Move Node buttons that are in the top toolbar to the inspector

Nodragem commented 3 weeks ago

Describe the project you are working on

Working on a Top down shooter.

Describe the problem or limitation you are having in your project

I have heard many beginners saying that they did not see that there are tools or buttons that appear at the top of the viewport when clicking on a node. For instance, the "Bake Navigation Mesh" button.

Furthermore, this space can easily get crowded!

Describe the feature / enhancement and how it helps to overcome the problem or limitation

Now that Godot is supporting buttons in the inspector, we could simply all node-related buttons (not the tools and not the menus, just the buttons) to the inspector, like this:

Describe how your proposal will work, with code, pseudo-code, mock-ups, and/or diagrams

For all nodes, we remove the buttons (if any) in the topbar, and we create new ones in their inspector.

If this enhancement will not be used often, can it be worked around with a few lines of script?

No.

Is there a reason why this should be core and not an add-on in the asset library?

It is core.

Meorge commented 3 weeks ago

Perhaps there could be a better place to put the buttons that draws more attention to themselves when the context is appropriate. The screenshot you have for your proposed placement wouldn't quite make sense to me, though, as it seems to be grouping those actions underneath the custom GDScript rather than built-in engine actions that the editor is merely bringing to the forefront due to context.

It's been a while now since I used Unity, but I think it would tend to create secondary floating toolbars over the scene view for context-sensitive applications, sort of like the "Perspective" menu in your first screenshot. Obviously this has the downside of taking away some screen space from the scene, but it would help keep the upper toolbar shorter and more consistent.

AThousandShips commented 3 weeks ago

Having it in the scene view makes it far easier to access, instead of having to scroll or open some menu in the inspector, it also moves it away from where it's more relevant to be, near where you view or operate on it

It'd also make it confusing that some menus are in the scene and some are, because it'd be very unintuitive if things like the polygon editing buttons were not there

I think we could add some menu options in the inspector, but the ones that are in the scene all fit far better there IMO

kitbdev commented 3 weeks ago

Nodragem commented 3 weeks ago

I am not speaking about the tool mode buttons (like the polygon editing tool) nor about menus. I am speaking about the action buttons. That is, the buttons that trigger an action when we click on them. These buttons often comes with text to explain the action, and hence, take valuable space on the toolbar.

It makes sense to me that "clear navigationmesh" and "bake navigationmesh" could be buttons in the Inspector, because this is where we are setting the parameters of the baking. And there is more space for descriptive text there.

Edit: I just read Juan’s proposal (#4273) and this exactly what I had in mind, except that I would make the distinction between Actions and Editing Tools, so that only actions would go to the Action Area. So maybe we can close this proposal and I will add a comment to the Action Area proposal.

godotengine / godot-proposals