Graphical .def file tool?

[Parkar]

While waiting for a platform to compile at work I thought crossed my mind. Wouldn't it be kinda neat to have a graphical tool to edit the def files.

Not sure if I will ever get the time to make it but I thought I should throw the idea out there to see what kind of interest there is. Possibly it could inspire someone else to make it or somthing like it even if I never get around to it.

What I am thinking is it would work something like this:

It would show you a tree view of the def files starting from the duke3d.def file.

Under each file you get all the defined replacements.

For each replacement you can view the defined tokens in a proerty grid kinda fashion. It would also let you use file browsing, drag and drop of files to assign them as skin, textre detail etc. Could have it launch tools to edit the textures and models.

As far as possible it should retain comments so saving won't completly destroy manualy edited files.

Adding new tokens that it should understand could be as easy as updating a properties file defined using xml or some format similar to how the def files look.

Reading art files to show current and new texture could be possible as well.

I guess it could even be extended to suport editing maphacks and any other possible future tasks introduced by features in eduke32.

Making this tool should be pretty straight forward using java, C# or something similar where you don't have to worry to much about writing a bunch of gui code while it could be quiet a time/tedious file editing saver.

So any thoughts or sugestions?

[TerminX]

Some kind of "mass import" tool would be a very useful feature for it to have. Throw a bunch of textures into a directory, key in a starting tile number and have it automatically generate dummytile entries and the texture defs.

[Parkar]

Yea, adding batch commands like that could really save some time. A tool that looks for unreferenced files would be useful as well.

Another cool feature which would be a bit more work is making it capable of calculating the scale values that would make a model the same dimensions as the sprite. Not to mention visual representation of tints.

I wish I had the time to just sit down and start making it right away. Working on these kind of tools is usualy pretty fun.

[Usurper]

I'd like support for animtilerange with animation preview.

[Qbix]

sounds like a reasonably fun project to program.

[The Commander]

Would have been a good tool to have when I had to add over 1000 textures for DTA.

[XTHX2]

Originally Posted by The Commander

Would have been a good tool to have when I had to add over 1000 textures for DTA.

Same for my case as well...

[Helixhorned]

Generating texture definitions from a collection of files and checking for unreferenced files is something that could be done rather easily from the shell (I'm talking Unix shell here, but the basic tools are available as native Windows ones as well)... the two major problems I see here are sorting file names into "natural" order and getting the dimensions of each picture; the latter could be handled with a small standalone program that accepts images in many formats.
I've played around a little and it's reasonably convenient (if you call command-line interfaces convenient, that is, but certainly more convenient than doing it by hand). I could post the commands if anyone's interested.

[Hendricks266]

HUD model view and editing, please...

I second... everything that has been said. Perhaps auto support for texture filenames -> DEFs? Like 1337.png and 1337_2.png make the 1337 pal 0 and pal 2 automatic definitions.

[Mr.Fibbles]

so...what I see here is people adding to a list of features for something no one has volunteered to make. Parkar never said he was making it, just that he wishes he had time to.
Anyway, it is a cool project idea and if it gets done (even just to save time for the HRP compiling team) it would be useful for modders etc.