I use ASEPRITE to animate sprites. This editor won't beat ASEPRITE.
I use Pyxeledit when I want check tile connections and edit tiles on the fly. Your editor would actually also be pretty useful for that, since it just naturally happens that updating one tile updates all instances of it on your map. Most graphics editors don't do that, which is why Pyxeledit exists in the first place. This editor won't beat Pyxeledit, but editors that do this are rare and sorta neat.
I actually do like the idea of this editor and will use it sometimes. At the moment, my swiss army knife of editors makes it somewhat difficult to check how even a simple change in palette will look in all the various things this game will run on. (Actual NES, various emulators) I'd like it to look good on as many of those as possible.
With this tool, I can quickly create a new CHR file without worrying about making room for the new tiles in an existing file used by my editors. I paste it into the .sav of this editor with yychr. And then I can place the tiles, and use the sav+nes rom on various things to see how the palette/tiles work.
Much easier than what I have to do now which I won't even go into.
But... I don't like the interface at all. I'm used to an
LSDJ style of things, which is the only native editor I can think of that I've liked.
Consider the "EDIT COLOR PALETTE" screen of your editor. To change a color, I have to navigate to it, press A to select it, d-pad to change it, then press A again to deselect it.
LSDJ make it so that while A is held, d-pad change the number, when it's let go it allows you to select a number. Being used to LSDJ, sometimes I press and hold A to change a number, and let go when I want to navigate. I end up messing up my palette before I realize I'm in the wrong mode.
If you're feeling bold, you could satisfy both camps by detecting if the user has held A more than X frames. If so, releasing will go back to navigation, if not the user must press A again to back back to navigation.
Another thing I like about LSDJ is that the screens that allows you to control various behavior are arranged in a map. The key combo is "select+d-pad" and it consistently moves around this map. (The letters of the map are also displayed so it's trickier to get lost)
Code:
PPWST
SCPIT
GGGGG
Let's say I'm on S. Select+up will move me to P. +down will take me to G. +right will take me to C.
It's also arranged intelligently in that moving left-right makes the editing your doing less/more specific while moving up or down takes you to a related edit mode to the current "level of specificity"
(T)ables, are used to control (I)nstruments, which are used to play notes in (P)hrases, which are used to string together (C)hains which are used to make up the (S)ong. This also frees up select alone for other stuff.
I also mention LSDJ's select+ behavior because your interface uses three buttons (start, select and sometimes A) to navigate between editors and LSDJ uses only one.
Check your tile editor right now. A drops a pixel of the current color. B cycles through the colors. Start and select both do the same thing. The behavior of B is a little inconsistent with most graphics programs and this editor's own tile editor.
Let's say A is left click and B is right click. A places the current color. Cool. B could pick up the color underneath the cursor. Start could cycle, and select could sent you back to the HUB.
Quick note: I selected "move used tiles to top" expecting no change at all, since all the used tiles were already at the top. Instead, it cleared out everything that wasn't used as well. Maybe this is expected behavior, but I definitely did not expect it to clear my unused tiles as well. Just thought it would push those down.
Let's say I'm on the map. I now what to edit the tile I'm drawing with. To do this I must press select,start.
I am now editing a tile. I now want to place it on the map. To do this I must press select, A.
Now I'm on the map. I want to edit the palette. Select, Select, d-pad down, A.
That is why I think it's hard to navigate and inconsistent. Select+ is one way to do things. You could certainly think of another I'm sure, but currently I really don't the interface. I always have to keep in mind what part of the editor I'm in just so I know what to do to switch, editors. I also have to keep in mind where I am just to DO stuff. B cycles through colors everywhere except the map. Things like this are just irritating.
I could write a lot more, (and I will if you're interested) but really just try LSDJ and see how it manages things.
Quote:
rane wanted a box shaped cursor on the nametable editor instead of the arrow.
rane wanted a display mode that just shows solid tiles to see attributes.
These are great ideas.
And just to say so I'd like to be able to edit a tile with the map behind it. I'm on the map screen, and I can do some button combo to edit a tile with the map still on the screen. This will allow me to see the changes immediately. I'm not sure if this would be easy or possible, but would be very cool.
Edit: While I'm suggestion editors within editors, I should also mention you should be able to see some type of graphics on the Palette editor. Even if it's something simple like just the top 16 tiles of the CHR data. Because checking what changes in palette look like on the actual tiles is a lot of back and forth right now.