Hello everyone,

Here's a new little update. Thank you for your continued support!

The Template sync system
The first version of the share-across-cards system had its flaws, some bugs and mixed feedback. But it sparked a lot of valuable input, which led me to start over. If something in the app isn’t working for you or a recent change made things worse, let me know! I genuinely try to see all feedback, and your input will help shape what Card Engine becomes.

If you have used Card Engine for a while, you will probably get a little brain twist when you open the editor. The layer component has been moved to the left-side editor panel, and the asset browser is now in the right-side panel. When selecting objects, a dedicated ‘Selected object’ panel will appear over the asset browser. There has also been some other changes to UI to make it simpler, more streamlined and more consistent. See the full patch notes below!

Bug reports and feedback are always welcome, either on the Community Hub or our official Discord server.

Fred,
The Developer

General

• The highlight of this update is the complete rework of the Template sync system, alongside fundamental changes to Card Engine. Now, Templates can be opened and edited just like regular cards. Additionally, sharing changes across cards is back, but with a revamped workflow that offers more control over when and how changes are applied. Check out the Template section in the new documentation on the Frostzone website for more details
• Added a new UI font and text render process that provides crisper text and eliminates the pixelated text known issue. Due to this being experimental and in need of optimization, this is only applied to the UI for now. This will eventually go in effect for card text as well. I will try to get this production ready as soon as possible
• Redesigned parts of the UI. The goal has always been to provide powerful features behind intuitive UI, and based on feedback regarding the UI being complex or difficult to navigate, I've continued work on making it more simple, streamlined and consistent
• Certain non-critical variables (Settings, etc) has been moved away from external XML files to protect against XML formatting issues. Reinstalling the software will now also refresh those variables
• Deprecated the Engine.xml file
• Deprecated the internal project backup system. The vast majority of users did not make use of it, and it was very limiting. It used direct copies of projects as backups, so it was a heavy storage solution despite it having a 5 backup limit. However, I intend to create a new backup system. I envision a custom .backup file format with compression that can hold all project data in one single file, with restore backup features in-engine. This has been added to the roadmap

Main Menu scene

Added

• Added the Card Engine logo to the top-left corner of the app. Clicking the logo will take you back to the Main Menu if you have a project loaded
• Added a management panel to the Main Menu, with a nicer invitation to join our Discord community, as well as buttons such as New Project, Refresh Projects, Quit, and also a new button that takes you directly to the documentation, that I'm in the process of moving from the old PDF format hosted on the Steam servers to sections on the Frostzone website. This will make it easier to make changes to the documentation, and make it more accessible when the links are consistent
• Added a 'credits' button to the settings panel, that opens a dedicated window for credits

Changes

• Removed the temporary disabled Template sync announcement from the Main Menu
• Removed the circular Discord button from the lower left corner of the app
• Removed the left-side text based navigation buttons from the app as new buttons has replaced them
• Removed the early access roadmap buttons from the app because there's multiple buttons that lead in that direction
• Redesigned parts of the slide-in settings panel
• Redesigned parts of the slide-in Key bindings panel
• Redesigned the rename project window
• Redesigned the confirm delete window
• Redesigned the create new project window
• Redesigned the demo notice window
• Redesigned the XML Error logger window
• Redesigned the loading bar/window

Loaded project scene

Added

• Added a new Template collection on the dashboard similar to the Cards and Recycle Bin collections. This replaces the old Assign Template window
• Added a Templates button to the topbar that opens the Template collection
• Added a Change project card size button to the settings panel
• Added a new window for importing and exporting card data with room for future additions
• Added a Card Data button to the settings panel
• Added a Help button to the settings panel, that will open a new Help window, making life easier if you experience a problem. The Help window has shortcuts to the Discord community, Steam Forums, a button that automatically opens your default email software (like Outlook) with our email preconfigured as the receiver, a button that will take you directly to the documentation, that I'm in the process of moving from the old PDF format hosted on the Steam servers to sections on the Frostzone website, log files and a new activatable debug mode. The latter enables certain helpful debugging features such as visible objectIDs in the card editor
• Added a new, more intuitive window for configuring project card size
• Added a new credits window
• Added a new window for selecting what properties to apply across cards through the Template system
• Added a template info panel that pops up the first time you open a Template in the editor, with a 'Learn More' button that takes you to the Template section of the new documentation

Changes

• Redesigned parts of the card editor UI
• Removed the old assign Template window. Assigning templates is now done through a simple dropdown with a list of template names
• The Template examples deck found in the Template collection has been renamed to TCG/Poker card examples, and these example cards are now imported to the Template collection as new and unique Template cards
• Moved the asset browser from the left-side of the editor to a full panel on the right-side.
• Moved the layer component from the right-side of the editor to the left-side, below the general properties component. This gives room for future work on the layer system
• Extended the topbar in the editor to cover the full width
• Moved the editor settings, undo, redo, snapping and grid toggle buttons to the left edge in the editor topbar
• Added a normal settings button to the right edge in the editor topbar, so that settings can be changed while editing a card
• Moved the save button in the editor to the right edge in the topbar, so it aligns with the save button in the dashboard
• Redesigned the asset category dropdown, to a smaller and better looking design
• Removed the 'choose an image' window that pops up when swapping images or text icons. This has been replaced with a more intuitive browser with the same layout and position as the asset browser
• The object properties panel (Transform, text, outline, etc) is now hidden when no object is selected. When you do select an object, the panel appears in the same position and size as the new asset browser (Right-side of the editor). With the layer component moved the the left-side of the editor, the object properties panel is now entirely dedicated to the current selection.
• Removed the rename template functionality through the right-click panel. This is now done the same way as normal cards by loading templates into the editor
• The zoom and flip buttons in the topbar now works universally across the Cards, Recycle Bin and Template collection
• Moved the export button to the topbar to make navigation more streamlined
• Removed the card configuration button from the topbar. This is now done through a simple window accessible from the settings
• Redesigned the tooltip
• Removed the circular Discord button from the lower left corner of the app. There's now a nice invitation on the Main Menu instead
• Removed the left-side text based navigation buttons from the app as new buttons and navigation flow has replaced them. This also opens more space in the UI for card collections
• Version number is now found in the settings panel
• Moved the project name to the lower-left, with weak transparency in an attempt to do something stylish. This might change later
• Moved the Card data button from the topbar to the settings. It will now open a dedicated window in preparation of more card data types in the future
• Redesigned the exporter window
• Removed the 'Portrait', 'Landscape' and 'Single images' buttons from the exporter topbar. Selecting mode is now done at the top of the other export configuration
• Redesigned parts of the slide-in settings panel
• Redesigned parts of the slide-in Key bindings panel
• Redesigned the demo notice window
• Redesigned the XML Error logger window
• Redesigned the loading bar/window
• Redesigned the rename layer window
• Redesigned the new category window
• Redesigned the confirm delete deck window
• Redesigned the confirm delete asset window
• Redesigned the confirm delete template window
• Redesigned the confirm delete category window
• Redesigned the Rich text information window
• Increased the card limit to 5 in the demo version of Card Engine

Fixes

• Assigned template IDs will now be cleared from imported cards when importing XML card data to prevent potential issues with template IDs from different projects
• The select font dropdown menu will now close properly if the object is deselected while it is open
• Fixed an issue where the visibility eye-toggle would show as hidden after duplicating a layer
• The unused ‘Deleted Projects’ folder will no longer be created automatically when opening Card Engine
• Fixed a bug that caused empty categories to not show in the image picker category dropdown
• Fixed a bug that threw a log error if changing measurement type from the main menu
• Fixed a bug where the undo history length was clamped to a lower value than intended
• Fixed a remnant from older versions when outlines were not customizable. Clicking 'Reset Outline Thickness' now correctly sets it to 0% instead of 5%
• Fixed a remnant from older versions that threw an empty 'No category open' error message if importing Card Data
• Fixed a bug where an empty category would show in the asset browser if importing card data before initializing the asset browser