh man, I just wish this was for Chipmunk, I'd have leapt at it. Maybe some folks can help :)

Congrats on the release, and good luck with it. :)

Posted 1 year ago #
araker
Moderator

This looks promising. If it eventually could lead to a level editor it would be golden.

Posted 1 year ago #
Andreas Loew
Member

You actually don't have to buy it as long as you don't sell games made with it. But I added a slow down for the export....
The price is currently set to $17.95 but I think that's fair - and you get support.

Bundeling it with TexturePacker is a good idea. I need to check if ShareIt supports that....

The thing will grow in the next few weeks - the more users try and give feedback the faster it'll grow!

I already contacted MobileBros. to get a good integration with ChipmunkSpaceManager ;-)

Posted 1 year ago #
Andreas Loew
Member

@mrTortex:
The export for chipmunk is already included!
The current exporter has anchor points turned off - but you can simply re-add them by modifying the exporter.xml inside the PhysicsEditor.app/Contents/Resources/Exporters folder.... they are 100% customizable!

I just need some help with a loader for it.... that's all. ;-)

I am simply not sure what I exactly need right now:
Is one shape enough? Must there be one shape for one body? Can bodies share shapes? How do I calculate the momentum if I have for example 10 polygons? Does it simply add up?

Posted 1 year ago #
finder39
Member

can this be used to create long grounds. for like a trials type game? I have always wanted to make a game like that :)

Posted 1 year ago #
mrTortex
Member

Ahh, in which case once those few bits are worked through with the SpaceManager crew, I'll 100% buy a license. :)

Posted 1 year ago #
Andreas Loew
Member

@finder39: Currently the name PhysicsEditor is a bit misleading.
Its more a shape editor but I plan to add joints and other stuff for the future...

Posted 1 year ago #
finder39
Member

i know. i've used box2d a lot. but i want to be able to create a long ground shape. you know, 10-50 screen width's wide, with curced shapes and such. I can do joints and such for the vehicle creation :)

Posted 1 year ago #
infrid
Member

Sounds great,

hopefully you'll get good enough sales to further improve texturepacker (sprite naming and details are totally broken in my version, had to go back to zwoptex).

Posted 1 year ago #
ImpresionesWeb
Member

I tried to download the demo but without success. It downloads only the app.
There is no info at all about this new editor and though I will buy 100% sure I need to know what it does :)
EDIT:
I already saw the documentation and demos, sorry!

Posted 1 year ago #
Andreas Loew
Member

@infrid sure - last texture packer beta update was 3 days ago...
can you please send a bug report to support at code-and-web.de so i can have a look at your problems?

Posted 1 year ago #
Tom
Member

Nice work Andreas, another fantastic tool :)

Posted 1 year ago #
infrid
Member

@Andreas, no worries. reread that .. God I sound like such a dick! It was meant to be encouraging..

OOPS :)

It's all great stuff you're producing, hopefully I can bin zwoptex again :)

Posted 1 year ago #
jandujar
Member

Nice job Andreas!!!

Posted 1 year ago #
abitofcode
Moderator

It's like Christmas all over again!

Loving the range of high quality cocos2d compatible tools that are popping up, finally getting some time to spend on game development again.

Posted 1 year ago #
Stepan Generalov
Moderator

Looks very promising, but could you add some features and change something please?
1. Undo / Redo
2. Multitouch trackpad pinch in/out gesture
3. Or at least zooming with keyboard, but with trackpad will be the best.

Also, i think you should use less restrictions in your products.
10 shapes max + delay + non-commercial use is just too much. I start thinking that you treat me as a pirate, not a customer.

Same thing with texture packer. I tried it once to convert some PNGs to RGBA4444 PVR.CCZ with that:

And guess what? Right - all images was red. (Also if you add batch convert to texturePacker - it might be helpful, to not use scripts like this)

Trial version is for try-it-before-you-buy-it, but with such restrictions - there's no try. It just looks like: "Look what i have! This is so cool! Wanna try it? Here - catch, but it will not work before i see my money."

So i recommend you to change trial restrictions, the best will be to leave only non-commercial use. Or at least give users some free trial period without restrictions at all.

And never use annoying restrictions, such as 10 sec wait - this makes me hate software.
10 shapes max - ok, non-commercial use only, red sprites -ok, ok, this just deletes some features in free version, but when free version is working slower than full - i will not use it.

I wrote it all because i will need something like PhysicsEditor and TexturePacker in the near future, and i'd like to buy them, cause i think indie developers should care and support each other, but if you hate me so much, adding all these restrictions - i just lose heart.

Posted 1 year ago #
abitofcode
Moderator

@iPsi I'd like to play iTraceur but at $3.99 I'd like to try it for free first. Could you please make it free for a month or two, honestly I'll buy it afterwards ;)

Posted 1 year ago #
toadkick
Member

@abitofcode: lol!

@Andreas Loew: Nice work on PhysicsEditor! I'm sure you've made a lot of people happy today, I know there has been a good bit of demand for a tool like this. I wish there was something like it about 6 months ago, it might have saved me from having to roll my own solution!

Posted 1 year ago #
Stepan Generalov
Moderator

@abitofcode
Thanks for free advertisement of my game, but lets stick to the topic.
My post was only about some needed features and recommendations - i'm not asking for free version.

@Andreas Loew
Also i think that you can learn something from Zwoptex. It will be nice to compare profitability of Zwoptex and TexturePacker. I think that Zwoptex with it's design and trial policy is more successfull. BTW i bought Zwoptex, it looks like something like Dropbox for me - something that you want to hug.

I'm not a native english speaker and it tooks a time to post here something, so i will not continue any further, but i think that i explained my thoughts quite clearly.

P.S.
Don't get we wrong - i'm positive and not angry and likely i will buy PhysicsEditor. All i was trying is to help, by showing my thoughts about details of trial limitations. Price is ok and trial is ok, but it can be more user friendly - that's all what i was talking about.

Posted 1 year ago #
Dragyn
Member

@Psi: Honestly, given how much work Andreas has put into TexturePacker so far (and now PhysicsEditor), the price for them is a steal. Trial versions are just that - trials. Putting limits the way he has really help you find out how well you can use the results - a red sprite won't stop it from being loaded into your game, it just looks like poo. A limit to the number of shapes? If you can't figure out if it will work for you after the first few shapes, then it's probably not the right tool for you.

Now don't get me wrong - I'd prefer it to be free software, but the limits here make sense for a trial version of what Andreas does for us. Much better for this type of work than the type of trial that Particle Designer uses. For that app, you can run it, create your particles, but all save features are disabled. Would you prefer fully functional UI with no save feature?

And let's face it -- if an app just says "for non-commercial use", then 90% of the users will never pay a dime, and use it commercially. I mean, there is no way for a user to tell the difference between an app that used PhysicsEditor or TexturePacker to create the assets. So there's no "iron fist" coming down on people using it during a "non commercial" free trial period.

I think it's obvious I'm a fan of TexturePacker, and I'll be picking up PhysicsEditor when my next box2D project comes up. All for less than the cost of popcorn & drinks at the theater for 2 people, and there are always new updates adding cool new features.

Posted 1 year ago #
hm50
Member

@iPsi, it is only $17...I'm sure you probably sell at least 4 iTraceur's a day.

Posted 1 year ago #
Lam
Member

@abitofcode
Uhh... I think you made the guy angry o_0. Even though that comparison was right on the mark. hehe

@Andreas Loew
This is a pretty neat idea in general and not even for the physics integration. I remember reading on the forums how generating a polygon based sprite may be more helpful with fill rate. (Less rasterization of transparent areas) So this could even be a tool to create polygon based sprites.

Would this be a good idea for packing textures more tightly?

Posted 1 year ago #
Robert Payne
Member

@Lam

In some cases Polygon sprites would be faster but in most the extra triangles and mapping of texture data to them is slower than the fill rate of the transparent areas.

Remember that most tools like Texture Packer or Zwoptex etc.. already remove the maximum amount of transparency as possible.

@iPsi

Funny most people prefer nags over a trial period in which the app dies. If we removed all the nags or trial period most people wouldn't go through the hassle of an order form and a entering serial key even if they would buy it under normal software circumstances.

Posted 1 year ago #
Steve Oldmeadow
Administrator

In some cases Polygon sprites would be faster but in most the extra triangles and mapping of texture data to them is slower than the fill rate of the transparent areas.

It really depends on the graphics. Triangular shapes can be defined with three vertices so that will actually perform better than a quad and use half as many triangles. A parallelogram would have exactly the same overhead that the rectangular geometry has but would perform better because of the reduction in transparency. There are definitely cases where non-rectangular sprite geometry could perform way better than rectangular so why not have it as an option?

Posted 1 year ago #
sndwav
Member

This looks awesome.
My current in-dev game doesn't require physics, but I will sure check it out!

Posted 1 year ago #
Andreas Loew
Member

So lets see ;-)

1) Add zoom / multitouch
2) Add undo

I also wanted to add SpaceBar-Drag/Move just like Photoshop has.
Additionally predefined shapes: Rectangles + Circles

Ragdoll editor is planned too but this will be in the longer future.

By the way: If you don't want to use it for physics you can use it as anchorpoint editor ;-)

Posted 1 year ago #
akasurreal
Member

Amazing, just what I have been looking for!

Posted 1 year ago #

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