Guide to Posting a Suggestion
1. Provide a clear summary of it
2. Try to make sure it isn't in the list already
3. Give it a category, or make a new category if it doesn't fit in any of these:
QuoteRoom Editor
Sprite Editor
Objects
Surfaces
Debug System
New GML Functions
New GML Features
New Resource Types
New Resource Features
Miscellaneous
Example:
QuoteRoom Editor: Allow zooming in and out

Scattered throughout this board are suggestions for the next version of GM. I thought I'd try to combine them into one topic.

I realize that some of these can be easily accomplished with GML, but it would be nice if they were built in. I've put ones I really want to see in bold. I've put the ones that don't really matter to me in italics. Highly subjective.

Here are some of the features users (and I) want to see:
Room Editor:
Quotea. That supports zooming in and out
b. That lets you move with the middle mouse button
c. That has layers for objects to aid in placing objects behind other objects
d. Ability to change each instance's properties and name the instance
e. Path association right in the room (show path of instance in room editor, assign paths in room editor)
f. Allow adding an offset to the grid (custom origin)
g. Tile floodfill, rectangle, line, select and move
h. Animated tiles
i. Options to view/not view different layers (like RPG Maker XP)
j. Window transparency and ability to use different window shapes
k. Lets you drag stuff from the resource tree into the room

Sprite Editor:
Quotea. Alpha mask support built in
b. Can handle transparent images of common filetypes pasted in or imported
c. That supports simple layers
d. Lets you view animation while editing a frame
e. More than 1 undo
f. Rotating uneven sprites without them clipping
g. Rotating and stretching selection
h. More hotkeys
i. Lasso select, feather, more fully featured in general (maybe have an advanced mode for the sprite editor too)

Objects:
Quotea. Multiple inheritance, inheritance for collisions (a parent list)
b. A save/load event (and a saved/loaded event)
c. Allow events to be added (and reordered)
d. "Convert to GML" button both in objects and in a menu (so you can convert the entire game)
e. Allow checking to see if an object is in a group in-game
f. An "undeactivatable" option so control objects don't get deactivated
g. Ability to create functions in an object or add user defined events which can be named

Surfaces:
Quotea. Correctly use surfaces while d3d is on
b. Use a surface as an alpha mask for another surface (Or a view. Use views as alphas for other views)

Debug system:
Quotea. Breakpoints and just-in-time variable checking
b. A "Show array/ds contents" window
c. A "Show surface" window
d. When the game is set to "Always On Top", the debugger should stay on top of the game
e. Have a call stack to help pinpoint when a problem has occurred
f. Have a performance check that indicates how many times a function has been called and the average time it took

New GML Functions:
Quotea. mouse_check_wheel()
b. surface_create_cleared(width, height, color, alpha)
c. collision_sprite() (Should support rotation and scaling)
d. window_minimize()
e. collision_line_id (and place_meeting_id, collision_rectangle_id...)
f. A way to revert to the normal message background\buttons after setting them.
g. move_contact_object()
h. var_track_previous(variable,true) Enables variable_previous tracking
i. draw_sprite_default()
j. Support for more than one ini file open at a time, and allowing it to be in more folders than just the root folder
k. debug_mode variable that tells the game if it is in debug mode

New GML Features:
Quotea. Nth-dimensional arrays
b. An image_scale that sets both image_xscale and image_yscale (sort of how image_single sets image_index and image_speed)
c. Script parameters
d. A "None" value
e. An "argument_num" variable
f. The abiltity to define contants in code
g. Better DLL support!
h. Escape sequences
i. Conditional expressions (a = a<b?a:b;)


New Resource Types:
Quotea. Particle (with an editor like the sprite editor, with previews and export to sprite)
b. Rich Text (with draw_rich_text functions)
c. Tilesets (with editing of individual tiles, much like a strip in the sprite editor)
d. 3D Models/2D Primitives
e. Room transition

New Resource Features:
Quotea. Save Backgrounds and Sprites in the game EXE as PNG
b. More libs (3D, image_alpha, mplay)
c. Lib checklist (in advanced mode) to show only the libs the user wants to see
d. An "include by default" checkbox for extensions (and a lib checklist)
e. Be able to export and import objects, rooms, timelines, etc
f. Support pasting between projects
g. Object Templates (you pick a template and *poof*, you have a platform game character)
h. "External" checkbox for resources that causes them to be stored externally and automatically loaded when needed
i. Better search feature that allows you to search for anything in the project, sort by size, name, group, or date modified
j. Protection for extensions so that they can't be decompiled as easily
k. Support for more sound types such as: Ogg Verbis, and AIFF.

Miscellaneous:
Quotea. A window like this that shows GML in one frame and Drag and Drop in another (to help new users learn GML)
b. Real windows forms, textboxes and child windows (Like this)
c. Allow images in the game information
d. Better context help
e. Better registration method
f. Support for different icon sizes, more colors than 256 and transparency
g. A setting that disables the screensaver and power management while the game is running
h. Better support for controllers (joysticks, gamepads)
i. Better support for wrappers and executable protectors
j. Less memory consumption
k. Allow us to choose renderer version (between DirectX versions)
l. Support for multilingual font printing and better font drawing
m. Ability to modify scripts in-game/add scripts at runtime
n. Merge window that shows the differences between projects and lets you choose which ones to keep and which ones to replace. (similar to this)

This is something I suggested a long time ago ...


A collision_sprite() function. Behaves like collision_circle(), collision_rectangle(), etc. but you can use a sprite for the collision check. Should support rotation and scaling.

Added!

OK, for people (like me) who are reluctant to learn heavy GML, D&D actions for all of the following:

*Playing external music (either a set song OR user's choice)
*Basic 3D (as in, putting the camera at a Z angle and standing sprites up)
*Image Alpha, Speed, Depth, Index etc. (I know THESE in GML but... convenience)
*Set hue, intensity etc. of sprite
*Online functions

Also I'd welcome a slightly better registration method (my PC's dodgy, it won't register GM7). I'm not saying just bring the dodgy offline code method back, just a DIFFERENT way of doing it.

I shy away from libs, but some of these could be useful... I've added them, and a related thing.

Hmm, it would be nice to have animated tiles. I know that I can just use objects, but my sprite sections are filled with them. Had to make a folder, and it´s quite big.

One remark on feature 2.b. "Multiple tile selection and placement". This was already implemented in version 6.1. I believe you have to hold shift and select an area in the tile tab. It is then plasced in the room as if it is one big tile.

(I am working with 6.1, so I may (though I strongly doubt it) suggest existing features)

I would like simple layers added in the sprite editor, and the option to view animations while in the editor. Anyone that has used IDraw3 Charamaker may know how it's animation toolbar works.

And in the room editor, it would be great if you could add layers for objects (so its easier to place object in front/behind objects) and to improve the layering system with the tiles, by adding a name to the layer and being able to change the 'order' at a later time, rather than only being able to set the depth once

Next , it would be great if the object window would show the last few (3-4) most used commands outside the tabs. GML junkies like myself only use 2 or 3 drag and drop icons, and it is very annoying having to jump through the tabs all the time for 'Execute script' and 'Destroy Instance'.

Lastly, if possible, mutliple-inheritance.
Example to clearify it a bit:
Say one has an item-parent object that falls under gravity and a generic wall-object that is used for blocking the player. If I now want to make a player blocking item that falls under gravity (a large vase or something), it would make sense to be able to combine these to parents in the new object.
If I would make one the parent of the other, either one would get properties they should not have. If I make a new item, I will need to implement double collision checks etc.

But this is inly a minor thing. I think making GM more user friendly is the most important atm.

Copy and paste anything anywhere (support for pasting between projects)
Copy objects to file for copying back from file for sharing object with our team. (Replacing the project object and resources with the new ones)
Get rid of the object selector in the room editor and let us use the main object list.

Add more strict variable declaration
Add ability to create properties
Multiple inheritance...Yes but also multiple inheritance for collision. I would like to set up an object to be included in a collision class/classes that is not dependant on the code class.
Add the ability to create object functions. That event_user works but we forget what each event does after a while.

Fix the room editor.
Better everything! select multiple object, change properties (I defined) and default properties such as sprite, speed, direction, blend mode, image blend color, image_angle, scale, depth, everything I can change in code should be modifieable in a properties window. Changes should affect all selected objects.

Add path association to instance right in the room. With the path editor right in the room so we can define objects movement quickly

Add instance naming to easily link one instance with another in the room editor and in code.

Add rotation speed (all axis), alpha speed, scale speed, z (or depth speed) such as we can define lighter weight objects (That is if the GML is still interpreted). Having a step event just to add to the angle seriously reduces the instance count.

Compile the GML code!

add a codeindex = precompile_string(code as string) so I can call execute_code(code as codeindex) repeatedly.

Same for execute file!

Add a sound_copy(sound_index) or fix the sound system so I can play multiple instances at different settings
Add a sound_save.
Add a script_add(Code as string or file)

One thing I forgot about the room editor:

Make it possible to add an offset to the grid, i.e. a customisable origin. By doing this, you do not (necessarily) need to use very small grid settings (i.e. < 8) when you just slightly want to shift an object's position.

Also, it would make sense that you can move objects and tiles all at once, rather than in two tries. Continuing on that, it would be best if the move command would default on (0,0) and remember previous moves. Allthough it would probably be for the best if the current move system would be replaced by a drag+select multiple objects / tiles method.

I think they should make an action that adds an event with a pre- chosen set of actions.

eg. if you kill an enemy, instead of changing the main character's instance so it knows a new move, it will add an event with a set of actions to the same object.

If you want your main character to learn moves in any order you want than this will be good.

Or is there an other way of doing it?

My topic: http://forums.yoyogames.com/forums/7/topics/2880

Another thing I would like to have is a command called "Show Alarm". In D&D, there are commands such as show health, lives and variables. Why not show the alarm clock? It would make it easy to make escape scenarios a la Metroid and such.

Another thing I would like is a simple sound program. I know that there are programs that you can download, but I only found programs that can edit sounds, not make from scratch. (Without any mic or anything.)
Remember the NES era? I hardly believe that they recorded the sounds with a mic. Though the quality doesn´t have to be 8-bit, it would still be very nice.

That is not needed, You can make it by variables like everytime an alarm makes 1 second a variable number descreases every second, Easy to do.

That could work, I never thought of it.

Collision:
Extending the collision system would be nice too.
I was thinking of an extra accuracy collision setup where you could "fill" the sprite with circles (an auto fill would be easy to implement, along with user defined cirrcles). The sprite would be converted in a series of circles (in memory) of different sizes that could be used to figure out what part of the sprite is in collision. The circles would follow the animation sequence.

So you could define one of the circles to be the head, others to be the torso, hands,legs arms and feet of the sprite model.

On collision you can then check if hand collides with head or bullet collides with head and the likes.


Save/Load Game
A save/load event passing along the file handle would be nice in order to save and load extra things. As well as a Saved and Loaded event to do other things once the game is saved or loaded.

Drawing Text:
An embeded fast sprited font system would help a lot. I simply cannot find a way to draw any font nicely on my laptop. I get garbage all the time because of the Clear Type setup.

Someone mentioned better IDE like Visual Studio! Geez please dont. Visual Studio is not better, just too complex and poorly implemented demented tries to do it all and fails setup.
Though I really like that EasyC setup, you see both drag and drop and GML code, making them identical!!

Better context help with direct links to the function I have highlited. And fix the darn help file so functions are easilly located and understood.

Another idea I'd really like to see. When you have fonts in the Fonts folder of a game, I'd like so have it so the game actually INCLUDES that font in its file. As it stands, if you use a font that someone else doesn't have, their display will show it in Arial.

@NAL Games:
I'm pretty sure the executables do have the fonts included.

I've reformatted the topic and divided the suggestions into categories. It should be easier to read now.

It's getting rather long, isn't it?

@Dark Poison:
Yes. You can use variables to "unlock" new moves.

QuoteAnd fix the darn help file so functions are easilly located and understood
When in the Help file, click on the Index tab. In the textbox labelled Type in the keyword to find, begin typing the function. You'll be presented with a list matching the letters you are typing. You can then double-click the function you want and you'll be taken straight to the page containing a description of the function.

I don't know how much simpler it can get.

Quoteh. An image_scale that sets both image_xscale and image_yscale (sort of how image_single sets image_index and image_speed)
Why turn two variables into 1? What's really the point? Why is it so hard to say ...

image_xscale = 2;
image_yscale = 2;

Also, I'm fairly sure image_single doesn't set image_speed. image_index is the current sub-image of the current sprite being displayed. image_speed controls how fast that number increases each step. Having one variable for both values wouldn't make any sense. I believe image_single is just the old name for image_index, the latter having a much more sensible name, which is probably why it was changed.

@nailog about image_single well that's untrue :P

try this code: image_speed = 10;
image_single = 1;
show_message(string(image_speed));
and the message will show a nice "0" speed!
image_index and image_single are 2 complete different things (well not completely since image_single is a combination of index and speed).


well back to the original topic:

1.e: well showing paths easily clutters up rooms so it's almost impossible to see anything good... + how can the room editor see that a certain object has a certain path?

2.b: well tiles are ment for fast speed, if you want to make animations (which will slow down the game) use another resource for that (particles?)

3.(a-c): well simply gamemaker isn't ment for that! - and you can really easy make such things with code (which even allows for better effect).. And if it's too much for you to program it each time, why don't you make an gex/lib?

4.a well let's make more possible problems ><.. It's fine the way it is, with parents of parents you can easily stimulate such a thing.. Ow and what you mean inheritance for collisions

7.e: well gamemaker currently only supports actually 2 types of variables: reals and strings.. everything is 1 of these, even booleans are in fact just normal numbers. Creating a "none" variable would require a pretty big overhaul in the gamemaker system.. And I'm not entirely sure if that's so easy (else they might as well add integers which are about 2-3 times as fast to calculate with as real/float numbers).
7.g: well just create this script - it's dead easy - (name it collision_sprite) (collision_sprite(spr,x,y)) - will post a script later if anybody wants..

8.e: again lazy to make your own code?
8.h: well the older gamemakers had this support I believe.. But the problem was it leaded to corrupted files and it was impossible to get working I believe.
8.i: what? - how do you expect a room to be exported and imported in another game? - it would cause countles numbers of errors if anything did change. (some object indexes might no longer exist, or be changed to something else etc etc)..
8.m: make that bold please! - Took me 4 months to completely register (well I must say I went on holiday for 1 month ><) and still gamemaker returns to the lite mode once in a while if I start disconnected from the internet!
8.o: backgrounds?

@dragon_walker: well is it really that hard to put draw_text(XPOS,YPOS,string(alarm[X]))
in any objectsdraw event? just change XPOS and YPOS to the location you want and "X" to the number of the correct alarm.
@nal games: well I'm not really font of any other D&D icons, but for multiplayer it's rediculous! - if not handled good sockets can be opened (and stay vulnarable).. And even though I know some advanced people use D&D (even I use it once in a while). If you're too lazy to start learning gml I wouldn't go to multiplayer yet! - it can simply lead to too many errors/problems..


Well my few suggestions:

Quote1) add posibility for 3d collisions of easy object.. (cubes - cones - cilenders - spheres etc - possible with orientation taken into account).. I know this is possible with code (I've been studying it myself for some time) but it's so processor hungry, and hence so slow in gamemaker..
2) allow us to move to "code only" mode (or "expert mode") - this would completely remove the D&D and it would allow us to start typing directly at the place you would normally drag the code button. It would speed up programming a lot since you wouldn't have to drag something with the mouse anymore (I hate a laptop mouse :P)
3) being able to select multiple object there (with a select box like in many rpg's) and perform the "common" operations on the selected object: copying, rotating etc.. This will help building larger maps with some "repititions".



EDIT: ow and fix that code tag: it stretches the page :(

Quote@nailog about image_single well that's untrue :P

try this code: image_speed = 10;
image_single = 1;
show_message(string(image_speed));
and the message will show a nice "0" speed!
image_index and image_single are 2 complete different things (well not completely since image_single is a combination of index and speed).
Guess I was wrong about that. I never did try GM5. I started using GM shortly after GM6 was released. And that variable was marked "deprecated" with GM6.

Quote7.g: well just create this script - it's dead easy - (name it collision_sprite) (collision_sprite(spr,x,y)) - will post a script later if anybody wants..
You can argue "just make a script for it" with a whole lot of these suggestions. I happen to think this could be done faster through GM's compiled code, not an interpretted script. It would also fit in perfectly amongst the other collision functions.

Meanwhile, I will take your suggestion and use a script until YYG decides to implement it. :)

QuoteQuoteAnd fix the darn help file so functions are easilly located and understood
When in the Help file, click on the Index tab. In the textbox labelled Type in the keyword to find, begin typing the function. You'll be presented with a list matching the letters you are typing. You can then double-click the function you want and you'll be taken straight to the page containing a description of the function.

I don't know how much simpler it can get.


I know that. But double clicking a function in the code box and pressing F1 SHOULD bring you to the help page AND SHOULD scroll the page to the actual function description. And the function names SHOULD at least be bolded AND have a few line breaks to separate it from the previous description. I'm tired of having to type the function name in the INDEX tab and then having to right click the content to copy and paste the text in word to perform ANOTHER search to actually find the function in the poorly formatted document.

here is a sample of the help as I see it. I don’t know why people as so defensive every time I bring this up...
window_set_visible(visible) Sets whether the game window is visible. Clearly you normally want the window to remain visible during the whole game. The program will not receive keyboard events when the window is invisible.
window_get_visible() Returns whether the game window is visible.
window_set_fullscreen(full) Sets whether the window is shown in full screen mode.
window_get_fullscreen() Returns whether the window is shown in full screen mode.
window_set_showborder(show) Sets whether the border around the window is shown. (In full screen mode it is never shown.)
window_get_showborder() Returns whether the border around the window is shown in windowed mode.
window_set_showicons(show) Sets whether the border icons (iconize, maximize, close) are shown. (In full screen mode these are never shown.)
window_get_showicons() Returns whether the border icons are shown in windowed mode.
window_set_stayontop(stay) Sets whether the window must always stay on top of other windows.

it should be
window_set_visible(visible)
Sets whether the game window is visible. Clearly you normally want the window to remain visible during the whole game. The program will not receive keyboard events when the window is invisible.

window_get_visible()
Returns whether the game window is visible.

window_set_fullscreen(full)
Sets whether the window is shown in full screen mode.
window_get_fullscreen() Returns whether the window is shown in full screen mode.

window_set_showborder(show)
Sets whether the border around the window is shown. (In full screen mode it is never shown.)

Here's some more I've thought of:
Object Templates (you pick a template and *poof*, you have a platform game character)
"External" checkbox for resources that causes them to be stored externally (when the exe is made) and automatically loaded when needed
"Convert to GML" button both in objects and in a menu (so you can convert the entire game)

Debugger:
When the game is set to Always On top, The debugger should stay on top of the game too!

A call stack is needed to see when a problem occurs

Also, a performace check, with the call stack to pin point where the slow downs occur. It would indicate how many times the function is called, and how much time (cumulative,average and longest) the function took.

A resource manager in the project would be nice. Such as it could be used to locate what takes the most room in the project .
Also to locate objects and sprites (a search). I spend a lot of time searching for resources when my project gets big. I also spend a lot of time trying to figure out why the file is so big all of a sudden. Often it's because another team mate added a large resource that can often be reduced in size of be made external.

QuoteQuote@nailog about image_single well that's untrue :P

try this code: image_speed = 10;
image_single = 1;
show_message(string(image_speed));
and the message will show a nice "0" speed!
image_index and image_single are 2 complete different things (well not completely since image_single is a combination of index and speed).
Guess I was wrong about that. I never did try GM5. I started using GM shortly after GM6 was released. And that variable was marked "deprecated" with GM6.

Quote7.g: well just create this script - it's dead easy - (name it collision_sprite) (collision_sprite(spr,x,y)) - will post a script later if anybody wants..
You can argue "just make a script for it" with a whole lot of these suggestions. I happen to think this could be done faster through GM's compiled code, not an interpretted script. It would also fit in perfectly amongst the other collision functions.

Meanwhile, I will take your suggestion and use a script until YYG decides to implement it. :)

well the speed difference is minimal, sicne all collision coding is done by using the "place_meeting" functions, which is simply what you want! (only thing difference is that you have to assign it to an object first, so it would be like:
assign is correctly to object -> check (scaling/rotating is already taken into account) -> unassign it.. And that function place_meeting is so close to what you already want that making another function for this would just create a larger runner file for almost nothing. (just like I never saw a use for the image_single function - the speed differences are so minimal..).

@icuurd aren't they code already bolded? - For me they are, or are you looking at a different place?

@kyle you ever update with other users responses? And well converting to external resources might create a problem iwth testing (the gm7 file might have different speed loading and gaming and for external resources you need to add some security features such that the game doesn't crash when the resources aren't there).

@paul23:
1.e: (Showing paths in room editor) Showing paths would be an option you could turn off (much like showing views and tiles), so it wouldn't clutter the room up. It would be useful for users who use a lot of paths.

2.b: (Animated tiles) Particles? Particles?! Why not have animated tiles? It would make things loads easier.

3.(a-c): (Layers, alpha support, and pasting common transparent filetypes for sprite editor) You have to ask yourself: "Wouldn't it be nice if..." If the answer is yes, then ask: "Why don't we have that?" If there is no good reason for not having it, and it would be nice to have, then I'd argue it is a valid suggestion.

4.a: (Multiple parents) Multiple parents would let you assign a "wall" parent and an "enemy" parent to one object. You can't just have "enemy" as a parent of the "wall", because then all your walls would shoot you. You also can't have "wall" as a parent of "enemy", because then all your enemies would just sit there. Inheritance for collisions means if you have a collision event for the parent "wall", if you collide with a child object of "wall" the event will be triggered. So instead of having a collision event for "wall1", another for "wall2", another for "wall3", you can have just one for the parent object, "wall".

7.e: ("None" value for scripts) They are already doing a big overhaul of GM. It wouldn't be that hard to change anyway, as far as I know.

8.e: (More libs) Wouldn't it be nice if there was a 3d lib built in?

8.h: (Pasting between projects) Wouldn't it be nice if you could paste a codeblock into another project?

8.i: (Room export and import) Wouldn't if be nice if you could release levelpacks for your game without making a complicated loading system for them?

8.o: (Tileset resource) With a tileset resource, you could have an "animated" checkbox, and it makes more sense than having backgrounds double as tilesets.

Keep in mind:
QuoteI realize that some of these can be easily accomplished with GML, but it would be nice if they were built in.

Yes I have been updating. A lot. You'll notice that nearly every suggestion posted here is in that list. I've also changed my external suggestion, as your comment does make sense.