Visibility settings tab for Auto-guide gadget
When stamping an element into a creation, the current visibility settings might not be the best for stamping that element. For example, the element could have invisible parts that the creator needs to see while stamping it but the player shouldn't see in play mode - for that element, preview invisibility should be off.
It would be nice if the Auto-guide gadget had a tab of visibility settings - three values per setting, turn off, don't change, and turn on - that would temporarily override the current visibility settings while stamping or moving the element.
For an example of an element that would have benefited from this, have a look at the Warlock enemy in the Dungeon Crawler template. It has four teleport destinations that the creator needs to see but the player shouldn't see. They could have been as simple as a single Tag gadget per destination - but that would have required the creator to manually change the visibility settings to see them. They're actually much more complicated - visible sculpts with logic to turn them permanently invisible on frame zero.
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The couldn't just be a tag, as they turn themselves off so it won't keep trying to teleport to the same spot every time.
I'm not clear on what these settings would do exactly? When I import the warlock, I can see those teleport pads in edit mode just fine.
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I'll need to have a closer look at the warlock - if the teleport destinations were simplified to tags, they would require some logic to be wired to them to turn them on and off.
But the reason why you can see the teleport destinations in edit mode is because they haven't been simplified in that way - they're visible sculpts. If they had been simplified to tags, there would be some visibility settings for which they would be invisible, because they're inside the Warlock element's group. So without Auto-guide visibility settings, simplifying them to tags wouldn't be such a good idea - the templates and their elements are supposed to be learning tools, and an element not working as expected because you accidentally buried a part of it that you couldn't see in a wall makes for a confusing learning experience.
The Auto-guide visibility settings tab would ensure that you got visibility settings that made the tags visible - I think that's "electronics visible on" plus "x-ray on" for logic in a group - while stamping or moving the element.
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Oh so importing would automatically change your show/hide settings, essentially?
I think the intention isn't that you just place the warlock and that's it. But you can move those teleport pads wherever you like.
So you're using the warlock as an example of an asset that doesn't need this setting, right? I'm confused, sorry. 😅
Are you saying that if we had that setting, the teleport pads could be invisible all the time, and not require the logic to make it invisible while playing time, and so would save some thermo?
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Oh so importing would automatically change your show/hide settings, essentially?
Yes. Provided that you've enabled obey Auto-guides, the settings in the new "visbility" tab on the Auto-guide of the element that you're stamping or moving would temporarily override the current visibility settings.
I think the intention isn't that you just place the warlock and that's it. But you can move those teleport pads wherever you like.
That's an interesting point. You would have to scope into the warlock's group to move the teleport pads, but if they were simplified to tags, there would be visibility settings that could hide them even when scoped in - "electronics visible off". So the circumstances under which the new Auto-guide visibility settings override the current settings would need to be broader than just "stamping the element" or "moving the element" - they would also have to include "scoped in to the element".
So you're using the warlock as an example of an asset that doesn't need this setting, right?
The warlock as it is now doesn't need this - there aren't any visibility settings that would hide those sculpts that it uses to mark the teleport destinations.
Are you saying that if we had that setting, the teleport pads could be invisible all the time, and not require the logic to make it invisible while playing time, and so would save some thermo?
Yes. If we removed the teleport destination sculpts entirely, and left only tags wired to the logic to turn them on and off, we'd save:
- the thermo of the sculpts
- the thermo of the logic to make the sculpts permanently invisible on frame zero of gameplay.
But there would be some combinations of visibility settings that would hide those tags. We would need the new "visibility" tab on the Auto-guide to ensure that the creator can see the teleport destinations while stamping, moving, or scoped in to the element.
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