SMEE Roadmap

With the cleanup finished, I've started on the next build.

Here is a small roadmap for the key features I have planned:

• Build 17 - Selections and simple brushes.
• Build 18 - Misc. Clickable minimap. Undo history upgrades.
• Build 19 - Tile selector upgrades. Integrate with Stripper.
• Build 20 - More plotting tools. More undo history upgrades.
• Build 21 - Simple VERGE 3 map importing and exporting.

No V3? Just Kidding.

As mentioned in my post before last, I hadn't intended on implementing VERGE 3 map support into SMEE. However, at the urging of Grue, I did a quick test to see how difficult it would be to drop in, and it was surprisingly quick and painless work. I made use of the helper libraries, which will have to be included, but their utilization will be limited to VERGE 3 map importing.

Build 17 will have crude support for loading VERGE 3 maps, but will not provide an option for exporting in VERGE 3 format. I will include that in Build 21. For new maps created within SMEE, exporting to VERGE 3 format will save a "stub" map, with no obstructions, zones, or entities. Importing an existing map and then exporting it will preserve any previously existing data from those areas.

You will no doubt notice the tile selector is fairly sluggish when loading most VERGE 3 maps, due to the number of tiles present in most tilesets, and the brute force method used for rendering the tile selector. This is part of the motiviation for upgrading the tile selector in Build 19.

MOME RATH

My best guess for when SMEE will start making the transition to MOME RATH would be around build 30. By the time I hit build 21, most of the key ingredients for a really useful map editor will be present, so I think 9 more builds after that to do bugfixing and tighten everything up and is reasonable.

VAMOS!