I wrote the editor for my game using the normal windows API and DirectDraw (no MFC), but the UI is not as friendly as it could have been, and I found myself spending way too much time doing simple things that would've been a given in VB...
/Niels
I wrote the editor for my game using the normal windows API and DirectDraw (no MFC), but the UI is not as friendly as it could have been, and I found myself spending way too much time doing simple things that would've been a given in VB...
/Niels
code:[Public | Private] Declare Sub Lib "" [Alias ""] [([arglist])]
code:Declare Sub First Lib "MyLib" (X As Long)
VB would be a nice way to make the map editor IF you already had the graphics engine in modular form. However, most game programmers hard-code / mush everything in their game together and thus separating the grpahics engine from the rest of the game might prove difficult.
If you want to take the time, all a map editor really is is your game with movable / insertable pieces and no "game" logic. So basically, build a game that is the map editor. Or use VB. Or use MFC - yuck ;(
- Splat
As mentioned, you should make the editor pretty much wysiwyg, and as easy to use as possible, unless of course you plan on using it.
Recently when I gave my editor to someone who is going to design levels, they just couldn't "get it", So I went back and spent a day or two to make it very visual and give instant feedback.
Every feature you add, or hour you spend making your editor easier to use and more powerful, means the resulting levels or maps will be that much better.
But then, after doing more research into the win32 api, not MFC which also uses the win32 api, I thought it would be useful to intergrate the functionality of the api with my gui. That's what i did, now i have the functionaly of prebuilt windows components and dialogues, and the WYSIWYG compabilitiy with my existing engine through the legacy gui code. IF i had to do it over, i would proably still choose this route as having WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get.) funtionality is critical to effective level designing, i feel. Good Luck!
-ddn