Sprite Editor Release

[amateus]

Hi guys,

A couple of years ago, I did a couple of posts about a scene editor on several forums.

Real life caught me and I basically had all my hobbies on stand by for quite some time. Any way fast forward to a couple of weeks and I though of making the sprite editor that I've shown on the time available.

Sprite Editor has the same functionalities I listed, with a better UI (not perfect but usable) and some error trapping. Unfortunately is Windows only as it relies highly on .net controls framework.

Please, check it out, and use it if you need it. It's free.

Sprite Editor provides simple tools to help the creation of sprites and animations. It's aimed for retro-games development on old 8bits platforms.
It doesn't pretend to be more than a small app for personal needs. It's not competing with any other tool, which surely have more features and are way more professional.

Basic Features
Supports up to 6x6 tiles. A tile is 8 pixels.
Sprites can have different Width and Height
Ability to add up to 30 frames per Sprite
Supports Simple and Masked sprites (Mask is auto-generated and currently in experimental status)

Tools
Frame copy and paste
Paste from Clipboard
Clone Sprites
Invert Sprites
Flip Vertically and Horizontally
Play animation in a Loop or Bounce mode.
Move sprite frame pixel per pixel on all 4 directions

Export
z88dk SP1 Library format.

Known issues/"special features"

Tiles Width and Height are ignored if you try to update the sprite with a different value.
Specifying the animation speed is somewhat quirky.

Let me know if you have any issues, I will try to fix if I am able.

If you have any feature request, suggestions, or if you need any other export format send me the format let me know.. My target is the zx spectrum using SP1, but always open to add more.

Link:https://antoniomateus.itch.io/sprite-editor (currently learning about itch.io, so apologies if something appears weird)

Couple of screenshots:




Thank you,
Antonio

[Spinnetti]

Looks handy.. tried to download but never downloaded - window came up and I don't see it blocked in chrome. Why not just post here?

Does is work for Zeddy - basically ability to cut and paste the hex for each sprite row?

[amateus]

Looks handy.. tried to download but never downloaded - window came up and I don't see it blocked in chrome. Why not just post here?

Thank you. That is weird, seems your browser is blocking it. I've add it as an attachment to this post.

Does is work for Zeddy - basically ability to cut and paste the hex for each sprite row?

Zeddy? What's the format? I may be able to add it as an export option.

This can export to z88dk SP1 lib. The format is the following:

Code: Select all

 defb @00000000
 defb @00000000
 defb @00000000
 defb @00000000
 defb @00000000
 defb @00000000
 defb @00000000
 defb @00000000

PUBLIC _ball_col0_frame0
._ball_col0_frame0

 defb @00000000
 defb @00111100
 defb @01101110
 defb @01011110
 defb @01111110
 defb @01111110
 defb @00111100
 defb @00000000

 defb @00000000
 defb @00000000
 defb @00000000
 defb @00000000
 defb @00000000
 defb @00000000
 defb @00000000
 defb @00000000

It can also export with mask, if the sprite has any (same format but more columns).

Thank you.

[Spinnetti]

Thanks for the quick response... Looks like format is fine; zeddy is just black and white after all, so no color mask and just one bit per pixel.

I know this was just your personal tool, and I appreciate you sharing it with us. Couple suggestions that confused me if you are interested in tweaking a bit.

- When it starts up, the screen is not active until you select "Add New" - this is kind of confusing. Would be better for the default start to enable editing in the 8x8 grid shown at start up, OR maybe show nothing until you select Add New, and/or have an opening message indicating to set the frame size and add new on startup?

- For delete, the usual UI interaction would be to have right click on tile then select delete and/or use the delete key to act on the highlighted button. Its a little weird to only be able to delete with the button on screen.

- Would be nice to be able to resize the tile you are already working on, and just retain whatever fits from the top and left - so if you were in a 16x16 and resized to 8x8, it would just keep the top left 8x8. I often will have a target size, but if I have drawn and doesn't fit, I want to expand without doing it all over again. Conversely, if you make a tile bigger, it just adds to the right and lower edge and then the user can reposition as desired.

Cool regardless, Thanks!

[amateus]

Thank you for your feedback Spinnetti.

I will add those comments to the list for a next iteration. I agree with your assessment on the first 2 items (actually the whole sprite properties thing and add/update/delete should be changed. Not really intuitive. As the animation interval as well is not really intuitive.

Resize is already on the list for improvements. Will see what i can do

Thank you once again,
António

[amateus]

I have released a new version of the Sprite Editor. This version features a lot of improvements and some important features. Thank you all for you feedback.

Change Log

• Application start - Sprite Editor now starts with a default 8x8 sprite ready for you to start drawing

• Tile grid - Added a new tile grid to help you navigate through the bigger sprites

• Animation interval - Replaced the control of the animation interval. It's now more intuitive and better validation. Still in milliseconds.

• Status bar - Added a status bar with several information.

• Delete Option - Removed delete button and add a new context menu to the sprite list. You can now right-click on a sprite and choose Delete from the options.

• UI - Refactor all the Sprite UI. Sprite information is now replaced by a Property Grid. Just change a property and it's immediately updated

• Add New button - Add new sprite button now adds a default 8*8 sprite. You can then use the Property Grid to change its properties.

• Sprite Resize - Yes, it's a reality. The most requested feature is added. You can now resize an existing sprite. Resize is done from Top Left.

plus

• Ui improvements for better user experience and some code refactor behind the curtain.

Attached the new version for those who prefer to download it through here. Or available at https://antoniomateus.itch.io/sprite-editor. Thank you for you feedback. Let me know if you have any issues.

Antonio

[mrtinb]

Sorry for asking. Have you coded this directly for the Windows API, or for a framework that might exist on Linux or macOS?

[amateus]

Sorry for asking. Have you coded this directly for the Windows API, or for a framework that might exist on Linux or macOS?

Yeah I coded on .net, so it's not multiplatform.

But if you are on mac or linux you may want to try running the editor under wine. I haven't tried myself but I mean, there's nothing weird going on under the hood, just common .net controls and standard code.

António

[mrtinb]

It seems .Net is not only Windows these days. Seems applications can be compiled for both Linux and Mac as well.

I've read you could type this command, to create a selfcontained application for macOS:

Code: Select all

dotnet publish --runtime osx.10.11-x64

[Paul]

Can't one use mono to run dotnet executables?