Saving to a Default File Format
Is it possible (or could it be a new feature) to save all files to a user default format?
What I mean is you configure your default file formats (similar to setting up the editor paths) and then load a color texture (say a jpg format.) Then you click the save all and it writes all the files to your default format (say you chose png 16 rgb.) This would also save your color texture file (in this case jpg) to png (if that was what you chose as the default.)
Of course you could still over-ride your default(s) using the "save map to file" process.
What I mean is you configure your default file formats (similar to setting up the editor paths) and then load a color texture (say a jpg format.) Then you click the save all and it writes all the files to your default format (say you chose png 16 rgb.) This would also save your color texture file (in this case jpg) to png (if that was what you chose as the default.)
Of course you could still over-ride your default(s) using the "save map to file" process.
Comments
Great idea! :idea: It will have to be a new feature.
Currently each map plugin communicates to the application a default save format.
The user defined format would override the plugin's default format and could be selected for each individual map in the SM2 options.
Can you explain that any better?
I'm not sure I understand. What is the advantage? I was planning to save image format overrides in the options file. Once they are setup they would persist from project-to-project the same as the external editor overrides.
I use Lightwave a lot. In Lightwave, you can save and load keyboard and menu configurations "on the fly." I was thinking there may be users who jump between applications that require different defaults in SM2, but I'm just speculating on that.
I like your first idea, and if I understand it correctly....
The developer sets a default file format for each image type
The user can over-ride the defaults using a menu in Options and Settings -- each image
can be set to one of the supported formats and SM2 will use these settings until changed.
The user can still change the image format as currently done by using the "set save
file path" button.
If that's what you had in mind, I think it would work great and be completely transparent to users who prefer the way SM2 works now. But a user who works primarily in DDX DST 1 could set this up as the default one time via options and not have to change these settings (each time SM2 is run.)
My thoughts last night were to make the configuration file savable, like myLightwaveConfig.cfg and myUDKconfig.cfg and then be able to load either. But maybe there wouldn't be that much call for this and it would be better to wait and see (if a feature request like this is asked for.)
I see. Thanks for the explanation.
In the future I am planning to add a project template feature that will make config files unnecessary. Currently there are 3 project templates for color, normal, and displacement maps. Users will be able to create and name their own project templates from existing projects.
The user will select a template for Lightwave or UDK maps on the start screen when loading a source and all save formats will be setup as well as map types, map properties, etc.
i made a mock up so it might be clearer what i mean:D