Iām using a lot of visual effects for my layers and I wish there could be copy/past one effect into another. There is a 3 dots next to effect and I wish there would be an option to ācopy/pastā it and likewise past one into existing one or with button.
AND on top of it to temporary disable it for preview, so often I just want to disable one particular effect that I have been tweaking for some time and deleting it is not really a lovely thought to just preview other effect or scene without it!
Iām new to the engine so I might have missed or overlooked this!
@Jessica I donāt know that thereās a gui integrated feature to do what you ask, but you can do it with events - make events that modify a layer effect and copy/paste those, or use events to disable certain effects on a layer.
Wish there would be a feature to disable particular effect (right now you only can delete it) or copy/past into another layer so that I do not need to type all the tweaks for the effect all over again and if it has many values to tweak, well I have to go back to look in previous effect to see if I have missed anything or not - time consuming. Not good.
I prefer not add this button for duplicate effects, because effects are expensives in term of resources on low devices and should be used carefully.
Overwise with lot of effects the game will freeze or lagging.
Would be neat to have this very important explanation say next to EFFECTS name, when you open effectās window, like you see on some other windows that give you tutorial or link to learn more.
However, does not really explains why I should suffer while developing the game or testing things out and should retype every number all the time.
I had yesterday a situation where I had to try best effect on a different layers and I had to manually do it for each layer, retyping every number, wasted a lot of time, made a few saves to just see different affects for different art styles.
If there is a concern that less advanced people will abuse it or over use it, like I said there should be a warning explicitly stating importance not to over use and may be after giving each layer more then say 3 effects there should be a pop up window that will remind about over use of effects and so on.
And Im not sure if I was clear enough, I am not talking about duplicating same effect on the same layer - one type of effect per layer does the job, what doesnāt is when you want to move this effect to another layer and you have to manually retype it on that new layer, while deleting old. Hope that clarifies.
I agree that it could be a useful feature to copy/paste layers; for me itās a matter of importance. As the same result can be achieved relatively easily using events, I wouldnāt place it as a high priority. Itās just my opinion, but I would prefer the developers work on adding new features and fixing bugs: the last update brought light layers and peer to peer, and I like these much better than the ability to copy and paste layers (again, just 1 persons opinion, we all have one).
Iāve done some of this testing myself lately, and I too quickly grew tired of putting in all those values on different layers with different effects every time. I understand your suffering; what I donāt understand is your resistance to using events as a workaround to achieve the same effect with more efficiency.
My recommendation if youāre testing/experimenting is to make an effect on whatever layers you want to test. Donāt worry about typing in the values - just keep track of what each effect is named. leave the other parameters at default. Then, use events to change the parameter values. The target layer can be changed very easily in the event editor, and events can already be copied/pasted. If you get used to using events to test your layer effects in this manner, Iām confident after a bit of practice youāll learn as I did itās actually much more efficient, as you can modify several layers/effects in a few moments without opening up a new editor box. Once the effect is set up in your events, you can enable/disable it literally with 2 clicks. When youāre satisfied with the results of your testing, input the final values into the effects editor and clean up your events sheet.
While we may disagree about the importance of this request, I do appreciate your desire to improve the engine we all use, and the time/effort you put into the request.
O I wouldnāt put it as a high priority and Itās rather simple to implement anyway compare to other things ( might be wrong tho who knows how they implemented it at first place lol)
Its just this engine for ease access and easy start - thatās the selling feature so to speak. Imagine me using this engine in class teaching kids or young people and they all sitting there retyping values lol. Its one thing when you are familiar with what is what and another when you are beginning and you need to do a lot of testing - its just a simple thing to help you learn faster.
As you said " itās a work around". Nothing wrong with work around when something is not created or broken. I just would like to have magical button, click and copy, click and past and tweak only what you need if anything at all Filling up Events tab with additional conditions that can be placed on layer may be better?
I mean in general if we just thinking about it, if we ONLY meant to put/attach effect to specific layer and then go to events tab and modify it there, then WHY on earth even allow them to be modified right on the layer tab? You see what Iām talking about? You generally as a beginner expecting certain coherency as you go through IDE. Of course I can learn copy past in Events tab and copy past/modify on the fly - thatās ALL understandable
Just my personal experience: I came as a newcomer to this IDE, I see layer, I see effects, Im adding effects and then it allows me to modify it and you look for simple copy/past - so one would naturally assume THIS IS where you do the modification OFFICIALLY - you see what Im saying? But turns out oh I better do it in events tab, so lets just forget about this feature that serves what purpose exactly now? It simply IDE experience and efficiency.
Aye thank you for your input and suggestions. I just shared my personal experience and thoughts on it. Im IDE programmer and designer so I cannot stand when simple things are not done properly or ambiguity/duplicity in interface exist that serves no purpose haha
Also GDevelop is open source. I donāt have the technical skills necessary to implement anything like a change to the IDE - not without a lot of learning beforehand. However, if you, as a professional programmer and IDE designer think it would be easy to implement and have the necessary skill to do so, by all means, implement away. Thatās what open source is all aboutā¦ anyone can modify it as they see fit, and the entire community stands to benefit from your work. Just a little food for thought
Oh I did not know it was open source How did I miss that?
I will take a look definitely at it. Hope my JS level will be able to handle this. Thank you everyone for your help, thoughts and other useful information!
Not good.
Filling up Events tab with additional conditions that can be placed on layer may be better? 
It simply IDE experience and efficiency.
How did I miss that? 
