Buncha MMF2 and object fixes and suggestions

In my happy MMF2 years, I've found quite a lot of MMF2 bugs and things that I want to be added to MMF2.

Suggestions for fixes/upgrades in MMF2:
1. Alt shouldn't be seen as Ctrl using the MMF2 "Press button" dialog.
2. F1 in the MMF2 "Press button" dialog shouldn't open MMF2 help.
3. In Event Editor, more than one comment can be edited at the same time, perhaps just formatting (text colour and whatnot).
4. When renaming a frame, you should be able to cancel renaming by pressing Escape - currently, pressing Escape sets the name as the one entered (but not wanted).
5. Scrolling triggered by the mouse-at-top or mouse-at-bottom on the Workspace toolbar should be an option, so folders could be sorted efficiently and quickly.
6. Rearranging objects in folders on the Workspace toolbar should be possible.
7. Frame transitions on the Storyboard Editor should be drag-and-dropable, so they could be copied to other frames.
8. On the Expression Evaluator with one variable - Pressing Ctrl+Shift+L adds a bullet point/number.
9. On the Expression Evaluator with one variable - Pressing Ctrl+Shift+J or Ctrl+Enter adds a new line. Maybe it should be changed to add +Newline$+?
10. On an object's ID tab, if the Website box is empty, there shouldn't be any attempts to open the non-existant link if you click the box. For example see the Get Line object.
11. In startup flash screen (maybe just HWA), a toolbar that was left seperate from the MMF2 window (on the last MMF2 close), when the seperate toolbar is closed during the MMF2 load of objects, it quits MMF2.

Suggestions for fixes/upgrades in Clickteam objects:
1. Clipboard object: Add a "See what clipboard contains"(image, text) [condition/expression]; "Send image to clipboard" [action]
2. Button object/Bouton CS: size of radio button circle or checkbox symbol should change according to size of text or object.

12. I would like to see scrolling or moveable frame editor as I have opened quite a few different applications before where the frame editor is stuck on a small size and the objects in the frame go beyond the frame window but there is no way of scrolling that far to view the other objects

You can select them in the list of objects in the frame and modify thier x and y coordinates, but yes there should be more dynamic scrolling in the frame editor.

@bigredron
How about increasing the margin (Preferences -> Frame Editor -> Margins)? Also use space to drag the window around.

And of course maximize the frame editor window :o)

I havnt tried increasing margins but you can only scroll around the size of the frame editor. Sometimes programs are well beyond this and unless you increase the application window size it wont resize the frame editor to allow for this.

13. Keys not displayed differently - for example, pressing / next to Shift and / above NumPad is not displayed differently in MMF2 Keyboard > On Key Pressed.

P.S. Gotta love the number of posts I've made. XD

14. Button object- Arrange radio buttons horizontally and space options out evenly across object width.
15. Smooth scrolling for the event editor.
16. Pixel pushing in the image editor.
17. Fix black in the image editor.
18. Fix gradients from 0,0,0 to 8,0,0 in Quick Backdrop object.
19. Refer to frames by name in expression editor.

20. Using Library window, only the first frame of a single animation of an object is displayed. Maybe it should be so it displays every animation, of every frame, with the animation name and frame displayed in the corner?
21. The Library window, when the line - between tree displayer and MFAs icon displayer - is dragged to the right, returns to normal when MMF2 is restarted.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Jon_Lambert

17. Fix black in the image editor.

---

what do u mean by this? Pure black 0,0,0 is actually transparent in MMF. Its been this way for years

I really wish clickteam would just make dedicated forum areas for requests and bugs.

Heres a few recent ideas -

Mute/bypass (Event Editor) - Basically it keeps the whole event setup in the list but bypasses it as if it were off. This way it would be easy to test/debug things.

---

Object Listing (Left side of Frame Editor) - This could be much more useful with a few changes.

First it needs to have a tree view like system. For objects with multiple copys it would be like a folder with the normal name and a number like (5) etc and have a small expand icon. The number would of course be the amount of copys and when the plus/expand button was pressed lists all the copys, when expanded it would have a subtract icon then to hide them again etc.

Folders cannot be deleted when objects are in them, just make it so it has a popup yes/no box so you can do this without having to move them all out again.

Theres also no drag drag/ctrl+click selection tools when in a folder list which makes things annoying to manage using them. They should also just be expandable lists so you can see outside content at the same time.

They also need to be able to be made via the object list rather than the Workspace Toolbar with a right click command or a simple icon bar at the top.

The folder system needs to have the option to use sub groups (folders in folders). This would make things so much easier to manage/organize in terms of tile sets and graphics elements.

---

In the preferences for the tabs on the zoom sliders ther should be a way to directly enter a value because it seems the pointer doesn't have snapping so if you set it differently it can't go to 100% exactly. Either a edit value or a simple reset button.

---

A way to organize alterables - Position them with a up and down arrow etc once they have been named only so it works with the name used. This makes it easier to sort for widget creation.

When making widgets also if you assign them when hidden (use default letters) without clicking the 'New' button on the objects 'Value' menu and then decide you want another visible one all the hidden ones need to be added to make it listed which is annoying.

Either that or a simple 'hide again' right click command, this is really just for widgets which have inputs but also alterables for maths also which you don't want shown but then need to have named one after you have added the maths stuff. With a hide option you could also have them named so you could work with them easier in the event editor. After hiding them you could have another right click 'show hidden' option which opens a simple menu for management of multiple hidden alterables.

---

Autobackup files (.001 etc) - Theses are handy but it's annoying how it just makes them all the time. I noticed there is the option in the preferences tab for them so it would be great to have a way to place them in a choosen/Default MMF folder.

I would prefer it like that if they were all in once place with folders for multiple of one project etc rather than getting saved where i have the .mfa file as thats often the desktop when making things quickly so im always deleting these.

Mute/bypass: Put those events in a group and disable it! :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OldManClayton

Mute/bypass: Put those events in a group and disable it! :)

---

Thanks for the tip, i think that would be a great workaround for now but possibly annoying to setup if wanting to do quick tests as it seems deactivate has to be done via setting up a event rather than quickly via it's listing so the main idea would be useful still imo and be faster.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OldManClayton

Mute/bypass: Put those events in a group and disable it! :)

---

What if they are somehow crucial to the order of events and you forget where they go? Undo and redo commands are cleared upon running the frame or application, and using Never gets tedious.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Atom

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OldManClayton

Mute/bypass: Put those events in a group and disable it! :)

---

Thanks for the tip, i think that would be a great workaround for now but possibly annoying to setup if wanting to do quick tests as it seems deactivate has to be done via setting up a event rather than quickly via it's listing so the main idea would be useful still imo and be faster.

---

You can choose for an event group to not be active at frame start in it's properties where you chnage the name/password ect.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LB

What if they are somehow crucial to the order of events and you forget where they go? Undo and redo commands are cleared upon running the frame or application, and using Never gets tedious.

---

It would just grey or highlight the events but not hide it in anyway so it would still be in the same position and visible in the main list. It would be done by right clicking a slot/group and save time in my opinion for testing things.

Atom I was talking @ OMC, I understand your point pretty clearly.

Could you not just put the group in the same place as the events?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LB

Atom I was talking @ OMC, I understand your point pretty clearly.

---

Ok great, np :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by OldManClayton

Could you not just put the group in the same place as the events?

---

Yeah you could and it's a good workaround then just untick/tick active when frame starts etc. This method though wouldn't be perfect because it means moving things around in and out of groups, if you wanted to test a few events this way it would get annoying.

Most of these ideas though are usually simple things to speed up workflow in MMF which i think would be handy to have available.

Cant you just use the 'never' command?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LB

using Never gets tedious.

---

@ Atom - I filed very, very similar requests a few months ago (especially regarding the Workspace Toolbar and the Object Window, the latter is basically completely useless and irritating as is), citing how the interfaces work in industry standard software but was given the "by design" line. So yeah.

Hopefully the design will change in some future installments.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RayMarble

@ Atom - I filed very, very similar requests a few months ago (especially regarding the Workspace Toolbar and the Object Window, the latter is basically completely useless and irritating as is), citing how the interfaces work in industry standard software but was given the "by design" line. So yeah.

Hopefully the design will change in some future installments.

---

Good to know, yeah for me decent workflow is what makes me want to use a app over a similar one. MMF has a great way of working but i find the interface although it gets the job done could be adjusted in places to make it much better.

Some of these ideas would make working with the interface much easier and faster for the user. Hopefully as you say Clickteam will take note of some of these ideas and others from similar threads. Im sure though after java and HWA are finished we will start to see this sort of stuff happen although hopefully a few simple but good ideas will appear in the betas also.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LB

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LB

using Never gets tedious.

---

---

Compared to creating a group, disabling it, and dragging your events from their current position into this group?

Doesn't really matter which one is less cumbersome. Having two options - one very tedious (and possibly dangerous if you mess up the order of events) and the other impractical (inserting a Never requires a few crawlings through menus) isn't really a choice anyway.

Personally I'd like to see it solved with a small icon in front of the whole event that can just be turned on or off, similar to how you switch visibility of layers in Photoshop.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by RayMarble

Personally I'd like to see it solved with a small icon in front of the whole event that can just be turned on or off, similar to how you switch visibility of layers in Photoshop.

---

I think that would work really well. I would also like a similar thing like that for the frames object list with lock and hide etc, it would make things so much easier to make levels for games with something like that i think. With the other things i suggested and then being able to hide or lock all object copys or folders also it would be perfect. :)

There's been no input from a MMF2 admin, so thus I'm bringing this back to their attention :)

Information Noted Thanks.

Jason