UI Feedback / Feature Requests

[rpalmerdev]

Hi There! Thanks again for making this tool!

A few requests / pieces of feedback:

1: The lines of the rectangle to define the area for texture extraction are (in my opinion) too thick, and make it unclear exactly where the true defining line is. Shoebox does what is effectively a single-pixel dotted line, which makes it easier to see the surrounding parts of the image, as well as makes it crystal clear where the border for texture extraction is located. Currently, its hard to tell if the texture is being defined on the inside of the thicker blue line, the outside, or directly in the center.

2: Currently, the curve handles are larger than the handles for defining the rectangle. Defining the rectangle is generally more important and widely used. In addition, once a curve handle is moved, it does not follow the overall defining lines for the rectangle anymore, which makes it hard to adjust. In Shoebox, when a curve handle is moved, it also draws a line back to the center point, which makes it easier to readjust. (It also does react to the overall rectangle as it adjusted somewhat, I'm not sure how, but it does create a less extreme curve which is generally easier to adjust/fix on the fly.) It might be good to add an option to reset the curve points on a rectangle, and/or add a visual guide back to the center point for the curve. Also, I would recommend making the handles for the rectangle larger or equal sized to the curve handles, and maybe change the shape of one to better distinguish between the two.

0001-0643.mp4

3: The 512x512 default texture area I would say is a bit small (although this is somewhat subjective.) I would say 2048x2048 is perhaps a better default, as 2k textures are sort of a widely-used middle ground map size for both higher-quality game assets/more optimized renders. This part will be slightly harder to implement, but Shoebox does sort of 'intelligently' define the map size based on the first texture extracted, and then packs subsequent textures the best it can. Definitely a nice-to-have, where you don't really have to resize and pack the extracted textures manually. Could be a cool toggleable option to be able to switch between manually defining and packing according to a map size, vs auto packing based on the resolution of the extracted image. Also, I noticed when using the draw mode, the extracted texture often ends up rotated, whereas Shoebox seems to do a better job of handling rotation based on the Y coordinate of the source image.

4: If possible, please add CTRL Z undo/redo functionality for things like adjusting handle points, moving a rectangle, etc.

[rpalmerdev]

Also, it would be nice to be able to drag an image into the web app to load it. It works with the file browser option, and pasting from clipboard, but drag and drop would be nice to have.

[raycastly]

Hey @rpalmerdev, thanks for the feedback, very useful! I tried to address most of the points:

• overhauled the look of the edges, grid, vertices etc to match the way they look in shoebox, I believe it makes it easier to use now like you said!
• I reworked the drawing so that now it should always put the vertices (most of the time) in the correct order, so that the output textures are not rotated etc..
• you can now drag and drop images as well to add them
• added a simple packing button, still a long way to go there, it's quite a complicated topic but maybe you will find this basic system useful, it simply tries to pack optimally the images into the area (but it is still buggy)

I'll keep improving stuff but at the moment I feel like the tool is in a solid state? So, I'll be focusing efforts on making my game, but if you have more feedback or encounter issues, feel free to open up separate issues per issue so that I can easily track which are solved etc..

Let me know how it goes!
Thanks!

[MickL]

@raycastly

Crucial things

• I think a redo (cmd + z) would be highly desirable. Especially when touching the curve accidentally or deleting something accidentally
• Also highly desirable: Resizing should keep image/texture ratio and not distort it. Instead press shift to enable resize with distortion (opposite behavior as currently)
• A big issue is that when I want to pan with middle mouse button it always moves around the corners instead of panning. I think middle mouse should be exclusive to panning and not move around anything.
• When editing the width/height and pressing backspace it deletes the current rectangle !

Super important

• Lines should be thinner, @rpalmerdev mentioned to use 1px lines and I would agree this would be great!
• When zooming, the ui elements (lines and draggable icons) shouldnt zoom too. Because when you want to go in to get it more detailed you actually cant because the elements are in the way:

• Another problem with that is that I cant select the edges anymore. It always selects the yellow circle. And if I move away the yellow circle I cant pick corner 2 (bottom left), it always selects corner 3:

Nice to have

• The (electron) app is not available for macOS ?
• Save state - This one is kinda crucial, too. If one wants to come back and make an edit to an existing texture, one needs to redo all the work. It would be cool if a json (or other file format) would be saved including the source images (could be saved as base64) and the rectangle coordinates.
• When adding images, they should be spread next to each other, not overlap
• When adding rectangulars they should automatically extract
• When extracting, the textures should be auto resized and positioned, currently they need to be scaled down first and then auto pack needs to be pressed manually:

Otherwise great great work!

[raycastly]

Thanks for the feedback @MickL, great points, will look into it as soon as I have some time on my hands! Will keep you posted

[MickL]

Hey @raycastly , I am working more with texture ripper and edited my points above. Especially undo is crucial, for example there is an issue that when editing the width/height and hitting backspace the well crafted rectangle is deleted.

If you want me to put my points into separate issues so it is more organized, tell me!

Just to mention again, really great work! I hope this can one day replace Shoebox entirely. I saw you didnt use any framework (I would recommend Vue over React but thats just my personal opinion), this could make future maintenance and contribution harder as the project grows.

[raycastly]

@MickL yes, if you can it would be ideal to have them in separate issues, thanks!

I will definitely consider upgrading the project to use a framework at some point.