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godotengine / godot-proposals

Godot Improvement Proposals (GIPs)
MIT License
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Implement a more accessible mobile Godot Editor layout #8270

Open monospacedmagic opened 10 months ago

monospacedmagic commented 10 months ago

Describe the project you are working on

A game during the creation of which I make heavy use of the script editor, the inspector, the file explorer, and the node tree of any given scene that I've created. It's a very data-heavy RPG with a lot of content to be made.

Describe the problem or limitation you are having in your project

It is too difficult and inaccessible to use the tools mentioned above on a mobile device. I have a setup on my phone that involves Git via Termux to allow me to always have the most up-to-date version of my game on my phone, so if I ever come up with something while on the go, I could theoretically just directly implement, commit and push it, which would be ideal for me. However, because the editor layout that is used for the Android editor wasn't made with my phone screen in mind, I can't, or it's so difficult and inaccessible that I just choose not to.

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

I can see this workflow being enabled by using a different editor layout on Android (and perhaps eventually iOS) phones that is specifically catered towards a single phone screen that is limited in physical size.

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

My vision for this editor layout would be to focus on one UI pane at a time and have a side bar to choose from available panes, much like a standard Material UI native Android app. The title bar would have a hamburger menu on the left that houses the pane selection, and the title could include the project name and the name of the pane that is in focus, separated by an — em dash or something.

Additionally, some editor UI elements could use some improvements in terms of usability with touchscreen devices, but that would be outside the scope of this proposal.

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

Currently, the only way to work around this problem is to simply not use the Godot Editor on a phone, which would lose us access to this, in my opinion, valuable workflow. I personally just write down my ideas in a versioned Obsidian vault, but it's not as productive or efficient as just directly implementing my ideas on the go. Besides, some people might not even have that option as they may be in a financially or otherwise more difficult situation than me and I imagine the bulk of current Godot users, and not have access to alternatives because they (can) only have a phone.

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

I believe that this improvement should be the default experience on phones as it is crucial to enabling accessibility for Godot Editor users on a certain device type, namely phones.

kitbdev commented 10 months ago

related: https://github.com/godotengine/godot-proposals/issues/6334

monospacedmagic commented 10 months ago

I was just thinking, would it be a viable solution to wrap the Godot Editor into a containing Kotlin app, similar to how migueldeicaza is planning to make the Godot Editor work on iOS?

Zireael07 commented 10 months ago

There is quite a lot of minor improvements that would make Godot more accessible on mobile devices and on smaller screens. Maximizing a pane is one. Being able to fold inspector/filesystem columns is another (Effectively the same thing by another means, if you minimize both)

Calinou commented 10 months ago

I was just thinking, would it be a viable solution to wrap the Godot Editor into a containing Kotlin app, similar to how migueldeicaza is planning to make the Godot Editor work on iOS?

This would be a lot of work with unproven benefits. We can reorganize the Godot editor UI in a platform-specific way without wrapping it as a library.