*rubs hands together*
If i had the money, I'd PAY To have this. This would be AMAZING
*fires up VB Express Edition*
Time to put my bits of knowledge to use...
I have some experience building GUI's (just designing the graphical part), so I'll build what I would want to see in a GUI like this:
When you fire it up, it will ask you if you want to continue a project, or start a new one. Lets say (for demonstration purposes) that the user picks to start a new project. He would be sent to this screen(I know it looks sloppy, I'm just putting the stuff on right now so you can get the general idea of what i'm getting at):
Here, you would define every parameter a ship has: Size, mass, etc, etc. Fairly Straight Forward. Next would be the actual design screen:
The Ship Editor would be something VERY simple that a 10 year old could do. You are given some standard "frames", engines, wing designs, wheel designs, etc, etc, and you put them together. To reshape one, you click on a point, and drag it. It will conform to what you want. The Ship parameters are defined in here also. In the example, you have an "Air lock" Option. When this is selected, you would be able to draw a box defining the airlock. Click and drag to define. When its set, the check box next to it will check, showing you have defined it. "Touch down points" Would just be points; "Engine direction" would be arrows; "Camera(s)" would be arrows (you can define more then one camera view in parameters); "Docking ports" would be circles. I think you get my drift. Very Heavily Graphical.
Next is the Animation Screen:
Concept is fairly simple: Click either "Rotation" or "Translation". "Rotation" defines axis(s) to be rotated, and defines the "center" of which the part is to be rotates around. "Translation" defines the axis(s) of which the part is to be moved. Next, Select the "Start Position" button and select the part(s) you want to be animated. When it is in its starting position (which should be the same as when you modeled it, but you never know), click the "Running" button. Here, you move it to your finish position. NOTE: IT WOULD NOT FOLLOW YOUR MOVEMENTS. THIS IS JUST TO MAKE IT EASIER FOR THE COMPUTER TO KNOW WHAT IS GOING ON. When you have it in its final position, click the "End Position" button. The check boxes become checked when the position is defined. After the "End Position" Button is clicked, the model returns to its original position. Next, define how long that particular animation would take. When that is defined, click the "Done with animation" button. When you click that, The computer analyzes the start position and the end position, whether it is "Rotation" or "Translation", figures in the time, and calculates the appropriate animation. You can click "replay" to see/fix it if necessary. It then stores the animation name in a list box that you can view. To edit an animation, just select one out of the box.
Next is the Effects Page:
This one is much simpler then the Animation page (took me about 20 minutes to come up with that bare minimum of information). You have some effects to browse through, and you can edit them/choose where they go on the model.
*I have no experience with effects, so this one is left open because i dont want to make myself look stupid*
Next would be Texturing:
*Again, i have no idea how UV mapping works, so this one is again, left open*
The Final page would be the overview page:
Here, it would show a small picture of your ship, fully textured, possibly spinning. It would also show some basic parameters such as Name, Size, Mass, UMMU Compatible, etc, etc. The Button on the bottom would create the .dll, a .cfg file, and all other files necessary. The "Try it out" Button would start orbiter with your ship in orbit around earth. Here you could try out all the settings. Also, since creating the .dll might take a while, the try it out thing could be a "try before you buy" kind of deal.
That would be my idea for a good GUI based ship creator. I know it looks kind of sloppy, but its just so you guys can get a basic idea of what is going through my head.
I'm gonna save this GUI on the off chance that someone likes it/can work with it. Im willing to give it out to pretty much anyone.
Cheers!
NOTE: This is not a working copy. Its just the GUI part, no code at all. Just to avoid confusion.
