I feel Game Guru could benefit from having a multi selection copy and paste feature.


Let me explain what I mean. Right now, you duplicate an object by clicking on it, choosing "Extract" and holding shift, clicking again in the same position, and then while holding shift you can place additional copies of the entity. This functionally is not fluid, as it's very possible to Extract an entity and not place it exactly in the same position it was originally in. Ideally an additional button in menu should read "Copy" that way I do not risk losing the placement of the entity.


Although it's not perfect as noted above, this seams to work ok for single objects, but I feel it's missing a key functionality that benefits other 3D Engines. That feature is to be able to duplicate Multiple selected objects at the same time.

Let me give an example:

I have a house with 4 bedrooms, all the same size and dimensions.

I want to add a static light, a bed, a nightstand, carpet, and a tv to each room.

If I add all of this to one bedroom, currently I cannot save this selection of objects and "copy" it all at once to place the same group of objects in the other three bedrooms. Without this functionality, I will have to place the same objects one by one in each room, which will simply waste time.

Copy and paste multiple entitys and lights at once will streamline the workflow while level editing.

What are the community's thoughts on this?

That's one we have been asking for

We only need an "Extract added to the lasso menu ..... so select the items .... Click extract as we usually do and drag the new set off somewhere ..
It would make mapping so much faster as well .... a complete street copied in seconds ...

No idea why this hasn't been implemented ...Its all but there

That sounds like a good idea to speed things up. I am all for getting things done easier and faster.

Dennis_W

@synchro

I agree - however I do not think the extract method of copying is ideal. It is possible to extract an object and not keep it in the same position it was originally in.

I think a native "Copy" option is necessary, especially when dealing with large groups of objects, which when Extracting only the slightest mouse movement can alter the position.

I find select item....hold shift ....click extract...click again once to leave the original
then move the mouse to drag the new one works fine for me.... have you tried that ?

Yes, I do have very high mouse sensitivity with my setup because I run multi monitors. There have been times where I place an object in a certain position, click extract, and my mouse causes the object to move slightly before I am able to click again while holding shift. It's a minor issue, it would be nice to be able to copy freely and not have to worry about that.

Another benefit of a native copy option, would be to paste an object somewhere in the scene far away from the original object. That way you don't have to spend time to drag it to the new location.

Ye I think I have to agree a proper copy and paste would be better No denying that .... and I can understand how a sensitive mouse would be more awkward....... But I could live with the extract rather than nothing at the moment

it can also move if you are in a different snap mode than when the object was placed (i.e. you're in grid and the object is not already aligned to a grid, it will move out of position as soon as you extract it - switching mode without moving the mouse will put it back but it's easily overlooked)

a new option to copy/clone from the widget is the best option as new users can very easily miss the current "clone" feature as it's not very intuitive and it cuts out the need to do so many steps.

+100 for the feature though, it's very high on my list of "wants"

So are we all agreed that a COPY (instead of EXTRACT) should appear when you use the lasso menu, so you can leave the items highlighed in tact, or would you want BOTH, so EXTRACT and COPY appear on the same menu? Thanks for the feedback, I agree this is a very cool feature and I would like to sneak it in at the first opportunity (perhaps when we do the Easy Building Editor) which it may well relate.

This would be a very useful addition.

Just my take but you should be able to group or link selected objects. Selected objects/groups when holding down shift and moving them should clone leaving the original intact, it is almost there with extract and hold shift to copy/paste but I find that really awkward and continually find myself moving an object rather than cloning which isn't ideal after spending time getting it placed perfectly.

@Lee, thanks for responding! However I don't think you should remove the Extract feature. In fact I think Guru shouldn't be removing any functionality it has at this point. This posts goal is towards adding a COPY feature, just in addition to the EXTRACT feature. Being able to select multiple entitys at once, and copy them all together and paste is what the focus is on.



@rolfy - completely agree with you here. if the Dev's made the editor more synonmous with 3DS Max or Unity I would be very happy. Guru has come a long way and I hope that we are close to having some of this

@TeamHalo





There is no " Extract " in the lasso for multiple items..... we wanted either an extract or copy and paste added to the menu
Preferably a "Copy " as lee said in the quote ..

As far as extract goes if I want to move an object I can already do that, if I want to delete an object I can already do that. It is not much use for anything other than to create copy's of an already placed object so you don't have to go searching for it in the Menu, other than lights or objects which may be many at the same height I don't see much use for it as it is now except to copy and it would be better to actually have a proper copy/clone feature than this.If shift + move clones an object it isn't even needed in a menu. Just my opinion.

Oh! just to add, if I wanted a bunch of objects on the same pivot but different rotations or scale then shift + move or rotate should clone.

Personally I think COPY or CLONE is a much more user friendly name and method than the current EXTRACT -> Shift & click.

Personally I prefer Clone, and I want too the ability to grouping items and clone them at time.

3om

This would speed up level design no end, this feature is something I've personally been waiting for since the start.

Clone sounds good to me

Sounds like we're going for EXTRACT (to keep legacy functionality) and adding CLONE to single and lasso widget menus. Thanks for the replies!

@Lee looks great! Would it be possible to also add in a clone feature by holding SHIFT and drag creates a cloned item? This is how 3DS Max clones in the viewport and it works wonders.

Shift + move to clone selected objects is pretty much standard in most 3d editors and seems to be the accepted method across the board. Extract and hold shift to paste means you need to re-align on more than one axis sometimes where there is only one axis to align by dragging and if you move a fraction after extract then you need to re-align the original object as well.
Somebody posted a video of the Unreal editor showing this being used recently and it is obviously a far better method.

You see its use right away at the 0.30 mark and it used throughout the build for speed and accuracy.



Another thing I like about this video is it shows how foliage can be 'painted' onto entity's as well as terrain which would save a lot of work placing and aligning all that stuff as individual entity's.

Yes the moss feature is quite lovely in Unreal (not a good description, as I am quite sure it supports all sorts, but you know what I mean). Being able to paint foliage onto scenery may sound silly, but it is massively faster, easier and more convenient than placing individual entities. Grass for me is a great strength of GG (just needs some variety options), being able to place it on objects as well as the terrain would be a big plus!

As far as the main thread goes, a clone or copy option would be great. I am pretty sure I asked for it as soon as the lasso was made available, it seemed an obvious option that was missed. I also am not keen on the current method for reasons given by others above. I often place a copy of any obvious items I will be constantly cloning so it will not cause these odd shifts of position on actual map items.

Not silly at all when you consider additional terrain entity's, rocks and such. Maybe the example of painting onto buildings wasn't the best one though I can think of others where 'painted' decals and entity's might be used to good effect on walls and structures

You would of course need some kind of flag for selected entity's to receive this kind of painting to prevent it going on those you didn't want to use it on such as nearby trees and other foliage etc. Wouldn't expect to see this any time soon but adding it to my list for later

Never get tired looking videos like that, I really love the system they use.

I've not problem painting veg onto the walls, since in an apocalyptic world it may happens, so you can found trees in middle of the streets, so why not.
Love some Discovery channel's documentaries about a hypothetical chemical warfare, destroying all people, but not the buildings, roads, bridges, etc.

How would be the cities after 10 years without humanity, after 100 years, etc.

Do not use Unreal never, but looking the vid, they looks like doing all this, without drops fps.
Have those features in GG maybe wonderful, but aside of apply them in GG, also TGC has to think about the low fps cost.

I think Lee can't dedicate only to one feature from start to end, because usually apply some feature, It means having to work on other, which for some reason are directly related to this; for this reason you like it or not, you find yourself working on several things at once. Just my thoughts.

3com

It's been a few days since this thread was opened, but I thought I'd offer my 2 cents worth ...

Yes, as has been said COPY (of multiple items) is a very useful thing,

And if I select multiple items, I can move them ...

But I would still very much like to GROUP entities ... e.g. I have a torch, a light and a decal, that together make up what I consider a "group entity" .... that way, once these three items have been grouped together, I can move / rotate them as one item (I'm not concerned about "group scaling" ...) ...

Since we don't have the standard 3D views in the editor, aligning the torch, light and decal every single time is a pain in the rear ...

Cheers,
Fendrik