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GameMaker 8: Image and Sprite editor version 0.9

Mark Overmars has released version 0.9 of the image and sprite editor that will be included in Game Maker 8.  The updated version of the editor implements some of the suggestions and fixes bugs that were submitted following the release of an earlier version about a month back.

Unofficial Mirror (has been removed from official site) (.zip, 675kb)

Click to view full sized screenshot
Click to view full sized screenshot

A list of changes from the previous version is listed below. Mark added that “there were many more suggestions that I did not follow. The suggestions together involved making something like Paint Shop Pro which would require an incredible amount of work and would make the editor way to complicated for novice users. I kept to the decision that the editors should be easy to use and that for more advanced image control people should use a separate program.”

The following changes have been made since the previous public test verison 0.7. Also a list is given of the suggestion that I did not follow (with a motivation).

Changes
=======

– Cut/Copy of a fully transparent image now keeps it transparent rather than making it black.
– Changed the icon for the eraser in the image editor to something more meaningful.
– The color picker now also changes the transparency value.
– When drawing a filled rectangle (or disk, …) without a boundary, the left color is now used.
– When filling you can now indicate whether only the color value should match or also the transparency. Filling transparent areas now works as expected.
– The file selector now works correctly when typing in a file name.
– The sprite file selector can now open multiple files at once.
– When adding sprites in the sprite editor they are now added at the end.
– The Crop transform now uses Ctrl+Alt+O as shortcut.
– Creating too large images or sprites now gives a proper error message.
– Added multiple undo and redo in the sprite editor.
– Sharpen is now disabled in the image editor when there is no image.
– Antialiased shapes now work fine with color mode set to Replace.
– Added keyboard shortcuts for zooming actions and for all drawing actions
– You can now Delete a selection or Cut it to the clipboard
– It is possible to extend a selection with the key and remove parts with the key.
– Right mouse now copies a selection.
– Selection indication is now in a more common way (no longer dark and light).
– There are now magic wand and paint selection tools.
– Some errors in selection were solved.
– Text is now indicated with a box rather than with dark-light.
– Zoom in now only allows multiples of 100%.
– Removed a visual glitch at the boundary of images when zooming out.
– No warning is given when moving to the next subimage of a sprite when a change was made.
– You can now set the transparency of the whole image
– Added a preview image to the image editor
– Selecting a color while painting now no longer changes the interface
– Changed the keyboard shortcuts for the zoom functions to the more common ones.
– Added inside glow effect.
– Used term Opacity rather than transparency.
– You can now set the alpha (opacity) values from an image (using the intensity).
– Added the possibility for pasting from a file.
– The color mode is now used when moving selections or pasting images.
– With shift key you can now make hor/vert lines for the paint, eraser, and pencil tools
– For Crop you can now again specify the size of the border
– Added a Change Color drawing tool.
– You can now change the size and color of the grid and whether to snap to it.

Not Followed
============
Please realise that the build in image editor is not meant as a replacement for a real image editor. So we are not going to put in all sort of complicated features that other (commercial) image editors have. The editor is mainly meant to change already created images. Not to create them from scratch. Also, Game Maker is meant to be useable by young people. Complicated features will make things difficult for them.

– Layers. This falls under the “too complicated” aspect.
– Rulers. I think the indication of the mouse position in the status bar is good enough.
– Save sprite as GIF file. As gif files do not support alpha channels this does not work. In the new Game Maker the default sprite file format is a PNG strip (or a new special sprite format), not GIF.
– Glow slider gets slower when thickness is higher. This is simply caused by the fact that computing glow is time consuming when the thickness is large.
– Effects should only apply to selections. Too complicated.
– Template for back image (e.g. for doing animations). Too complicated.
– Possibility to set the grid color.
– Support for MNG files. This is really complicated.
– Further enhanced buttonize tool. There are other programs for that. Same for other tools like
shadow and glow.
– Brush size selection using a slider. I want to keep things simple.
– Create separate image editor. No, this will only be part of Game Maker. There are other
free stand-alone image editors.
– Having images as a background.
– Separate transparency values for the two colors. Don’t know how to make an easy user interface for this.

What do you think?

16 Comments

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  1. why does it say “404 not found” when I click the link? it says that it doesn’t exist anymore on the gamemaker website and that I’ll be redirected to the yoyogames website. does noone else have this problem???

  2. Nice, but I want to say if we can also put images(or spirites) in game instructions so that a user can easily understand that how to play. If it is available in GM 7 so please anyone tell me how to do it!;]

  3. Yeah, i can finally import my CorelDraw & Photoshop files, and make my game even more better! With Anti-Alaising, ofcourse!

  4. It’s a good thing that they are finally releasing something related to GM8.

    BUT, when exactly do they plan to update us on “what’s new with actual GM8” itself? The image editor is nice and all but there are a lot better freeware alternatives. Not to mention the fact that most developers working on commercial work using GM (like me) already have softwares like Photoshop and Corel Draw to take editing a step further. I know that in-built editor will help the primary (read = school kids) audience so it’s a good thing (not saying they shouldn’t work on it).

    Just saying that we would really love to see some info on the actual program and the new Mac compatibility (I pray to my atheist god that Windows version lets you compile OSX games). Also, would love to see any interface changes, like freeing up the clutter to make work area more visible unlike last time.

    /rant

  5. YES!!!
    THANKYOU mark, the file opener really does need to support multiple files 😀

    new we need a cool 3d sound editor :p

  6. Wow! This is pretty cool. I can’t wait for GM8. I love this program and i will love more this! haha i thing this will be more easy! =)

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