Define custom shapes #158

SjurdurS · 2025-01-24T21:16:47Z

This pull request adds a new Custom Shape Tool, called "Shape", to the Level Editor that allows you to quickly place predefined custom shapes into the current level.
Furthermore, this pull request also adds a new right click context menu option called "Save as shape..." which creates a new custom shape based on the current selection.

Custom shapes are saved as regular Elma levels (*.lev) on disk, and are grouped by sub-folders in the root folder for custom shapes. The root folder for custom shapes is called sle_shapes and will be created in the same directory as Elmanager.exe the first time a custom shape is saved.

The custom shape collection is just a folder structure with files, and therefore easily shareable / importable / exportable.

The following components can be added to custom shapes:

Polygons (always full polygons, if any vertex is selected on a polygon, the whole polygon is serialized).
Grass polygons
Objects (Apples, Killers, Flowers)
Pictures
Textures

The new Custom Shape Tool supports the following actions:

Right click to open the Shape Selection dialog
Anchoring using num 1-5 like Picture Tool.
Transformation
- Mirroring - Vertical, Horizontal or Both (toggle with num 6)
- Rotation - num 7 to rotate left, num 9 to rotate right, num 8 to reset rotation
- Scaling - Resize using (+ / - ) on the keyboard
- Reset anchoring and transformations: num 0
- The transformation state is remembered between shapes, so if you rotate one shape, and select a different one, the same settings apply to the new shape as well.

Images

New Shape button, and Shape Selection dialog

Shapes are grouped by folders.

Example shapes for quick testing

Here is an example collection of shapes you can use for trying it out.
Place the following sle_shapes folder in the same folder as the Elmanager.exe
sle_shapes.zip

Smibu · 2025-01-25T09:12:15Z

Wow nice! I'll take a look today.

Smibu

I added a few comments in the code, but at the same time I'd like to suggest a hopefully simpler implementation:

Instead of storing the shapes as JSON files, could they be just normal lev files? This way they would be easily editable, and we wouldn't need custom serialization logic for them.
Instead of storing a cached image of the shape, could we implement a LevelControl that inherits from GLControl that is able to directly render a given lev? So a CustomShapeControl would have a reference to a LevelControl instead of a PictureBox. I imagine this might not be a huge task because all the pieces are there already; we just need to glue them together. We could share the main window GL context. This maybe requires updating GLControl to the official version because it seems the current (vendored in repo) version might not support GL context sharing.

Smibu · 2025-01-25T09:48:18Z

Elmanager/Geometry/GeometryUtils.cs

+    internal static (Vector center, Vector min, Vector max) CalculateBoundingBox(List<Polygon> polygons, List<LevObject> objects,
+        List<GraphicElement> graphicElements)


Perhaps this method is not needed: if you construct a Level, it already has a method for computing its bounds.

Smibu · 2025-01-25T09:49:12Z

Elmanager/LevelEditor/LevelEditorForm.cs

+
+        var (center, _, _) = GeometryUtils.CalculateBoundingBox(clonedPolygons, clonedObjects, clonedGraphicElements);
+
+        // Normalize positions


Is this normalization required?

I just felt it would be easier, and more clean that shapes are centered around origin than arbitrary positions.

Also, you need to do this step during translation and rotation, so doing it once before saving, instead of each time the shape is in use reduces the amount of calculations you need to do, unless I'm mistaken?

Yes that makes sense, but I think the normalization should probably be done when loading the shapes, rather than on save. Especially now that the shapes are editable as levs, we cannot assume the coordinates are normalized in the shape (lev) file.

You are right. I'll look into changing it to on loading instead.

Smibu · 2025-01-25T09:51:46Z

Elmanager/LevelEditor/ShapeGallery/GraphicElementDto.cs

+
+    protected GraphicElementDto(GraphicElement element)
+    {
+        Type = element.GetType().Name;


We should avoid reflection. It's not trim-compatible, and my hope is that some day elmanager exe size could be greatly reduced via trimming as soon as WinForms supports trimming.

Smibu · 2025-01-25T09:53:05Z

Elmanager/LevelEditor/ShapeGallery/GraphicElementDto.cs

+
+    public override void Write(Utf8JsonWriter writer, GraphicElementDto value, JsonSerializerOptions options)
+    {
+        JsonSerializer.Serialize(writer, value, value.GetType(), options);


Same here, we should avoid reflection.

Elmanager/LevelEditor/ShapeGallery/ShapeGalleryForm.cs

SjurdurS · 2025-01-25T19:41:41Z

Thank you looking at my changes, and thanks for the great feedback! :)

Using the LEV format makes sense, especially if they can be rendered directly in the selection dialog, but I have no experience with OpenGL which is why I didn't go down that road.

I think it would make sense to do this in two steps.

First replace the JSON serialization with the LEV format, but keep the images for now.
Then afterwards try to render the levels in a LevelControl.

Co-authored-by: Mika Lehtinen <Smibu@users.noreply.github.com>

I haven't removed the support for deserialization of JSON shapes to help with converting between the old JSON and the new LEV format.

SjurdurS · 2025-01-25T20:51:13Z

I did a quick change to serialize to and from LEV instead of JSON. Using LEV format works well.
I will still need to clean up and remove all the unnecessary code related to the JSON serialization.

I noticed that LEV objects require a start object (I got a random crash during conversion from JSON to LEV). It isn't a problem adding a start object as it is easy to filter them on load, but am I missing any other requirements for a Level to be "valid"?

Here is an updated example gallery should you want to test it.
GalleryWithLevFormat.zip

Smibu · 2025-01-26T10:03:22Z

I think just the start object and 1 (ground) polygon is required for validity.

By two steps, do you mean two PRs? I would like just this one PR where we do both steps. You can regardless send some intermediate version for people to test in discord if you want to gather early feedback.

SjurdurS · 2025-01-26T10:20:03Z

I think just the start object and 1 (ground) polygon is required for validity.

Then the easiest solution is to limit custom shape creation to when the user has selected at least 1 polygon.
With my JSON implementation you could create shapes out of anything, pictures only, objects only etc. But this is not necessary.
Otherwise you could add some kind of identifiable placeholder polygon that you remove on load, but for now I'd rather just stick with the minimum.

By two steps, do you mean two PRs? I would like just this one PR where we do both steps. You can regardless send some intermediate version for people to test in discord if you want to gather early feedback.

No, I just mean refactoring-wise. Refactor first to use LEV, and get rid of all of the unnecessary JSON serialization related code, and only then try to implement the Level rendering. Since I have 0 experience with GL, I don't know if I will be able to implement the last part :)

…gon is selected

Smibu · 2025-01-26T13:25:19Z

Ah ye ok, that sounds good 👍

If the GL thing turns out difficult, I can take a look at it sometime. The new control might be useful in other contexts also.

SjurdurS · 2025-01-27T09:57:17Z

Ah ye ok, that sounds good 👍

If the GL thing turns out difficult, I can take a look at it sometime. The new control might be useful in other contexts also.

I haven’t started looking at it yet, but I have a question regarding how you see the LevelControl used. If you have a grid like the one I used in the shape selection dialog. Would the grid just consist of individual LevelControls, where each LevelControl has its own shared GL context? How would performance be in such a case?

Smibu · 2025-01-27T10:44:45Z

The grid would consist of CustomShapeControls (as it already is now?) and a CustomShapeControl would have a reference to a LevelControl (instead of a PictureBox).

So you'd pass the LevelEditorForm's GLControl to ShapeGalleryForm so that it can be further passed to each CustomShapeControl and LevelControl as the shared context.

I wouldn't expect performance problems; GL rendering should be pretty fast and hopefully the GLControl's paint method is only invoked when the control is actually visible (and not e.g. outside of a scroll area etc).

SjurdurS · 2025-01-29T20:51:05Z

I've played around with making a minimal example of a custom GLControl, and trying to just draw a triangle in a form and I can't even get anything drawn on screen.

I tried changing to OpenTK.GLControl throughout, as it has SharedContext defined, and the Editor itself draws as usual. But I just get InvalidOperation errors in the test form/dialog.

Really at a loss for what to do here .. any pointers? :D

Smibu · 2025-01-30T21:30:06Z

I need to see some code, hard to say otherwise. Maybe push some wip branch to your fork?

SjurdurS · 2025-01-30T22:25:32Z

I need to see some code, hard to say otherwise. Maybe push some wip branch to your fork?

See a very sloppy test implementation at:
2bcb9e9

The dialog is loaded when you trigger Create Custom Shape, but you can move it elsewhere if necessary.

I just wanted to create a minimal working example, where I'm using the shared context to do a basic drawing.
I managed to get it to draw a red background on the dialog, in the "LevelControl", but in the render loop I get nonstop InvalidOperation.

I had to install a different package "OpenTK.GLControl" to get the SharedContext property in GLControl.
Many examples online also refer to a "GraphicsMode" enum and other classes not available in the packages you are using.

Smibu · 2025-02-01T14:15:51Z

Thanks :) it works with a few changes: d71f140

It was just missing the compat profile:

Profile = ContextProfile.Compatability;

(Works also with the timer thing, but probably OnPaint is enough, as shapes are just static drawings)

I had to install a different package "OpenTK.GLControl" to get the SharedContext property in GLControl.

Ye, I mentioned you'll need to use the official newest version

SjurdurS · 2025-02-02T10:44:51Z

Great! I’ll try to get level rendering to work when I have time later this week. The timer thingy was just me being desperate to get something calling as I had problems with the OnPaint method initially.

… to adjust if necessary

Smibu

Thanks for the updates, it's getting closer to finish line :) I added a few more comments here.

Found a bug (imo): if I place a shape, reopen form and cancel, it forgets the last selected shape. I think this used to work so maybe broke in refactoring.

Elmanager/LevelEditor/Shapes/ShapeSelection.cs

Elmanager/LevelEditor/Tools/CustomShapeTool.cs

Elmanager/Rendering/ElmaRenderer.cs

Elmanager/LevelEditor/Tools/CustomShapeTool.cs

Elmanager/LevelEditor/Shapes/SleShape.cs

Smibu · 2025-03-06T18:28:21Z

Elmanager/LevelEditor/Shapes/LevelControl.cs

+
+        if (!IsHandleCreated)
+        {
+            SharedContext = sharedContext; // Set shared context before initialization


I think this answers the question:

simply calling a control's constructor does not create the Handle.

So let's remove the if :)

SjurdurS · 2025-03-06T19:12:28Z

Thanks for the updates, it's getting closer to finish line :) I added a few more comments here.

Found a bug (imo): if I place a shape, reopen form and cancel, it forgets the last selected shape. I think this used to work so maybe broke in refactoring.

Yeah I know, it happened after refactoring to storing the state in the _shapeSelection object. I left it for now but I can see if I can fix it.

ExtraRendering shouldn't be needed because we have transient elements already and we don't have to render anything extra Co-authored-by: Mika Lehtinen <Smibu@users.noreply.github.com>

Co-authored-by: Mika Lehtinen <Smibu@users.noreply.github.com>

The handle should never be able to be created at this point anyways

This reverts commit a5146ac.

…election after closing Shape Selection From with the Cancel button

SjurdurS · 2025-03-06T20:17:25Z

Thanks for the updates, it's getting closer to finish line :) I added a few more comments here.
Found a bug (imo): if I place a shape, reopen form and cancel, it forgets the last selected shape. I think this used to work so maybe broke in refactoring.

Yeah I know, it happened after refactoring to storing the state in the _shapeSelection object. I left it for now but I can see if I can fix it.

The bug has been fixed here: 3fe32b0

…e info

…rong LGR when opening Shape Selection Form

Smibu

Thanks! This seems almost ready for merging. Can you update PR description to reflect current state? I will squash merge this, so PR title and description will be used as the commit message.

Elmanager/LevelEditor/Shapes/LevelControl.cs

Co-authored-by: Mika Lehtinen <Smibu@users.noreply.github.com>

SjurdurS · 2025-03-15T16:13:07Z

Thanks! This seems almost ready for merging. Can you update PR description to reflect current state? I will squash merge this, so PR title and description will be used as the commit message.

I've updated the pull request description (the first message in this pull request). Let me know if I should change anything :)

Smibu · 2025-03-15T16:59:03Z

Big thanks and congrats for getting this over the finish line. :)

I will create a build later today and announce in discord.

SjurdurS · 2025-03-15T22:57:27Z

Thank you for all your help! Very much appreciated the time you put in to helping me get this finished :)

SjurdurS added 2 commits January 24, 2025 21:11

Add support for creating and loading custom shapes

34f5caf

Fix crash when gallery directory doesn't exist

7945996

Smibu reviewed Jan 25, 2025

View reviewed changes

SjurdurS and others added 3 commits January 25, 2025 20:50

Use generic Enum.GetValues for ShapeMirrorOption

822f501

Co-authored-by: Mika Lehtinen <Smibu@users.noreply.github.com>

Shapes are now serialized using the LEV format

8b72997

I haven't removed the support for deserialization of JSON shapes to help with converting between the old JSON and the new LEV format.

Add required start object to LEV shape.

1dbb4b6

Only enable Create Custom Shape menu item when at least 1 ground poly…

e919003

…gon is selected

SjurdurS added 4 commits January 26, 2025 18:33

Prevent creating custom shape when only grass polygons are selected

d7a560f

Refactor to remove unnecessary JSON deserialization

9660d80

Normalize positions on load instead of before saving

7f71de0

Refactor to not use DataSource on ComboBox

57fceaa

Trying to get LevelControl to work ..

c381d74

Test

389276a

WIP - testing to get minimal working example of a shared context

2bcb9e9

LevelControl fixes

d71f140

SjurdurS added 2 commits February 2, 2025 18:02

wip level rendering

32fe008

level renders in control now

5a2d32f

SjurdurS added 2 commits March 4, 2025 22:06

Try to generalize column/row setup and calculations to make it easier…

b5d68c0

… to adjust if necessary

Change back to 4x3 setup

178d795

Smibu reviewed Mar 6, 2025

View reviewed changes

SjurdurS and others added 10 commits March 6, 2025 20:45

Use file-scoped namespace

b715948

Remove extra rendering

a5146ac

ExtraRendering shouldn't be needed because we have transient elements already and we don't have to render anything extra Co-authored-by: Mika Lehtinen <Smibu@users.noreply.github.com>

Refactor constructor to call other constructor for shared initialization

61bacb1

Remove redundant null initialization

6e2b569

Remove comment

b27e694

Co-authored-by: Mika Lehtinen <Smibu@users.noreply.github.com>

Remove unnecessary if-statement

51f35ab

The handle should never be able to be created at this point anyways

Remove unnecessary cloning of objects

818d429

Revert "Remove extra rendering "

54c7377

This reverts commit a5146ac.

Remove unnecessary non-grass polygon rendering in extra rendering

638d25d

Fixed an issue where the currently selected shape would reset to no s…

3fe32b0

…election after closing Shape Selection From with the Cancel button

SjurdurS added 8 commits March 6, 2025 21:20

Remove and sort usings

15970ba

Whitespace formatting

b724f00

Fix an issue rendering grass

131ae7c

Use current level bounds and not shape bounds for updating grass slop…

a6a64f4

…e info

Update images when shape is loaded and placed

52e2192

Fix an issue where images and textures incorrectly updated to using w…

95fef2a

…rong LGR when opening Shape Selection Form

Fix grass rendering and remove no longer needed extra rendering

17e016a

Reset anchoring when resetting shape transformations

0ff6d2f

Smibu marked this pull request as ready for review March 13, 2025 21:41

Smibu reviewed Mar 13, 2025

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Elmanager/LevelEditor/Shapes/LevelControl.cs Outdated Show resolved Hide resolved

Remove comment

9672294

Co-authored-by: Mika Lehtinen <Smibu@users.noreply.github.com>

Smibu merged commit 5ee3333 into Smibu:master Mar 15, 2025
2 checks passed

		internal static (Vector center, Vector min, Vector max) CalculateBoundingBox(List<Polygon> polygons, List<LevObject> objects,
		List<GraphicElement> graphicElements)


		var (center, _, _) = GeometryUtils.CalculateBoundingBox(clonedPolygons, clonedObjects, clonedGraphicElements);

		// Normalize positions

Define custom shapes #158

Define custom shapes #158

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Images

New Shape button, and Shape Selection dialog

Shapes are grouped by folders.

Example shapes for quick testing

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