-Support for Classic or Alpha textures
-Only supports a single 2D plane but the designs are forwards compatible for the multiplane system I'm building
-Circle drawing-- click on the circle box to activate. Click where you want one "corner" of the circle to be (hah!) and it will draw to the next point you click
-Line drawing-- click and drag
-Saving-- click the save button
Some quirks--
I put ladders, torches, and both redstone torch states in. Some other special items are not in yet because they will work better in the next update. this includes doors, switches, tracks, and redstone dust. Most of these items are useless without multiplane anyway since they take up their own block ontop of the block you'd be placing them on. Deal with it.
I figured ladders would help with your crazy lava mob traps.
Until 3D comes along, you're best using this for single-side designs and pixel art. I have included both "top" and "side" views for certain blocks (like logs) but in the future they will be merged (a log block will be a log block, and will show the top texture in top view and side texture in side view)
Halfblocks side view also does not work as intended and might not for a while.
Things I'm planning that you don't need to suggest
-a "hide grid" button that removes the borders between blocks
-support for other texture packs
-a way to embed these in other sites (not anytime soon... but planned)
-zoom (at least for viewing)
-changing name
-save as copy
-numbers along the axes (so you more easily plot to coordinates in your in game grid, or count)
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Mineprints @ Craftyminer.com -- Plan and save your projects in your browser!
You have an account system and a way to save your drafts it looks like. This is a one-up on minedraft already. Also you mentioned being able to count resource costs? That would be very helpful, but minedraft does this too. Minedraft also has a REALLY slick interface. You'll be hard-pressed to beat that aspect IMO. Minedraft is missing a pan tool however - their blueprint size is fairly limited. That could be a major plus for your system.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Quote from Eylk »
Someone's a tad strong in their use of anti-feminine derogatory metaphors today.
Yeah, minedraft is excessively limited. Would love to see some sort of 3D implementation too to show what the finished product would be.
This should end up being a fairly common tool if it gets finished, Cause its every miners nightmare to find out in the end their undrawn-up plans are a total bust and look horrid.
Also re: 3D... I am not planning to do any isometric/perspective shots.
However--- we could do a head-on 2d top view as well as one for each side and the bottom. These wouldn't only take up the front layer, but would show the first visible block. So you'd be able to build a 3d object in 2d. If there's a renderer out there we can plug this into then you can preview it. I know nothing about that stuff.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Mineprints @ Craftyminer.com -- Plan and save your projects in your browser!
Circle, ellipsoid, rectangle, square drawing tools would be great!
Maybe other fun shapes like arrows, harts, octagons, etc.
Adding notes and guidelines to the blueprints might be useful for sharing for the rest of the build team on the server.
But the biggest advantage over Minedraft would be if your app was available offline. At the moment many people use
Paint to make blueprints, they save small, as each block is 'n single pixel, anyone can open it, and everyone has Paint or something similar.
We definitely need something better than minedraft. It is quite buggy for me and it's server cannot handle huge loads (when it popped up on reddit the site became unresponsive).
It would be great if you coulc have a designer where you could rotate to all 4 sides, top and bottom, and able to slice through the layers. Like if you were looking from top down, you could go through each layer down in a plan view to design all of the walls/floors/etc correctly. This isn't quite 3d modeling, but it would be fairly challenging.
I have not looked at the existing program shown here. These are suggestions for your application only.
Offline use is a must. It really sucks when a nice online tool becomes popular before their servers can handle it, and it'd really suck if becoming popular would suck for this tool, if you follow me. :tongue.gif: Multiplatform, probably through Java would be nice.
I don't care if it doesn't show any 3D views, as long as we can pick and choose between top and bottom view, as well as each side. Multi panel where we can see two or more at a time would be amazing, look at 3D rendering applications or CAD applications.
A way to slice through layers, and a way to tell between blocks on different layers is required. Maybe the further down/away from the camera the blocks are, the darker they are. Just a suggestion. A current layer highlight, in yellow or something else that's bright and easy to see, is a must.
Circles and ovals, as well as curved and freeform lines to blocks is another must have. I've been wanting to build a glass dome over my farm, but circles have stopped me so far. I'm not sure how to proceed, and I'd like to mock it up with something like you're proposing.
Exporting to a build bot is something I expect a lot of people would appreciate. I'm a survival player myself, but there are a ton of creative build bots for a reason. The ability to point a bot to a file from your application would be a huge benefit to mocking things up like this. This isn't something to shoot for immediately I expect, but if a build bot developer talks to you about this, I'd work with them.
Redstone support would help immensely. Nothing major, just checking to see if power would transfer along lines or not, as well as making sure the wire curves as expected.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head, and good luck to you! I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.
But as you pointed out, there are performance issues that need to be worked out before this goes public. Luckily, I have experience from the spammy days of facebook apps when http://apps.facebook.com/proracer/ exploded and was down for two weeks for that reason. I'm mostly worried about bandwidth from images we'd host/spit out for embedability.
I am thinking of a way to match uploaded images pixel for pixel to like-colored blocks as well.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Mineprints @ Craftyminer.com -- Plan and save your projects in your browser!
If you are worried about the site hosting people's creations you could write a script that uploaded it to imgur automatically. Or like you said, have the program create a build code for the scructure and use an online generator to decrypt that code to regenerate the structure.
Here's an example http://craftyminer.com/print/11
Initial features:
-Support for Classic or Alpha textures
-Only supports a single 2D plane but the designs are forwards compatible for the multiplane system I'm building
-Circle drawing-- click on the circle box to activate. Click where you want one "corner" of the circle to be (hah!) and it will draw to the next point you click
-Line drawing-- click and drag
-Saving-- click the save button
Some quirks--
I put ladders, torches, and both redstone torch states in. Some other special items are not in yet because they will work better in the next update. this includes doors, switches, tracks, and redstone dust. Most of these items are useless without multiplane anyway since they take up their own block ontop of the block you'd be placing them on. Deal with it.
I figured ladders would help with your crazy lava mob traps.
Until 3D comes along, you're best using this for single-side designs and pixel art. I have included both "top" and "side" views for certain blocks (like logs) but in the future they will be merged (a log block will be a log block, and will show the top texture in top view and side texture in side view)
Halfblocks side view also does not work as intended and might not for a while.
Things I'm planning that you don't need to suggest
-a "hide grid" button that removes the borders between blocks
-support for other texture packs
-a way to embed these in other sites (not anytime soon... but planned)
-zoom (at least for viewing)
-changing name
-save as copy
-numbers along the axes (so you more easily plot to coordinates in your in game grid, or count)
http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=80323
http://minedraft.net/
But if you can improve on the concept, I'm sure it'd be welcomed by everyone.
http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=80323
I can beat that :smile.gif:
http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=80323
This should end up being a fairly common tool if it gets finished, Cause its every miners nightmare to find out in the end their undrawn-up plans are a total bust and look horrid.
Circle drawer.
The gray box is where the mouse is. The mossy cobble is the "origin"
I think I will build this out a bit... It performs decent on a 32x32 grid so far. I will see how far I can push it.
http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=80323
However--- we could do a head-on 2d top view as well as one for each side and the bottom. These wouldn't only take up the front layer, but would show the first visible block. So you'd be able to build a 3d object in 2d. If there's a renderer out there we can plug this into then you can preview it. I know nothing about that stuff.
http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=80323
^ This.
A line and curved line tool would also be useful.
Permit us also to draw temporary (non-blocky) lines, circles and curved lines as a guide, please.
Maybe other fun shapes like arrows, harts, octagons, etc.
Adding notes and guidelines to the blueprints might be useful for sharing for the rest of the build team on the server.
But the biggest advantage over Minedraft would be if your app was available offline. At the moment many people use
Paint to make blueprints, they save small, as each block is 'n single pixel, anyone can open it, and everyone has Paint or something similar.
I have big hopes for this editor...
It would be great if you coulc have a designer where you could rotate to all 4 sides, top and bottom, and able to slice through the layers. Like if you were looking from top down, you could go through each layer down in a plan view to design all of the walls/floors/etc correctly. This isn't quite 3d modeling, but it would be fairly challenging.
Offline use is a must. It really sucks when a nice online tool becomes popular before their servers can handle it, and it'd really suck if becoming popular would suck for this tool, if you follow me. :tongue.gif: Multiplatform, probably through Java would be nice.
I don't care if it doesn't show any 3D views, as long as we can pick and choose between top and bottom view, as well as each side. Multi panel where we can see two or more at a time would be amazing, look at 3D rendering applications or CAD applications.
A way to slice through layers, and a way to tell between blocks on different layers is required. Maybe the further down/away from the camera the blocks are, the darker they are. Just a suggestion. A current layer highlight, in yellow or something else that's bright and easy to see, is a must.
Circles and ovals, as well as curved and freeform lines to blocks is another must have. I've been wanting to build a glass dome over my farm, but circles have stopped me so far. I'm not sure how to proceed, and I'd like to mock it up with something like you're proposing.
Exporting to a build bot is something I expect a lot of people would appreciate. I'm a survival player myself, but there are a ton of creative build bots for a reason. The ability to point a bot to a file from your application would be a huge benefit to mocking things up like this. This isn't something to shoot for immediately I expect, but if a build bot developer talks to you about this, I'd work with them.
Redstone support would help immensely. Nothing major, just checking to see if power would transfer along lines or not, as well as making sure the wire curves as expected.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head, and good luck to you! I'll be keeping an eye on this thread.
I do stuff.
If you can beat that, I would hump your leg because I can't stand Minedraft.
Oh and damn you.. I just bought some graph paper and different color gel pens the other day XD lol
Edit: That circle drawer would be WICKED!!!!
Steampunk Pack - Steampunk textures.
Frenden's Texture Pack - Nice simple 16x16 texture pack.
Alchemy - *drool* Yesss...
But as you pointed out, there are performance issues that need to be worked out before this goes public. Luckily, I have experience from the spammy days of facebook apps when http://apps.facebook.com/proracer/ exploded and was down for two weeks for that reason. I'm mostly worried about bandwidth from images we'd host/spit out for embedability.
I am thinking of a way to match uploaded images pixel for pixel to like-colored blocks as well.
http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=80323
(I know you're talking 2D to minecraft, not suggesting you run out and support 3D importing. :tongue.gif:)
I do stuff.