Now that GameGuru MAX is beginning development with a rendering engine selected, I'd like to talk about the GUI for just a bit. For this thread, I'd like to keep discussion to the gizmo that allows us to interact with entities in the 3D editor as well as how we currently interact with them. My intention is to generate ideas, see what people think, and, hopefully, see GameGuru MAX develop into a 3D game creation tool that is even easier to use, while still being feature rich. Let's start by looking at a screen shot of the current GameGuru MAX alpha with a single entity loaded and selected:
As with Classic, when you select an entity, you get a gizmo for moving the entity about and a menu for things like Position, Rotation, Scale, Properties, and more. I'd first like to talk about the menu you get with the gizmo.
Personally, I think that this menu could largely be done away with. I see no real reason to keep this in the 3D editor. Firstly, first three items (Position, Rotate, and Scale) could be removed from this menu and accessed in a few ways - 1) by including an icon at the top that would allow the end-user to select which type of gizmo they needed and 2) via standard 3D modeling keyboard shortcuts to quickly switch to which gizmo is needed. Secondly, instead of having Properties as an option, why not have the items properties instantly available on the right-side panel simply by selecting the item? In other words, the moment you click on an item, you have instant access to the entity's properties. This should be the case, in my opinion, for anything selected, like lights. Click it, and the properties panel appears on the right. It doesn't take up a lot of room and it makes the properties instantly available. And if this is done this way, then the rest of the items on this "gizmo menu" (Extract, Delete, and Lock) could simply be incorporated into the entity property panel on the right. This would also take care of one of my biggest annoyances with GameGuru Classic - when you click Properties, the camera zooms in on the entity. Personally, I don't like this. Often I have my camera set exactly where I want it to be and that is the view I want while editing the entity's properties. So, if we could get rid of this "feature" or at least make it an option that could be toggled on/off.
The above image simply shows an entity selected with the properties panel open on the right. I think this should be the default any time an entity is selected, giving instant access to the item's properties.
Now let's talk about the actual gizmo itself. I think it could be improved in a few ways. One way is cosmetically. Compare the GameGuru gizmo to the one in Blender, for example:
Blender's is much cleaner and less obtrusive. It's not about the size, it's about things like anti-aliasing and overall design. I also like that Blender, as well as many other 3D applications, offer an universal gizmo that allows the end-user to move, scale, and rotate without having to switch between gizmos. I am not suggesting that this universal gizmo be the ONLY gizmo that MAX would have, but that it be an option, as it is in other 3D packages.
When things get complex in a 3D environment, there is a lot to look at and a lot that can visually get in the way, making it possibly difficult to do your work. The last thing we need is a gizmo, which is essential to doing the work needed to put together a game level, getting in the way, too. Visually, GameGuru's gizmo could be much better and could be made to work well with minimal intrusion in the 3D view.
Thoughts?
